Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

[Aniallation]

It only seems like the gifts being exchanged between me and my boyfriend are getting more and more expensive. The most recent of with, the new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, in white with 32GB of capacity. My first experience with one if this year's flagships, and likely the next candidate for the phone that I'll be keeping for quite a while due to it being a gift, and the successor to the last phone to hold this title, my Galaxy S2.

 

 

Unboxing experience

 

The usual Samsung affair. Sleeve around a box with the phone and accessories inside. Comes with headphones and the Samsung Adaptive Fast Charger that originally released with the Note 4, but in this case not using Qualcomm Quick Charge as the S6 uses their own in-house Exynos chip. With the S6 and Note 4 they seem to have done away with the old fake bamboo recycled paper boxes and went back to standard cardboard reflecting the color of the device.

 

Design

 

Being the Edge version of the S6 of course there is the curved edge display. Although this is very cool to look at, I found it very awkward to use and hold at first. However over time it seems to have grown on me and I've gotten used to holding it how it's supposed to be held, on the metal edge, rather then "normally" where my fingertips would constantly touch the screen. It's definitely a much longer period to get used to then with other phones, but eventually you'll figure it out. I wouldn't exactly call it a flaw or a downside, just something new.

 

Build quality is excellent. As it's curved glass on the front and another glass sheet on the back it does feel quite fragile in the hand, but I'm quite careful with my phones so that's not something that I worry about too much. Never does the phone feel "cheap" in your hand as previous plasticky Samsungs did, it now does feel properly solid, so props to them for the massive build quality improvement over the S5. Of course, this is at the sacrifice of a removable battery, which I can understand, but also MicroSD slot, which i feel Samsung could have easily implemented.

 

Screen

 

While the same 5.1" size as the S5, the resolution of the S6's screen was bumped up to 1440p from 1080. Honestly, I don't notice much of a difference in terms of resolution, and neither will most people. I feel that keeping it at 1080p would have been better for performance and battery life, but I guess since competitors like LG have been at 1440p for a while they do have to keep up in terms of specs for people who don't know better. 

 

That being said it's still a much better display. Why? The colors. It's not as vibrant or saturated as the S5's display, but that's a good thing. Colors look a lot more realistic and natural, while due to it still being an OLED display, blacks are still as deep as they'll ever get. It's a really good combination that allows for people to get those epic black levels of OLED without having to put up with previously oversaturated colors that was present on previous Galaxy S devices. This made it a real joy to watch my "benchmark" video for comaring smartphone displays. The S6 is definitely the nicest I've ever seen.

 

Of course with the Edge though comes some unavoidable downsides and that's the glare. The laws of physics aren't in your favor when you're watching videos on a curved-edge smartphone in bright sunlight. When looking from it from the side, the edges of the screen seem to be noticeably brighter then the rest of it, which can also get annoying at times.

 

Audio

 

The S6's bottom firing mono speaker is... nothing special. It's of decent quality, but I've heard better (as well as a lot worse) from a single mono speaker. If you haven't used a shitload of phones like I have though, it actually sounds decent. Volume is pretty darn loud though. Of course, there's no substitute for stereo front-facing speakers. S7 maybe?

 

Through headphones though it's a whole different story. With the new headphone amplifier and Wolfson DAC that Samsung put into the S6, it sounds miles better then the S5, pulling right up to iPhones and the HTC M8 in terms of headphone output quality (but does get edged out by the M8 in output volume). The HTC M9 does pull ahead and hold HTC's crown for headphone sound quality, but to the "average" user, the S6 will do just as well.

 

Interface/Software

 

It's TouchWiz. TouchWiz is TouchWiz. Some people like it, some people don't. Personally I don't mind it, since I'm fairly used to it from having several Samsung devices in the past. If you're coming from previous Samsung devices it's pretty easy to get used to, but from another Android skin and especially coming from iOS, it can be a big learning curve. It looks a lot like the S5 one with some elements changed like menu grouping and icons, but overall still the TouchWiz we know. 

 

Performance has definitely been improved a lot, though. S5 already improved the skin's performance by a landslide compared to the previous S4, and the S6 improves it even further. Everything feels smooth, multitasking is quick, and there's very little stuttering, if any at all. 

 

Currently (as of this review, July 13, 2015) the S6 models are on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, with a 5.1.1 update supposedly rolling out soon.

 

Camera

 

I'm not really going to talk about this much. If you're looking for camera quality look at a professional review. I rarely use the camera on my smartphone and when I do it's usually for a shot that ends up in Facebook Messenger or Kik to prove a point or for comedic effect. My S2's camera is still plenty fine for what I do with it, so while the S6 is a definite improvement, it's not really an improvement I'm willing to cover. The front-facing camera is excellent, though.

