Samsung unveiled their latest flagship phones — the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge yesterday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. And this time round, they are focusing on not just the specs but also the design. The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have a metal frame and a glass body both on the front and back.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is 6.8 mm thin and weighs 138g, while the Samsung Galaxy Edge is 7.0mm and weighs 132g.
In terms of specs, the Samsung Galaxy S6 sports a 5.1 Quad HD Super AMOLOED display with 2560 X 1440 resolution which comes to a very high 577ppi pixel density. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge also sports a 5.1 Quad HD Super AMOLED but with dual edge display. Both use Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for protection.
The devices are powered by Samsung’s Exynos 7 Octa-core processor which contain two quad-core processor clocked at 2.1 GHz and 1.5GHz respectively. The smartphones have 3GB RAM.
Both smartphones also use the 14 namometer mobile processor with a 64-bit platform, new LPDDR4 memory system and UFS 2.0 flash memory which the company claims, will provide higher performance and enhanced memory speed with lower power consumption. According to a Forbes report, these chips will be 35 percent more battery efficient than the Snapdragon SoC in Samsung S5.
The devices run on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop and come with a 16MP rear camera along with a 5MP front facing camera. Some of the other features on the camera include Tracking AF, Auto Real-time HDR (Front & Rear), Aperture F1.9, Low Light Video (Front & Rear), High Clear Zoom, IR Detect White Balance, Virtual Shot, Slow Motion, Fast Motion, Pro Mode and Selective Focus.
Samsung Galaxy S6 also comes with a new Quick Launch feature give users direct access to the camera from any screen in approximate 0.7 seconds by double clicking the home key button, says the company.
The Galaxy S6 has a 2,550mAh battery, while the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has a 2,600mAh battery. Both support universal wireless charging. Samsung also claims that they support incredibly fast wired charging (around 1.5 times faster than the Galaxy S5) providing about 4 hours of usage after only 10 minutes of charging.
The devices will be available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB storage variants.
In terms of connectivity, the devices support LTE Cat.6 (300/50Mbps), WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), HT80 MIMO(2×2) 620Mbps, Bluetooth v4.1, USB 2.0, NFC and an IR Remote.
At the same event, the company also announced a new protected mobile payment called Samsung Pay, similar to Apple Pay. Samsung claims its service is compatible with more locations (Read Apple) than any other competitor. Protected by Samsung KNOX, fingerprint scanning and advanced tokenisation, Samsung Pay works with both NFC and MST technology.
Additional features include Ultra Power Saving Mode, Download Booster, S Health 4.0, Smart Manager, Microsoft Apps (OneDrive 115GB for 2 years, OneNote), S Finder and S Voice. The devices are available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue Topaz (Galaxy S6 only) and Green Emerald (Galaxy S6 edge only).
The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will be available globally starting from 10 April. No information has been provided on pricing.
