Samsung Debuts Galaxy Note5 and S6 Edge+ Phones, Preps for Samsung Pay and Gear S2 Watch Launches

At Samsung's big press conference today in New York, the company announced two new flagship smartphones: the Samsung Galaxy Note5 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, both of which include large "phablet" sized screens that poise them to be direct competitors to the iPhone 6 Plus. They each include the same 5.7-inch display with 4GB of RAM, 16-megapixel rear cameras, and 5-megapixel front cameras, and even the ability to record 4K video.

Galaxy-S6-edge+_front_Gold-Platinum

The Galaxy S6 Edge+ (left) with the Galaxy Note5 (right)

The Galaxy S6 Edge+ keeps its predecessor's curved screen design, but increases its screen size from 5.1-inches to 5.7-inches, which is even larger than the iPhone 6 Plus' 5.5-inch screen. Otherwise, the phone's internals are only slight bumps from the last generation, with the same rear and front cameras and only a slight RAM increase from the S6 Edge's 3GB.

The other phone announced today, the Galaxy Note5, is being aimed at a more enterprise-friendly market, with Samsung describing the smartphone as having an "unmatched set of productivity tools" with the traditional stylus removable from the bottom of the device. Samsung notes that today's upgrades confirm its commitment to the emerging larger-screened smartphone market, "which Samsung boldly pioneered in 2011 with the original Galaxy Note."


The company also announced a new accessory for each of the new smartphones unveiled today, a physical keyboard case that snaps over the phone's display, effectively covering the bottom portion of the 5.7-inch screen for the advantage of typing on a physical BlackBerry-like keyboard.

Once snapped on, the phone recognizes the accessory, and the OS shrinks itself accordingly. The case works in tandem with the phone's touch screen underneath it, so it doesn't require any additional battery or Bluetooth connectivity to function as key presses become sensed by the screen underneath the keypad when pressed down. Unfortunately, Samsung didn't provide any definitive release date or price for the accessory at today's event.

note5-22.0.0
In addition to the new line of smartphones, Samsung provided more details on its own mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, which launches in Korea on August 20 and in the United States on September 28. The company noted that Samsung Pay will be pre-loaded on select Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ devices, with a free software update bringing the service to older-model Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones starting in mid-August.

The service's biggest difference from Apple Pay is that it will work at any standard checkout terminal with a magnetic stripe reader meant for traditional credit cards, contrasting with Apple Pay's need for a terminal with an NFC reader.

• SIMPLE: To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users can simply swipe up, scan their fingerprint and pay.

• SAFE: Samsung Pay uses tokenization, Samsung KNOX, and fingerprint authentication to provide secure payments and reduce the security risks inherent to plastic cards.

• VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE: With Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies, Samsung Pay works with most existing point-of-sale (POS) terminals. That means it’s the only mobile payment service that works virtually anywhere you can swipe your credit card or debit card.

Once it's set up, users will be able to initiate Samsung Pay from the lock screen and choose a credit card, authenticating their purchase with a passcode or the fingerprint scanner the company introduced with the original Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Since the service doesn't absolutely require NFC terminals, although it does work with them as well, users will just need to swipe their phone along the traditional slot made for tangible credit cards to see their payments go through with Samsung Pay.

Samsung also unveiled the first glimpse of a new Gear S2 Smartwatch at today's event, opting for a smaller and rounded watch face over the original Gear S' large, rectangular screen. The company didn't provide many more details besides a quick glimpse at the watch's design and basic operating system, which bears some resemblance to the apps seen on Apple Watch's watchOS. The company promised a full reveal for the smartwatch is to come sometime next month.

samwatch-1200_1024
The Samsung Galaxy Note5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ are globally launching today, and select United States customers who opt-in for one of the new smartphones -- or have an older-model Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge -- will be able to enter a beta trial of Samsung Pay starting on August 25. Both new phones will be available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, and, the new option, Silver Titanium.

