What usefulness does it have? Easier to scratch and break? Annoying night time illumination when it's face down charging on your bedside table?
I find it very useful. You can switch to any app that you choose to put on it on the fly with a swipe of the thumb from the edge screen. You just have to try it to see how convenient it actually is. I like when I have an incoming call it displays the contact information on the edge screen and doesn't interfere in anyway with what I'm doing on the main screen. Love being able to just swipe the edge screen to check the time or notifications that you choose to see without turning on the main screen to save battery, which with the testing I've done gives me an extra 45 minutes of battery daily from my usage.
As far as scratching and breaking I've no issues. I've had the phone since December and I'm quite the drinker and tend to drop my phone from time to time. I've dropped it 4 times face down on a rough surface and the only scratch I have on it is a very light hair line scratch in the upper right corner that you can only see when the scree is off when the light hits it just right, could just be luck but it's no worse than dropping any other phone from what I've experienced.
The night time illumination time clock can be turned off completely if you don't want to use it and the brightness is so dim you have to focus your eyes first to see the time. I honestly find the charging notification light to be many more times brighter and annoying but that can also be turned off just like on any other Samsung device.
Bottom line though I find it very useful and will hate not having it if Samsung decides to ditch the idea on future products, I'm spoiled to the ability of being able to access anything at the flick of a thumb.
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