Samsung unveils Galaxy S6 Edge+, Note 5

Unlike Apple Pay, Samsung’s solution also contains magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology, which allows users to pay by simply holding their phone to any payment terminal with a magnetic strip reader for credit cards.

Like the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, the Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus will no longer have a user-replaceable battery or microSD expansion slot, and they will use the new premium metal and glass design.

The smartphones feature 16-megapixel rear cameras with an f/1.9 aperture, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

Since the Galaxy Note 5 is a business centric phablet, it comes packed with several productivity features. Instead, citing marketing reasons, Samsung is going to focus on the Galaxy S6 edge+ in the region.

It also on Thursday announced launch dates for its mobile payment service.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is priced in the Philippines at P36,990, while the Galaxy S6 Edge+ will cost P39,990 for its 32GB and P44,990 for its 64GB versions.

The Galaxy Note 5 also includes a bit of a throwback: a Blackberry-esque physical keyboard cover that can be snapped onto the phone and sensed by the screen underneath.

Both phones run on Android 5.1 Lollipop and are powered by Samsung’s own 64-bit Exynos 7420 octa-core processor. A minor feature of it in the Note 5 is that now it is spring activated, meaning it only needs to pressed slightly in order for it to pop out.

The decision was made based on the fact that almost 2 million Note phones have been sold in Taiwan over the past four years, underlining local consumers’ preference for the big-screen series, said Samsung Taiwan President Lee Jaeyub (李載燁). Fortunately, there’s one inclusion on the Galaxy S6 Edge+ that will likely prove helpful: a full suite of Microsoft Office apps, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.