Hands On Samsung's New Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 At Unpacked New York

MojoKid writes: Samsung held their Unpacked 2015 event in New York City today and the company unveiled its latest flagship, big-screen smartphones, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note5. Immediately following the on-stage presentations and reveals, Samsung opened up a demo area featuring the new devices for direct hands-on time. Both of these phones feature a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a QHD screen resolution (2560x1440), though the sides of the S6 Edge+'s display are curved. Powering the both devices is the the same octal-core Samsung Exynos 7420 processor that's at the heart of the previously-released Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. These new phones, however, are packing 4GB of RAM—not just 3GB, like the older models and also have LTE Cat9 support and high-speed wireless charging built-in. Samsung has also beefed up the cameras; these new devices pack the same 16MP sensor from the Galaxy S6 with OIS, but an additional digital image stabilization algo which complements the optical solution to further smooth out video is included as well. Built-in software on the new devices also allows for live-streaming to YouTube.

Comments

Both devices value form over function

[jbernardo]

Let's see if losing the sd slot and removable battery is as big a sales failure as it was for the S6 and S6 edge.

My impression is that only Samsung fanbois will buy these. Everybody else who prefers style over function will buy an idevice, as always.

Re:Both devices value form over function

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, this is the direction it's all going because they do not want you to own a phone for more than 6 months, they want you locked into the upgrade cycle (ios anyone?) and will continue to remove features power users want, to allow for thinner phones.

I still see no point in the edge, at all. It's a useless gimmick, and yes I've seen one and played with it, it's a nice phone but the edge screen is pointless.

I hover between rage and indifference in regards to the SD slot. Yes, I am used to having one, yes it's useful for storage. Is it a make or break feature? It was when I decided on the S4, it's not now as I haven't filled the phone enough to require any additional space and it's only 16 gb to begin with. That feature I could willingly lose and be fine.

Non replaceable battery? Deal breaker. I know too much about battery technology to be foolish enough to spend 600$ on a device that becomes a brick once the cells can no longer generate a reaction to charge. You have a limited set of charge cycles, and these cycles don't care if you are charging from 0% or from 96%. This is one huge reason I'll never own an iphone, and a deciding factor in whatever phone I get once my current contract is finished.

I'll stick with android, but for previous upgrades the ability to flash the firmware and root the phone, as well as expandable memory, was a major concern.

All I really care about with the next phone is battery life and the ability to replace that battery. Samsung is going down a dead end road here trying to become apple. Android owns the market right now because it's so diverse and offers so many niches of users a flavor. Slowly removing the things that make android great are not good for anyone, including android developers and phone manufacturers.

I've watched so many features being stripped out for no reason that I can't even fathom what this os ecosystem will look like in 2 years.

Streaming straight to youtube is a great feature and kudos to Samsung for following along with some other suppliers and baking that right into the OS, removing the need for 3rd party apps. It's not a make or break feature by any stretch, but it would be useful, I keep my phone pretty trimmed up and the closer to stock is can be, while letting me do what I want, the better.