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It’s here, it has dominated the headlines for the last two days and it has caused a stir.
The S6 and S6 Edge finally landed on Sunday and Samsung’s dramatic changes have piqued the interest of the tech press, whilst overshadowing the rest of the Mobile World Congress. But what’s the big deal?
What do you need to know about the new smartphones?
Hopefully, this summary of key features will help you better understand Samsung’s new flagship and provide you with a definitive breakdown of the essentials.
The battery IS smaller
The Galaxy S6’s 2550mAh battery and the S6 Edge’s 2600mAh battery are both smaller than the Galaxy S5’s 2800mAh power pack.
Most manufacturers will scale up the size of the battery in a new smartphone – or at the very least stick with what they’ve got – but going backwards? It’s risky.
Samsung argues that the cumulative effect of a more efficient chipset, turbo charging, a slimmed down TouchWiz (on top of a more efficient Android 5.0) and wireless charging that supports the Qi and PMW negates any concerns about a smaller battery.
Those are all empty words until we get the S6 and S6 Edge in the review machine. But there is some truth to the idea that battery size isn’t everything.
The dual curved screens of the Galaxy S6 Edge do slightly more than look a bit space-age.
As with the Note Edge, the curves provide some extra – separate – functionality from the rest of the display.
For example, if the phone is laying flat, face-down, and a call comes in, the contact’s pre-set colour will flash and illuminate the table surface so you know who’s calling.
You can even reject the call by placing your finger on the heart-rate scanner next to the rear camera. The time and notifications will also be displayed on the curve without waking the screen up.
It’s not clear if Samsung will release an API for third-party developers who want to build apps for the curve as it did with the Note Edge, but it would make sense if the curves are supposed to be more than just a talking point. Check out my hands-on with the S6 Edge below.
TouchWiz has changed, it’s not the slow, overweight guy it used to be. Its over-tanned, make-up caked, botox-rigid face has been wheeled out in a recent episode of Extreme Makeover and now everything’s fine again - apparently.
If I’m honest, in the 10 minutes I was allowed to aimlessly swipe around the S6 Edge, it wasn’t immediately obvious how TouchWiz had changed. It actually looked pretty damn similar, save for a few icon changes. But I’m told that it’s faster, simpler and less Samsungy – we’ll have to see when the review unit lands.
The Note 4 had one of the best cameras on the market, but the iPhone 6 was generally considered the king of smartphone photography. Samsung repeatedly mentioned Apple during its S6 and S6 Edge launch event, but no more so than during the camera demo.
We were shown constant comparisons pictures and video between the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 – with – as you’d expect – the S6 coming out on top in low-light situations and quality in general.
Samsung argues that the improved 16MP rear and 5MP front-facing camera benefit from optical image stablization, auto-HDR mode, IR Detect White Balance and movement tracking, which makes it the sharpest and clearest on the market. Of course, a launch-event is certainly no barometer of a device’s ability – we’ll have to wait for the full review to find out – but first impressions were encouraging.
There’s a new fingerprint scanner
The best thing about The Galaxy S5’s fingerprint scanner was not using it. If someone had filmed my multiple attempts to record a fingerprint on the S5, they’d have a mildly funny montage of my bubbling rage. Fortunately someone didn’t. The new fingerprint scanner has, thankfully, switched to a touch-based method that requires you to simply press your finger down to record a print. No strange swiping required.
All glass and metal
The new metal chassis with Gorilla Glass 4 front and rear panels finally bring the Galaxy range into the ‘premium’ realm that others have been operating in for some time.
That does mean, though, that some of Samsung’s popular design features like a removable rear casing and a replaceable battery have been sacrificed. Also, whilst I’m happy to see the back of the plastic Galaxy S5 design, it does mean the S6 and S6 Edge will be less rugged and prone to surface damage.
Samsung Pay
Samsung’s acquisition of Loop Pay means that its new mobile payment platform has an edge over Apple Pay. Whereas Apple Pay requires the point-of-sale terminal to be NFC enabled (many are), Samsung Pay is compatible with magnetic-strip card terminals, as well as NFC enabled terminals. But, as is the case with these mobile payment platforms, its only available in North America and will only work for Mastercard owners.