Samsung Officially Unpacks Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge At MWC

MojoKid writes Today, at Mobile World Congress, Samsung took the veil off of its much-anticipated Galaxy S6, and also the Galaxy S6 edge. As has been heavily rumored, the S6 foregoes the plastic shell of its predecessor and integrates metal and glass instead, resulting in a far more premium feel, a thickness of 6.8mm, and a weight of 138g on the normal S6 and 132g on the edge. Samsung made it a point to mention that the metal it uses in the S6 is 50% stronger than other smartphones- a Apple bendgate jab, perhaps? Both the S6 and S6 edge share the same hardware, which includes a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display. That gives us a resolution of 2560x1440, and a high pixel density of 577 ppi. The new phones also include an octa-core processor (2.1GHz quad + 1.5GHz quad), 3GB of DDR4 memory, and LTE cat 6 (300/50Mbps) support. Also of note is the phone's rear 16 megapixel f/1.9 camera, which Samsung says will launch in less than a second (0.6 seconds, to be exact). The front camera is no slouch either, also boasting an aperture of f/1.9, and coming in at 5 megapixels. The company says that the phone can add 4 hours of battery-life after a mere 10 minutes of charging, and when compared to the iPhone, it charges up to full in half the time. The S6 also has built-in wireless charging as well.

Comments

Nope

[ledow]

Non-user-replaceable battery, and no SD expansion.

Stick it up your backside, Samsung, and stop emulating the WORST features of your competitors.

Re:Nope

[ShanghaiBill]

Non-user-replaceable battery, and no SD expansion.

A replaceable battery costs more upfront and is incompatible with thinness. Most people get a new phone long before the battery dies.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

the funny thing is how all the bloggers and reporters are calling this a step in the right direction. for me it pretty much sealed their fate, no more galaxy line for me.

Everyone talking about how "premium" it feels and is... well a premium phone IMO has expandable storage. It has a removable battery. It can take a fall from a few feet up (glass back???? really??? all my friends who had iphone 4s had cracked backs

to top it all off i dont want to spend money on a "premium feel" when all im gonna do is wrap it in an otterbox anyway!

does anyone make a top tier phone, with an SD slot and a removable battery anymore? because that is who will be getting my business when i buy my next phone (it sucks too because I was putting off buying a new phone for a few months waiting on this one)

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

5 years ago that was true. Im still using my GS3 which works fine to this day. it gets a little hot, but after replacing the battery i could see me getting a good 2 more years out of it (longer if i wasnt using a bunch of apps)

Re:Nope

[olddoc]

I don't care about thinness. I want to use my phone hard and have it last a full day. I have an aftermarket battery in my S4 and love it. The new battery will charge quickly only with a special charger. If you connect it to a regular USB outlet you won't get very far very fast. The built in battery doesn't have to die. If it loses 30% of capacity before a typical 2 year US contract is up you will want to replace it.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

as for thinness, I dont want that! Gimme a phone 2x as thick as current top tier phones (or about 1/2 as thick as old nokia candy bar phones) and give me 4X the battery life. I want some heft in my phone. not zach morris phone thick, but old candy bar phone thick

Re:Nope

[MastarPete]

Last year's LG G3 was the only other flagship to have an SD and removable battery, but it is phablet sized at 5.5".

Re:Nope

[Dracos]

Yet another phone without a full QWERTY hardware keyboard, so I'll be keeping my Epic 4G even longer.

Thinness is an anti-feature. If people really wanted their phones to be paper thin, there wouldn't be a market for phone cases.

Re:Nope

[ColdWetDog]

And, these days, there are more USB charging ports than expresso stands. You can charge your cell phone from your car, your laptop, any handy wall outlet, the sun and likely from the extra calories in your Big Mac in a few years. The use case for easily replaceable batteries is pretty weak.

SD expansion is only an issue if you don't get enough memory in the first place. Sure, there are edge cases and folks around here are edgier than most - but for the vast majority of cell phone users, these simply aren't very important issues.

Now, decent keyboards - that's another story...

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Non-user-replaceable battery, and no SD expansion.

A replaceable battery costs more upfront and is incompatible with thinness. Most people get a new phone long before the battery dies.

1)
You do not speak for anyone but yourself, despite the fantasies you so obviously entertain.

2)
Some of us want a battery which can be removed so the phone can be powered off without
any question. A non-removable battery is a deal-breaker for those who want this.

/

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Top tier, I don't know. But if you are willing to go a notch under the latest and greatest, you can get phones like that. Like this one for example, removable battery, SIM, SD card support, 1.7 GHz Cortex A7, 1GB RAM 16 GB ROM, 5.5" display, GPS, G-sensor, FM radio, wifi, blutooth, 13 MPix camera, etc. 7mm thick. Most of the bells and whistles you'd want in a phone. With a removable back and swappable battery.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

i dont want to carry around a charger on me at all times just in case

The only reason to remove SD slots is to force people to buy higher level storage phones. On a business level, i get it if i can make someone buy the 64 instead of the 32 gig model, its more money in my pocket. Me on the other hand, I use multiple SD cards depending on what im doing (blank if going to a concert, a few with different genres of music, a few with movies for long trips etc) i dont have ton constantly move things around, i just pop in the card.

keyboards. how I long for a slider like my droid 3

Re:Nope

[TechyImmigrant]

as for thinness, I dont want that! Gimme a phone 2x as thick as current top tier phones (or about 1/2 as thick as old nokia candy bar phones) and give me 4X the battery life. I want some heft in my phone. not zach morris phone thick, but old candy bar phone thick

Yup. Thinness is a terrible tradeoff.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

A replaceable battery costs more upfront and is incompatible with thinness

Bull puckey. There are sub-7mm thick phones with replaceable batteries.

Anyway, many people want function over fashion, and would prefer a few mm thicker in exchange for a bigger battery.

Re:Nope

[DigiShaman]

See, that's why I get AppleCare. It's both insurance and covers battery failure too. Just walk right into an Apple store and often they will either replace the battery right then and there, or swap the phone within the hour. Restore from iCloud and done! To hell with those other cell replacement plans or insurance policies, AppleCare is the way to go.

Can I walk into a BestBuy or elsewhere and get the same level of service for a Samsung phone?

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

BTW they have other models with smaller (4 or 4.5") screens.

High quality phones except for the camera. If you need a cutting edge camera look elsewhere. But if you don't, they're great.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll be waiting a long time I'm afraid. QWERTY phones aren't coming back.

Re:Nope

[ShanghaiBill]

Gimme a phone 2x as thick as current top tier phones and give me 4X the battery life.

Simple solution: Get a USB power brick and tape it to the back of your phone.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

yes. because that is totally logical (not that i havent done that in the past with a phone whos battery was totally shot while waiting on the replacement battery. What do i do now when that happens with this phone??? oh well, no phone til you ship it out/ bring it to someone else to do it)

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

That's one of the biggest reasons I have an iPhone as my primary smartphone, I know I can just walk in and get it fixed or replaced on the spot.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

But it's not about what you want, it's about what the market wants and doing market research on slashdot is a sure-fire way to create product that nobody will ever want to buy.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

as for thinness, I dont want that! Gimme a phone 2x as thick as current top tier phones (or about 1/2 as thick as old nokia candy bar phones) and give me 4X the battery life. I want some heft in my phone. not zach morris phone thick, but old candy bar phone thick

Just get a battery boost pack. Mophie (and others im sure) are already announcing their products for these new samsung phones.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

Anyway, many people want function over fashion, and would prefer a few mm thicker in exchange for a bigger battery.

Which is why there are battery booster packs. See the problem is solved for both groups of people with one phone design.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

the point is i shouldnt have to rely on a 3rd party to do the job of my product.

Re:Nope

[WaffleMonster]

A replaceable battery costs more upfront

Amazing the el-cheapo feature and smartphones are able to afford replaceable batteries while these things tend to go missing in higher end versions costing >5x more.

and is incompatible with thinness.

Why do you say that?

My phone has a replaceable battery, if it were any thinner I wouldn't want it.. hard enough as it is trying to hold without sides of your fingers touching the edge of the digitizer. I've seen back covers of LG and Samsung models and don't see any wasted space.

Most people get a new phone long before the battery dies.

Funny there seems to be a healthy market for replacement and aftermarket expanded capacity batteries.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

While I generally agree with what you've said, I've had an iPhone since the 3GS days - I've dropped my phone a few times, but I've never smashed my screen or back or had anything other then a few small scratches (typically on the back, from a coin or my keys in my pocket as well).

I don't, never have, and never will, use protection cases.

All you people throwing your phones at the ground and walls just need to stop, it's not that hard.

Re: Nope

[orgenegro]

HTC's phone announced at MWC has an expansion slot. http://www.cnet.com/news/samsu...

Re:Nope

[msauve]

I bought a battery for my S4 for $12 shipped. Every bit as good as the OEM. I carry the charged original in my backpack as a spare, no need to find a power source for an immediate "recharge." When the one in use stops holding a full charge, I'll buy another $12 replacement. I could have bought insurance from Verizon if I wanted - but I take care of my phones and over 25 years have never broken or lost one, so I'm still ahead even if I have to buy one at full retail someday in the future.

It looks like AppleCare+ is $99, and only covers out to 2 years (and another $79 if the phone is replaced due to damage). Are iPhones really so unreliable that that presents value?

