Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge

Expected April 2015
1st March 2015

Last year's Galaxy S5 was a competent enough phone with just one major flaw. It was really boring, and instead of being a flagship device, it ended up as being something of an embarrassment. The new Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge have set out to rectify this by trying some fresh design ideas.. and in the case of the Edge, this involves having a curved display.

Both handsets are very similar underneath, but the Galaxy S6 Edge has a display that wraps around both front edges of the device, rather like the Galaxy Note Edge, but this time the curve is on both sides although it is rather more subtle. The Edge parts of the display can be potentially used to display widgets or controls while the main part of the display gets on with whatever it is you are doing. This is the sort of thing that very few apps will support, certainly at first. But it is very cool and it has the advantage that it makes the Galaxy S6 Edge look amazing.

Both variants have a 5.1" 1440 x 2560 pixel display, an octa-core 1.5GHz/2.1GHz processor with 3GB of RAM with 32, 64 or 128GB of flash storage (although there is no card slot), a 16 megapixel primary camera with OIS plus a 5 megapixel secondary one, a fingerprint sensor, LTE and NFC support, TV output, wireless charging and everything else that comes with a high-end Android smartphone. This is an Android 5.0 "Lollipop" device, as you would probably expect.

The main camera is capable of 2160p video recording at 30fps. Drop it down to 720p and you can have 120fps. Even the front camera is capable of 1080p at 30fps, so it makes no compromises when it comes to video capture capabilities. On a different note, the S6 will support various ways of paying for goods at shops, supported by PayPal, MasterCard and Visa.

The physical design of the Galaxy S6 and the Edge variant are fundamentally different from the S5. Gone is the plastic shell, replaced by a metal-and-glass design that definitely looks more Apple than Samsung. Although it looks much more elegant that the S5, the downside is that the S6 is no longer water- and dust-proof, unlike its predecessor.

Obviously, the Edge is the more desirable of the two, but indications are that this will be quite a rare device compared to the normal S6 simply because it is much more difficult to make a curved display which will limit production. Samsung say that these devices should start shipping from April but did not give an indication of price. Our estimate is that the Galaxy S6 will retail for about €750 and the Edge version will be €900 or more. Available colours will be white, black and gold for both devices with a Blue Topaz version of the S6 and Green Emerald S6 Edge being available too.