As with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, we got a chance to get our hands on the Galaxy Note Edge. The phone is exactly the same as the Note 4 on the hardware side. However, what makes this phone stand out is the flexible screen, which wraps around the right edge of the phone. It's worth noting that this is not simply a curved screen -- it's actually a flexible OLED display.
To be honest, this is a cool phone, but it remains to be seen if this wrap-around design will catch on and be truly useful. The screen on the side provides what could only be described as taskbars, and users can flick through five of them by swiping to the right.
These bars are customizable. For instance, the user can add any app to these toolbars, thus reducing the amount of clutter on the Home Screen. Users can also add things like sports tickers, weather notifications, and special messages like "This is my phone." Users can even change the wallpaper on the curved side.
The whole purpose of the side bar is so that users can get to their apps and items faster. The good news here is that Samsung has released an SDK so that app developers can create solutions that take advantage of the new and unique curved side. This should prove interesting to say the least.
A Samsung rep pointed out in a short demo that the phone stays somewhat active while it's asleep. This is made apparent through the use of the night clock, which tells the time along the rounded edge. Users can set the time for when the clock comes on and goes off, and during that time, the screen will go black save for the rounded edge, which will only show the time and the weather, if desired.
As previously stated, this phone's hardware is the same as the new Note 4 -- save for the display, which in the case of the Note Edge is a 5.6-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED (2560 x 1400 + 160) screen. (That's the same resolution as the Note 4 but just a hair smaller.)
Other specs include 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 805, Wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, and a microSD card slot for adding up to 64 GB of extra storage. There's also a fingerprint scanner, 8x optical zoom and Android 4.4 "KitKat."
Although this phone looks to cater to the right-handed crowd, lefties still have an option: They can merely turn the phone upside down, and the screen will rotate 180 degrees. The drawback, of course, is that the buttons will be on the top instead of mounted at the bottom. Still, as a leftie, I didn't find the normal setting all that difficult to manage.
Overall, this was probably my favorite of the two phones due to the unique form factor. Again, it's possible this could end up being a one-time deal; whether customers will flock to this device or not remains to be seen. Still, the rounded side is rather cool, and I'm anxious to see what app developers do with the SDK.
Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
