Being a Samsung (KRX: 005930) Galaxy user across a number of years (From the S3 to Note3 and then the S5, the last two in parallel right now – that’s quite a vote with someone’s wallet, I guess), I did eagerly await the launch of the Galaxy S6 to see if it is worth the upgrading consideration. Especially since the Galaxy Note Edge, the interim variant with the single curved side 2560×1600 16:10 display, did show some promise on how the extra curve can be used without affecting the main work area size.

However, what came out did seriously disappoint me: what happened was that both the straight and curved versions share the same 2560×1440 16:9 display – meaning that the curved side in a sense lost some 1/6 of its straight viewable work or play area on an already narrow display.

But that was just the beginning: the new phones had no microSD card slots for user storage expansion flexibility and, no, the battery can’t be replaced by the user either, just like on the iPhones. But yes, they have very very fast processors and 3+ megapixel displays with gazillion dots per inch density in a, yes, 5-inch format.

Hold on for a second: the existing 1920×1080 FullHD displays on 5-inch plus smartphones already reach some 400 dots per inch resolution, beyond what a normal human eye can discern from say one foot distance. What is the point of adding extra resolution that can’t be seen? Wouldn’t it be better if Samsung add extra pixels to its laptops instead, so that 4K 15-inch models are a reality? Or UHD 16:10 3840×2400 tablets, for instance, in the same format?

Don’t forget that the extra pixels add to the processing burden, video frame buffer memory footprint and of course the power consumption, yet there is almost no 1440p video content to benefit from them. And, yes, world standard 1080p FullHD content will look better on a “pixel for pixel” matching 1920×1080 screen then interpolated across a 2560×1440 screen. So, what the hell was the point in doing this? And, mind you, it’s not just Samsung doing this.

Is the Galaxy S6 a step in the right direction?

This brings us to a point: is the current smartphone evolution seriously misdirected? Not just from a ‘consumerised dumbing down’ of the overall approach and the waste of CPU cycles with slow Java apps compared to what optimised C++ stuff can do.  Remember a Cray 3 supercomputer three decades ago is slower than a current top end smartphone by quite a bit, but was hell a lot more optimally used resource-wise. It is desperately trying to create added specs that make no real usage sense, just to justify the new sales cycle – and any PC market technology trickery of that sort looks like angelic honesty compared to what is devised in the smartphone market.

The features being added don’t seem to make much sense in terms of real use: the 1440p displays are one good example of absolute uselessness unless you have a true eagle eye, I guess. The good stuff that was added – in the Samsung case, the USB3 connection for faster recharge and PC connections in the S5 and the Note3 – ended up removed and downgraded to the USB2 in the Note4 and the S6!

Then, if we really want a visually rich phone with such a strong GPU power, why not a direct microHDMI connection to a FullHD TV set to, say, play those lovely 3D Moto etc beginner’s games on it without having to use roundabout means such as wireless Screen Mirroring?

And, yes, looking at the on-screen keyboards there… when they occupy half of the screen, and you can barely see the message typed, it seems the time is to bring back the 16:10 screen to the smartphones too. It would help manage the problem, especially in the horizontal mode.

Back to the point above: Samsung is the leader of the smartphone market today, like it or not. Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) is still a formidable force, and Xiaomi could be the another top league member. However, the last we expected from a market leader was to create a closed ‘black box’ product with useless new stuff added, and good current stuff removed, all in the name of, what, an industrial design exercise? My vote on this is a big no, in the name of keeping what’s left of the basic sanity of this market, and it looks like the next phone I get will be a Chinese one (hope malware-free), and so be it – hope they get a little more pragmatic in the approach to the product evolution.

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Today is the day that you can get Samsung’s (KRX:005930) new Galaxy Note Edge, the Note Edge is Samsung’s first phone with a curved edge display that allows you to use the side of the phone as a display and as a touch surface, without a doubt an innovative design and product.

