Samsung announced their new flagship phones for the latter half of 2014 at their IFA press event today: the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge. The new phones were joined with the Gear S smartwatch, announced last week, and the Gear VR – a mobile Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Let’s take a closer look at each.
Samsung Galaxy Note 4
The Galaxy Note 4 is going to be Samsung’s big phone for the latter half of 2014. The phone has a higher resolution display than its predecessor – 2560 x 1440 versus 1920 x 1080 – although the size remains the same, at 5.7-inches. Internally, we have the latest generation quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor running at 2.5GHz. The rear camera moves from 13-megapixel to 16-megapixels, while the front-facer is 3.7-megapixels from 2.1-megapixels.
In terms of design, the Note 4 uses the new design language that Samsung unveiled with the Galaxy Alpha. That means a bevelled metal frame – like an iPhone – around a very Samsung-esque textured plastic back. It’s a curious hybrid look, but it’s a lot better than what Samsung have shown before.
Of course, no Samsung event could be complete without a range of software “innovations”. Surprisingly, most of them seem pretty sensible this time around. Selfies were paid particular attention, with a new panoramic mode and the ability take a photo using the heart-rate sensor on the back of the phone.
Accessories are another big part of any Samsung launch, with four official Galaxy Note 4 cases announced. We’ll cover these in depth in a later blog post.
The Galaxy Note 4 will launch in October.
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
The Note Edge is a rather unique variant of the Note series, with a curved display that extends and folds over the right hand side. That provides some extra utility, with the extra pixels being put to use for settings, shortcuts and other controls.
You can swap in other bars as well, giving you access to notifications, weather reports, stock tickers, clocks, news feeds and even games. There’s also a toolbar that appears when you swipe down, giving you quick access to a timer, stopwatch, flashing and ruler. It’s a similar idea to widgets on your home screen, but the folded edge is still available when you have apps open. The edge also remains lit when the phone is locked, showing a nice black-and-white clock using minimal power.
Otherwise, the Note Edge has the same hardware and software to the Note 4, meaning it’s quite a powerful device. The only big difference is that the Edge is wider and thicker, with a slightly smaller battery, due to the extra space required by the folded screen.
The Note Edge is coming later this year. We’ll have the Note Edge sim-free and unlocked, and Note Edge cases and accessories will be coming soon too.
Samsung Gear VR was probably the least anticipated announcement: a mobile virtual reality headset. Unlike Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus, the Gear VR is intended to be driven entirely by the Note 4 that lies inside. That means you can wander around untethered, playing games or watching movies without needing to stay close to a PC or PS4.
To use the Gear VR, you drop your Note 4 into the headset and then put the headset on. The phone’s display is used to show you the 3D content, while the headset’s motion sensors allow you to look around in virtual reality. The headset also has a side trackpad and buttons for controlling games and menus. You can even use the Note 4’s rear camera to get a live feed of the outside world – with or without augmented reality.
Samsung are working with Oculus on the Gear VR, with Samsung providing the hardware and Oculus handling the software side of things. The current Oculus developer kit uses a Note 3 display, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the companies have decided to work together more closely in this new mobile VR space.
The Gear VR will be available this autumn, and is already available for pre-order at Mobile Fun.
Conclusion
IFA is basically a massive contest for mobile companies to capture the headlines with impressive announcements, in order to drive public awareness and eventually sales. So far, Samsung are winning that contest. The Note 4 was just what we expected, but the Note Edge was a nice futuristic flourish and the Gear VR went even further to capture the imagination. Well played, Samsung.