Here are the new Samsung Galaxy S6 & Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones

Julio Franco

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Staff member

The long-anticipated Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were the highlight of Samsung's Unpacked event at Mobile World Congress today. The new phones are all glass and metal, come in a handful of colors, and honestly they look gorgeous, especially the Edge variant.

New for 2015 is a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display operating at 2,560 by 1,440 (577ppi), Gorilla Glass 4 is used on the front and back, Samsung's own octacore Exynos 64-bit SoC, 3GB of RAM, and storage options ranging from 32GB to 128GB of internal memory, but no microSD slot this time.

Samsung is using an internal battery for the first time on the Galaxy S, but adding support for both Qi and PMA wireless charging, as well as fast USB charging, it sounds like a sensible tradeoff.

'Design with purpose' was the motto used by Samsung to announce their new Galaxy flagship phones, and it kind of shows.

According to Samsung, the S6 will gain 4 hours of usage time out of a 10 minute charge and going from zero to 100% battery charge takes half the time when compared to the iPhone 6. According to reports, the battery capacity has been decreased from 2,800 mAh in the S5 to 2,550/2,600 on the standard S6 and Edge variant, something to look out for when we review the handset since Lollipop rarely presents big battery life gains. 

The 16-megapixel rear camera adds optical image stabilization, real-time HDR and infrared white balance, which according to Samsung vastly improves shots in many situations including low light. The 'always on standby' camera is a software feature that means app launches almost instantly. The front-facing selfie camera has been boosted to 5MP and a 120 degree wide angle.

'Design with purpose' was the motto used by Samsung to announce their new Galaxy flagship phones, and it kind of shows. Unlike the gimmicky Galaxy S5 release that packed half-baked features (health monitoring, fingerprint reader that didn't work well), the company appears to be doing a 360 by building a more solid and well conceived phone with useful features like wireless charging, an improved camera on both hardware and software, and the curved display -- ok, that may turn out to be a gimmick, but we won't know for sure until we test it in full. For now the S6 Edge does look like a more svelte and stylish version of the same Galaxy phone.

The S6 Edge's screen slopes down on both sides but unlike the Note Edge smartphone that we reviewed a few months ago, the edges don't function as a separate panel if you don't want, so it's perceived like a fluid curved design.

Two other noteworthy features: the Galaxy S6 fingerprint reader no longer requires a swipe and we assume by now Samsung will have figured it out so it's an actual usable aspect of the handset. Also as anticipated, 'Samsung Pay' is the company's take on mobile payments. After the acquisition of LoopPay that doesn’t require merchants to upgrade their checkout devices. The magnetic induction technology it uses can simply be tapped against the strip reader already found in most stores.

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will launch on April 10th around the world and on all major US carriers with 32/64/128GB storage options. Pricing is not yet official, but we woudn't be surprised if the S6 goes for $650 off-contract / $200 on contract, while the S6 Edge will likely set you back an extra $100 - 150.

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I'd rather get M9 if I was about to get a new phone. Edge seems like a gimmick and IMO S5 looks better than this version. Specs are all the same they don't matter all that much nowadays.
 
Are the *sides* on the Edge touch sensitive as well? If so, how the hell do you hold the thing??
 
No SD card slot, no sale. No removable battery, no sale.
seriously, how do you remove some of your selling points going into a future generation? doesnt make sense to me. I mean I probably would have sprung for one....might still but its not as likely.
 
seriously, how do you remove some of your selling points going into a future generation? doesnt make sense to me. I mean I probably would have sprung for one....might still but its not as likely.
This. And I'll add (since owning an LG G3) no buttons on the edges. So these new Samsungs are nothing but yawners.

I'll say it, those are two features I actually care about in a smartphone. They're pretty much pushing me straight into LG's hands whenever the G4 comes out, assuming that still has an SD card slot and removable battery.
 
So, if I understand correctly:

- The essential SD slot is gone
- You can't replace the battery
- I presume the side buttons will be a pain to operate

Wow... way to screw up a decent phone guys.
 
To all those guys complaining about no SD slot: it actually sounds like a better idea to go for the 128GB version since apps can't be easily moved to SD and managing where apps like Whatsapp and Spotify store their media is a pain in the ***. As for the 32GB version... they better keep the SD slot or is a "no no".

Non-removable batteries are of higher quality due to that fact; many Galaxy's removable ones die in ~1 year, while you can see from the Xperias to last longer.
 
To all those guys complaining about no SD slot: it actually sounds like a better idea to go for the 128GB version since apps can't be easily moved to SD and managing where apps like Whatsapp and Spotify store their media is a pain in the ***. As for the 32GB version... they better keep the SD slot or is a "no no".

I for one use microSD to put fresh music and movies in the morning, while my phone is charging. And thanks to microSD being external, I can prepare and then just swap a large library of music and/or movies. Going for just bigger internal storage doesn't do it justice.

And besides, for the extra money you''ll pay for the 128GB version you can get at least 4 micro SD cards, 64GB each, that's total of 256GB of easy-to-swap memory in addition to your phone's memory. Compared to your 64GB phone itself, that's a 4 times cheaper upgrade.
 