$12 battery shipped to my home which I can easily replace in less than a minute myself, or $99 and a trip to the store. I'd say I have a better level of service than you - less expensive, too.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, yeah. And you are using your computer with just the software it came with? And you will never download an app on the smartphone? Get serious. If you really needed call time and large battery you would simply not buy a smartphone class device.

Re: Nope

[orgenegro]

Perhaps Google's project Ara the modular phone? I also want a keyboard (after burning through multiple used droid 4s). Prototype being shown tomorrow.

Re:Nope

[msauve]

"battery booster packs."

Uh, no. Those things are inefficient. They have to convert the voltage of their own battery to 5V, output to USB, then the phone has to convert that to the battery charging voltage. So, for the same increase in functional capacity, the battery in them has to be much bigger. Plus, they add more than "just a few mm" in thickness, there's even more casing surrounding a separate battery. Then there's the USB plug getting in the way. Plus dealing with disconnecting/removing all that before you can use a proper car dock.

(I assume you're talking about the ones for phones without replaceable batteries, since that's the basis for this thread)

Re: Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

In the age of being tracked everywhere this is now a requirement. Perhaps someone will create a phone shield which works like the aluminium wallets.

Re:Nope

[gutnor]

Most people get their mobile replaced as part of their contract every 2 years. I don't know many person for which it is not the case: they tends to either do not care at all and have a non-smart phone, or they come from a country where getting a mobile with your contract is not legal (which btw does not mean they don't replace their phone every 2 years regardless).

Samsung is going to sell thousands of its smartphone to contracts for each one they sell to somebody like you and me ( I'm using my second smartphone ever and I have had one since 2007 ) The market has spoken and since you don't spend, you don't get to vote.

Re:Nope

[MastarPete]

The only reason to remove SD slots is to force people to buy higher level storage phones. On a business level, i get it if i can make someone buy the 64 instead of the 32 gig model, its more money in my pocket.

There are many ways to look at this, including a conspiracy theory I heard summer of 2013 that Samsung was sitting on a stockpile or memory chips and just wanted to milk selling 16gb models for as long as possible by not offering the higher storage models. That one seemed really plausible when you consider the Galaxy S5 32gb never arrived in the US and signs pointed to Samsung themselves completely withholding it from US carriers.

In this case I think you're looking at the wrong end of the sales chain. If Samsung and the carriers were really intent on selling higher storage capacities you'd think they would do a better job marketing them and get employees at all levels better training. I talked to a Samsung sales rep that happened to be in Costco one time and he only seemed to be interested in getting me to just buy the 16gb model, even though he himself had a 64gb.

The carriers stand to make far more money than the manufacturer by getting their customers to use cloud services so they have to sign up for larger, overpriced data plans. So I'm far more inclined to believe that Samsung's previous attempt at selling the S3 32gb in the US failed because of the carriers who largely only sold them online. When asked why they weren't sold in-store they sited inventory logistics as the reason, meanwhile carriers had no problem stocking higher capacity iphones in-store. Don't forget to factor in that the in-store employees are all on commission so why would bother trying to up-sell the device with higher storage when they can't get commission from an online sale.

Re:Nope

[Eythian]

Maybe it's just that what you think "premium" means isn't what everyone else thinks it means? Though, I'm still rocking a Nexus 4 with a glass back, no expandable storage, and no removable battery. It's a pretty nice phone and I don't care about those things.

Re:Nope

[MastarPete]

Just get a battery boost pack. Mophie (and others im sure) are already announcing their products for these new samsung phones.

Battery cases are like having a broken leg but instead of going to get a cast you get a pair of crutches and call it a day.
Never mind that your battery is too weak or that you have a broken leg, crutches FTW!

Re:Nope

[Tough Love]

You'll be waiting a long time I'm afraid. QWERTY phones aren't coming back.

I'm hanging on to mine (Desire Z). After replacing the battery (ahem) it looks like there are years more life left in it. Sure, I also have a slab-only phone and these days I carry it most of the time, but when I travel the Desire Z with full keyboard is generally more useful by being much faster at communcating.

Re:Nope

[Zontar The Mindless]

As soon as I read the words, "has a more premium feel", I knew this review had been written by a mouth-breathing marketing moron. WTF is that even supposed to be, other than words strung together in attempt to make idiots feel smug about their cluelessness?

As for mine--no removable battery, no removable storage, no desire whatsoever to buy.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of our iPhone 4s and 4Ss at work have non-functional wifi (and gps, seems to be the same module) and some have cracked screens or backs. I'd say they are not very reliable and also take less abuse than the average Galaxy...

Re:Nope

[Harlequin80]

The Lg G3 is a brilliant phone and while it is a large screen it doesn't actually feel like that big of a phone. I am still running the lg g2, but the wife got the g3 and never looked back.

Only think I would change is I wouldn't have the crazy high resolution screen. I believe that it eats way more power than it is worth and a 1920x1080 screen would have been a better choice. At that resolution and small size its hard to tell the difference.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

the point is i shouldnt have to rely on a 3rd party to do the job of my product.

But that product doesn't do what you want it to do but you can buy an accessory that does make it do what you want it to do. So either buy something different or buy this product and the accessory.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

Never mind that your battery is too weak or that you have a broken leg, crutches FTW!

When the choice is crutches or nothing I'd go crutches...until I get to a charger.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

Uh, no. Those things are inefficient.

But they are efficient enough for most people.

Re:Nope

[msauve]

"But they are efficient enough for most people."

In my experience, most people don't have/use them, and most people rely on the battery in their phone. It's not clear where your claim comes from - do most people you know have them?

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

In my experience, most people don't have/use them, and most people rely on the battery in their phone. It's not clear where your claim comes from - do most people you know have them?

Most people who use them. In my experience yes indeed most people rely on the battery in their phone and don't need additional batteries, much less to the point at which they are worried about the efficiency of their additional power source.

Re:Nope

[reboot246]

Hello there. Nice to meet you. We don't know each other, but I own a Galaxy S2.

I don't automatically get a new phone every two years and I know quite a few people who own smart phones and are like me - use it until it's worthwhile to upgrade.

The new S6 phones may very well be worth getting, though. :)

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Samsung has a lot of faults, but their products are much more robust than the expensive otterbox cases made for them. Having to pay $50 for a case is almost justifiable but not when the case wears out before the device.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

the real kick in the brick here is the lack of SD expansion. I carry around 128GB microsdxc card for my lossless FLAC's. ;)

I also store large videos and record all my phone calls. Storage fills up fast.

obamasweapon.com

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Blackberry's Z10 has a replaceable battery and few complained that it's a thick phone. It's certainly not razor thin either, but you can easily allow the user to replace the battery and have a very useably thin phone.

Re:Nope

[Krojack]

I always have 1-2 spare batteries with me. If i'm away from being able to charge it then I can swap the battery with a fully charged one. I would rather do this than carry an external charger as well.

Re: Nope

[bill_mcgonigle]

Jesus, NSA contractor - at least register a damn account and build some cred so *somebody* will fall for your propaganda. Do they actually pay you for such phone-it-in worksmanship?

Re:Nope

[msauve]

Need vs. want. The OP said he'd trade a bit more thickness for more battery life. Nothing you've said is an argument against that.

Re:Nope

[EdwardFurlong]

I chose my phone based on the removable battery and sd slot. I have lots of information stored on sd cards, some of it reference, some of it sensitive. I like to be able to read it off multiple devices. Phones in my house tend to get passed down. They go beyond the two years.

Re:Nope

[rossz]

I was thinking about upgrading and figured I'd wait until the S6 was available, but those two flaws make it a deal breaker.

Re:Nope

[Ksevio]

It likely means it feels more robust and well made. I have an S5, and while it is a good phone, the plastic cover makes it feel a bit cheaper and flimsy.

The vast majority of customers don't remove the battery anyways, so it was probably a move in the right direction on that front. The 128GB internal storage negates the no removable storage issue.

The thing that bugs me is they've given up on making it waterproof which is a cool feature in previous models.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

Need vs. want. The OP said he'd trade a bit more thickness for more battery life. Nothing you've said is an argument against that.

I know what he said, I'm not "arguing against" his assertion that he would happily have more thickness if it meant more battery life, I don't think he was lying when he said that.

Re:Nope

[msauve]

"Counterfeit" doesn't mean what you think it means.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

This. They switched to a model where I can't remove the battery or add additional space so presumably it's a sealed unit and yet no water resistance?

Re:Nope

[DigiShaman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

You were saying?

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

$12 battery shipped to my home which I can easily replace in less than a minute myself, or $99 and a trip to the store. I'd say I have a better level of service than you - less expensive, too.

Yeah you're not really comparing the same things there, it's not $99 for a replacement battery. But you know that don't you.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

A battery, which provides the expected output, which is basically any Lithium Ion battery, is compatible with the phone's form factor and you call it counterfeit?

Are you ignorant of the batteries in use today?

We've got a ton of form factors, but 1 battery material in cell phones.

Be nice if we made a goddamned standard, instead of throwing away the expensive cells when the electronics around them die.

Re:Nope

[unrtst]

Blackberry's Z10 has a replaceable battery and few complained that it's a thick phone. It's certainly not razor thin either, but you can easily allow the user to replace the battery and have a very useably thin phone.

