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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hp79 - Sunday, March 29, 2015 - link
I understand that the screen does use more CPU power, but how do you know if going with 1080p will give you 2 days battery life instead of 1? I don't think the screen resolution will make that much difference on battery life. What really makes the difference is the battery capacity (they went smaller so this is bad), and newer process (power efficiency gone up).I haven't tried a 1440p on a phone yet, but I've noticed immediately how different a 720p vs 1080p on a 4.5" screen is, while a lot of people were claiming human eye can't detect any difference. I think it's the same thing happening here. I'm pretty sure the photos will look much better on a 1440p screen compared to 1080p. I want my screen to be real life-like sharp and clear, and I think 1440p will bring that.
The 1440p screen is also needed for virtual reality application where you split the screen for left and right eye, then the resolution really matters and we might want even more higher resolution. Of course, VR will have to take off before that but still, I think VR is much easier to take off than gimmicky smart watch or the not-so-popular 3D TVs.
MercuryHero - Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - link
Their AMOLED screens are way more efficient than they used to be in terms of light output per energy used, so they're essentially offsetting their efficiency gains with a higher resolution.It's a balance that they have to maintain between actually benefiting from the improved efficiency versus offsetting against it to boost specs without losing much efficiency, and in this case I am on your side, because I don't have any reason for anything more than 1080p in Pentile, and I'd rather they balanced a little more in favour of actually giving us some battery savings rather than creeping the specs arguably beyond where they would be useful. I'd hate to look like an idiot in 4 years when everyone has 4k Ultra HD screens on their phones but I just don't see any point to going beyond about 300ppi for RGB stripe or a little higher for Pentile.
1announcer - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Why not just buy an IPhone? When you don't have an SD card or replaceable battery you just have an IPhone running android. I'll stick with my S5 until Samsung wakes up and gives me something to be happy about. Those cheep Chinese phones with SD cards and replaceable batteries are looking better and better.chizow - Saturday, March 28, 2015 - link
Basically, that's what I ended up doing after Samsung stripped the only 2 things I actually bought their phones for. If it comes down to Android vs. iOS experience, iOS wins, although I do prefer Google Play for the random/obscure apps you'll find there.MercuryHero - Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - link
The cheap Chinese phones typically run older versions of Android, never offer any upgrades and often there are no developers making third party ROMs either. So you may be on Android 4.3 even in 2 years' time. And what's more the firmware is a lot buggier than what you'd come to expect from HTC or Samsung, coupled with the fact few app developers will test on such devices, uncovering weird bugs in lots of apps.I speak from experience and I've gone back to high end Samsung phones, albeit I still save money by not buying the latest model. For instance I have a Galaxy Note II that's almost 3 years old and it has Kitkat and works better than modern mid-range phones even things like the Galaxy S5 mini.
Apple is very good at keeping software updated on their phones too, traditionally even better than Samsung's flagship phones. There are other reasons people may prefer Android over Apple than removable storage or batteries though.
Mrduder11 - Saturday, March 28, 2015 - link
I don't meant to start an Apple vs Samsung war but seriously for a premium handset that comes out 6 months later then the iPhone 6 I feel like these results are very overwhelming. Overall performance is underwhelming compared to the iPhone 6. I understand benchmarks don't tell the whole story but I am surprised to see lower performance from the S6. Also why has the iPhone 6 Plus results been removed from the performance and display charts?halcyonmax - Saturday, March 28, 2015 - link
How so? In CPU performance S6 more or less comes at the top.Where it seems to be lacking is the GPU department but thats basically because of the insane resolution.Still in the off-screen tests the GPU has good scores.The browser based CPU benchmarks do seem to paint another picture but such benchmarks are greatly affected by the browser optimization.Check out the htc m9 review..there anandtech has listed the stock browser scores of s6 and they seem to be pretty impressive.Other than these the missing sd slot and battery seem to be the let down. IF phonearena's battery tests are to be believed s6 is far better than the iphone in the battery department and gives similar performance as its predecessor despite the smaller battery..however it has faster charging speed.MercuryHero - Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - link
You cannot meaningfully compare performance between two completely different platforms with a software benchmark; they are measuring different things on the different platforms because everything - right down to low level instructions - that the respective benchmark apps do is different.I can understand how easy it is to infer equivalency when they are shown in the same chart like that; I'd disagree with the practice of combining them into a single chart.
Ahnilated - Saturday, March 28, 2015 - link
Well I was all excited to get the new S6 Edge until I read that you couldn't remove the battery and it didn't have removable storage. That makes it a no go for me period.AnnonymousCoward - Monday, March 30, 2015 - link
Your sentence already ended with a period. There's no point in saying that word.