Popular Stories

best buy holiday

Best Buy Reveals Black Friday Plans With Sitewide Sales Available Now

Friday November 8, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Black Friday sales are continuing today with Best Buy kicking off early Black Friday deals that will last for the next few days. Similar to other retailers, Best Buy's early Black Friday event includes sitewide savings on Apple products, headphones, TVs, monitors, video games, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may...
mac mini thermal architecture feature

New Mac Mini Has Modular Storage, 256GB Model Will Have Faster SSD

Friday November 8, 2024 7:06 am PST by
Apple has returned to using two 128GB storage chips in the new Mac mini with 256GB of storage, according to a partial teardown video shared on social media today. This means the base-model Mac mini with the M4 chip will not have significantly slower SSD speeds compared to higher-end configurations of the computer with 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage, as multiple NAND chips allows for faster SSD...
iphone passcode green

Cops Suspect iOS 18 iPhones Are Communicating to Force Reboots, Making Unlocking Harder

Thursday November 7, 2024 2:20 pm PST by
Law enforcement officials in Detroit, Michigan are warning other police officers about an alleged iPhone change that causes Apple devices stored for forensic examination to spontaneously restart, reports 404 Media. iPhones that are undergoing examination have apparently been rebooting, which makes them harder to unlock with brute force methods, and Michigan police think that it's due to a...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.2 Beta 2

Monday November 4, 2024 12:34 pm PST by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 updates to developers, and Apple is continuing to refine the Apple Intelligence capabilities. There are also a handful of smaller features that are worth knowing about. Find My Find My has a new option to Share Item Location with an "airline or trusted person" that can help you locate something that you've misplaced....
maxresdefault

Hands On With Apple's New M4 Mac Mini

Friday November 8, 2024 12:21 pm PST by
Apple launched the new Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro models with M4 chips today, and because the Mac mini is the only one of the machines that got a design update, we thought we'd check it out to see how it compares to the prior version. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The 2024 version of the Mac mini is much smaller than the previous M2 model, so it takes up...
High Power Mode Feature 2

Apple Expands High Power Mode to MacBook Pro and Mac Mini Models With M4 Pro Chip

Thursday November 7, 2024 12:15 pm PST by
High Power Mode is available on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip, according to Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham. The feature was previously limited to Macs with Apple's highest-end "Max" chip, so this is the first time it is available on Macs with a "Pro" chip. This is the second time that Apple has expanded availability of High Power...
next generation carplay multi display

Here's the Latest on Next-Generation CarPlay After 2.5 Years of Waiting

Wednesday November 6, 2024 8:33 am PST by
It has been nearly two and a half years since Apple first previewed next-generation CarPlay at WWDC 2022, and it has still yet to become available in any vehicles. Below, we recap the latest information about next-generation CarPlay. Launch Timing Apple's website continues to say that the first vehicles with next-generation CarPlay support will "arrive in 2024," but it has yet to provide ...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Skipping the New MacBook Pro? Here Are the Rumors About M5 Models

Friday November 8, 2024 9:35 am PST by
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips launched in stores today. If you are not planning to upgrade this year, be aware that there are already rumors about next year's MacBook Pro models with M5 series chips. It appears the MacBook Pro will remain on an annual upgrade cycle next year. Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said camera module...

Top Rated Comments

antiretro Avatar
121 months ago
did they just copy the naming scheme aswell.....
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
121 months ago
Lol, their keyboard accessory is HIDEOUS

Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DarkWinter Avatar
121 months ago
They could at least have been a little more original with their naming convention. :rolleyes:
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kcirtap00 Avatar
121 months ago
They had to call it +. They couldn't have possibly thought of any other word (or symbol) to use.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tooloud10 Avatar
121 months ago
When the latest iPhone only has 1GB RAM, in what way is going from 3GB to 4GB "only a slight RAM increase"?
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
121 months ago
So they accelerated the announcement of a minor phone upgrade to beat Apple it seems like.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)