[rwp-review id=”0″]
I’m going to start this review by getting one thing out of the way: FINALLY, A NON-PLASTIC GALAXY!
Boy that felt so good!
The Galaxy S6 and Edge are Samsung’s valiant attempt to re-establish itself as the definitive brand for all your android shopping. Samsung has a huge market share and standing, but its reputation has been cheapened with every Galaxy release; the phones have gotten faster and better, but the software has become increasingly bloated with useless functions and the hardware was built from ever-so-cheaper plastic.
When it was released, the Galaxy S5 had a lot going for it, but its bandaid design probably stood out as the euphemism to how hurt the brand image was when Apple, HTC, LG, and Motorola were rolling out one sexy device after another.
Bye Bye Plastic
There is no denying that, right from the opening the box, one is to be at awe with the design. It is far from flawless, but it most certainly is a massive leap forward from all the previous models. It’s almost as jarring as the jump from the iPhone 3 to the iPhone 4 – from curvy plastic to sharp glass and metal design.
The S6 Edge is the furthest departure from all designs and bears no resemblance to the iPhone, speaker grills and headset jack notwithstanding. Trivia: can you spot the S6 Edge below?
Spot the intruder! #PhoneStack pic.twitter.com/mNpiA9YJGz
— Absolute Geeks (@AbsoluteGeeks) April 1, 2015
The S6 Edge is one sexy device, for sure. The glass and metal blend beautifully well – exceptionally well thanks to the curved screen on both sides of the device. Samsung has set the bar pretty high for others and for itself with the curved screen, despite it being more aesthetic than functional.
Gone are swappable batteries and expansion slots. The price for this design comes at the expense of versatility, which will alienate hardcore Samsung users who have boasted their ability to swap batteries and SD cards on the go whenever needed. The battery does last the better half of the day, however, depending on your use.
Another price that comes with the S6 Edge is a bit of comfort. The curved edges give the phone more sharpness, depending on how large your hands are and how thick your skin is. The flat back and curved front makes it unorthodox to hold at first (try holding your typical phone in reverse) although, like all else, with time it becomes less obvious and more natural.
One thing is for sure though: the S6 will definitely turn heads. There is an undeniable wow factor from both an aesthetic and an engineering perspective.
Melting Screen
The S6 Edge is all about the display; there really is nothing else to see aside from the home button and Samsung logo. The phone comes with a whopping 5.1’’ Quad HD(2560×1440) 577ppi Super AMOLED screen. That’s more pixel per inch than any mortal would ever need, but Samsung went ahead with it anyway, because why not?
As is typical with Super AMOLED, the blacks are to kill for, but the colour saturation on the phone is just a bit too much. You can toggle different colour modes in the display settings, but none of them feels right. With the settings set to Basic, the colour saturation returns to normal but there is an added yellow cast throwing off the white balance. To get purer white, you’ll have to go to the other AMOLED settings, which boosts the saturation to various degrees of ridiculousness. I’ve never been a fan of AMOLED but I understand it appeals to many.
Regardless of colour, the screen is beautiful and extra sharp. The text is clear, photos are beautiful, and everything looks just too good and pops out from all over the phone.
The curved edges need a lot of time to get used to. It feels surreal to see apps such as Facebook just … fold on the sides. In most applications you feel this “depth” that I can’t explain in words, but in some applications like twitter, it becomes annoying. When writing a tweet, the text begins at the folded edge. On very white pages, that extra depth gives a certain glow you would get after you use some eye drops and look directly at a screen. It isn’t too bad – and some people will definitely find it breathing some freshness into their apps – but the brain will take a bit of time to process a curved screen after looking at flat ones for all these years.
The edges are not intended to be an aesthetic novelty only, although Samsung hasn’t put a lot of effort into developing really useful functions for them. Current uses for the edges include time display, an information ticker, and a nifty swipe menu that gives you quick access to five colour-coded contacts. The edge of the phone will glow once you get notifications from these five contacts.