 

Performance

 

UI navigation is super smooth, applications load almost instantly, and the most demanding of games run very smooth. Zero complaints here. Samsung's new Exynos chip really hauls ass and it definitely shines in the S6. It mops the floor in benchmarks as well, and in a test (mostly for humorous purposes) against my S2 it had no problem squeezing out a score almost SIX times higher in Antutu. Asphalt 8 and GT Racing 2 both ran maxed out while retaining solid 60FPS through gameplay. 

 

Multitasking performance is also excellent and with the powerful CPU along with 3GB of DDR4 RAM, I never had any issue with heavy multitasking. 

 

Battery Life

 

If it's one area that I (as well as many others) are disappointed with with the S6 it's the battery life. It definitely does not last as long as my S5 did, and barely edges out my HTC M7, which has a 2-year-old battery known for not holding it's charge well after a few years. In my "regular" usage of just Facebook, texting, listening to music, and looking stuff up every now and then, I can get about 4 hours of SOT. It's alright and gets me through a day, but it definitely gets destroyed by the OnePlus One and Xperia Z2 (Z3 battery life is comparable) I had before it, either of which could easily get 6+ hours of SOT under the same usage.

 

As I always say, fast charging from dead to 50% in half an hour is always nice to have, but it's never a complete substitute for a removable battery which allows you to get back up to 100% from dead in mere seconds, or just better battery life in the first place.

 

Features

 

I find myself rarely using the Edge features of the display. The swipe along the edge to get time, weather and battery doesn't take any less time then just pressing the home button to see it (more clearly) up on the regular screen, and the quick contacts thing doesn't do much because most of the communication I do to my most frequently used contact is through Messenger or Kik anyways. It also can only be accessed from the home screen, which is pretty stupid.

 

The fingerprint scanner and heart rate sensor carried over from the S5 though were massively improved. The fingerprint scanner is now Touch ID style and only requires placing your finger on the button rather then swiping, and is much more easy, quick, and accurate. Speed of measurement and accuracy were also improved with the heart rate sensor. 

 

Value

 

As with other people who compare the regular and Edge versions of the S6, I just can't see the Edge justifying the extra $100. There's a very small number of features you can do with it, the physical downsides of light glare, and the learning curve of how to hold the darn thing is not necessary. The battery size gain on the S6 is very negligable and the difference in real-world usage will go unnoticed. You're really only paying that premium for aesthetics which really isn't worth it considering the regular S6 already looks very nice. It also makes it so that cases and screen protectors that will work properly with the curved edges are harder to find. 

 

If you're considering getting an S6 stick with the regular version and save your $100. Put it towards stepping up to the 64GB model, an upgrade for your PC, or one of the items in one of the Handy Tech Under $100 videos. Anything there will be more worth it then going for the Edge version of the S6.

 

Conclusion

 

Design - 7/10, it's freaking gorgeous, but the learning curve could be better, the sides could be designed to be easier to hold, and MicroSD pls

Screen - 9/10, the display is absolutely fantastic, but the edge glare is a turn-off. On the regular S6, this would be a 10/10.

Audio - 7/10, headphone quality is excellent, but speaker quality needs to be improved

Interface - 9/10, considering that you know your way around TouchWiz, it's much faster and much less bloated then previous iterations. 

Camera - 9/10, according to reviewers it's excellent, but what do I know. G4 gives it a run for it's money, though.

Performance - 10/10, this shit flies

Battery life - 6/10, this is an area that really need to be improved on compared to it's competitors. It's better then the HTC M9 and iPhone 6, but being better than those is nothing to brag about.

Features - 7/10, The fingerprint scanner is much improved and a welcome addition. However not many people use the heart rate sensor, and I feel even less people will find the Edge features that useful.

Value - 5/10, $100 is still a steep premium, and again, none of the features it brings are stuff you can't live without. The regular S6 would get a much higher value score.

 

Overall it's a great phone and will be taking the spot of my daily driver, hopefully for a while, once I get it unlocked. The S6 is an amazing device that's super fast, looks gorgeous, has a great camera and is pleasant to use. Again though I wouldn't recommend the Edge and recommend the regular S6 much more strongly, if you're looking into getting one of these. If you're looking for better battery life (or a removable battery), MicroSD expansion, better speakers, waterproofing, or the best camera you can get, you may want to look into it's competitors like the LG G4, HTC M9, or upcoming Xperia Z3+. However if you're not paying for it but rather getting a choice of subsidized phone through work or whatever, by all means go for the Edge if it's at no extra cost to you. 

