Coming up with a new smartphone model on a yearly cycle must be tough. You're expected to come to market with something substantial and give existing customers a reason to upgrade within 12 months. Things get especially difficult when companies you rely on, like Qualcomm, don't provide massive component updates in time for your product cycle. That's precisely the predicament Samsung finds itself in with the Note 4, the company's fourth-generation phablet.

"Phablets" used to be pretty much a single device?whatever the newest Note was. But with Apple following Samsung's lead and releasing a big-screened device of its own, phablets are now a fully fledged competitive product category. As Samsung's main differentiator (screen size) evaporated, the company attempted to come up with something new to again separate itself from the pack. During the Note 4 launch event, it also showed off the Note Edge, a phablet with a screen that wrapped around the side of the device. The two-year-old concept wasn't very compelling, and we later heard that the device would just be a "limited concept."