The z10 is actually thinner than an iPhone 4 or 4s, neither of which had removable batteries.
The iPhone 5 is only 0.3mm thinner than the Samsung Galaxy S4, which had a removable batter.

I was curious of the general size comparisons regarding thickness, so I looked these up:

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge : 7 mm
Samsung Galaxy S6 : 6.8 mm
Samsung Galaxy S5 : 8.1 mm
Samsung Galaxy S4 : 7.9 mm
Samsung Galaxy S3 : 7.6 mm (CDMA for verizon or sprint)
Samsung Galaxy S3 : 8.6 mm (GSM/others)

iPhone 6 Plus : 7.1 mm
iPhone 6 : 6.9 mm
iPhone 5 : 7.6 mm (same for 5s)
iPhone 4 : 9.3 mm (same for 4s)

Blackberry Z3 : 9.3 mm
Blackberry Z30 : 9.4 mm
Blackberry Z10 : 9 mm

Motorola Moto X : 10 mm
HTC One - M9 : 9.6 mm
HTC One - E8 : 9.9 mm
LG G3 : 8.9 mm
Nexus 6 : 10.1 mm
Lumia 635 : 9.2 mm
Lumia 532 : 11.6 mm

Maybe using a non-removable battery made it possible fore Samsung to go a little thinner, but it's very little on something that's already quite thin. I'd suspect the restriction has more to do with other things, or at least a combo of reasons, such as:
* having no sd card support meant access to that was not needed
* water/dust proofing is a lot easier if the back is not user serviceable
* move to metal frame probably brought some limitations (or challenges). The old plastic backs were simple to pop off/on without (much) damage.

I'm sure they had their reasons. I'm also sure that I'd rather have SD card support and an easily replaceable battery. However, if the feature in balance were waterproofing, I could be convinced to give up the battery and sd card.

Re:Nope

[unrtst]

SD expansion is only an issue if you don't get enough memory in the first place.

Maybe most people don't care, but there are many very very good reasons to have this feature.
My personal favorite is that, with recent android builds, you can no longer plug your phone in and have it show up as a mass storage device (without rooting/etc). If you want to actually access the filesystem where your data is stored, then you have to take out the SD card and use a reader - at least that workaround is available.

Re:Nope

[ChunderDownunder]

Isn't that a goal of Google's Project Ara?

Re:Nope

[ChunderDownunder]

Very handy when travelling and using a phone for photos instead of a fancy $1000 standalone camera.

Oops, my phone's battery is at 2%, I guess I won't be taking a selfie of the Taj Mahal this evening. :)

That means you have to now charge 2 devices overnight but with the high capacity ones having 10000 mAh or more, you can camp for a weekend without power.

Re:Nope

[ChunderDownunder]

Some people have a knack of cracking their screen. Pockets, people!

I'm a clumsy oaf but the only time I've dropped a phone on pavement was texting-while-dogwalking, itself a dangerous activity when fido yanked at the lead.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen, still using my epic 4G. I wonder how long into the future I'll be rocking it. Started on Froyo and might get Lollipop, as epic of a phone as there is.

Re:Nope

[ChunderDownunder]

Firefox OS phones in flip and slider form factors

Porting the android userland, if that's your thing, ought to be simple enough, given Firefox 2.1 is Kitkat underneath.

Re:Nope

[DigiShaman]

Wow, what a colossal glittering jewel of ignorance the AC espouses! No, not all lithium batteries are the same. At best, a Samsung S4 battery will use a generic 1500mAh cell with filter material to fake a real one that's rated for 1800mAh. At worst, the actual cell is substandard quality in both materials and protection circuitry that leads to a run-away exothermic reaction; FIRE!

Re:Nope

[johncandale]

A replaceable battery to to recharge when you are away from home. I bike to work and cannot charge at work as my phone needs to be on me or on the way there. I often spend 20 hours away from a charge. It's not about the battery wearing out, it's about double capacity without lunging around a spare charger. Also A SD card is awesome for it's usefulness in trip phones or carrying movies and music.

Re:Nope

[tlhIngan]

Battery cases are like having a broken leg but instead of going to get a cast you get a pair of crutches and call it a day.
Never mind that your battery is too weak or that you have a broken leg, crutches FTW!

Having used both removable batteries and external battery bricks, the external battery brick is FAR more useful.

First of all - how do you charge a removable battery? Very, very, very few phones come with an external battery charger, so if you want to charge your batteries, you have to charge the battery, then turn it off, remove the charged battery, stick in the low battery, then put it on charge again. That's annoying and requires discipline.

An external battery I just plug its adapter into the wall, then plug the output of the external battery into my phone, or my phone into its won charger. Boom, two fully charged batteries and zero intervention other than plugging them in when I get home. None of this having to check it, if it's done then swap, nonsense that gets dull the second day.

The phone I had previous to the very first iPhone I had 3 external batteries for. Keeping all three charged was a royal PITA. (I had to have extras because a bug meant using the camera killed battery life unless you remembered to reboot it). Having used external packs for the iPhone, it was way easier and more convenient.

Plus, I didn't have to worry about my external packs shorting out and creating a fire. Something extra batteries have the danger of since the contacts are exposed and easily bridged.

Re:Nope

[vux984]

5 years ago that was true. Im still using my GS3 which works fine to this day. it gets a little hot, but after replacing the battery i could see me getting a good 2 more years out of it (longer if i wasnt using a bunch of apps)

You can replace the battery on most "sealed phones" too. Its just more of a process; and depending on your comfort level you might prefer to take it to a shop to do it for $20+price-of-battery for you. But you can still do that. And you only need to do it once, after 3-4 years.

Who cares if its super easy to replace the battery if its something you only do once after 3-4 years? As long as the 'non-replaceable battery' is shop replaceable that's good enough for me.

If its not shop replaceable, then I don't want it. But i know zillions of people with old iphones who have had the battery replaced.

The fact that they can't carry a spare and change it between calls? So what? Nobody does that? I don't even know I'd charge an extra samsung s5 battery if i owned one.

As long as I can get the battery replaced 2-5 years down the road for a nominal price; that's fine. So my concern isn't whether the S6 has a user replaceable battery or not... its whether the little shop down the road will be able to get one 4 years from now. Because he has no trouble getting iphone batteries for an iphone 3GS ... but my friends 3 year old Sony feature phone ?? Good luck... and that phone actually has a user replaceable battery!

Re:Nope

[AuMatar]

Or buy a competing product that does do what you want. Like one of the gadzillion other android devices out there.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

all my friends who had iphone 4s had cracked backs

ah, come on, say what you will about iPhones, but they are not /that/ heavy!

Re:Nope

[bingoUV]

But plastics used nowadays are clearly superior to metal for a phone body. Less denting, less slippery, more flexible at the stress levels typically endured by phones so protects phone innards better.

So metal necessarily is less well made than plastics typically used for phones.

Re:Nope

[stealth_finger]

Non-user-replaceable battery, and no SD expansion.

Stick it up your backside, Samsung, and stop emulating the WORST features of your competitors.

Non replaceable battery, meh. Non expandable memory, now that is a show stopper right there.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

and no QWERTY keyboard? Forget it! I'll get me a BlackBerry because I need to type e-mailis etc. Drawing greasy streaks on the screen in not enough.

Re:Nope

[Anne Thwacks]

Lots of people - possibly outside of thhe USA - have to go for DAYS without a power source - perhaps because they work (or play) away from home/ I normally keep a stack of four batteries charged. While this usage pattern my not be common in America and Japan, it is for much of the world.

As for removable SD car - I want to be able to instantly swap content OUT as much as in. I do not want to take one client's data onto another's premises ever. And I may have recreational content I do not want in the work place. I would guess a lot of people would like to be able to swap out the porn when they go to work/partner's house, etc.

I used to be an HTC user - but they stopped removable batteries and SD cards, so I switched to Samsung. I LIKE the plastic back. Doesn't break or scratch - and anyway, I only have my phone out of the fake leather case when I am changing the battery or SD card (or using it for satnav).

Thinness? WTF? Functionality is 1,000 times more important than appearance to most users. Curved screen edges? how breakable is that? a $700 device that won't last a month in the real world? If I wanted an iPhone, I would buy an iPhone.

My first response to the announcement was to check out Xaiomi. My sister-in-law (not a tecchie) - whose contract was up, and was waiting to hear the announcement - won't be buying this. I cant see many people over 30 who will.

Re:Nope

[Anne Thwacks]

Very, very, very few phones come with an external battery charger,

You might need to download the eBay app from Playstore. External battery charger and two batteries is £10 ($15) for most phones. Sure 1/2 the batteries only last about 6 months, and some of the chargers explode, but the rest last for years. At that price, you can't lose. Just buy more!

£ is GBP, not Australian. Something is badly wrong with Slashdot (and not just Beta)

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

But they also copy the good features, like charging the phone in the microwave.

Re:Nope

[msauve]

I was saying something to the effect that you're an idiot, and have no clue what "counterfeit" means.

Re:Nope

[AmiMoJo]

Sadly few phones are bothering with micro SD slots any more, but fortunately the good ones don't charge silly money for extra internal storage. When 64/128GB is so cheap I don't think SD cards are going to be important for much longer.

My OnePlus One does have a replaceable battery. The only thing I wish it had from factory is wireless charging, but I added that with an adapter from eBay that is invisible inside the case.