 

Image Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aniallation]

...

[spwath]

Nice review.

 

s6/s6 edge look nice, but there are comprimises.

 

But im still stuck with my gen 1 moto x that now has the screen yellowing, and the back yellowing

[byalexandr]

Beautiful phone, I wish I had one. My Nokia Lumia 1020 is pretty old.

[AlicePhoebe]

Really hope i can got one, but my LG has been used fine too, unless it is so out of date, i can change it

[1Scotty1]

The S6 is so... edgy...( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Nice review, but I will stick with my M7 nothing wrong with it and no point in upgrading every year or two...

[Hodor]

Colours look natural on an AMOLED display? I think they are oversaturated.

[wolfplayer]

I just can't bring myself to buy a phone that refuses to have an SD card port so instead of a $15 memory upgrade I have to pay $100.

[Mew]

Colours look natural on an AMOLED display? I think they are oversaturated.

 

For the first time, Samsung uses the calibrated profile rather than an oversaturated profile as the default profile resulting in iPhone like levels of color accuracy. 

[Munalos]

I just can't bring myself to buy a phone that refuses to have an SD card port so instead of a $15 memory upgrade I have to pay $100.

 

This no sd card slot / removable battery = no sale to me. I usually wait two generations before upgrading. I'm on a note 3 right now, was hoping to upgrade to the note 5 but if they go the same as the s6 with no removable battery / sd card slot I will get the note 4 and keep that until something else similar comes out.

[EcoBoost]

Gah, really want to trade my iPhone now

[EcoBoost]

Colours look natural on an AMOLED display? I think they are oversaturated.

Have you seen the S6 in person? I have and definitely not oversaturated anymore. The store had it next to the S5 and it's a night-and-day color reproduction difference.

[Aniallation]

Nice review, but I will stick with my M7 nothing wrong with it and no point in upgrading every year or two...

M7 is still my current daily driver actually  

[KilimanjaroGaming]

Nice review... Only thing that kills it for me is the battery life. My LG G3 battery lasts 7-8 hours of Facebook and surfing the net and that's what I need.

[Legion]

I had the choice of the S6 edge or Note Edge, I feel I made the right decision going with the note. Thanks for the review

 

Coming from an M7 I realised how pointless the speakers were , and how I craved an sd card and battery.

[uofaboy]

Thanks for the review though I find that the many of the scores you give (out of ten) are under scored. I have owned the S6 Edge from day 1 and feel that your review does not give the device the credit it deserves. 

 

Example:

 

"Features - 6/10, The fingerprint scanner is much improved and a welcome addition. However not many people use the heart rate sensor, and I feel even less people will find the Edge features that useful."

 

Many people including critical reviews from trusted published sources such as CNET, Techradar and Engadget would argue that the feature set of the S6/S6 Edge is just right considering that in previous Galaxy S iterations, there were too many features! The fingerprint scanner as proven time and time again has many uses besides just the heart rate sensor (which has become more reliable as it gets updated with newer versions) - obviously in security but also in secure payments. The Edge specific features - People Edge, Edge Notification and Night Clock (which I use often) thankfully can be updated with software updates but then again, who am I to say how much of the features people actually use but just because it isn't useful to you, it may be for some. 

[Aniallation]

Thanks for the review though I find that the many of the scores you give (out of ten) are under scored. I have owned the S6 Edge from day 1 and feel that your review does not give the device the credit it deserves. 

 

Example:

 

"Features - 6/10, The fingerprint scanner is much improved and a welcome addition. However not many people use the heart rate sensor, and I feel even less people will find the Edge features that useful."

 

Many people including critical reviews from trusted published sources such as CNET, Techradar and Engadget would argue that the feature set of the S6/S6 Edge is just right considering that in previous Galaxy S iterations, there were too many features! The fingerprint scanner as proven time and time again has many uses besides just the heart rate sensor (which has become more reliable as it gets updated with newer versions) - obviously in security but also in secure payments. The Edge specific features - People Edge, Edge Notification and Night Clock (which I use often) thankfully can be updated with software updates but then again, who am I to say how much of the features people actually use but just because it isn't useful to you, it may be for some. 

 

It's more of the fact that they're charging quite a bit extra and reducing the phone's comfort in the hand for these features when there's so little of them. I personally find myself never using People Edge, Edge notification or the night clock. Yes Samsung is planning to add more features through software updates later on, and I will update my review once these updates roll out and features are added.

[evilarceus]

Performance - 10/10, this shit flies

Literally.

I'm sorry, I had to