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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Bluetooth - Sunday, March 29, 2015 - link
Actually the battery and memory leaks have not been fixed in 5.1 (http://www.androidstandard.com/android-5-1_r3-chan... Hopefully they will be fixed soon or before the one year release birthday of Lollipop.Kidster3001 - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
I got 4 to 5 days of battery life on Nexus 6 with 5.0.1. It dropped to 1 day if I left wifi on all the time. With 5.1 I don't see much difference.Frenetic Pony - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Impressed? The CPU benchmarks aren't any big thing over the S5, the screen (as has been stated many times) has a useless resolution upgrade, the phone has lost the removable battery and SD card slot, and if you wanted a unibody design odds are you bought a G3/M8/Iphone a while ago and are happy with it.This phone seems like a step sideways with no new features to speak of, then again so does the HTC M9.
robertkoa - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
You have a point in terms of raw specs...If you took an S5 with 3 Gigs of faster RAM and streamlined Touchwiz- you might be here i Benchmarks but....
In the Future I' d like to see scaleable screen Res. So you could go from 1080p to 2 HD in Settings depending on needs....
josephnero - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
and also it isn't waterproof anymore.check these battery resaultshttp://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s6-review-1...
http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_z3-review-1140...
wolrah - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
How in the world is it that bad? My S4 is closing in on two years old and still easily gets me through an entire day most days. I'm not running any silly battery life hacks, all radios are fully enabled all the time and the only "Battery Saver" functionality I use is the Lollipop standard one that prompts at 15% charge. I unplug at around 9 AM when I head down to my office and my phone generally doesn't see power again until I go to bed unless I need to drive to a customer site, in which case it gets a mere 500mA "USB" charge from my car that isn't even enough to maintain charge while using GPS.As much as I theoretically love the idea of a replaceable battery, I've had it on my last three phones and never actually used the capability. Expandable memory on the other hand I've used on every single phone I've ever had, so that's my big problem with the S6. Until we see phones where 128GB is the small storage option I won't give up on the MicroSD slot.
bernstein - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
easy. battery wear fluctuates wildly, at least when measuring after >600 rechcharge cycles. his obviously is eol, while you got lucky... fyi i have not seen many smartphone batteries last more than three years, since people tend to sell/hand-down older flagship phones battery replacements on those are fairly common. a bit more expensive with non-removal batteries but even at $90 its still a bargain to freshen up a two year old flagship...theduckofdeath - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
When I sold my 1½ year old S4 I couldn't tell the difference in battery life from when it was new. You're one of those typical trolls by any chance, who's actually never held a Samsung phone? The fact that you clearly had were so eager to get firsties with this comment makes me pretty suspicious. Prepared FUD?theduckofdeath - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Sorry, not "you", the OP... :Dcknobman - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
LOL "mine works fine therefore you're a liar!!"Love that line of immature rationality. Yes we actually own Samsung devices (GS3, GS4) and yes the batteries do go bad.
Apparently you have no clue how Lithium-ion battery technology works. Go look it up and do some research before you blindly call people trolls.