Today was the big event where Samsung officially announced two new big phones, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5. They both sport a 5.7-inch display and while the company was the first one to make a phablet with the original Galaxy Note, the company has also been focusing on portability, thus reducing the size of bezels surrounding the screen and making their latest phones very thin. They even highlighted that their new phones are actually smaller than the iPhone 6 Plus and its 5.5-inch display.
Business Insider got to interview some Samsung representatives. Justin Denison, vice president of product strategy of the company, got to explain some aspects of the design in the new phones. Of course, there are a lot of components in smartphones, so engineers have to figure out how to make them fit in that smallish space. He explained that if you curve a 5.7-inch display, natural geometry indicates that the device becomes a little slimmer. Let’s remember that the Galaxy Note 5 features a flat display, but the back is actually curved to make it fit easier in the hand. With so much competition, particularly from Apple, Samsung had to figure out an innovative way to distinguish themselves, and since the screens on smartphones keep getting bigger, they seem to be betting big on curved surfaces.
Shoneel Kolhatkar, Samsung’s senior director of product marketing stated that they believe this kind of design is a game changer and that they have been experimenting with curved screens for a while now in all sorts of sizes, so the larger version of their curved flagship was not a rushed decision. Denison stated that the Note Edge was an experiment, so that’s why some elements of the UI used in that phone made their way to the new curved phones, those elements stayed because of the user’s feedback they got.
They also explained that they get to test some innovations before they hit the market and even then, there’s a chance that they would not be successful, but they innovate and improve those features that get a positive response from consumers. An example is the ability to write with the S-Pen on the Note 5 while the screen is off. They mentioned that they welcome competition, and the phones they release are a response to the requests made by the market and not so much a response to their competitors.