Big phone battle begins again as Samsung launches two phablets before Apple and Google

Samsung’s latest phone-tablet hybrids arrive before big phones from Apple and Google. But can its metal and glass, curved smartphones win the war?

App pop-ups ... Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge+ introduces app shortcuts from its curved edge. Picture: Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

The big-screen phone is getting bigger.

It’s not increasing in size, mind you, but in popularity and choice, and some of the world’s biggest companies are about to go to war over the technology.

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Samsung launched two phablet devices in New York City last week, including a metal and glass addition to its Galaxy Note range and a curved screen version without a stylus for the first time.

Those 5.7-inch smartphones are likely to be joined by another large-screen phone from Apple in early September, and potentially a 6-inch Google phone from Chinese maker Huawei late this year. Microsoft launched a mid-range phablet in the Lumia 540 XL earlier.

App pop-ups ... Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge+ introduces app shortcuts from its curved edge. Picture: Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

Samsung’s additions are likely to further fuel a market invigorated by Apple’s first phablet launch last year, and one clearly getting a taste for big screens.

IDC Australia market analyst Joseph Hsiao says “one in every two smartphones sold in Australia (is) likely to be a phablet” by the end of the year after a rapid take-up of the technology.

“Phablet adoption in Australia was catalysed by the introduction of the iPhone 6 Plus” in September last year, he says.

In the third quarter of 2014, big-screen phones represented just 9 per cent of phone sales. In the first quarter of this year, they rose to take 41 per cent of the market, according to IDC.

While Telsyte is more conservative in its predictions, the Australian research group says demand for big-screen phones “is growing” and will represent one in every four smartphones by 2019.

It’s good news for Samsung, which spearheaded the phablet trend in 2011 and is investing in it with two 5.7-inch metal and glass phones this year.

The pen remains ... Samsung goes gold with its Galaxy Note 5 at its launch in New York. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Samsung)

Samsung Australia mobile vice-president Prasad Gokhale says the size of smartphone screens has been steadily increasing, with phablets transitioning from an anomaly to a common sight.

“Four years ago, even a 4.8-inch (phone) was like ‘What is that?’,” Gokhale says.

“It’s been growing year on year. If you look at the volume of shipments over the last five to seven years and you map it against screen size, you will see that it’s been growing quite significantly.”

But while Australians have embraced the technology, and Gokhale says phablet owners tend to remain loyal to it, they may be split into two camps by Samsung’s latest move.

Its Galaxy Note 5 will feature a redesigned, fifth generation S Pen stylus with new software, but the company’s curved screen model, the Galaxy S6 Edge+, will arrive without the S Pen or the Note name.

Samsung phablet users will have to choose between a stylus and a curved screen.

Gokhale says those who are more focused on “productivity” will opt for the Note 5, while the curved model is better suited to media consumption.

Curvy bod ... The new Samsung Galaxy Note features a curved glass back. (Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Samsung)

Both phones feature significant upgrades, however, including slimmer, redesigned bodies like the Galaxy S6 before them, 16-megapixel rear cameras and 5-megapixel front cameras, more RAM, and wireless charging.

After launch, the Samsung products are likely to go head-to-head with Apple’s second phablet, which is tipped to feature Force Touch technology in its screen.

But Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi says that will not be Samsung’s only phablet competition, with fellow Google Android phone makers also out to steal its place in the market.

“Given its large market share, it’s now a target for competitors, particularly out of China but also from the likes of Sony, LG, and others in the Android marketplace,” Fadaghi says.

Whatever the outcome, big-screen phone users will be spoiled for choice over the coming months.

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson travelled to New York as a guest of Samsung.

Originally published as Big phone battle begins again as Samsung launches two phablets before Apple and Google