We won’t even go into the fact that the phone is well over $100 more than the Galaxy Note 4 or $200 more than the Samsung Galaxy S5, that’s just a product positioning choice. The real problem is the disparity between the prices of the exact same phone between AT&T (NYSE: T), T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS) and Sprint (NYSE: S) all three of which carry the phone today.

If you go to Samsung’s website, they don’t actually list a retail price of the phone, but rather direct you to the carrier’s website to purchase the device. So, naturally, when we saw that the Galaxy Note Edge was selling for $945.99 on AT&T we were absolutely shocked that Samsung would price a device at such a ridiculous price. But then we decided to investigate further and checked out T-Mobile’s Galaxy Note Edge pricing and found it to be $75.99 cheaper than AT&T even though both devices will work on each other’s networks. But then the real shock came when we checked Sprint’s website and saw yet another retail price, this time for $840, a whole $105.99 cheaper than AT&T’s version which is identical.

Not to mention, AT&T’s phones are generally the most bloated in terms of unwanted software, which means people who are on AT&T not only pay more for their service (since T-Mobile and Sprint are undoubtedly cheaper) but they also pay more for their phones. This is a big deal when you think about it because it means that anyone trying to use AT&T’s next program is getting screwed out of more money than people on T-Mobile and Sprint, in addition to already paying more for their plans. AT&T’s Next program isn’t really a very good program to begin with, but if you add on the fact that they charge an additional $105.99 for their phones, it gets much much worse.

Consumers have a right to know what their phones cost and what prices their carriers are charging them for the device, and unless you actually do some searching you would have no idea you are paying $105.99 more for the exact same phone on AT&T. Sure, AT&T has a better network than Sprint, but that doesn’t justify the $105.99 price premium, and sure there’s a good chance that perhaps Sprint is subsidizing the price of the Galaxy Note Edge to make it more attractive, but we all know they don’t pay retail prices. What’s even more interesting is that Sprint’s on-contract price is $430 for the Galaxy Note Edge while AT&T’s is $399, which likely has to do with the fact that AT&T charges more per month and part of your contract does go to pay off your device. Sprint’s on-contract pricing makes sense, but AT&T’s off-contract pricing does not. Just remember to pay attention to what the phone really costs you.

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At its Unpacked 2 event in Berlin, co-hosted with an event in New York City, Samsung (KRX:005930) unveiled the Galaxy Note 4.

The hotly anticipated fourth edition of Samsung’s genre-defining tablet comes with a quad-core 2.7 GHz Snapdragon 805 SoC that packs a 620 MHz GPU, a 5.7-inch 1440p display, a 16 megapixel rear facing camera and a 3.7 megapixel front facing shooter.  Samsung will be packing 3 GB of RAM onto the device, and giving users the option for 32 or 64 GB of internal storage. The phablet itself  comes it at 6 inches by 3.1 inches wide by 0.34 inch thick. It weighs 6.2 ounces. The phone will be runing Android 4.4.4 KitKat.

Arguably the defining feature of the Galaxy Note 4 is its high-resoluton AMOLED screen. The 1440p resolution — the highest in the industry — means the Galaxy Note 4 will be displaying things at 2,560×1,440 pixels. The Galaxy Note 4 isn’t the first device to use this ultra-high resolution, but the inclusion of that resolution with the phone effectively makes it now a gold standard.

Like Samsung’s other recently launched smartphones, the Galaxy Note 4 includes a heart-rate monitor and a fingerprint sensor.

The Galaxy Note 4 will be launched globally in October. Pricing will depend on whether the end user has the device on or off contract.

Samsung, which once enjoyed one half of a virtual duopoly in the smartphone market with Apple, needs a big hit and a lot is resting on the success of the Galaxy Note 4. Samsung’s profits have weakened upon increased competition in the space, but the Note series of phones have proven to be a reliable success with many copycats springing up since their introduction in 2011.

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