Re:Nope

[radl33t]

galaxy s2 is a great phone. I don't foresee giving it up for a long time.

Re:Nope

[DigiShaman]

Two things.

1: You're assuming that I'm conflating counterfeit with legitimate 3rd party.

2: I didn't know Anker (whom is a respectable brand) made cellphone batteries at such a price. Previously it was only pirated counterfeits sold anywhere from 12 - 14 dollars. But yes, there are a plethora of counterfeit OEM batteries passing themselves off as the real McCoy. The chemical composition and its purity is dubious at best. So when I said don't let that 12 buck burn a hole in your pocket, I literally meant it. :)

Re:Nope

[AmiMoJo]

It likely means it feels more robust and well made. I have an S5, and while it is a good phone, the plastic cover makes it feel a bit cheaper and flimsy.

Ironically the exact opposite is true. If the case is made of good quality plastic it will be more resistance to scratching and damage than metal/glass, and much more resistant to permanent bending or cracking when flexed. As the iPhone 6 demonstrated, metal is not a good material for things that get stressed for long periods of time in people's pockets. Oh, and don't forget that making the metal case part of the antenna probably isn't a good idea either.

Metal is little more than decorative anyway most of the time. It adds little to the rigidity of the phone and can't be used too extensively because it will interfere with the various radios inside the device, Glass looks nice for about five seconds before it gets covered in fingerprints and cracks far too easily. Plastic is flexible enough to withstand being dropped.

High quality, built to last smartphones are made out of good quality plastic. Expensive crap marketed as a fashion accessory is made out metal and glass. Sadly it looks like Samsung has decided to join Apple in making overpriced, weak phones that sell for 2-3x the price of everyone else's.

Re:Nope

[AmiMoJo]

Back in the day when it was a choice between 8GB and 16GB a lot of shops were selling "16GB" devices that were actually 8GB on-board and an 8GB SD card. Most consumers didn't care, they never used the SD card slot anyway or even realized it was there, and they were getting a "16GB" device for much less than the official retail price due to memory upgrade rip-off pricing.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Over here, buying a phone on contract is synonymous with buying a phone on credit. They increase the rate of your plan by X/month for 2 years, where X is the cost of the phone divided by 24. And it's only possible to do so for the more expensive plans.

Thanks, but I will stick to my $5/month unlimited 4G data plan and purchase the unlocked phone up front. My Galaxy Nexus is still going strong and it's over 3 years old. When I'm done with it, I'll sell it second hand (still goes for $240 second hand over here; was only $350 new).

Re:Nope

[AmiMoJo]

Just install an FTP server. I never bother plugging my phone in any more (wireless charging). When I want to copy some files I just open the FTP server app up and send them over wifi. Full access to the device's filesystem, no root required.

Having said that, when I did use a cable in the past I could access all files on the SD card over MTP, so maybe your issue was due to a vendor specific implementation. I know that Samsung's was a bit different to the stock Android one.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah my ancient sgs2 still kicks ass. I accidentally took it for a swim recently, but after a bit of drying it was fine, though the battery had to be replaced. Good thing you can do that on a sgs2.

Re:Nope

[RavenLrD20k]

...it's not $99 for a replacement battery

Except when the only thing I'd wind up using the service for over the course of 5 years (as if that were even an option with Apple) would be for a battery replacement. I've never had a screen crack, and the one time I've had a phone develop a dead pixel line after 3 years of use (Samsung Infuse 4g) I had my upgrade to use anyway; I've never had a phone just stop working; I've never dropped my phone in a puddle, let alone a toilet; and I've never had to call customer service to troubleshoot a phone. I have, however, had to get a new battery for a phone about every year to year and a half. More often than not a battery replacement came not because of any difference in how long it kept a charge, but in performing my normal monthly inspection of the battery (which can't be done on a sealed battery) visible swelling had occurred.

Now in getting a battery replaced, I'd be plopping $20-50 on a replacement battery either online or at RadioShack or BatteriesPlus, having it within a few days if not immediately, and then inserting it in my phone and plugging it up overnight. I'd be without a phone only as long as overnight; which is fine because I do not accept calls after 9pm as a rule, anyway. Compare that with what would happen with AppleCare: I'd have to take a day off from work to drive the phone to Atlanta during Apple Store business hours(nearest Apple Store location, about 2 hours drive time). Have the Condescending Hipster behind the counter inspect the device to make sure that it hasn't been exposed to too much humidity (welcome to Georgia) and thus valid for the replacement battery (as opposed to charging me the deductible for a replacement phone in the event that I let the phone sweat too much), having him keep the phone for him to send it out to get the battery replaced (about a week) after which I'd have to make another drive up to Atlanta to pick it up. In the mean time, if I didn't have a spare phone to use, I'd be SOL for getting calls in that time, because of course they don't offer loaners. So actually you're right; not only is it essentially $99 for the battery, but it's also the opportunity cost of 2 days off from work, half a tank of gas, 8 hours worth of travel time, and a week without a phone; just for a stinking battery.

Re:Nope

[EdwardFurlong]

I don't carry jumper cables or an air compressor because I can just call AAA.

Re:Nope

[fluffernutter]

I have a GS3, and it is fine and I won't replace it until it dies.. But I find that I get very poor battery life out of it. Like sometimes dead by 1pm when charged overnight. I bought another fresh battery and same result. I just charge them overnight and swap them so it's really not an issue. I even looked at alternative ROMs because some have improvement on battery use, but mine is a vendor model which most ROMs don't work on.

So.. yeah. No user replaceable battery in the S6? Even though I wouldn't get a Galaxy again, I was thinking of a Note. Maybe this makes me think something else altogether. And yes I've already sworn off Apple.

Re:Nope

[MastarPete]

It's not like it's that hard to just swap batteries to charge your spares. I've never really had to have more than one additional battery though. I would just connect my phone to charge in the car or at home, then swap in the spare if it also needed to charge before going to bed.

I've also used an iphone with a battery case, and even have a 10Ah external battery. If I ever lost track and the phone ever dipped far below 80%, swapping to a different battery case barely helped because of the losses in converting the 3.7v battery voltage to 5v and back. I've noticed the same inefficiency with battery bricks trying to recharge a phone on the go while also trying to use it.

Battery cases are really only useful if you can swap them out as soon as the case dies. Which is why I say battery cases are a crutch, because it doesn't really solve to lack of capacity IN your phone's battery (getting a cast). If you don't swap cases when the first one dies you're wasting energy trying to charge the phone battery and cover the power the phone is using to operate. High capacity battery bricks only partially negate the losses by brute force in the form of sheer capacity but are more cumbersome to use. Trying to pocket a battery brick in a way that still allows charging, without breaking the usb connectors, can be hella awkward, even with cargo pants/shorts.
Carrying 3 spare batteries or simply getting an extended battery for your phone is way easier, and cheaper, than trying to carry as many spare battery cases or trying to carry and charge from a battery brick on the go.

If phone manufacturers would actually provide external battery docking terminals that made battery cases act like parallel capacity without trying to recharge the internal battery, I'd be more inclined to not care about removable batteries. However, thinking long term, I would still care if the internal battery were hard to replace in a DIY sense, like the HTC One M7/M8 and very likely the M9.

Samsung has actually been in the habit of making standalone battery chargers for their flagship S and Note phones. I was just at Fry's Electronics over the weekend and ~$40 gets you an Official Samsung S5 battery and the standalone battery charger.

Motorola was also pretty good about making accessories like standalone battery chargers and desktop chargers. Sure I had to get them from ebay or amazon but I did my research and was able to get official Motorola standalone chargers. One of which was actually dual sided and capable of charging several different sizes and types batteries.

Re:Nope

[fluffernutter]

Or.. You're out of memory on your base phone (like I am right now) and need to expand, as it has just occurred to me that I should do.

Re:Nope

[fluffernutter]

My Rayovac S3 battery cost $12. Pretty good brand.

Listen, if it fried my S3.. meh then I need to get another one. But you know what it worked, and I'm fine with stretching my phone. It's better for my pocket and the environment.

Re:Nope

[pmontra]

Another SG2 here. I love the SD card, the plastic body, the replaceable battery. Plastic and the replaceable battery help the phone surviving drops because they discharge the kinetic energy (google bent corner iphone or mac). Because of that I won't buy the SG6 when my SG2 dies but hopefully that will happen many years in the future so Samsung have plenty of time to rethink their design.

Other things that I love: the relatively small size, which let me fit it inside my front pockets if I have to, the light weight (but now only 20 g less than the S6, large phones are getting slimmer) and that I can mount it as a disk over USB without going through the MTP madness. A not so nice thing: the SD card is hidden under the battery so I can't eject it without shutting down the phone. This is a bit limiting.

Re:Nope

[Ksevio]

I agree, however this is about the feel and appearance of the phone and a lot of people want the solid feel of a phone with glass on both sides.

Re:Nope

[bingoUV]

the solid feel of a phone with glass on both sides.

You used glass and solid in the same sentence. Apart from the legends about glass being liquid, I haven't met any one else yet who calls glass "solid" in its figurative sense either.

So the "idiots feel smug about their cluelessness" as spake a mindless person upthread seems right.

Re:Nope

[msauve]

"You're assuming that I'm conflating counterfeit with legitimate 3rd party... I didn't know Anker (whom is a respectable brand) made cellphone batteries at such a price. "

I assumed nothing. These are your own words:
"You paid for, and trust a counterfeit battery?!... At best, a Samsung S4 battery will use a generic 1500mAh cell with filter material to fake a real one that's rated for 1800mAh."

