S6 & S6 Edge : Samsung Gatecrashes Apple

Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and iPhone 6 – proportional comparison

This is the big one. The big kahuna. The ultimate smartphone showdown in 2015. The iPhone 6S? It will arrive too late. The HTC One M9? Loved or loathed it won’t come close to generating the same cultural awareness or sales figures. For better or worse, the iPhone 6, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are the phones that will dominate smartphone sales in 2015.

So let’s put them head-to-head.

Design – Luxury And Style Meets Luxury And Style

The first place to start when looking at the iPhone 6, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge is their design. Why? Because what we have is not the battle many would have expected a few years ago.

In 2014 Apple took a sizeable leaf out of Samsung’s book with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus stepping up to compete head-on with the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note ranges. It paid off in spades.

Now in 2015 it is time for Samsung to take a leaf out of Apple’s playbook. The new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have joined the Apple design school and it is a decision which has split Samsung fans right down the middle.

The first inklings of change come from looking at the size and weight of these devices compared to their predecessors:

    Galaxy S6 – 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm (5.64 x 2.77 x 0.27 in) and 138g (4.86 oz)
    Galaxy S6 Edge – 142.1 x 70.1 x 7 mm (5.59 x 2.76 x 0.27 in) and 132g (4.65 oz)
    Galaxy S5 – 142 x 72.5 x 8.1 mm (5.59 x 2.85 x 0.32 in) and 145g (5.11 oz)

    iPhone 6: 138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.27in) and 129g (4.55oz)
    iPhone 5S: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm (4.87 x 2.31 x 0.30 in) and 112 g (3.95 oz)

Yes the Galaxy S6 range has got thinner and lighter while the iPhone 6 has got larger and heavier (though also thinner). As such whereas the iPhone 5S and Galaxy S5 were miles apart, now the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge and iPhone 6 are all similarly sized.


But more than that, they are also now similarly styled. With the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung has seemingly done the unthinkable and ditched its trademark plastic finish for the same aluminium unibody appearance as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They also now feature glass backs.

The positive here is this puts Samsung right up with Apple in the design and build quality stakes. The negative is the switches mean Samsung has had to compromise on its earlier principles: no removable back, no removable battery and no expandable storage.

If you’re coming from an iPhone then the fuss about this will baffle you, but to hardcore Samsung owners the loss of these features – plus the water resistance of the S5 – is an outrage. As such Samsung is clearly desperate to win new iPhone customers, possibly at the expense of some of its existing users.

If you don’t care about these missing elements then all three of these phones remain in the running for your affections. Otherwise I’m afraid things are looking grim. Elsewhere LG still offers a removable battery on its G3 while Sony’s Xperia models have waterproofing, but there’s no-one now providing them both – and that’s a great shame.

Displays – Everyone Levels Up

While Samsung’s design shift was clearly meant to close the style gap to the iPhone 6, where it hopes both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will stride clear are their displays. Most notably with the Galaxy S6 Edge.

    Galaxy S6 – 5.1-inch QHD flat panel, 2560 x 1440 pixels, 577 pixels per inch (ppi), Super AMOLED display
    Galaxy S6 Edge – 5.1-inch QHD curved panel, 2560 x 1440 pixels (577 ppi), Super AMOLED display
    iPhone 6: 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750 pixels, 326 ppi, LED-backlit IPS LCD
    iPhone 6 Plus: 5/5-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 401 ppi, LED-backlit IPS LCD

On paper this looks like a typical Samsung Vs Apple battle: the former throwing a super high resolution at Apple’s seemingly more modest panels. The reality is the iPhone 6 (and the largest iPhone 6 Plus) punch far above their weight with superb brightness, contrast ratio and viewing angles.

That said the competition just got stiffer. DisplayMate gained early access to both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge and its respected benchmarking process saw it proclaim them as the greatest ever smartphone displays. Crucially this isn’t only about resolution but increased brightness, colour accuracy and a low level of reflectance which makes them easier to use outdoors.

But the real head turning aspect in these three phones belongs to the Galaxy S6 Edge and its so-called ‘three sided screen’.

Galaxy S6 and S6 glass backs are non-removable

What this amounts to are curves on both sides which not only look great, but also offer additional functionality akin to the Galaxy Note Edge. Out the box this will mean services called: ‘Information Stream’, ‘Night Clock’, ‘Edge Lighting’ and ‘People Edge’.

The first two are on the Note Edge and, as their names suggest, scroll information or the time along the edge. Meanwhile People Edge is triggered by a swipe from the top right side and brings up most frequent contacts while Edge Lighting can tie calls from those people to a colour which lights up on the side of the phone when it is face down.

Interesting, yes. Revolutionary? No. Consequently the success of the Galaxy S6 Edge as functionality-based rather than aesthetic purchase will largely depend on how many third party developers embrace it. The potential is certainly there and Samsung has made a brave move that I hope pays off, but finding critical mass will be crucial to deciding whether the Edge display amounts to anything more than a cool gimmick.