To all those guys complaining about no SD slot: it actually sounds like a better idea to go for the 128GB version since apps can't be easily moved to SD and managing where apps like Whatsapp and Spotify store their media is a pain in the ***. As for the 32GB version... they better keep the SD slot or is a "no no".

Non-removable batteries are of higher quality due to that fact; many Galaxy's removable ones die in ~1 year, while you can see from the Xperias to last longer.

Yes but imagine getting the 128GB version and then popping in an 128GB SD card to double the space. It just seems like a no brainer to keep a sweet feature...

I keep all my music on my phone's SD card. All the photos and videos I take go directly to the SD card too. At any time I'm able to pop that SD card out and put it directly in a different device.

As for the removable battery, there have been so many times where I've had a device lock up on me and the only thing that fixes it is pulling the battery out. You can't do that on frozen a phone with an integrated battery.
 
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'Design with purpose' = Copy iPhone yet again .............. apart from few technical shortcomings pointed here, this is a big turn off, can't they come up with something 'fresh and unique' at their own?
 
No SD card slot, no sale. No removable battery, no sale.


No ... one cares


You know when the S5 was unveiled you had similar reactions, moaning at the back, the screen, the finger print reader the heart rate monitors everything else about the phone yet these same moaners went out a week later and bought one! Same **** every year.

Yes I would have liked things like water resistance but I got on perfectly fine before the s5 without it, my s2 is still going strong ....

Removable battery is no biggy for me sure I have ran out of battery and annoying times but it is no more annoying than being forced to carry spare batteries. Also the supplied batteries normally always out live the device anyways.

Lack of SD card, yes this one is a bit annoying especially for someone who likes to root and mod their device. You used to be able to shove items on the SD and no worry about loosing them when performing partition changes or formats etc it is a shame it is gone.
Other than that it does seem like a pretty good phone though I don't like the pertruding camera though I presume that was needed to keep the device slim.

'Design with purpose' = Copy iPhone yet again .............. apart from few technical shortcomings pointed here, this is a big turn off, can't they come up with something 'fresh and unique' at their own?

You say they copy the iphone but honestly how does a phone manufacturer not copy (though they didn't copy) each other. Phones are typically rectangular in shape, with various buttons around the perimeter and a screen ... how can you adapt that dramatically to make it so the hate mongers and fan boys aren't offended and screen copy.
 
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Simply look at Z series from Sony, and G series from LG. Both offer different design, and dare I say better compared to S line at least in looks. To Samsung's credit, the Edge series is more of a radical departure from rest of the industry (provided there is some intelligent use can be found for it).

But anyway, keeping in view meager returns (compared to iOS ecosystem) for android OEMs, one can ask them so much in R&D.
 
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No SD card slot, no sale. No removable battery, no sale.


No ... one cares

I do. I would never mess with a phone where you don't have the option to remove the battery in case it freezes, especially when testing nightlies for ROMs. Furthermore, the lack of SD card expansion could have probably been remedied easily had they actually used a removable battery.

The lack of both of these features is a critical factor in me never purchasing this phone.
 
'Design with purpose' = Copy iPhone yet again .............. apart from few technical shortcomings pointed here, this is a big turn off, can't they come up with something 'fresh and unique' at their own?
I do. I would never mess with a phone where you don't have the option to remove the battery in case it freezes, especially when testing nightlies for ROMs. Furthermore, the lack of SD card expansion could have probably been remedied easily had they actually used a removable battery.

The lack of both of these features is a critical factor in me never purchasing this phone.

I more meant the no one cares in relation to him buying it.

But you mention not being able to remove the battery, you can't officially do this on the iphone yet people are more then happy to tinker with it and jailbreak the device without worry of being able to remove batteries or not. Also tbh with all android releases there is a hard reset meaning you don't have to remove batteries from a freeze you just hold the power button down for like 10 seconds which is at the kernel level so doesn't matter if the os crashes etc
 
Wow no one pointed out it omitted the USB 3.0 port that was present on the S5, that combined with the lack of SD Card means transferring large amounts of data will take a while with USB 2.0. Not sure what they were thinking when those two decisions were made... Glad to see the curved edges are a little bit more protected then the prototype led to believe, still don't think they are necessary on a phone. They caught up to LG screen resolution wise, RAM wise and with wireless charging. But on the bright side it comes in all those marvelous colors, maybe it will distract you long enough to overlook the lack of microSD slot?
 
To all those guys complaining about no SD slot: it actually sounds like a better idea to go for the 128GB version since apps can't be easily moved to SD and managing where apps like Whatsapp and Spotify store their media is a pain in the ***. As for the 32GB version... they better keep the SD slot or is a "no no".

Non-removable batteries are of higher quality due to that fact; many Galaxy's removable ones die in ~1 year, while you can see from the Xperias to last longer.

Yes but imagine getting the 128GB version and then popping in an 128GB SD card to double the space. It just seems like a no brainer to keep a sweet feature...

I keep all my music on my phone's SD card. All the photos and videos I take go directly to the SD card too. At any time I'm able to pop that SD card out and put it directly in a different device.

As for the removable battery, there have been so many times where I've had a device lock up on me and the only thing that fixes it is pulling the battery out. You can't do that on frozen a phone with an integrated battery.
you just hold the power button and it restarts the phone.... same as if you removed the battery
 
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