If rumours be the food of tech, then actual manufacturer announcements are the coffee and mints. A chance to sit back in comfy chairs and try to regain some dignity following the previous period of snatching and scrabbling at any tiny morsel that looked like it might be tasty S6 news.
But now we know all, and Samsung has served up more than enough minty balm wafers for our tumultuous tums. Both an S6 and an S6 Edge, and both are fresh enough in look and feel to stick right in the craw of HTC and LG. And, as we’ll discuss, Apple. We’ve already had a locked room look-see of both new phones: you’ll find our first impressions of the S6 here - and our thoughts on the Edge right below these words. Yes, look down now.
Hands-on video review
The screen bone’s connected to the metal bone
Two instant hits for the S6 Edge: it’s got a metal chassis, and it’s got two Note Edge-type curved screen edges. These elements combine to give it a futuristic profile that was hinted at by Samsung’s pre-event graphics. But, as is so often not the case, it’s much better in realspace.
Samsung’s executive take on the new design is ‘Project Zero’, a chance to take everything back to the fundamentals and focus on innovation. Down here on the grimy streets, we might see it more as a timely response to criticisms about the plasticky build quality of Samsung mobiles. Either way, it works.
Now, we’re well aware of your views on comparisons to Apple products. But let us say that there’s a deliciously refined industrial quality to the speaker grille, the exposed metalwork and the joins where the glass back curves up to meet the chassis. It feels solidly put together and, despite being 10g lighter than the S5 at 132g, it has a hand-heft that makes you think you could probably smash a train window with it in an emergency. Though, even better, you could use the provided hammer and then your phone will still be working to call your mum and tell her you’re OK.
While we’re on the subject of hand-holding, the prominent curvature of the screen and the subtler rounding of the glass on the back means that the metal-to-hand ratio on the side of the S6 Edge is quite low. Which you’ll either love – because it gives it a defined slim edge that you can grip – or you’ll loathe, because you won’t feel like you’ve got a proper hold of it without sticking your greasy thumbs all over the screen edges. Write in and tell us which camp you’re in!
Speaking of tribes, the removable battery and microSD crew will be in mourning tonight. And they’ll be joined by a whole sad-face platoon of novelty cover manufacturers because that delish new finish comes at the expense of a back panel that can be taken off. The SIM card slot moves to a pin-opened tray on the top of the phone.
Silver linings? There’ll be 32, 64 or 128GB versions that use fast-access UFS 2.0 chips. The white, grey, gold finished versions look great, while the Edge-specific dark green version looks greater yet. (The normal S6 gets the same three standard finishes, and a specific blue.) There’s a range of OEM covers, including new S View and transparent versions. Plus, wireless charging is built in which is compatible with both WPC and PMA standards – Samsung assures us that this should cover most of the high street chains’ wireless charging services. Use the S6 cable charger, they add, and 10 minutes of juicing will power two hours of HD video playback. Big talk, Samsung.
Twice round the quad
“The S6 has a 4K screen!” no-one will be writing today. Both the S6 and this lovely Edge have 5.1in Super AMOLED screens with QHD resolution. That’s 1440 x 2560, pixel fans, and written out in a more experiential form – mighty crispy. But not new – the LG G3 and Google Nexus 6 already have QHD screens.
What is new, of course, is the edginess. On and active, the phone’s OS bends easily over those edges but you won’t get any the best edge-specific activity until the phone is off. Information Edge is the function that displays your choice of thin widgets on one side of the phone, such as a night clock. People Edge works when the phone is face down on the desk – on receiving a call from one of your favourited contacts, the screen edge emanates a pre-set colour to let you know who it is. You can flip the phone over and answer, or you can press your finger against the fingerprint sensor next to the camera lens to reject the call. All very neat, if you’re the type of business person who can’t be seen to be fielding calls during meetings. For the rest of us – surely the majority – it’ll be a first-week toy to be subsequently forgotten about.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge tech specs
Screen: 5.1in, QHD, 1440×2560, 572ppi, Super AMOLED
Processor: 14nm 64-bit Exynos
Memory: 3GB LPDDR4
Capacity: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB using UFS 2.0 tech (no microSD)
Camera: Front: 16MP, f1.9, Smart OIS, HDR; Rear: 5MP, f1.9, HDR
Battery: 2600mAh
Dimensions: 142.1×70.1x7mm
Weight: 132g
Samsung giveth, Samsung taketh away
What you’ll never get a chance to forget, because you’ll do it every day, is actually using the phone. The real nitty gritty of the S6 Edge experience will have to wait until we get a proper review unit – our hour or so of hands-on time, surrounded by Samsung execs, is no test of everyday performance. But, welcome news is that Samsung has removed some of the confirmation dialogues that the nervous TouchWiz UI used to throw up. Do you really want to do that? Yes. Do you want to do that ALWAYS or JUST ONCE? Sigh. So less of that, say they. But they’ve also added information where pertinent – including text identifiers for some of the obscure on-screen icons in the camera app. All sounds like solid tweakery – as we say, full report to follow.
In which we’ll also detail the ability of the 16MP camera, with its new light-snaffling f1.9 aperture lens. Its neighbouring heart-rate and fingerprint sensors need a good going over, and we need to load up the phone with apps and widgets to see how the speed of its 14nm architecture 64-bit processor holds up. And, we need to take it on a train to test the claim that the S6 Edge’s speaker, now moved to the bottom edge of the phone rather than the back, is one-and-a-half times louder. HTC’s BoomSound got us punched. What can this do?
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge: First impressions
Let’s get right down to it – we’re bloody excited about the S6 Edge. As a response to the criticisms levelled at the S5 for not feeling premium enough, it’s an out-of-the-park smasher. We probably won’t miss the removable battery and we’ll happily ride the wave of people saying that its design is derivative of other well-known smartphones. The big question at this stage is what the price difference between this and the non-edgy S6 will be.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge review
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