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We went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge yesterday to give you folks an early look at Samsung’s two new darlings for 2016. But if you were more curious about the unique features of the S7 Edge’s Edge display, this is where you’ll park it.
Samsung greatly expanded the functionality of the Edge display this year. The S6 Edge was pretty limited in its use — it was a glorified quick app launcher and a short list of your favorite contacts with quick actions for getting in touch with them. For the Galaxy S7 Edge? It’s leaps and bounds more useful. Let’s jump right into everything the Edge display is now capable of!
Another row of Edge apps
First thing’s first: Samsung has widened the Edge Apps panel for a couple of different reasons. The first reason is to give you more space for quick shortcuts. You now have 2 columns of 5 shortcuts you can add to your most frequently used apps.
Multiple Apps Edge pages
Another big change is the addition of Apps Edge pages. You can get a total of 9 pages for whatever you want, with each offering different functionality. You swipe between them as if you’re swiping through pages of your home-screen.
New types of Edge Apps
What do you fill those 9 pages? The wealth of new Apps Edge apps Samsung offers with the device. There are 11 in total shipping with the device:
- Apps Edge: Quick shortcuts to jump to your favorite apps.
- Tasks Edge: One-click access to specific actions, like toggling settings or messaging a contact.
- People Edge: A list of your 5 favorite contacts with easy access to messaging and calling options.
- Yahoo News: A stream of the latest news.
- My Places: A custom list of apps appropriate for where you are.
- Yahoo Finance: A stream of your favorite stock quotes.
- Yahoo Sports: The latest scores and news for your favorite teams.
- Quick Tools: Compasses, rulers and timers.
- Internet: A list of shortcuts to your favorite websites.
- S Planner: A quick look at your daily calendar.
- Weather: A look at the day’s forecast.
The best part about this is that Samsung is finally opening Apps Edge up to third-party developers, so there should be a nice stream of useful tools and apps flowing into the Samsung Apps Store (where you’ll be able to download more, if you wish). The Edge display felt pretty useless on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, but it could turn out to be the killer feature that has everyone flocking to the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Edge customization
One last thing: The Edge has a few different things you can customize:
- Choose left or right Edge to slide Apps Edge into view.
- Choose how far up or down the tab is.
- Choose how transparent the tab is.
And that’s it — there should be no problems finding a comfortable setting whether you’re a lefty or a righty.
What’s your favorite feature?
There’s no doubt the Apps Edge is infinitely better on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge than any other device before it. What’s your favorite? Which apps will you use? What sort of added functionality are you hoping to be able to find from the Samsung Apps Store? Let us hear it in the comments below!
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