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Get to know the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge's edge screen

Samsung added new features that take advantage of the curved screen; let's take a look.

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Sarah Mitroff Managing Editor
Sarah Mitroff is a Managing Editor for CNET, overseeing our health, fitness and wellness section. Throughout her career, she's written about mobile tech, consumer tech, business and startups for Wired, MacWorld, PCWorld, and VentureBeat.
Expertise Tech, Health, Lifestyle
Sarah Mitroff
2 min read
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Watch this: Push the edge screen of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge to its limits

That slick edge screen on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is more than just a pretty design, it's functional, too.

Last year's Galaxy S6 Edge had just a few features to make use of the curved screen, but the S7 ramps it up. The curved edges of the display make it feel like the screen never really stops. The edges of the screen also act as an additional place to show information in a way that doesn't interfere with the rest of the screen.

We'll dive into everything Samsung added to the edge screen this year below and go hands-on with them in the video above.

Edge panels

The edge screen gets far more shortcuts and tools with the S7 Edge. The People edge, a menu of favorite contacts is still there, but it's joined by the Apps edge menu, which shows your most frequently used apps and the Tasks edge, where you can add shortcuts of things you do often with your phone (such as taking a selfie or creating a new calendar event).

There are also new panels of information from Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, your calendar, weather and more. You can customize the Edge screen in settings, removing panels you don't want and downloading new ones from the Samsung app store.

Edge feed

Swipe a finger back and forth along either edge when the screen is off to see the Edge feed. It's a tiny display of helpful information, like missed calls, messages, sports scores and news updates. You can swipe up and down along the edge to move between feeds, which include Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance stock information, and your step count from the built-in S Health pedometer.

Edge lighting

Just like with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, the S7 Edge's screen will light up when someone calls or texts you. When the phone is resting screen down, the edge will glow when you get an incoming call or text. If the person calling you is one of the contacts in your People edge the screen will glow with whichever color you've assigned them -- either blue, green, purple, yellow or orange.