14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Samsung made a big splash when it announced the heavily anticipated Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge as part of a grand ceremony in Barcelona at MWC 2015.
With these new phones, Samsung basically wants to redeem itself and swipe under the rug the failure that was the Galaxy S5 the year past.
Initial feedback on the new phones has been quite good and Samsung expects orders for the new flagships to start pouring in from all directions.
Out of the two gadgets, the Galaxy S6 Edge is the more unique model, coming with an edge-to-edge screen that works a bit differently than the one we saw in the previous Galaxy Note Edge.
Does the dual-edged display truly make a difference?
With the Edge, Samsung throws in things like color-coded call IDs, Notifications access (on the side of the screen for emails, texts, missed calls and the like), and the ability to pull these tabs into action.
Samsung also boasts that video watching will be transformed into a whole new experience with the Galaxy S6 Edge.
But has Samsung really convinced us that we absolutely need the dual-edged display in our live? Not exactly.
The truth is, the curved displays have little to add to the phone’s overall functionality, other than some simple and cooler purposes that won’t actually change the core experience of handling a phone.
But seeing notifications at a glance on one of the edges, being able to swiftly access your top five contacts and being able to tell who’s trying to contact you based on the assigned colors aren’t must-have features for any mobile user. Sure, they are fun to have around, but your wellbeing isn’t even remotely connected to them.
However, Samsung might be on to something. Playing with the new dual-edged phone becomes highly additive fast and that’s because the Galaxy S6 Edge is a new device that takes advantage of a novel technology we haven’t seen other device makers to employ. Not yet anyway.
Other manufacturers are quick to copy Samsung
But it does seem like the trend is catching on quickly. Back at CES 2015, LG put on display a mysterious dual-edged device which resembled the Galaxy S6 Edge a great deal.
Or if the company plans devising two different flagship lineups, one coming with the regular flat display and the other boasting the “edge”.
Moreover, also present at MWC 2015, Canadian device maker Blackberry itself showcased a mystery device. This happened briefly during one of the talks the company’s official held at the event.
We merely got to look at the product for a few seconds, but in that brief period of time we could see that the unidentified device was actually a slider phone of sorts.
So, despite dual-edged displays bringing much functionality to the table, it seems like key tech players in the industry like Blackberry and LG are also orienting towards providing similar alternatives to Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge.
Like the Galaxy S6 Edge, we expect these models to be quite pricey, but apparently, this is not a concern for any of these device manufacturers.
The Galaxy Note Edge didn’t prove to be particularly popular, as a report that surfaced back in February told us that Samsung managed to sell only 630,000 Galaxy Note Edge units throughout the world since the launch.
Compare that to the 4.5 million units the Galaxy Note 4 sold in, just in the first month after launch.
However, Samsung seems to have an unshakable faith in its curved display products and other device makers are following the trend. Will 2015 turn out to be the year of the dual-edge display phones? Quite possibly.