NEW YORK – At a global launch taking place in New York, Berlin and Beijing, Samsung unveiled the oft-rumoured Galaxy Note 4 and also added another device in the Galaxy Note Edge. Both devices are very similar in spec and appearance, though differ in the curved edge of the latter’s screen.

The Galaxy Note 4 was the centerpiece of today’s announcement, continuing the legacy of the line, complete with an improved and refined S Pen for more precise and accurate writing on the large 5.7-inch display. While the same size as its predecessor, the Note 4’s Super AMOLED screen offers a higher resolution (2560 x 1600) and pixel density (515ppi) than the previous model. In practical terms, this means a sharper image, and somewhat less saturated colours, but otherwise, no other significant changes.

The body is also essentially the same, from the faux leather back to the plastic front panel and its thin bezels, home button and camera placement. Under the hood, the device gets a boost from the Snapdragon 805 processor, which should theoretically affect battery life in a positive way, though that remains to be seen.

The 16-megapixel camera has optical image stabilization to help reduce blurriness and improve photos of moving objects. Th 3.7-megapixel front-facing camera now has a wider lens to capture more for the selfie lovers out there. It doesn’t appear a great deal has changed on the software side of things, with basically the same interface and feature set found in the Galaxy S5.

The S Pen is a noticeable difference this time around, thanks to better precision and resistance that feels more natural. It’s certainly not akin to pen and paper, but it is the closest it’s ever been on any Note device — at least upon the first impression we came away with.

It’s too soon to proclaim the Note 4 as anything in particular, one way or the other, but it’s fairly evident that this is an iterative, evolutionary step forward for the line, not a big leap forward.

The most obvious visual change came with the Galaxy Note Edge, featuring a curved edge on its 5.6-inch Super AMOLED that can display its own set of information. Designed to be a multitasking tool, the edge can act like a ticker that you scroll through to see different updates, like what’s trending on Twitter, the latest sports scores and quick access to the apps typically offered in Samsung’s Multi Window feature. An SDK is being offered to developers to open that part of the screen and ostensibly expand on what’s already there.

The feature does have a gimmicky quality to it, and we have some reservations about how it might actually affect holding the phone, particularly with the right hand where the web attached to the thumb could easily make contact. Third-party support is also hard to predict, since that will only have legs if consumers actually deem the edged screen to be something useful and practical.

That one specific design tweak is really the only major differentiator between the two Notes. They otherwise have almost identical specs, weight and dimensions.

Despite the Galaxy S5 being perhaps the most recognizable Samsung smartphone, the Note 4 should truly be considered the company’s flagship for the simple reason that it has far fewer handsets competing directly with it. Phones with pen input are limited in number, and screen sizes, while now regularly surpassing 5-inches, don’t always feel quite as big as the Note does.

The Note 4 is coming to Canada very soon, though an official date or price wasn’t confirmed at the event. Nor were the carriers that will support and sell the handset. The Note Edge, on the other hand, remains in a bit of limbo. Availability in Canada isn’t yet set in stone, but it seems a little unlikely that it won’t cross the border into the Great White North before the year is out.

In addition to the two Notes, Samsung also showed off the Gear VR, a headset designed in partnership with Oculus to bring virtual reality content to the Note 4, which is the only phone that is compatible because of its size, screen resolution and processing power. The Note 4 is placed under the visor with the screen facing directly into the viewfinder, and expands the scope further where an environment can be viewed or explored by looking around, as with any virtual reality headset.

We tried a game called VR Quest with it, and came away impressed with the immersive experience. Using a controller connected wirelessly to the device, we could control the main character and see the world he was in by looking in various directions to move play along. There were other stations set up with nature and a Cirque du Soleil show from the point of view of the stage.

It’s still somewhat conceptual, so the Gear VR may not even hit store shelves this year, though it’s likely something that will eventually come in 2015 when it’s been refined a little more.