Having a phone with a curved screen that partially displays to both left and right sides isn’t just about looking good. The S6 edge+ continues with the People edge feature, used to quickly access up to five individual favourite contacts, but also adds a second Apps edge for quick-access to up to five personally selected apps. Juggling between these two screens is as simple as a sideward swipe from the edge of the phone.
That’s the main use for the curved edge, with an information stream – accessed by, somewhat strangely, rubbing the edge up and down – available to show off alerts, Yahoo! news, Twitter trends, and some other limited options. It’s a nice idea, but one we rarely used, as the usual Android alerts at the top of the screen continue to appear and are altogether more familiar. If the phone is face down it will emit a colourful illumination for alerts if active too.
At night the option for a night clock is great though, as the Super AMOLED panel of the phone means only the necessary pixels illuminate for a non-distracting display. It’s easily visible from a horizontal sleeping position thanks to that curved edge. It’s subtle features like this that add to the edge+ ’s appeal.
However, compared to the original Note Edge from 2014 – which had just the one right-hand curved edge rather than both sides like the edge+ – there’s simply not the same depth of functionality in the Apps edge feature. There’s been time for Samsung to forge forward and integrate the edge app concepts yet more, but in the edge+ it feels ultimately the same as before. We feel that there’s more potential to be unlocked yet.