Being among the top Android smartphone manufacturer in the world, Samsung has brought several state-of-the-art smartphones with great level of design innovation and specifications. Recently, Samsung has launched its much-awaited flagship smartphone at MWC 2015. Dubbed as Samsung Galaxy S6, it has a dual curved screen variant named S6 Edge as well.
Both the smartphones feature identical hardware specifications along with their renowned design language. The Samsung handset had also visibly undergone extensive modification from its predecessor.
Both the devices have been unveiled in India recently with storage variants with 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. While the Samsung Galaxy S6 priced at ₹49,990, ₹55,900 and ₹61,990 for the 32GB, 64GB and the 128GB models, the Galaxy S6 Edge has been made available at ₹58,990, ₹64,990 and ₹70,900.
Recently we had a chance to use the Galaxy S6 Edge 32GB edition for a couple of hours and here's our first impression on the device:
Design Overhaul
Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge features a complete design overhaul by using gorilla glass and metal, making the devices sexier and sturdier than it's plastic-backed predecessors. For making the device sturdy, Samsung has used aluminium frame topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and the back.
The edges and bezels of both the devices have been neatly crafted. The rear glass looks and feels nice in hand, but it catches fingerprints and smudges a lot. We tried the gold, white and onyx black models and found out that the smudges are visible clearly. However, cleaning with handkerchief or any micro fibre cloth will solve the problem.
Measuring 142.1 x 70.1 x 7.0 mm, the Galaxy S6 Edge weighs 132g. It features the volume rocker button on the right edge, while the power/sleep button is on the left. The SIM slot has been housed at the top of the device.
Display
While the Galaxy S6 features a flat display on the front. The Galaxy S6 Edge features curves on both the edges that adds a unique look to the device. Unlike following the commonly featured phablet design, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge boasts a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display on the front with a resolution measurement of 1,440x2,560 pixels at 557PPI pixels density.
In comparison to Apple's latest iPhone 6 Plus, the Galaxy S6 Edge display much crisper with sharp texts and icons while working with apps or browsing through different web pages.
The Super AMOLED screens are usually famous for producing better colours and consuming less battery power than the IPS screen.
The curve on the display is a true innovative feature and adds enough aesthetic value to the device.
Specification Power
Samsung has featured the latest 3GB LPDDR4 RAM sticks on both the phones. The latest RAM chip gives double the speed in comparison to a similar volume LPDDR3 RAM. The LPDDR4 also provides double bandwidth and consumes 10% less voltage, resulting at least 2/3rd less power consumption than the LPDDR1 RAM and 1/3rd less power than LPDDR3 RAM chipsets.
Galaxy S6 Edge also features Samsung's own Exynos SoC processor, based on 14nm architecture, which is way better than the 20nm based SoC processor featured in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
In real life, use we found out that the Galaxy S6 is a powerhouse. The phone was able to deliver amazing performance with any of the app we used in it.
Software
Galaxy S6 Edge runs on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop overlaid with much-polished TouchWiz interface. Keeping the earlier lessons in mind, Samsung has featured stock app removal feature on the system so you can delete any apps you feel unnecessary. Samsung has also released the source code of both the devices already so that the ROM developers can experiment with them and make new ROM's for both Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.
The latest TouchWiz interface features several impressive apps including Smart manager, Briefing, S-Health, S-Voice and Multi-Window support.
The Smart Manager helps the user to improve device performance by letting you monitor all the running apps and their respective battery and ram consumption at any given point of time. The app is way better than the Google-designed task management app. The S-Health app also looks much-polished than the one we have seen in the earlier edition.
Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge also come with pre-installed necessary apps like Microsoft OneDrive and OneNote.
Gaming
We played a few heavy graphic games in the Galaxy S6 Edge for half-an-hour and found out that the phone was able to justify the graphic capability properly on the display. The animations and motions appeared in real time without any stuttering experience and most importantly the device doesn't heat up as well.
Camera
Samsung has installed much improved cameras than its predecessors. The Galaxy S6 Edge packs a 16mp camera sensor for the rear with optical stabiliser, dual LED flash, two-tone aperture with a lowest possible aperture value f/1.9. On the front, the Galaxy S6 Edge equips a 5mp camera.
Both the cameras proved amazing in our test. The OIS enhances the image quality by protecting it from shaking during real time. The focus remained quick on the subject and most of the time it was accurate too, hence we achieved some impressively crisp and vibrant images.
The stock camera app offers several modes for shooting and allows you to shoot different types of images in a single click.
Our Thoughts
For the price, Samsung is offering a powerhouse smartphone built into a greatly made body. The device offers enough power to cater to all the tasks wonderfully and most importantly offers a great flaunt value as well.
