Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones launched

[HEXUS]

And a refined Galaxy VR Innovator Edition headset is introduced for the new smartphones.

Read more.

[Rob_B]

I saw a video earlier and all I can say is... Dat viewing angle on the S6 edge !

Looks nicer than the big standard s6 which looks identical to the 5/4 and 3, nice to see they've shifted from the plastics.

[3dcandy]

Not so happy with the lack of micro sd card to be honest - but then again I guess the cloud is replacing them quickly. I'd get the 64 gb model to be sure though and would like to see pics taken with the rear sensor

[zzzaac]

For me MicroSD isn't such a big loss, since I couldn't install full apps on them, and just use them for music files. Removable battery is disappointing though, but I guess they wanted to do something new

[watercooled]

No removable battery, no uSD expansion, not water resistant and possibly more fragile construction. Maybe not for everyone. And just no, glass and metal don't = premium. For some reason the silly 'cheap' stigma has stuck with plastics even when they're clearly a superior choice to other materials. Glass and metal seem better in terms of vanity, not practicality. Or put another way, form over function. See how 'premium' they can be when dropped a few inches, or sat on.

It does look quite interesting though and is quite a departure for Samsung, though I can't help feeling some of their customer base may be put off for the above reasons - they were arguably why some people preferred Samsung.

The first mobile 14nm SoC is quite a win for them too, so soon after their 20nm too. I mean we'd heard rumours about how 14nm was going well, due soon after 20nm etc, but that was said about 28>20 too, so the timing is impressive.

[kellyharding]

No mSD and non-removable battery is deal breaker for me. Otherwise nice specs. Will have a headscratch moment come October's upgrade time, maybe I'll go with a Note 4, or maybe a M9 instead, though the LG G3 looks nice too.

[miniyazz]

No removable battery, no uSD expansion, not water resistant and possibly more fragile construction. Maybe not for everyone. And just no, glass and metal don't = premium. For some reason the silly 'cheap' stigma has stuck with plastics even when they're clearly a superior choice to other materials. Glass and metal seem better in terms of vanity, not practicality. Or put another way, form over function. See how 'premium' they can be when dropped a few inches, or sat on.

It does look quite interesting though and is quite a departure for Samsung, though I can't help feeling some of their customer base may be put off for the above reasons - they were arguably why some people preferred Samsung.

The first mobile 14nm SoC is quite a win for them too, so soon after their 20nm too. I mean we'd heard rumours about how 14nm was going well, due soon after 20nm etc, but that was said about 28>20 too, so the timing is impressive.

Add to that list USB 2.0 (how long has USB 3 been out for?) and what looks to me to be a somewhat miserly battery, particularly in the context of recent phone launches - well I wouldn't be getting it anyway because the screen's a bit small for my liking, but let's just say if the Note 5 is going down the same route, I'll be disappointed.

[MrRockliffe]

Before people start moaning about battery life, we have 2 things to consider.

Samsung's Note 4 screen was MORE efficient than the Note 3 screen and consequently drew LESS power.

New processor is based on the 14nm process, and is therefore likely to be much more efficient.

I don't think that battery life will be much worse, if at all.

http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_No...#Display_Power

[crossy]

The Edge looks nice, but the main S6 is a bit dowdy. Interesting that they managed to do metal construction and do wireless charging - well done. That said, I'm not one of these people who regard metal as being essential to being "premium". Unhappy that there's no expansion and no user upgradable battery - especially the latter since there's been some adverse comments about the desirability of the QHD screen with a sub 3Ah battery. And speaking of the screen - Samsung were quick to laugh at LG for doing QHD, then turn around and slapped one in the S6 ... hypocrites!

Not so happy with the lack of micro sd card to be honest - but then again I guess the cloud is replacing them quickly. I'd get the 64 gb model to be sure though and would like to see pics taken with the rear sensor

Cloud is a replacement if you have a large data allowance (preferably unlimited) and you can get a good signal. Problem is that the large-memoried SKU's tend also to be phenomenally expensive, e.g. I've seen rumours elsewhere that the 128GB is going to be £800+

For me MicroSD isn't such a big loss, since I couldn't install full apps on them, and just use them for music files. Removable battery is disappointing though, but I guess they wanted to do something new

Also very useful for videos since, following on from the reply above, they tend to be large files and need a pretty stable data connection. I also use my SD card as a place to put backups should the phone die. Plus a 64GB uSD can be had for less than £30, but I'd be very surprised if the jump from 32GB to 64GB models is £60 or less.