I purchased the battery from AnkerDirect, fulfilled by Amazon. Not much opportunity for a counterfeit to get into that distribution channel. 2600 mAh (not 1800), just like the original Samsung. Capacity is actually better than the OEM (and more than 2600), as determined by Battery Monitor Widget. Anker's S3/S4/S5 batteries are all basically the same $12 price. The S4 one was about $15 a year ago.

Perhaps your epithet "a colossal glittering jewel of ignorance" should be directed toward a mirror.

Re:Nope

[Neil Boekend]

I agree. Does nobody remember what those indestructible Nokia dumbphones were made from? High quality plastic all the way and you had to place it on the side to be able to destroy it by driving over it with a tractor.

It's really interesting how quality feel and real quality mismatch. Bendy plastic absorbs drops way better then solid stainless steel. Steel mostly transfers the energy to the screen, which cracks. Or it deforms permanently. Properly designed plastic pops off and can then be popped back.

Re:Nope

[mlts]

I would say my HTC M8 is a combination of the two. Replaceable batteries are useful, and my last Motorola phone, the Atrix 2, had one and wasn't considered a porker by any means.

The SD card is more important. Sandisk has 200GB MicroSD cards out. This doesn't give just storage, but the ability to do backups, either with nandroid or with Titanium Backup. Since Titanium Backup uses a very good encryption system for backups (you set a password which encrypts the private key stored with the backup files, and TB uses the public key for backups, only asking for the password to unlock the private key for restores.) To boot, I can copy music to and from the SD card before I load it into the phone. Of course, if something happens and I end up trashing the ROM on the device, I can reload a backup while on the road.

The biggest reason why I won't buy a Samsung Galaxy is because of the fact that it took a major bounty to even get root on the device, much less a custom ROM. The HTC comparable, the One M8 (and the M9 coming out this month) happily runs my custom ROM with XPrivacy and other items. The eFuse issue with the Galaxy is another turn-off. Even with iPhones, if I have a trashed jailbreak, I can use DFU mode and factory restore the device to as good as new. The fact that the Samsung offering permanently disabled functionality is a major minus in my book.

For a corporation, Knox is a useful tool. For an individual, it doesn't do much.

Re:Nope

[mlts]

Maybe this is anecdotal, but I've found that those battery cases put a dent on antenna reception. If you are in a metropolitan area, it may not be an issue, but a suburban or rural area, this may be a deal breaker.

Re:Nope

[msauve]

" it's not $99 for a replacement battery."

OK. "Apple offers a battery service for $79, plus $6.95 shipping, subject to local tax."

$99 vs. $85.95 doesn't change much.

And, just to make if completely fair, let's compare with the most expensive option - an OEM Samsung battery from Verizon is $40, still less than 1/2 the cost.

And before you argue this - sure, some people have the skill to tear apart their iPhone and replace it themselves. Perhaps even many people on /. But, most people wouldn't even consider it. Plus, the battery itself is still more expensive and then you have to go through the time and effort.

Re:Nope

[Ksevio]

When you poke/squish the plastic, it moves and deforms. When you do the same to glass it stays rigid (like a solid). People like something that feels well built and solid even if the plastic being able to deform has other advantages.

Re:Nope

[GuB-42]

USB power bricks are about 50% less efficient than replaceable batteries due to conversion losses.
Battery charging cases exist but they are not remotely as convenient and efficient as, say, zerolemon extended batteries.

Re:Nope

[bingoUV]

When you poke/squish the plastic, it moves and deforms. When you do the same to glass it stays rigid (like a solid).

Poke extremely hard and squish cruelly, for modern plastics. Like you do to the big iPhone to hilarious results, except the hilarity in metal is forever.

People like something that feels well built and solid even if the plastic being able to deform has other advantages.

Plastic doesn't just have "other" advantages, modern plastics have every advantage. Nothing better than "idiots feel smug about their cluelessness" can be said about this, I guess.

Re:Nope

[Ksevio]

I guess for robots like you that view everything objectively, there is no advantage. Unfortunately it looks like Samsung is catering to us human that can't poke holes through gorilla glass.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

3)
You're forgetting that you're talking in a weird niche echo chamber that represents a tiny sliver of the market. A gross minority of the very very very large smartphone market.

Sales number say, very clearly, that a very large majority of users do not care about interchangeable batteries. Given that, interchangeable batteries offer a significant disadvantage to most users. Added weight, size, parts, cost. Reduced chassis durability and overall system reliability - These aren't opinions. They're cold hard facts of engineering backed up by cold hard data. Basic stuff really.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

LG G3 is a "premium" phone with replaceable battery and SD slot.

Re:Nope

[tehcyder]

The fact that they can't carry a spare and change it between calls? So what? Nobody does that?

Speak for yourself. I now have to use an external battery pack instead of just being able to carry around a relatively small battery. It's actually handier in some ways (because you don't need to restart the phone) but it's like carrying around two phones.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can't get a full day's use out of a smartphone.

Re:Nope

[tehcyder]

That's one of the biggest reasons I have an iPhone as my primary smartphone, I know I can just walk in and get it fixed or replaced on the spot.

A good point if you live somewhere close to an Apple Store. Not everyone does.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree completely.

Metal and Glass just mean the phone is more likely to break when it's dropped.

The non-removable battery means I have to wait for the phone to charge when it's dead instead of just swapping in a new battery. It also means I can't easily just remove the battery to be sure the phone is completely powered off.

The non-removable storage means everything stored on the phone is inaccessible unless the entire phone is in working condition and the battery is charged. If the screen or other components ever break then I will need to use some sort of data recovery service to retrieve my data, instead of just removing the SD card and plugging it into a computer.

It looks like Samsung is finally going to make the iPhone everyone wanted, but now all the Power Users need to look elsewhere. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. I was already going to ditch Samsung because their newer phones (S4 and beyond) are harder to root and install custom ROMs. Nexus phones don't have SD cards so I never really considered those as a viable option. But I would take a Nexus phone over this. At least the Nexus is going to have unlocked bootloader and good AOSP support. I'll keep looking, though. I'm sure some Chinese company will make a phone with all the features we actually want.

Re:Nope

[tlhIngan]

It's really interesting how quality feel and real quality mismatch. Bendy plastic absorbs drops way better then solid stainless steel. Steel mostly transfers the energy to the screen, which cracks. Or it deforms permanently. Properly designed plastic pops off and can then be popped back.

And that's the thing. Plastic is cheap - it's why the vast majority of cheap crap is made from plastic. Nice stuff is made from metal, which isn't as easy to work with (you can't really injection-mold metal very well - you could with liquidmetal but that's Apple-exclusive), so building out of metal already costs a lot more to build. When you're spending $600, you sort of want to feel like you're getting your money's worth.

Going from metal to plastic is considered the #1 cost cutting measure in industry - consumers generally view going from metal to plastic as a move that cheapens stuff because plastic is tackier.

Building a good device out of plastic is quite hard - you need to pick the right surface finishes otherwise your plastic can lead to interesting long term issues. You need to assemble it correctly - there's nothing more disconcerting than buying something for $600 and it creaks at the slightest bend (usually a sign of poorly-fitted parts).

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as that someone is not called "Sony"

Re:Nope

[fyngyrz]

A replaceable battery costs more upfront and is incompatible with thinness. Most people get a new phone long before the battery dies.

After buying my Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900V) and using it for a little while, I learned that the battery would hold up about 14 hours under the kind of use I made of it. So I replaced the battery with one that has about 3x the capacity, replaced the back of the phone with a back that would properly contain the new, much thicker battery, and got myself a new case for the resulting assembly.

The resulting phone (which I am delighted with) is not thin. In order to make me happy, the battery had to be replaced well before it died. The cost of the extra battery and case and hardshell added quite a bit to the bottom line cost of the phone. But the result was the best phone I'd ever used. I gave my iPhone to one of the kids and have never looked back. I do have a late-model iPad, but I rarely use it any longer other than to continue to play some long-standing word, chess, carcassonne, and upwords opponents. My desktop machine is a mac.

Based on my experience, I'd at least take a look at a new Samsung before any other Android platform. I'm no longer willing to consider Apple at all.

Re:Nope

[fyngyrz]

Having used both removable batteries and external battery bricks, the external battery brick is FAR more useful.

Probably so. Luckily, there's a much better way to go. Throw out the original battery, replace it with one that has several times the capacity, replace the back with the supplied replacement, and buy the appropriate hardshell if that's how you roll.

Result? More battery life than a brick, no having to plug in all the time, and no need to remove the battery until it dies, which will likely be some years down the road.

When I bought my Note 3 (SM-N900V), it wouldn't last a day. I'd have to turn it off (not use apps, etc.) before bedtime if I wanted it to have enough juice left to receive a call, text, IM or email, etc. -- it would hit 5% by 9pm or so. Once I replaced the battery, I just pop the thing on the charger about every other day while I'm sleeping and have no worries. It'll go three full days of use, but that does put the battery down to about 20%, so I tend to avoid it.

This makes the phone thicker and heavier. I don't mind a bit. But some people would.

