After months of speculations, leaks and rumours, Samsung has finally took the wraps off the next generation Galaxy S series smartphone at the Unpacked 2015 event at MWC in Barcelona. This is the first time, Samsung has unveiled two Galaxy S series devices simultaneously, one is the Galaxy S6 and the other is the Edged variant of the same, called the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. As the name suggests, the latter comes with curved displays, but on both sides, which is the world's first.
According to Samsung, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will be available globally starting from April 10, 2015 in 32GB / 64GB / 128GB storage options. The smartphones will be available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue Topaz (Galaxy S6 only) and Green Emerald (Galaxy S6 Edge only) color options.
Talking about the quality of the phones, both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are carefully crafted from metal and glass, unlike the plastic Galaxy S5. The glass body is made from Corning Gorilla Glass 4, the toughest glass to date, both the front and the rear of the phone.
Samsung has not only redesigned the build of flagship smartphones, but has also redesigned the home button. The new home button works similarly to the Apple's TouchID, that is, instead of swiping the finger on the button numerous of times, a single touch will unlock the phone. The Galaxy S6 is also the first Galaxy S series smartphone with non-removable back cover, so the SIM card slot is now located on the right side of the phone, below the power/lock button.
Additionally, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are built on the upgraded Samsung KNOX, end-to-end secure mobile platform, offering defense-grade features for real-time protection. Software features include Ultra Power Saving Mode, Download Booster, S Health 4.0, Smart Manager, Microsoft Apps, Sound Alive+, Themes, Quick Connect, Private Mode, S Finder and S Voice.
Samsung has also introduced a new, easy-to-use mobile payment service called Samsung Pay along with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Samsung Pay is compatible with more locations than any competing offering in a single application. The service will launch on Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in the United States during the second half of this year.
"Protected by Samsung KNOX, fingerprint scanning, and advanced tokenization, Samsung Pay works with both Near Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology to make it device, merchant and card issuer agnostic," notes Samsung.
On the specifications front, Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display with screen resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and pixel density of 577 ppi. The smartphone is powered by a 14nm 64-bit Exynos 7420 chipset with quad-core 2.1GHz and quad-core 1.5GHz CPU additionally paired with 3GB of RAM.
The Galaxy S6 runs on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with TouchWiz UX on top, which has been redefined and doesn't include too much bloatware. The Galaxy S6 measures 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8mm and weights 138 grams. The camera department include 16MP rear camera with Smart OIS, Auto Real-time HDR and Quick Launch: that gives users fast, direct access to the camera from any screen in just 0.7 seconds by simply double pressing the home button and a 5MP front facing camera.
Other specifications include 32/64/128GB internal storage with UFS 2.0, 2,500 mAh battery with wireless charging support and ability to provide about 4 hours of usage after only 10 minutes of charging. Connectivity series include 4G LTE Cat.6 / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), HT80 MIMO(2x2) 620Mbps, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP, LE, apt-X, ANT+, USB 2.0, NFC and IR Remote.
On the other hand, the Galaxy S6 Edge comes with a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display with dual curved edges and 2,600 mAh battery. Rest of the specifications of Galaxy S6 Edge are similar to the original Galaxy S6. The Galaxy S6 Edge measures 142.1 x 70.1 x 7.0 mm and 132 grams.
To be updated...