Samsung hopes new jumbo Galaxy S6 Edge and Note 5 will lead sales resurgence
Samsung has unveiled a new Galaxy Note phablet and a larger version of its curved-screen S6 edge smartphone, in hopes of reviving its handset business.
Samsung is the world's top smartphone maker but its market share fell in the second quarter when the company released its critically acclaimed S6 models, squeezed by Apple's upscale iPhones and cheaper offerings from Chinese rivals such as Huawei.
The manufacturer responded with S6 price cuts and moving up the Note unveiling from its usual early September spot, ahead of the latest iPhone launch expected in September.
Samsung has made several hardware changes for the new devices, including a faster processor for the Galaxy Note 5 and increasing the screen size of the S6 edge+ to 5.7 inches from 5.1 inches on the S6 edge.
Samsung has high hopes for the Note. "Each new version has been more popular than the last," said Justin Denison, vice president of product strategy and marketing for Samsung America.
Both are powered by Samsung's Exynos chips, the company said.
The phones will go on sale on August 28 in New Zealand and will likely cost $1300.
One expert said he was not sure how well the phones would help Samsung's efforts in the competitive smartphone market.
The S6 edge+ also comes with a keyboard cover accessory.
The phones were not different enough, said Jonathan Roubini, editor-in-chief of Lab Reviews, "So that's why it's very hard for them to gain that market share from Apple."
Roubini said that they may frustrate Android users. "The phone looks very cool, but you cannot change the battery, and you cannot add memory to it."
GALAXY NOTE 5
Though it appeals to a niche audience, the Note is popular for including a stylus to take notes and annotate images on the screen. The update provides quicker access to apps and features that use the stylus. A clicking mechanism makes the stylus easier to pull out.
One new feature ends the need to print out and rescan electronic forms to sign or fill out. Just write on the PDF document directly before saving and sending.
Screenshots can get annoying when you're just snapping what's visible on the screen. An article or list of directions you're trying to save might take four or five shots. A new feature called scroll capture combines all those shots into one image, though you still need to snap them one section at a time.
GALAXY S6 EDGE+
The screens on Samsung's Edge phones are curved on both sides. The feature proved popular in the earlier S6 Edge, which used one of those sides for quick access to friends and other frequent contacts. Now, you can use it for quick access to favourite apps, too.
There won't be a stylus, though, as last year's Note Edge phone had.
COMMON TO BOTH PHONES
The new phones incorporate the improved camera technology found in the earlier S6 phones. Added is live streaming of video you're capturing, a practice made popular by Meerkat and Twitter's Periscope apps. Samsung's video will appear on YouTube. The front cameras take sharper selfies, at 5 megapixels rather than 3.7.
The new phones also borrow design elements from the S6. They sport aluminium frames and glass backs rather than plastic. The back of the Note 5 is slightly curved for a better grip, while the Edge gets its curve on the front. Either way, it doesn't feel as boxy as the regular S6.
Borrowing another page from Apple's playbook, the phones are coming out just a week after they are announced. It used to take Samsung a month or longer.
SAMSUNG PAY
Samsung also said its mobile payment service Samsung Pay will launch on August 20 in South Korea and September 28 in the United States.
Samsung Pay lets users make payments by having phones send signals to existing magnetic stripe card readers, offering greater store coverage than Apple's Apple Pay service which requires retailers to install compatible equipment.
No date has been announced for Samsung Pay's release in New Zealand or the rest of the world.
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