Re:Nope

[bingoUV]

I see humans walking around with shattered glass in their phones' front and backs everyday. And those with plastic as good as new for months, good condition for years.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

I just bought a replacement battery for my S3 on Amazon for $9 and it is working well. I was just thinking about the mountains of stuff that still works fine, but isn't cutting edge that ends up in landfillls.

Re:Nope

[stoatwblr]

"Most people get a new phone long before the battery dies."

Given the short runtime of many of these phones, changing out the battery is a given on long trips - especially when most external chargers simply can't keep up with the runtime drain.

Unibody setups just mean I won't buy it.

As others have pointed out, glass+metal = fragile, which means external cases rule (and cover up the premium bits, so why bother?)

I don't know anyone who hasn't dropped their current phone at least twice, so it's not like dropping the things is a rarity.

Re:Nope

[stoatwblr]

"And, these days, there are more USB charging ports than expresso stands."

USB ports generally give 500mA unless they're specials. My Note4 draws close to 1200mA when everything's going. If you don't use the special high power charge then it will go flat even when plugged in.

At least it has a high power charger. The Nexus7 and GalaxyS2 didn't and would run flat whilst charging if you did anything "odd" with it - like using it in the car as a navigation device for more than a few hours.

Re:Nope

[stoatwblr]

"a conspiracy theory I heard summer of 2013 that Samsung was sitting on a stockpile or memory chips"

If this was the case they'd be pushing their microsd ranges harder than they are. The Pro and Evo ranges are still low volume items and still limited to 64/128Gb.

Re:Nope

[vux984]

Speak for yourself. I now have to use an external battery pack instead of just being able to carry around a relatively small battery.

That is where the market has gone even for phones with replaceable batteries. Nobody is carrying around an actual spare battery anymore.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can't get a full day's use out of a smartphone.

I couldn't quite get a full day out of a galaxy s3 no matter what I did.

I can now get just barely 2 days out of an s5 if i forget to charge it. I don't use it continually, and I don't use it for music or games; or "social crap".

Re:Nope

[DarthVain]

Agreed.

When trying to decide between the iPhone and the Galaxy, those were deciding factors. Now, there is nothing really. Now if the battery length and changing time is accurate, then the replaceable battery may not be an issue. However we all know that they all lie about those sorts of things. So while the battery life in my current Galaxy sucks (really my only gripe), it was largely mitigated by the fact that I can just buy a cheap battery and changer and always have a backup that I can quickly pop in if I really need to...

No SD slot? Lame. Not everyone used it, but for those that did (and I did) it was a selling feature. If you are going to use a more powerful processor, what is the point if you have no capacity (mine has a bit of an issue loading my large 64GB SD when full of a lot of files). Seems Samsung is pandering to the whole Apple mantra of upselling services like iCloud, or whatever service that the Samsung will use. Which will eat your bandwidth, etc... Along with using the silly pricing model of changing more for cheap memory.

Anyway disappointing. I'll probably wait and see what else is out there...

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

A good point if you live somewhere close to an Apple Store. Not everyone does.

Of course, if there was a Microsoft Store or a Samsung Store nearby I would probably consider them too...assuming they offer the same process (not sure if they do).

Re:Nope

[danomac]

Another thumbs up for Anker - I bought a battery for my S3. I was having issues with light to moderate use with my OEM battery and replaced it and I got two days of light use out of it. For me, that was better than the OEM battery I replaced.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

well the issue i am having now is that i have to pull the battery to do a real reset. how will the GS6 deal with that? when the soft button combo wont do a reset, pull the battery! oh wait.. cant do that anymore. so now i gotta wait hours (or days) for the phone to fully drain so i can use it again???

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

That is where the market has gone even for phones with replaceable batteries. Nobody is carrying around an actual spare battery anymore.

Especially when it means you have to charge the battery in the phone, swap that battery out with the flat one then charge that one in the phone. Unless you're also going to carry around a battery charger so you can charge your spare batteries without your phone. These days if you carry around a USB charging cable you're pretty set.

Re:Nope

[exomondo]

Carrying jumper cables is like carrying around a USB charging cable, but you don't carry around a spare charged car battery.

Re:Nope

[vux984]

well the issue i am having now is that i have to pull the battery to do a real reset. how will the GS6 deal with that? when the soft button combo wont do a reset, pull the battery!

I've never run into an iPhone where I couldn't do the hard reset with the soft buttons. I'm sure its probably happened to somebody out there, and if they'd been able to pull the battery that would have been another option for them.

I also can't remember the last time I had to physically take the battery out of a laptop or pull the plug on a desktop computer either because the power off button combo wasn't being responded too.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Re:Nope

[ganjadude]

ive seen the issue i speak of happen to my friends iphones, and my friends droids that dont have removable batteries. just as your notes are anecdotal, so are mine. My anecdotal evidence gives me reason to be concerned.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Lots of people - possibly outside of thhe USA - have to go for DAYS without a power source

Actually very few do these days, at least as far as those buying highend smartphones are concerned. With USB power just about everywhere (including cars and even generators and solar panels) there is little need to bother about needing to lug extra batteries wherever you go and having to charge them all up.

perhaps because they work (or play) away from home

Power is accessible at many places other than home.

I normally keep a stack of four batteries charged.

Good for you, you are an extreme niche that samsung isn't interested in serving.

While this usage pattern my not be common in America and Japan, it is for much of the world.

Like where?

I do not want to take one client's data onto another's premises ever.

Why are you taking clients' data around on your phone?

a $700 device that won't last a month in the real world?

These are the sort of ridiculous comments that show that you dont know what you are talking about anyway.

I cant see many people over 30 who will.

Yeah totally, I mean the audience for a smartphone that doesn't have a removable battery and SD card? How big can that be? Proves that you basement dwellers need to get out in the real world more because your perception of what "the real world" is is so ridiculously wrong it's not funny.

Re:Nope

[vux984]

just as your notes are anecdotal, so are mine. My anecdotal evidence gives me reason to be concerned.

Sure a mole-hill level of concern is entirely reasonable. :)

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

You do not speak for anyone but yourself, despite the fantasies you so obviously entertain.

Oh, blow it out your ass. It's a simple fact that upgrading every two years is a thing because that's how the carriers have the game rigged. If you don't get a new phone, you're just subsidizing the stock price of Verizon and AT&T because you'll be paying the same price regardless.

Some of us want a battery which can be removed so the phone can be powered off without any question. A non-removable battery is a deal-breaker for those who want this.

Yeah, all five of you. But thanks for making it clear that the wankery of "fantasies" was just projection.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, no. Those things are inefficient.

They're also multi-purpose, unlike the spare battery that fits your phone, and only your phone. Whereas a portable battery pack could charge the phone or tablet of anyone in your party, or a laptop, or a camera.

Re:Nope

[bingoUV]

And that's the thing. Plastic is cheap

And superior for making phone bodies. I am waiting for 24 carat gold screw drivers for such idiots - steel is cheap, it's why the vast majority of cheap crap is made from steel. Nice stuff is made from gold.

metal, which isn't as easy to work with

Building a good device out of plastic is quite hard - you need to

Decide whether metal is more "isn't easy", or plastic is more "quite hard". I know doing real work is difficult - whether plastic or metal but it makes no sense to call both more difficult than each other to publicly declare your idiocy, since it is already well established from your first paragraph.

Re:Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

In my experience, most i users are wall hugging exactly like the Samsung commercial a few months ago. They're too dumb to know there are other solutions out there, or spent all their money on buying i things every year.

Every time I see those free/paid charging stations, the vast majority of phones aren't Samsung. The one person I know that has a battery case is an i user.

So you're right, most people don't use portable battery devices.

Re:Nope

[MastarPete]

If this was the case they'd be pushing their microsd ranges harder than they are. The Pro and Evo ranges are still low volume items and still limited to 64/128Gb.

That's why I lead by calling it a conspiracy theory. The theory that Samsung was looking to improve profit margins of Galaxy S phones by using stockpiled memory rather than using larger capacity chips which are more expensive. It was really only aimed specifically at trying to explain the lack of Galaxy S phones with higher on-board storage in the US. It was not attempting to address any other segment of Samsung's operations.

A few departures from the S3/S4/S5

[DanTheManMS]

No removable battery. Less space than an SD card. Lame.

In all seriousness, it does look like a very nice phone. And Samsung has gotten better about pre-loading less bloatware on their more recent releases. We'll have to see how the general public receives it though.

Re:A few departures from the S3/S4/S5

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't care about how nice the phone looks because I put it in a bumper case anyways. I care about being able to swap out the battery and MicroSD card. Why should I have to pay an astronomical sum for fewer features?

Re:A few departures from the S3/S4/S5

[Anonymous Coward]

Why should I have to pay an astronomical sum for fewer features?

You don't have to. Just don't buy this particular phone.

Plenty of phones still have swappable batteries and uSD slots. Support them instead.

Re:A few departures from the S3/S4/S5

[ohnocitizen]

They've gotten worse about bloatware: http://www.zdnet.com/article/s...

What?

[SternisheFan]

No removable battery, no SD card. The best things about Samsung phones have been removed from this version.

Re:What?

[basecastula]

Think of their galaxy releases like Microsoft releases. Every other model is a winner. Take the s2 skyrocket and the s4 active. Both were solid phones with dedicated back and menu buttons. The s3 and s5 were not my cup of tea.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

No removable battery, no SD card. The best things about Samsung phones have been removed from this version.

