As expected, Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 4, and the display is indeed a QHD (2560x1440) Super AMOLED panel. The exciting news (which I did not expect) is the Galaxy Note 4 Edge - the curved edge variant!
So first of all - you can see the Galaxy Note 4 Edge above. It sports a 5.6" QHD (2560x1440) display, with an extra 160-pixels on the right edge (Samsung calls this QHD+). The bent edge (besides being unique and probably very cool) can show notifications, application icons or simply controls when you want the full screen to show a video for example.
Besides the different display, both phones share pretty much the same specifications. Android 4.4, a 2.7 Ghz Quad-Core CPU (1.9 Ghz Octa-Core in some markets for the Note 4), 3 GB of RAM, 16 mp camera (with Smart OiS), S-Pen, Heart-rate sensor, UV sensor, finger scanner, 32 GB of on board memory plus a micro SD slot (the Edge has a 64Gb model) and a 3,220 mAh battery (3,000 on the Edge).
Both phones has a premium metal (aluminum) frame (similar to the Galaxy Alpha). This seems to be Samsung's new design for high-end phones.
Samsung will release both phones in October 2014. The Galaxy Note 4 Edge will probably cost more than the regular Note 4, but we do not know the price for these phones yet.
The Note 4 Edge will be released in October, and will probably cost more than the regular Note 4.
The Note 4 Edge is very similar to the YOUM AMOLED prototype unveiled in January 2013 (yes, it's over a year and half since!) - but Samsung does not refer to the new display as a YOUM display. Seems that Samsung abandoned that brand and simply calls this a Super AMOLED display (that happens to be bent around the edge).
Comments
I think this is exciting because it shows SDC's flexible OLED technology and capacity is advancing - this seems to be a global phone launch (unlike the Galaxy Round which was released in Korea only). Samsung is always experimenting with new designs and they will keep improving and coming up with better ideas.
1.5 years ago it was a prototype. This is a real commercial device (hopefully) - which means that the flexible OLED is ready for mass market and real user adoption. This is exciting to me, anyway ;-)
Considering that the display ages fast (tested on galaxy S4 LTE-A), the edge will have trouble really fast if it is going to be ON most of the time. Even the general Note display will be in bad shape after few weeks as per our test on Galaxy S4 LTE-A. I think, SDC is testing the customer tollerance by sending a sub-standard display in to the market. This may hurt AMOLED market in general.
So basically Samsung presented a phone that was already presented 1.5 years ago and met with...let's say scepticism...even back then as a possible future product for their curved OLEDs.
Somehow this does not seem very exciting to me...