This is the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and as you might have heard it packs a pretty special screen, but what can those curves actually do?
Well, out the box Samsung has found a number of uses to show off how it thinks curved displays might prove useful, starting with Edge Lighting.
Sammy’s thinking is that whilst the phone is face down and even when it’s set to silent, the edges of the screen can kick off a light show to quietly inform you of incoming calls or notifications. Dip into the settings menu and you can even specify what sort of notifcations cause the Edge Lighting to jump into action. In its current state you can toggle whether emails, texts or calls set the feature’s white pulsing light off.
People Edge takes the idea one step further. You can assign up to five contacts with a specific colour so that when they call, you know at a glance who’s trying to get in touch with you. Whatever the type of notification, you’ll then be able to swipe out and see what you missed from that specific contact
In general operation People Edge also gives you quick access to your five assigned contacts from anywhere within the S6 Edge’s interface and you can choose from a palette of eight colours when you’re picking your favourite five people to begin with.
Information Stream is a feature we first met with last year’s Galaxy Note Edge and it’s relatively unchanged on the S6 Edge. Whilst the phone’s AMOLED screen is off, a quick left right swipe on your chosen edge will call up a number of streams which you can swipe through.
You can select anything from sports scores, stocks, news headline and trending Twitter topics, as well as being able to download more from with the Edge Screen’s settings menu. Thanks to the screen’s technology, black pixels are essentially switched off so modes like this use very little power.
Another handy, but pre-existing feature is Night Clock, which as you can guess turns the edge of the phone into a convenient, low-brightness night clock that you can set to appear when the main screen is off. From within the settings menu you’re given options to set its appearance for up to a maximum of 12 hours.
There’s still a lot more we’d like to see the S6 Edge’s Dual Curve Display (DCD) do. We’d have liked the option to experience select features like Edge Lighting on both sides of the phone’s screen simultaniously, but for the time being, you can only elect one.
Developers have already started playing with the technology the DCD offers, but beyond funky disco lighting, we’re waiting to see just how useful this distinctive screen tech will be.
Read next: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Review: In Depth
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