Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones at Mobile World Congress.
The manufacturer took the wraps off the devices in front of a packed auditorium of some 2,000 people at the Centre de Convencions International de Barcelona.
They will go on sale from April 10th and initially be available in 20 countries, although Samsung did not specify which. Details on pricing were also not revealed… We suspect it won’t be cheap, though. There are five colours: black, white, gold, blue (Galaxy S6 only) and green (Galaxy S6 Edge only).
Both smartphones are 6.8mm thick (thinner than the Galaxy S5) and are powered by the Exynos 7420 octa-core processor, which is comprised of quad 2.1GHz and 1.5GHz cores.
Perhaps most notable of all is both devices’ new metal build – no more plastic for Samsung’s premium range. Both also have 5.1-inch quad HD Super AMOLED screens made from toughened Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The screen on the S6 Edge curved around both vertical sides of the phone. This is also the first time we’ve seen QHD resolution on Samsung a Samsung device, which will deliver an astonishing 576 pixels-per-inch. The display on the Galaxy S5 was ‘only’ 1080p full-HD yet still managed to be one of, if not the, best display on the market. We’re a little surprised that Sammy has decided to make the leap to QHD. Perhaps they were actually listening last year when we said that the specs didn’t wow us?
Both come with 3GB of RAM, 2,500mAh (Galaxy S6) and 2,600mAh (Galaxy S6 Edge) batteries, a fingerprint scanner, Samsung’s S Health software and 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of internal memory. This is all extremely promising, but one early worry we have is that batteries of that size may not deliver particularly great screen-on times when you consider the resolution of the displays.
Both have 16 megapixel rear and five megapixel front cameras, with F1.9 lenses that Samsung says provide the most superior image quality on a smartphone.
It added that Auto Real-time High Dynamic Range (HDR), Smart Optical Image Stabilisation and IR Detect White Balance provide “advanced light sensitivities and crisp camera solutions”.
Samsung has also included wireless charging. From a security perspective, both are built on the upgraded Samsung KNOX software, which offers protection from malicious attacks.
The manufacturer also revealed details behind its new mobile payment offering. Samsung Pay will launch on the two devices and will enable people to pay for items at point of sale terminals in stores.
To deliver this, Samsung has partnered with both Visa and Mastercard, as well as American Express, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank, which it said provides greater choice for customers.
Samsung CEO and head of IT and mobile JK Shin labelled Samsung Pay a “truly game-changing service”, attributing this to the simplicity of the service and its “robust” partner network. “Game-changing” is a pretty big term to use, particularly as it doesn’t seem to be any different to the already-exitsting-very-much-within-the-game Apple Pay, but it’s still good to have.
They’re shaping up to be two fantastic devices, and ones which we’re actually looking very much forward to getting our hands on – something that couldn’t be said about the Galaxy S5. Good job, Samsung.
