A radical redesign” is the best way to describe the newly announced Samsung Galaxy S6, not just in comparison to last year’s
underwhelming flagship,
but to the entire Galaxy series as a whole. It’s a radically different
device from the ones that made Samsung a giant of the smartphone world,
but the good news is that most of its changes are for the better.
Samsung Galaxy S6
Finally, Samsung has a flagship phone that genuinely feels high-end
in your hands, one that actually comes off as worthy of its price tag.
Although it still features many of the familiar Galaxy design cues, the
S6 marks a major leap for Samsung thanks to its entirely plastic-free
body. There’s no glossy polycarbonate or fake leather to drag things
down this time, only two sheets of Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and
back, and smooth metal around the sides.
At its premier at Mobile World Congress, Samsung revealed other
significant novelties for the new handset as well, including a Material
design-like makeover for the TouchWiz UI skin, a QHD (2560 x 1440)
display that brings an astonishing pixel density of 577 ppi on a
5.1-inch screen, and a lightning-fast chipset, based on Samsung’s own
eight-core Exynos 7420. Based on our limited time with it, the S6 feels
like the first Galaxy phone in some time that’s wants to emphasize the
premium over the practical.
Samsung Galaxy S6 back
That sentiment applies to the phone’s display, for one. Outside of
its ludicrously high pixel density, the Super AMOLED screen brings the
kind of lush colors and deep blacks that we’ve come to expect from
Galaxy panels. The pixel boost admittedly doesn’t add much to the naked
eye, but hopefully putting a QHD screen on this device will lead Samsung
to use 1080p panels on its future mid-range phones. This isn’t a
massive upgrade over the Galaxy S5, but then again that display didn’t
leave much room for corrections in the first place.
Likewise, Samsung’s decision to forgo Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips in
favor of its own Exynos chipset doesn’t reveal anything that
dramatically changes the user experience at first blush. It performs
superbly in benchmark testing, and it certainly blazed in our time with
it, but we’re still at a point where any performance differences between
top-level chips are going to be negligible to non-hardcore users.
Samsung Galaxy S6 bottom
However, one benefit may be in the Exynos’ 14-nm architecture, which
Samsung claims will help the S6 be more merciful towards its battery.
This is why the company feels confident enough to put a relatively
average 2500 mAh pack inside a phone with a QHD resolution. That’ll make
battery life an area to monitor here either way, but it also allows the
phone to stay good and thin at just 6.8mm thick.
It all comes back to the new build, though. It’s not a stretch to say
that this is the best phone Samsung’s ever created when held in the
hand. (At a time where simple spec boosts aren’t enough to carry a new
flagship, the plastic of previous Galaxy phones may end up being a
blessing in disguise.) After several iterations, it’s the first Galaxy
phone to have that elusive “wow” factor. Of course, that’s less true
when the S6 is put up against its Galaxy S6 Edge companion, which is
more immediately striking across the board.
Samsung Galaxy S6
To be blunt, it’s impossible to not notice the design similarities
between this and the iPhone 6, but those aren’t totally bad things. Most
of the parallels come down to the button arrangement: The power key is
on the right edge, at thumb height, while the volume rocker is on the
left side, the USB hub is at the center of the bottom, and the 3.5-mm
audio jack is just to its left. The speaker grille is startlingly
similar to that of Apple’s device too, but we wouldn’t consider that the
end of the world.
Less forgivable is the fact that this is the first Galaxy S phone in
years to omit an exchangeable battery or a microSD card slot. The 32 GB
of minimum storage space here is fine enough, but the aforementioned
battery concerns only become amplified when the pack can’t be removed.
Still, it’s hard to really hold this against Samsung – Apple’s designs
have proven successful for a reason, and the sacrifices here might be
worth it if it enabled Samsung to craft such improved hardware.
The perception of “copying” the iPhone and the removal of certain
practical features will undoubtedly anger some Galaxy loyalists, but the
fact remains that Samsung has largely addressed one of its largest
mobile bugbears with the Galaxy S6. It’s a promising step forward for
the Galaxy line and — with HTC sticking to minor updates for
its latest flagship — feels like the most exciting handset to come out of Barcelona this year.
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