A few thoughts on Samsung Unpacked for the S6 Edge Plus and Note 5
by Volker Weber
I watched the Samsung Unpacked event and then spent a few hours thinking about what I just saw. Before I jump right in, let me say that I love the Galaxy S6 Edge. It's just a joy to use, has a great camera, the best I have seen so far in a mobile phone, and a gorgeous high-res display. It almost replaced my trusty iPhone 6+, if it were not for two problems: I had difficulties typing on it because the curved screen does not let me hold it with two hands while not touching the edge of the screen and letting the cursor jump around. And, less importantly, Withings Healthmate does not work well on Android. Now that I have an Apple Watch, I am even less inclined to switch my daily driver. But I do still use the Edge quite often as a second device. I have also tried the Note 4 and it clearly was not right for me. Did not like the materials, the build, I found the multitasking unintuitive. But that's just me. I know people who love their Galaxy Note to bits and pieces. It's just very, very powerful. And it's expandable with extra storage, extra batteries, replacement back covers, etc.
Now that I set the stage, a few thoughts:
- Samsung got the balance between S6 and S6 Edge wrong. They made too many S6 and not enough Edge models. Apparently more people than expected were ready to spend extra to get a more desirable design.
- The Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is a plus-sized Galaxy S6 Edge. Some upgraded specs but the display is simply larger. So is the body. It's very hard to not see this as an Apple match race maneuver.
- Samsung is trying to cure Android lag with throwing more hardware at the problem. Now four gig of RAM instead of three. That's what a Microsoft Surface uses to run Windows 10 just nicely.
- The Galaxy Note 5 changes the winning formula of the current Note model in a big way. With the S6 (Edge, Edge Plus) Samsung became more Apple-like. Charge for more storage, do not provide storage expansion, build a much higher quality device, get the design right, try to keep the price up. With the Note 5 Samsung follows the same path.
- Samsung takes wireless charging very serious. That's the biggest gripe I have with iPhone. I was so used to wireless charging with Lumia that plugging in was a big step backwards.
- New watch teased for release at IFA in Berlin. Maybe they get it right this time. Samsung is on a "fail early, fail often" path here.
While the S6 Edge is a no-brainer, I see quite some risk with the Note 5. Personally I think that those customers don't want to give up on expandability. Samsung Germany may have the same concerns and they are only offering the S6 Edge Plus, but not the Note 5, at least for the moment.
Comments
There is no "Android lag", just a Samsung TouchWiz lag. CyanogenMod 12.1 (Android 5.1.1) runs perfectly well on my Galaxy S4.
Good for you. Irrelevant though since that is not what Samsung sells.
I'm just confused.
S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus, Note 5. 4 new models. Do they really need that many SKU's?
As for the Android lag. @Norbert, I'm kind of with you, but prefer to call it Samsung Lag.