Samsung Unveils Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and Galaxy Note 5

Samsung announced two new high-end Android handsets; the Galaxy S6 Edge plus and Galaxy Note 5. The phones will be in the market before the end of the year and both have 5.7in (14.5cm) screens.  Analysts say the popularity of mid-range phones from Chinese rivals, and Apple’s shift to bigger iPhones, have dented demand for Samsung’s devices.

Samsung is currently the world’s leading company in smartphone shipment. The Samsung Galaxy J1 took the Kenyan market by storm and recorded the highest sales in 2015 compared to other smartphones.

The Galaxy Note 5 comes with a stylus – which Samsung says makes it suitable for productivity tasks. But the phone now has metal edges and a glass back to give it an amazing feel.

For marketing reasons, Note 5 will not be released in Europe. Samsung claims it will be a mistake if they release the device in Europe.”The Note would have been a good fit for Europe’s enterprise market, and if Samsung expects the Galaxy S6 Edge plus to attract the same business users I don’t believe it will succeed,” commented Francisco Jeronimo from market research firm IDC.

This year there is no Edge edition of the Note. Instead, the Galaxy S6 Edge plus is targeted at those who want a “phablet”-sized handset with curved sides. The “plus” in its name refers to the fact that its screen is both 0.6in (1.5cm) larger than the earlier edition and more scratch-resistant.

The phone has an extra gigabyte of memory, taking it up to 4GB of RAM to aid multi-tasking, but uses the same in-house Exynos processor as before. The two new phones have a button in their camera apps that activates a “live broadcast” mode, which streams 1080p high definition video to YouTube and sends invitations to selected acquaintances and they support the ultra-high quality audio (UHQA) format. A new hardware component means there should be “less sound distortion” when files saved in the codec are played. Users can also use bundled software to “upscale” existing MP3s.

Samsung has confidence that the two devices will monopolize the market that’s why they did a standalone press conference. Apple has plans of updating their own smartphones on  9th September which is advantageous to Samsung’s early announcement.

“Of course, we’re not alone in the market and we take the whole [sector] into consideration to find the best opportunity,” Jean-Daniel Ayme, vice president of Samsung Electronic’s European telecom operations said.

“It’s fair to say that we’re in a market which has competition, and we welcome that – it’s a maturing market all around the world and we thrive in developing new opportunities, new devices that will grow the business.”

“Mid-August is an unusual time for a launch – it’s a quiet month when half of Europe is on holiday,” said Ian Fogg from IHS Technology.”One reason Samsung may have done this was to get the announcements out ahead of all the other smartphone makers – both those at Ifa and Apple afterwards. The other rationale is that it needs to get these new models into the market quickly because it’s under competitive pressure, and has accelerated its launch plans.” Reports BBC.

 

Erick Vateta564 Posts

--- Erick Vateta is a lawyer by training, poet, script and creative writer by talent, a model, and tech enthusiast. He covers International tech trends, data security and cyber attacks.

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