Cr.Forbes, Android TV

Samsung Galaxy S6 & Galaxy S6 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (left)  with curved  &. Samsung Galaxy S6 (right)

It's been rumored for months, but it's finally here: Samsung has unveiled its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6. But this time it's accompanied by a cooler, better-looking brother — the Galaxy S6 Edge — which features an eye-catching design with a screen that curves around both sides.

Yes, we've seen this before, sort of: The Galaxy S6 Edge borrows heavily from the Galaxy Note Edge, which came out last fall and had a curve on just one side. But where the Note had a versatile side screen that doubled as an app launcher, news scroll and occasional ruler, the S6 version is more limited: The curves are mainly a design ornament, and there are no "panels" to swipe through.

So what good is it? Besides giving you something to brag about to your friends, the S6 Edge still has the side clock and news scroll, although you can only call them up in standby mode. You can also instantly call up a list of recent contacts with a swipe of your thumb, and if the phone is face-down, the sides of the phone will light up when someone calls you.

And, yes, also its hotness. The phone's design will definitely turn some heads, and I have to admit it looks and feels pretty sweet. I thought the curves might make videos or photos look warped, but that wasn't the case; Samsung letterboxes media ever-so-slightly in landscape mode to avoid this.

The "regular" S6 is no slouch in the design department, either. The Samsung Galaxy S6 is the most beautiful phone to ever exist in Samsung's S series — and possibly its entire smartphone lineup. Although the metal rim certainly evokes the same design language as Apple's latest iPhones, there's no question it's a great choice, and the subtle edging actually makes it grippier than the iPhone 6.

Specs and new features

Design aside, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge reclaim the flagship crown from the Galaxy Note 4. Each has a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with Quad HD resolution, the same 2,560 x 1,440 resolution as the LG G3 and Google Nexus 6. It runs Android 5.0 "Lollipop." The global model packs Samsung’s latest octa-core processor, and it felt pretty nimble switching apps and surfing the web (I tried out the global version; Samsung usually uses Qualcomm chips for the U.S. models, although it hasn't said it will for the Galaxy S6)

The fingerprint scanners in Samsung’s phones have never been the most reliable, but the Galaxy S6 improves on the feature by ditching the “sliding” of your fingerprint across the button. Instead, you just press (wonder where they got that idea?).
Press the home button twice really fast, and you’ll launch the phone’s camera. Samsung worked hard to cut down the "quick draw" time — the interval between the phone being in your pocket to snapping your first photo — and it claims to have reduced it to 0.7 seconds. I couldn’t verify that exactly, but it certainly felt much faster than the Galaxy S5, which was a slowpoke in this department.

The S6 also has several high-end features you usually only find in real cameras or larger phones: The 16-megapixel imager has optical image stabilization, which can help reduce motion blur, as well as continuous autofocus, so you can track an object through the frame, keeping it in focus no matter how it moves. The continuous autofocus isn't that intuitive to engage, but it appears to work as advertised: I shot clear video of my hand, a moving wind-up car and a person moving around a crowded room, and each time the subject was kept in focus. It also has a wide aperture of f/1.9.
The front camera is 5 megapixels with an f/1.9 aperture. Both have real-time HDR shooting, which means you can select an HDR photo (which can sometimes improve exposure) after you take the pic.

Samsung has also built wireless charging into Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge. Not only that, but it's compatible with both major standards: Qi and PMA, which means you'll be able to juice up your phone almost any place that provides charging stations (e.g. Starbucks, airport lounges, etc.). Previous Samsung phones needed a special back plate for wireless charging — now the phone supports it natively.

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are the first Samsung phones to support the company's mobile-payments system… which hasn’t launched yet. But when it does, in the next few months, the phones will be ready. Samsung says its payment platform will support both NFC and old magnetic-stripe readers (thanks to technology it acquired from LoopPay); this means it will work with potentially many more machines than Apple Pay.

Simplified menus and easy-to-use tools

Simplified approach

Although it sounds like Samsung threw everything but the kitchen sink into the Galaxy S6, the company says it worked hard to reduce complexity. Menus (particularly the camera's) no long pepper you with too many options, and there's a simple manager tool to let you keep track of which apps are hogging RAM or draining your battery.

One feature that Samsung actually downgraded from the Galaxy S5 is its water resistance. Neither the S6 nor the S6 Edge is rated for dunks in the tub; I guess Samsung, like Sony, discovered people don't care that much about how waterproof their phone is.

After handling the phone for several minutes, I already like the Galaxy S6 a lot more than last year's Galaxy S5. It’s disappointing that the S6 Edge doesn’t have the same utility as the Note version, but I can understand why since the device is targeted at the mainstream. As much as I was impressed by the Note's Edge panel, it's really a geek feature.

It doesn't hurt that the S6 Edge looks fantastic. With an emphasis on simplicity, design and restraint (there are just a few new features, but they're extremely relevant), Samsung is moving in the right direction with its flagship — even if that direction was largely trailblazed by Apple.

No word on pricing of either model yet, but you can bet the S6 Edge will cost more. It takes a lot of money to look this good.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Cr.Mashable Post