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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makxon - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Bullshit! lying troll bastard, 600 cycles is more like 3 years of use and typically only drop at 90%. even my sister's acer midrange phone from 2013 battery still work normaly no noticable battery drop and never once managed at service center.sonny73n - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Anandtech please ban this foul mouth (possible a Samsung fanboy/paid shill too)By the way, Li-ion battery has about 300 to 500 charge/discharge cycles. If you play graphic intense games like Need For Speed or CoD Zombies 3-4 hours a day like I do, the battery will only last for about a year. So when he said his battery died after a year and a half could be very possible.
Some people don't use their phones much. Others completely drain their batteries at least once a day, even leave phones in their cars in hot summer. More usage -> more charging + heat = shorten battery life. It's completely understandable.
Jedi2155 - Sunday, March 29, 2015 - link
600 cycles can be done easily in a year as sonny73n said. My Note 4 regularly goes through 2 cycles a day (streaming twitch at work) or playing games if you use your device intensively.600 cycles isn't so bad though if you keep in between 20-80% SOC as I do. Its only if you keep it close to 100% SOC that it really only last 300-500 cycles. If you keep it away from being fully charge it can last a very long time.
My Note 2 is still on its original battery with no perceptible loss of capacity even after 2.5 years. I probably put well over a 1000 cycles on it. Of course if I measured it I'd bet I loss no more than 20-30%.
Gigaplex - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
My S4 battery needed replacing after 3 months of usage as it had short battery life, bulged a lot and got very warm. The S4 has a pretty bad reputation for a bad batch of batteries.josephnero - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Check Z3 and you will see how is that badFlunk - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
I'm sure you can still get a new battery, it just means that you'll need a technician to install it (assuming you can't do it yourself).III-V - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
I fix phones for a living, and I can say that pretty much all batteries are removable in phones. Most of them are fairly easy if you know what you're doing, although a heat gun can help, as long as you don't cook anything (which is really easy to do if you're inexperienced).I think I've only seen soldered connectors on tablets. However, there's a few dumb designs where you have to remove the LCD to get to the battery (which in most cases means you'll need to replace the LCD as well).
My concern is that if the S6 is built like the "water-resistant" S5 is, in that you cannot access the internal components (other than the battery) without taking off the LCD, then you're in for a very expensive battery replacement. Samsung likes to adhere their LCDs like crazy, and they're very difficult to remove without damaging them. They're also 2-3x the price of everyone else's LCDs. You'd be looking at basically $200 to replace a battery yourself, and although that cost will probably come down to around $150 after things settle a bit, it's still not a pretty picture. Oh, and that's the cost to do it yourself. Most other phones have batteries available for $10-20.
III-V - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
Just checked a teardown -- it doesn't look like you have to go through the LCD to change the battery. You do need a hairdryer or heat gun, though.hrrmph - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
It used to be with Samsung that you could "pop the back off and pop a new battery in."With this debacle of a phone, Samsung has just given away one of it's main distinguishing features. All to emulate Apple's "jewelry first, functionality later" approach.
We already have enough manufacturers making jewelry. The last thing we needed was to lose a good hardware feature oriented manufacturer like Samsung to the vagaries of fashion.
SirMaster - Thursday, March 26, 2015 - link
How are they screwed?According to this people with iPhones are screwed too. But it's not that hard to remove 3 screws to change out the battery...