No water resistance. 3 best things.

Re:What?

[Neil Boekend]

S5 was IP67 waterproof. The S6 isn't.
In that fashion the S5 was closer to the S4Active than the S6 is.

No micro sd card slot

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, all that new technology, and I still can't remove my focus on the fact that they got rid of the freaking micro sd card slot.

what about this rarely-considered feature?

[Anonymous Coward]

megapixels, GHz, bus speed, blah blah blah...I may be the only person on the planet who actually cares about this esoteric feature, but I'll ask anyway: How well does it function as a telephone? Are calls clear & loud? How much does the microphone collect sound? Is it sensitive to wind (noise)? etc. etc. etc. I ask because most cell phones sound dreadful -- like a 3rd generation mp3 played through an AM radio.

In these days of feature checklist pissing contests over most pixels and CPU power, it'd be good to know if a $700 phone can make a decent phone call.

Re:what about this rarely-considered feature?

[AbRASiON]

Mod anon up, important question.
Also often overlooked

Audio quality from headphone port
Speakerphone quality
Mic quality
Time to charge (addressed in this case)
Shock resistance
Warranty period
Quality of service from provider (hate to tip the hat to Apple but holy crap good service)
Screen brightness in the sun
etc.

Re: what about this rarely-considered feature?

[unami]

that would require some attention to detail, which samsung definitely lacks. it will get harder and harder for them to sell phones based on features that have long ago crossed the border of usefullness. 577 ppi - are you selling those phones to eagles? 16mp - i'd rather have 10mp with bigger pixels - plus those photos don't use that much space. 2.1 ghz quad + 1.5 ghz quad, 3gb ram? just give me software that runs on an 1.2 ghz dualcore, that should be more than enough. saves battery too.

Re:what about this rarely-considered feature?

[arielCo]

Blame that on your stingy provider, skimping on bandwidth by packing you all in a few channels. Full-rate GSM is quite clear.

Re:what about this rarely-considered feature?

[Anonymous Coward]

The biggest call-quality blocker these days isn't the hardware collecting or reproducing the sound. It's the low-bandwidth codecs used to encode the voice data. They're heavily optimized for the typical range of spoken language, and cut all to hell and back in order to squish as many channels as possible into the smallest band possible.

Re:what about this rarely-considered feature?

[perryizgr8]

You should try making audio calls on Skype, on your phone. It's like a new dimension has opened up for your ears. Crystal clear, like a studio recording. Trust me, the barrier to call audio quality is NOT the phone, it's your shitty GSM codecs.

Re: they have to compare it to the iphone 6,

[unami]

i don't get it why they drop differenciating features like water resistance, sd-card slot or removable battery instead of making them better. that were the features that made samsung-phones stand out. i can understand samsung wanting to go for the premium market. but they need more than an iphone with android and purportetly better features (in the end, it's still the software, stupid) for a piece of the iphone's cake

no sd..

[Gizan]

Phone sounded great, till I Saw NO SD card slot...

No SD card = major weakness

[dwheeler]

One reason I bought an earlier Samsung is *specifically* because it supports a micro-SD card. Nice specs, but no micro-SD is a weakness to me.

Re:No SD card = major weakness

[Fire_Wraith]

Judging on my past usage patterns, a lack of a removable battery isn't a big deal for me; but the SD card is.

Anyone have any suggestions for a good new model phone that still comes with one, since Samsung is apparently out?

Re:No SD card = major weakness

[Harlequin80]

The LG G3 has replaceable battery and sd-card.

Re:No SD card = major weakness

[AK Marc]

If I didn't want an SD slot, I'd have gotten the Oppo R5. Cheaper and thinner than the S6, and the commercial for it shows a car driving over it, and using it to hammer in a nail, without a scratch. But I passed on the Oppo R5 because of the lack of SD slot. OnePlus, cheaper and better than Samsung. And if you don't like stock Android, I like ColorOS better than TouchWiz (I like Sense over TouchWiz as well, TouchWiz isn't great, but I haven't played with it since it came with fewer bloat items).

Oh, and ppi is stupid. Are they really implying that a 5.1 inch QHD screen is preferable to a 5.5 inch QHD, because the 5.1 has more ppi? I've used both, and much prefer the larger screen.

Re:No SD card = major weakness

[stealth_finger]

Judging on my past usage patterns, a lack of a removable battery isn't a big deal for me; but the SD card is. Anyone have any suggestions for a good new model phone that still comes with one, since Samsung is apparently out?

Pretty much everything else that doesn't start with an i. HTC's m9 looks quite nice, SD slot present and accounted for. Sony's xperia line is nice too, but it is sony and the one I have (Z) is very quiet on it's external speakers, so much so that with any real background noise you have to hold it by your ear to hear anything anyway. HTC or possible ship jump to a nokia windows phone is looking like a winner to me.

Re:No SD card = major weakness

[perryizgr8]

The S5 had everything. SD card, removable battery and water resistance. Big flop because plastic body. Compare it to HTC M8. Shit phone, shit camera. Sold awesomely because metal body. Samsung is providing what most users want. People like me and you have to put up with this shit.

Fast charge is nice, but isn't 500+ ppi

[jpellino]

just flagpole-sitting at this point?

Re: Fast charge is nice, but isn't 500+ ppi

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. I can still see pixels. I have to wear glasses, but with them I can still still see the semi pixels they have (s4). They are a little blurred, but that's because of the led pattern. Pentax or whatever it's called. Looks cool under a microscope. It's not overly distracting. I'd imagine something like watching an old tv is for most people.

Re:Fast charge is nice, but isn't 500+ ppi

[danbob999]

just flagpole-sitting at this point?

Yes. Also, 1080p is more pratical as it allows 1:1 clone to TV.

Re:Fast charge is nice, but isn't 500+ ppi

[ChunderDownunder]

I wonder what the power drain is on these things - GPU wise.

I'm mean if the inbuilt camera shoots video at 1080 and the screen is 1440, then the system is upscaling during playback.

Re:Fast charge is nice, but isn't 500+ ppi

[perryizgr8]

In-built camera on the S6 actually shoots at 4k. The screen is 2.5k (I think), so actually the GPU is downscaling.

"Took some design cues"

[SuperKendall]

Look at the bottom edge. EXACT SAME placement of headphone, charging port, speaker grill...

Come on. Man up and at least admit that part alone is a direct copy.

Re: "Took some design cues"

[Anonymous Coward]

forgot the tag, sorry.

Re: "Took some design cues"

[Anonymous Coward]

that was supposed ro read "irony tags" slashdot seems to swallow tags

Re: "Took some design cues"

[fisted]

it's < and >.
Welcome to the 90s.

Samsung

[Dunbal]

The company that thinks it's ok to make TV's that spy on you - no thanks. Not interested in any of their products.

Re:Samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

yup.. fail streak that is for sure. My next phone is not a samsung and my next tv is not a samsung. I wonder if they will notice.

Re: Samsung

[unami]

and that's only their tvs. i've heard their phones can steal your identity and make your wife pregnant

Re: Samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

Now without a battery you can yank for assured privacy.

Re: Samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that should be can't.

Re: Samsung

[Dunbal]

I'll address THAT when they sneak it into a EULA too.

Re: Samsung

[Zontar The Mindless]

You think wrong. "Without" = "Does not have".

Re:Fags and hipsters

[stafil]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/15/business/one-percent-map.html?_r=0

US Top 1% average household income is $383k. Top 5% $118k. Top 10% $140k. Top 25% $89k.

Depending where you leave I would say that 1 in 4 can easily afford two of these phones every 3 years without a dent in their bank account.

Marketing Department

[Anonymous Coward]

This was an overdone marketing piece. Please post review text rather than this "omg ponies" crap.

In other words, you have drooled all over my monitor for no apparent reason and I don't like that.

Who makes a premium phone now then

[Anonymous Coward]

... with the features that are actually premium?

* Replacable battery
* uSD support
* Swappable SIM
* High Damage Resistance (shock and moisture)?

Megapixels? megahertz? shitty glass design that gets immediately covered by a requisite case? Who the fuck cares about that shit anymore besides people in e-peen measuring contests?

Serious question: When my current phone finally needs replacing, who's going to get my money? (hint: only the maker that offers the above)

Re:Who makes a premium phone now then

[slaker]

The Galaxy S5 and LG G3 are probably the best fit options.

I carry an S4 and I seldom need to replace the battery, but a few times a year I go to events where I hundreds photos or videos over four or five hours. I probably wind up swapping the battery at least twice on those days. Even if the need is irregular, not having the ability would be a deal breaker for me, too.

Re:Who makes a premium phone now then

[Harlequin80]

Second the Lg G3. Wife has one and it has been flawless. Despite her doing through a phase of dropping it on the tiles every single day for a month before she finally bought a case.

Re:Who makes a premium phone now then

[phayes]

For a twice a year event an external battery pack is a much better fit than the compromises that come with removable internal batteries. This is the same debate where people were hating on Apple for eliminating the slots that almost nobody ever used on. There is a vocal but tiny minority that claims that they MUST have them or the product will be a failure but most people eventually come to the realization that internal is not the only or best way to go.

Re:Who makes a premium phone now then

[slaker]

There's a considerable difference in the bulk of a phone with an external battery pack and a replaceable battery. I'd definitely rather have one than the other.

