Samsung phones up until now have felt cheap and far from the premium quality of a iPhone. The Galaxy S5 felt cheap and was mainly plastic, but the fan based loved Samsung’s phone for a few reasons. The phones allowed for exchangeable batteries, and for extra storage via micro-SD. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are premium devices built from glass and metal, but is a large shift from Samsung’s previous phones. They no longer have exchangeable batteries or expendable storage. They look beautiful and now come with wireless charging, and mobile payments from NFC or magnetic strip technology.
The Galaxy S6 and Edge are the same phone, but the Edge uses a curved display much like the Galaxy Note Edge. The Edge has the curve on both sides, but isn’t as distract as the Note Edge. The phone looks beautiful, but the Edge looks even more amazing in the press shots. While Samsung hasn’t found a way to advertise the Edge, its still something interest to see from them.
The new wireless charging is WPC and PMA certified, with the ability to charge 1.5 times faster. This means throwing the phone on the charger for 10 means could get you 4 hours of battery life. This may be able to down play the fact that users cannot take out and swap the batteries anymore.
The screen is 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with Quad HD resolution, 2,560 x 1,440. The processor is a octa-core processor from Samsung, and its very snappy, but the U.S. model normally uses a Snapdragon processor. The finger print sensor has also been improved and better integrated with the phone. Now you can just unlock the phone by pressing your finger on the scanner, instead of having the swipe to unlock the screen first. The sensor will also be used to secure payments via Samsung Pay.
The camera is a 16 MP with optical image stabilization, which means you can better track moving objects. It hopes that you’ll use the phone to shot sport shots, moving figures, or to keep things in focus while your moving. The front facing camera is 5Mp and other than that is a front facing camera. Both cameras have real time HDR and still isn’t to par with the iPhone camera, but is better than previous versions.
Samsung also tweaked the software and made the TouchWiz skin less obtrusive. It’s made the skin less obvious and look more like stock Android, which is a huge win for anyone who loves Android Lollipop 5.o. Samsung also cleaned up the menus and made the who experiencing less confusing. The company is also pushing a ram manger to see what apps are hogging memory and making your phone slower.
The S6 or S6 Edge aren’t waterproof or resistant like their previous models, which is disappointing but not that important. Samsung saw that customers didn’t care that they could drop their phones in a bucket of water and not worry, but it was a nice thing to have when you did let your phone go for a swim.
The phones look great, but fans are sure to be upset about the storage and battery. The design will hopefully quail some of the users complaints and bring new users to Samsung Android phones.
Tell us in the comments below if you’ll pick up the Samsung S6 or S6 Edge for your next smartphone or you’ll be choosing another phone.