It’s tempting to think of Samsung as only the world’s greatest follower. It’s the company that overhauled its tablets in a matter of weeks after seeing the iPad 2, and the one whose flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S, looks suspiciously more like the iPhone every year.

There’s always been one race Samsung has led, though: Really Big Phones. (Do not call them phablets do not call them phablets do not…) First the Galaxy Note lineup was mocked, then it was explosively popular, then it was relentlessly copied. Then they became the norm. Huge screens are no longer a calling card, so what does Samsung do now?

Today, it’s launching two new phones: The Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+. (Seriously, that’s really the name. Galaxy S6 Edge+.) They’re both big, they’re both high-end, but each one has a single feature Samsung hopes will set it apart. The Note 5 has a pen, and the S6 Edge+ has a curved screen. These are the two features Samsung thinks it has nailed, that no one else can copy. They’re the only things that separate the two phones, and they’re the core features Samsung’s going to rely on going forward.

Here’s the rundown on the two phones. They both have 5.7-inch, quad HD displays that look incredible. Both devices will be available globally, and on all major U.S. carriers. They both have 4GB of RAM, and Samsung’s latest Exynos processor. The have big, fast-charging batteries, and no removable back or SD card slot. They run Android 5.1, with Samsung’s garish (but always slightly less so) TouchWiz skin on top. The camera’s mostly the same as the S6—16 megapixels on the back, 5 on the front—except for a really nifty new livestreaming feature that lets you start a live YouTube broadcast with a single tap in the camera app.

They have a new version of Samsung’s SideSync software, which lets you send files and even use your phone from a computer, and makes it easy to broadcast to a TV. They support Samsung Pay, the company’s new mobile wallet service that promises to actually work everywhere you try it. Both phones are pretty, borrowing a lot of the metallic, glassy design language from the S6. They feel considerably smaller than even last year’s Note 4, too—the Really Big Phone is shrinking. I’ve only spent a few minutes with each, but they both appear to be terrific phones.

The pen on the Note 5 makes perfect sense. It’s always been the phone’s real raison d’etre, even more so than the big screen. It’s vastly improved here, too: There’s now a way to scribble a note without even turning on and unlocking your phone. You just pull out the pen, and write on what looks like a digital chalkboard. You can customize the menu that appears when you take it out, and use it for almost anything—Samsung says a surprising number of people use the S pen just to navigate the phone, so that’s easier too. As ever, the Note is a productivity tool first and foremost, and the Note 5 just improves on the formula without changing too much.

The phones are basically the same, save for one key feature each

The S6 Edge+ is a little more surprising, even to Samsung. It’s clear no one at the company expected the S6 Edge—which is really more of a niche device for people who want something different and are willing to pay for it—to be such a success. But it was, by basically any measure. Samsung discovered a latent appetite for new, interesting mobile designs, even ones without a lot of practical value. The S6 Edge+ just extends the idea, making the screen a little bigger. At the larger size, the double-curved display has an even more pronounced infinity-pool effect, as if the screen never really ends at all. There are a couple of extra features, like the new App Edge menu you swipe open for quick access to your favorite apps, and Samsung’s marketing it as a “multimedia device, ” which doesn’t really mean anything. Unlike last year’s Note Edge, which tried to add totally new uses to a smartphone, the S6 Edge+ is a design move, period. And if the smaller Edge is any indication, people will love it.

Samsung has two moves at this point, both relatively powerful—there’s lots of data that shows people like both the S Pen and the curved screen. So where’s the phone with both? Where’s the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Edge, with the absolute best of everything Samsung has to offer? That would feel like the true heir to the Note lineup, the swing-for-the-fences kind of device you have to love Samsung for continually making. I asked Samsung just this question. The response: Well, we could. But it would have cost, like, a thousand dollars.

For now, we get two phones. Pick your favorite. They’re almost certainly both very good. But Samsung has two big ideas about the future, and someday, probably someday soon, they’re going to come together in a single device. And then, Samsung might have something to make iPhone-zinging commercials about again.

Source: www.wired.com