Samsung Galaxy S 6 and S 6 Edge: Preview
by Joshua Ho on March 26, 2015 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy S6
- Galaxy S6 Edge
Initial Thoughts
With the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge Samsung claimed that they wanted to completely rethink how they designed and made smartphones. On the surface, it seems that Samsung has delivered on this promise as the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge are unlikely any other Galaxy S phone they have made previously. There is no removable battery, no microSD slot, or even a removable back cover. I would’ve liked to see a microSD slot, but I personally wouldn’t be affected by being limited to 32GB of internal storage. The removable battery issue is a bit concerning for me though, as it’s likely that disassembling this phone to replace the battery will require extensive use of a heat gun to loosen glue that may not adhere properly when reassembled. The materials are now aluminum and glass, which dramatically affect in-hand feel. I definitely like the move to the aluminum and glass design for the improved look and feel of the phone, but the use of the glass back is a bit annoying as the phones have a tendency to slide off pretty much any table. The edge variant of the phone also feels quite sharp in the hand and almost too thin to hold, but this is generally quite subjective.
Outside of design, there is a lot to talk about in the SoC and display. The Exynos 7420 SoC appears to be class-leading in performance, although there is the obvious question of power consumption that still has to be answered. Samsung’s first 14LPE SoC seems promising, although we’ve yet to validate whether big.LITTLE is more efficient than when we last tested it in the Exynos 5433. The GPU is generally quite close to the Adreno 430, with about a 10-20% advantage in performance depending upon the workload, although at the same clock speed it probably wouldn’t have any advantage. The 1440p display can also reduce performance compared to a 1080p display.
Speaking of displays, Samsung has integrated an incredible display into both versions of the Galaxy S6. I’m really blown away at how far AMOLED has come in the past few years, as the Galaxy S6 is one of the best displays we’ve tested for luminance and overall color accuracy. The only real problems I can see are color shifts with viewing angles, and white point tending to be a bit green depending upon the unit we’re looking at. There are some edge-specific issues, namely uneven luminance and odd color shifting towards green hues on white at the edge of the display. Other than this, the display of the Galaxy S6 is relatively perfect with its dark, inky blacks and amazing color.
Obviously an SoC and display aren’t the only issues to discuss in a smartphone, but given the limited time that we’ve had with the device this was all that could be tested. We hope to have our full review for both devices completed in the near future, and to be able to provide the full picture of the Galaxy S6 line at that time. Pre-orders for the US Galaxy S6 variants will begin on March 27th, and the phone will go on sale on April 10th throughout the US with 32, 64, and 128 GB SKUs in Black Sapphire, White Pearl, and Gold Platinum. The S6 edge and S6 will be available on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and US Cellular, but on Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless, and MetroPCS only the S6 will be available.
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Zizy - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Yup, it is ironic, but understandable. Back then Anandtech only looked at brightness, contrast and number of pixels. No "advanced" stuff such as power draw, color accuracy, shift with angles and so on. Those OLED screens were competitive in those 3 tested areas but junk in everything else.According to displaymate, first OLEDs they tested finished in the last spot, behind every LCD. Current OLEDs are above any LCD out there.
The only thing current OLEDs might have troubles with is lifetime. But this is hard to test, buyers don't spot it and as phones get replaced every 2 years, not really an issue.
danbob999 - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
AMOLED historically had much lower brightness and still, this web site and many others considered them to be good.Which leads to the real question: do these numbers really matters? I believe not all of them do. Color accuracy is not important to the average user. It won't change how you text or use GPS navigation.
danbob999 - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Also where is the display power draw test?phoenix_rizzen - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Guess you missed the "Preview" in the title, or the explanations at the beginning that they'll be posting a full review with all the gory details in the near future?mkozakewich - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
No, they went on and on about how they hated Pentile. Also, they say it's probably the best display for the current smartphones, which doesn't really speak on the objective qualities. Since then we've finally gotten a massive push for higher resolution and proper colour rendering across the whole industry. Their tune changed from "Well, I guess it's the best out there," to "This display is great!"danbob999 - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
This web site gave very favorable reviews to the AMOLED displays of the Nexus One and Galaxy S1. Then Samsung continued to improve AMOLED with Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3 while LCD pretty much stalled since the iPhone 4 (iPhone 4S used the exact same display, 5 is only slightly larger). It's only during those year that they started bitching against Pentile. Somehow, even if they classed the Galaxy S1 display as equal in quality to the iPhone 4, the Galaxy S2 had a slighly worse display than the iPhone 4 (and 4S), even if it was a solid improvement over the Galaxy S1. They changed their minds over the years, there is no other excuse.jospoortvliet - Sunday, March 29, 2015 - link
Standards changed. Color accuracy went up for other displays - what was good back then against standards of that time is not today.casteve - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Does the S6 allow you to plug it into your PC and directly add/delete files or are we still stuck with using the dreadful KIES app or a third party workaround like webDAV?Andrei Frumusanu - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
It works as any other Android device nowadays, it connects via MTP to access the device's files.rd_nest - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Will you be doing any movie playback battery test for S6? Many of us watch a lot of movies in phones, and would like to see if there is any benefit of AMOLED in movie playback.