A lot more could have been done, though. For example, on the Note 4 Edge, the camera buttons and functionality were moved to the curved edge, giving you full screen real estate to compose the image. It would have been good to have some swipe functionalities from the edges. Scrolling through webpages, instagram or twitter feeds for example from the edge of the phone. Maybe zooming functionality, swiping pages, quick access to some settings perhaps. A lot of things could be done with the extra real estate, but maybe Samsung has more things down the pipeline – I simply believe they have had time to experiment since the Note 4 Edge to make more functions.
Less Bloat, More Power
Samsung phones are notorious for bloatware, and thankfully the S6 is less bloated than its older siblings. The review unit I received came preinstalled with some German apps that were quick to uninstall, as well as some Microsoft products like Skype, Note, and OneDrive (which gives you 100GB access).
But TouchWiz itself is less bloated yet remains familiar. Borrowing from Android L philosophy, many of the skinned applications have the lollipop look and feel, and the interface looks much cleaner and elegant than previous iterations. The calendar and mail app received a particularly welcome redesign, both sporting a much flatter and cleaner look. All other apps (memo, voice recorded, contacts, dialler, calculator, etc) have received an Android L inspired visual overhaul, making TouchWiz simpler and more colourful than ever but in a good way.
The processing power of the octacore Exynos is undeniable on paper and in benchmarking, but while using the phone over the course of a few days I did notice some stuttering and some dips in performance in applications. Note that this could could be the typical “android apps thing” and not necessarily a reflection of the processing capabilities. Scrolling through instagram and Facebook feeds is smooth after the initial image-loading boot up stutter. Games run smoothly as well.
The overall software experience with the phone feels a bit off, though. The TouchWiz launcher animations are boring. Samsung has its own app store for some reason, which you can sign up to with your email in case you don’t want to download apps from Google Play (some apps that are paid on Google Play come as free on Samsung Store). After a few days with the phone, from a software perspective, I felt more at home with my Nexus 5 and its pure version of Android L; there is more visual and functional cohesiveness there than on TouchWiz.
Inconsistently Amazing Camera
Samsung cameras have always been great in my opinion, and on the S6/Edge it is no different. It’s quite stunning in its clarity and I truly hated my iPhone 6 camera in the bulk of situations, although the latter is more consistent with its quality than Samsung’s.
The biggest differences you will notice are: 16MP resolution, f/1.9 aperture, and wide angle lens both front and back. From the software perspective, you get focus tracking, stabilisation, and, most importantly, the numerous auto modes that have burdened previous cameras are now gone, and are replaced by one single auto function. You can take a slow motion video and a “fast motion” video (which speeds up the video by 4x), and there is a “pro mode” giving you direct control over camera functions such as metering, white balance, exposure compensation, and filters.
The most important addition, though, is the quick launch: double tapping the home button instantly opens up the camera app.
As for the photos themselves, thanks to the wide lens, you can take some truly stunning shots of your scenery without feeling so “boxed” in like you would with the iPhone camera. Selfies are fantastic because it give you a sense of surrounding, although given its wide-angle format, it’s probably best to not take closeups to avoid facial distortions.
Night photos are great and are brighter than the iPhone 6’s camera. Video stabilisation is a close call, but the S6 performed better on the road. Macro is definitely a winner, hands down. I’ve always missed Samsung’s amazing macro capabilities whenever I switch phones, and the S6/Edge macro is just fantastic.
The inconsistency comes from the white balance. Indoors under mixed lighting between tungsten and sunlight, the S6 camera will refuse to correct the white balance of the calendar to white and would give it a yellow tint. The iPhone and no issues whatsoever.
On the flip side, during the sandstorm, the iPhone insisted on making the sand look like fog, whereas the S6 Edge made sure it looks like a sandstorm. Under a perfectly sunny day, the photos from the S6 Edge were simply superb. You also get some modes like focus blur and touch to refocus.
And it’s also the first phone that fits the entirety of Burj Khalifa in a single image without having to have a funny angle.
Paving a New Way
The S6 Edge is a worthy phone for Samsung to reinvent itself with. Elegant design, premium quality, better UI, and better camera, the S6 Edge is definitely a step way and beyond all previous Galaxy phones. It’s a brilliant fresh start for Samsung, one that it surely needs in a market where phones are more personal than ever. Now that Samsung finally managed to get the hardware right, the next point of focus is refining TouchWiz even more and build its ecosystem to keep people hooked.
