The world’s largest smartphone company has unveiled two phablets at its Unpacked event, held in the Lincoln Centre, New York. Headlining the range is the Galaxy Note5, a phablet designed for productivity users, and the Galaxy S6 edge+, which has been designed for lovers of multimedia.
The two smartphones are being launched as intense competition erodes Samsung’s market share and operating profit. The company’s global share dropped 6.1 per cent for the year ending May 2015, while its operating profit has declined for seven consecutive quarters.
Few differences separate the Note 5 from the S6 edge+. The Note5 targets productivity users with advanced multitasking, Samsung’s sixth-generation S-Pen stylus and a keyboard cover.
Further separating the two smartphones is the use of a curved display. The S6 edge+ has a display that curves on either side like its S6 counterpart, while Samsung has curved the rear of the Note5 for a more comfortable fit in the palm.
Specifications for the two smartphones are identical. Both have a large 5.7-inch Super-AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560x1440. Photographic technologies are borrowed from the Galaxy S6, with a 16-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera; both of which have an aperture of f/1.9.
Powering both smartphones is Samsung’s Exynos 7420 System-on-Chip (SoC). This is the same SoC found in its flagship Galaxy S6 series, with its two quad-core CPUs running at 2.1GHz and 1.5GHz.
The two phablets will be the first in Australia to pack 4GB of RAM. There’s also a Mali-T760 GPU and internal storage options of 32GB and 64GB.
A controversial omission is the lack of expandable storage and a battery that is not interchangeable.
Integrated into both smartphones is a 3000 milliamp-hour battery. The battery’s charge can be replenished in approximately 90 minutes with a micro-USB cable, or in 120 minutes over wireless charging.
Samsung will progressively roll out the S6 edge+ and the Note5 globally from August, 2015. Colours will include White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum and Silver Titanium.
Samsung Australia issued the following statement to Good Gear Guide:
“Following the global announcement, we look forward to launching the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5 in Australia soon.
