Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled new versions of its Galaxy Note smartphone on Sept. 3, after previous design miscues cost it customers in the large-screen phone market it helped create.
The world's biggest mobile phone maker's new Galaxy Note 4 comes with a 5.7-inch display in a metal frame, reflecting the company's latest design strategy to keep up with rivals like Apple, which is expected to debut its first large-screen phones on Sept. 9, according to Reuters.
The Galaxy device offers accessories designed to attract gamers and an improved pen stylus and related software as a handwriting alternative to typing on a normal keyboard.
It's equipped with easier to use multi-tasking features that take advantage of its big screen.
The Note 4 is key to a recovery by Samsung, which faced derision at the idea of callers holding elephantine screens up to their ears, according to Reuters.
Click here for complete Galaxy Note 4 specs.
Since the Note was introduced in 2011, it has made 5-inch and larger screens the standard for high-end smartphones as usage switched to writing texts, emails, documents, reading, using apps, playing games, and watching movies or TV shows instead of placing calls.
Though the new device is packed with hundreds of features, a number of mobile phone analysts believe there is little in the Note 4 to excite new users.
"I think this is mostly an incremental change," Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said, according to Reuters. "What is missing is a total experience on top of the device to really differentiate in the interchangeable Android device ecosystem," he said, referring to the closely coupled software and services Samsung needs to distinguish its devices from dozens of cheaper rivals.
The company's profit fell to a two-year low during the second quarter as it lost market share, despite sending out nearly a third of all smartphones around the globe.
Samsung lost its title as No. 1 smartphone player in China, the world's biggest market, to Xiaomi Inc during the April-June quarter. It continues to lose market share in other markets where rivals are producing attractive products for much lower prices.
Most of the blame goes to the Samsung Galaxy S5, which has been seen as a disappointment since launching in April. The flagship premium phone was outsold by the much older iPhone 5S in May, and analysts believe it failed to deliver major improvements over its predecessor, according to Reuters.
The new Note seems to meet expectations on key features like the quad high-definition display, a curved edge screen, and a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, though overall improvements suggests the company is going to struggle once Apple unveils its large-screen iPhones.
"It is an acknowledgement that Samsung took a wrong turn with the move into plastic cases and that its designs didn't move fast enough to keep pace with many competitors," said Ben Wood, a mobile industry analyst with UK-based CCS Insight, according to Reuters. "The importance of metal cases is that it directly translates into bigger, edge-to-edge screens."
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