No mSD and non-removable battery is deal breaker for me. Otherwise nice specs. Will have a headscratch moment come October's upgrade time, maybe I'll go with a Note 4, or maybe a M9 instead, though the LG G3 looks nice too.

Watching a review at the weekend and the two reviewers were also drooling over the LG Flex 2. Snapdragon 810 and only an HD display, so battery life is pretty reasonable. Only downside being whether you can live with a "banana phone" or not... I've got a G3 myself (had it since launch) and now find the lack of KnockCode on other devices a real annoyance, so maybe that'd a good point against the G3?

[sykobee]

With cloud storage and unlimited data plans I can cope with the lack of micro-SD capability, as long as the software on the phone can manage the integration of remote storage transparently without user intervention.

Dropbox doesn't do this though, it copies photos, etc, up to its servers, but doesn't do any clever stuff with the local storage to keep it available.

I hope that Android gets some APIs to allow for this in a future version.

[directhex]

For some reason the silly 'cheap' stigma has stuck with plastics even when they're clearly a superior choice to other materials.

Plastic doesn't mean cheap. But Samsung's premium phones have chosen plastics which feel cheap. Nokia managed to make plastic feel premium, with the early polycarbonate Lumias.

[crossy]

With cloud storage and unlimited data plans I can cope with the lack of micro-SD capability, as long as the software on the phone can manage the integration of remote storage transparently without user intervention. Dropbox doesn't do this though, it copies photos, etc, up to its servers, but doesn't do any clever stuff with the local storage to keep it available.

Yes, but isn't that a uniquely Dropbox thing? I've certainly used file managers that have integrated remote storage into the view, so you can cut/paste files to do local<->remote transfers. The downside of this though is that you have to store login credentials to all the systems you'd want to use in one place. Which, I'd suggest, is a problem if that "one place" turns out to be the OS.

Oh, and as I pointed out above, unlimited data plans are all fine and dandy IF you can actually get a decent signal.

That said, I'll kind of agree with you - the seamless integration of Dropbox into the Linux/Windows filesystem is nice to have. Who knows, if Google wants to push Drive seriously then maybe 5.2 will come with the kind of cloud storage API that you were suggesting. In which case, I'm sure Samsung will do something to mess it up for Galaxy owners, (I'm thinking S-Voice etc)

[dturtill]

im of the opinion that with no removable storage the its back to HTC for me

[Odeas]

For me MicroSD isn't such a big loss, since I couldn't install full apps on them, and just use them for music files. Removable battery is disappointing though, but I guess they wanted to do something new

You can with Link2SD. You take a slight hit on the app speed opening generally but they usually work great with a decent class card, with the plus version you can move all of the apps data files too not just the APK's, cache & library which is what makes a major difference.

As per the S6, nothing really major going on, seems quite similar to the G3 except the Edge version.
I'm betting the 64GB & 128GB versions are going to be horrific in price, especially as they're using the UFS 2.0 chips.

Be interesting to see what the G4 has when that's released.

[watercooled]

Plastic doesn't mean cheap. But Samsung's premium phones have chosen plastics which feel cheap. Nokia managed to make plastic feel premium, with the early polycarbonate Lumias.

Fair enough; I'm not saying there aren't cheap plastics, just that plastic doesn't immediately equal cheap or inferior, just as how metal/glass doesn't equal expensive or superior. I mean from when I've played with Samsung phones they feel fine to me and it isn't something which would put me off buying, but that's just my opinion.

I had the back of my Nexus 4 yesterday, to see how easy it would be to replace a suspected faulty power switch (seems to ignore about two thirds of presses now), and was surprised by just how thin/light the back glass panel was!

I was going to call out the Lumia range specifically as a 'plastic' phone which pulls off the use of good plastics very well.

Oh and BTW neither was my rant aimed at Hexus or thread contributors, just a vent after reading a ton of articles/fanboys repeating the same line. There's a different between criticising construction which is plastic, and criticising plastic in and of itself.

WRT battery life - IMO I'd like to see more phones where efficiency improvements are exploited to allow longer battery life rather than a smaller battery with equivalent life. I understand not everyone shares that opinion, even though a lot of those who disagree will still stick the phone in a huge case.

[shaithis]

TouchWiz + No mSD + silly costs for edge = no thank you

I have only ever used Samsung phones and have found them to not be to my liking.....even my galaxy tab I have to root and flash cyanogenmod as the touchwiz software I hate with a passion.

At least they are getting away from the plastic, I personally do find it makes the device feel cheap.