Re:Who makes a premium phone now then

[phayes]

Again, for a twice yearly need, an external battery pack would serve better, but you go ahead & buy the phone compromised by a replaceable battery for the 1% of the time where it would be sleeker.

resolution

[Anonymous Coward]

That gives us a resolution of 2560x1440

Dear phone makers,

That's enough screen resolution now. Really, it's plenty. Thank you though.

Re:resolution

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it's way, way too much and is an overall detriment to the overall design and fucntionality of the device.

It takes a lot of energy to manage those pixels, and thus requires more battery, which is already the weakest point of the entire system.

Re:resolution

[Anonymous Coward]

That gives us a resolution of 2560x1440

Dear phone makers,

That's enough screen resolution now. Really, it's plenty. Thank you though.

Dear phone makers: PLEASE swap places with desktop and laptop screen makers. This 720p mess is a joke compared to 1999 when 1024p was already a standard at 15 inches. Me Bizarro WANT go backward dimension GOOD now.

Samsung has finally figured out

[Anonymous Coward]

.. how wonderful it is to charge $300 for $30 worth of uSD storage.

Re:Fags and hipsters

[Anonymous Coward]

That is probably the laziest economic argument I've ever seen. Just take 2 seconds to think of an argument someone might make to dispute what you've just said. It shouldn't even take that long.

no SD

[Anonymous Coward]

no sale. what are they thinking? If I wanted overpriced storage, I'd get an Iphone

Re:no SD

[Anonymous Coward]

no sale. what are they thinking? If I wanted overpriced storage, I'd get an Iphone

In Soviet flagship land wallgarden features comes to you!
Progress by copycat-ing is sad.

No Keyboards, no hardware buttons, no predictable/static text menus, rampant SD-less phones that demand borg-link accounts with google and apple, pointless crazy-cores with single-day charges on phones and watches; and huge screens with prerequisite NBA-athlete grip... It's like the big bang's big crunch is already here killing all hope... can't wait to wake up in 10 years and see how much more technology will be hating my choices.

Re: they have to compare it to the iphone 6,

[Shadow of Eternity]

This. Dropping IP67 was the worst decision they made.

liquid metal?

[goombah99]

Speaking of style over function, I take it the new phone is not using LiquidMetal for it's metal. They teased a liquid metal ad last week. But it looks like just polished metal to me. Or is it? Apple's exclusive rights purchase for liquid Metal technology I beleive ran out a week ago, making it possible this could be a liquid metal phone case.

Re:liquid metal?

[mlts]

I wonder what Liquid Metal has over sintered aluminum or other alloys. LM has to have a specialized injecting molding machine that keeps a vacuum during the process. Sintering aluminum and other items have their issues, but it is a relatively simpler process to get precise items coming out.

Re:Overpriced junk!

[dugancent]

Can't disagree!

Re:Fags and hipsters

[bigdavex]

Typo. Top 5% is 188k according to your link.

Only 8 processors?

[ZipK]

The new phones also include an octa-core processor...

The first blade grabs at the whisker, tugging it away from your face to protect it from the second blade.
Blade number two catches and digs into the stubble before it has the chance to snap back and injure you, pulling it farther out so that it is now ready for shearing.
Triple-Trac's third blade, a finely-honed bonded platinum instrument, cuts cleanly through the whisker at its base, leaving your face as smooth as a billiard ball.

The Triple Trac

Going overboard while falling short

[WaffleMonster]

Oh come on 2560x1440 AMOLED is just insane and pointless. 1080 is ridiculous as-is nobody is ever going to benefit from or notice any difference.

More importantly I won't buy a phone with an AMOLED display. IPS is more reliable, lasts longer, no burn-in issues and easier to see in daylight.

Also no SD card? WTF were they thinking?

No replaceable battery in a device that costs hundreds of dollars... Don't think so - not that rich/stupid.

Re:Going overboard while falling short

[ChunderDownunder]

1080 is ridiculous as-is nobody is ever going to benefit from or notice any difference.

1080 is the Full HD video format that these phones can now record.

Displaying the video you just shot makes sense - at the same pixel count without scaling.

Re:Going overboard while falling short

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not pointless when you consider that the phone will also support Virtual Reality with its own Gear VR. For that use case it's actually just crossed the border into 'acceptable experience' territory.

Re:Going overboard while falling short

[BigZee]

Whilst I do accept the majority of your points, there is some sense in the display being such a high resolution - VR. The Galaxy Gear VR will also use the new S6 and it will make sense for that feature to have sufficiently high resolution.

Completely agree with the rest of your points. The things that differentiated Samsung from phones such as the M8 was the ability to change your battery and to add storage.

Re:Going overboard while falling short

[mikecase]

This is an underrepresented point. I thought my S4's 1080p screen wasn't notably better than my S3's 720 screen until I plopped them both into Google Cardboard. Even the S4's screen looked pretty pixelated when used for VR. It's a relatively obscure use-case, but phone-based VR is the one place crazy high screen resolution is necessary. Still mad about the dropped SD card and replaceable battery though.

Re:Going overboard while falling short

[perryizgr8]

This phone can record at 4k, not 1080p.

The good news is

[denisbergeron]

The older S5 with a removable battery and a SD card will see the price down.

Re:The good news is

[phorm]

"The older S5 with a removable battery and a SD card will see the price down."

And... the S5 is waterproof (or at least very water resistant)
I don't see that mentioned as a feature in the article for the S6.

mod up parent please

[basecastula]

Out of points mod up please.

while this isn't a total replacement for the sdxc

[Anonymous Coward]

while this isn't a total replacement for the sdxc slot, you can get what's known as a 'otg' USB flash drive or a USB OTG cable and connect any flash storage device you want, basically giving you guys the capacity of a hard disk on the go.. perfect enough to carry around your flac collection and movies. :)

not a complete replacement as it wouldn't have cost nothing for them to have added a microsdxc slot like the SIM card slot..

obamasweapon.com

Re:Nope Windows 10 is coming

[Anonymous Coward]

Lots of people are switching back to windows because this lindroid cheap crap is getting out of hand and iphones are for chicks. You can get a 521 no contract phone for $29. When the battery dies, you can throw it away, or replace the battery. Nobody cares. It's a cell phone. I swear to god you android users are sooo stoooopit.

Answers for both

[SuperKendall]

1) YOU are the one who does not speak for anyone but a tiny monitory, as actual sales figures of devices clearly illustrate. People like thin, lightweight phones, and mostly as others have said never replace the battery before they get a new phone.

2) You say "you want a battery which can be removed so the phone can be powered off without
any question"

Come on, be honest. What you REALLY WANT HERE is for the phone to no longer be trackable and/or receive/transmit any signals. That's fine, I can even understand that.

As that is your actual need, there are other ways to accomplish this without making the phone worse.

Re:Answers for both

[AuMatar]

No, we want a quick way to do a 100% reboot if the phone is in a bad state.Without that your only option is to wait 1 day until the battery is dead. Or longer if the radio is off in that state.

Re:Answers for both

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? The only way to completely power down an Android phone is to pull the battery? That's lousy design.

Re:Answers for both

[SuperKendall]

No, we want a quick way to do a 100% reboot

I'm an IOS developer and I've never had to do anything more than a device reset (which is instant). Usually powering off and on is enough (though not as quick, it's still pretty quick at around a minute total).

If that's really your reason it's even more absurd.

Re:Answers for both

[Anonymous Coward]

No, we want a quick way to do a 100% reboot if the phone is in a bad state.

That happens often on Android? To the point where it's so hard-locked that the power button doesn't respond?

Re:Answers for both

[AuMatar]

If the phone is locked up, yes. Same thing for your computer and everything else. Hardware off switches are a rarity these days.

Re:Answers for both

[AuMatar]

Then you're extremely lucky, I've had iOS hard lock when dogfooding apps fairly frequently (although that was a few years ago, maybe they're better). But I don't trust ANY device without a real pull the plug option, not after years of doing firmware and mobile development. If a device needs batteries, I will not buy it unless those batteries are removable.

Re:Answers for both

[SuperKendall]

Then you're extremely lucky, I've had iOS hard lock when dogfooding apps fairly frequently

So have I, that's when I use the device reset (some combination of buttons, forget what) and it reboots in seconds.

I've never needed to drain the power to 0, no matter how bad the failure was (and they can be really bad on beta versions of iOS combined with writing apps).

Keep calm and wait for the LG G4

[Anonymous Coward]

LG and Samsung have quite a bit of bad blood with each other (washing machines and refrigerators), expect LG G4 to have a removable battery, microSD card support etc.

LG G3 was the better Korean phone anyway: thinner bezels, no crappy Touchwiz overlay, LASER focus camera. Samsung only got this big because of its marketing hype.

Another option is the HTC One M9, however I shall reserve judgement until a comprehensive review has been done on its new 20MP camera and how it performs in low light conditions.

As for the really hardcore Samsung fans, just wait for the Galaxy Note 5 later this year. It was quite obvious from last year that Samsung would go for the 'premium look' in the Samsung Galaxy S6. The Samsung Galaxy Alpha was their way to 'test market response'.

No difference in effect from external battery

[SuperKendall]

How is that any different from someone that carries an external battery pack for a phone? Most are smaller in form factor than second batteries for a phone would be... and they have the same result as having that second battery (only they are even slightly more useful since they don't need to be in the phone to charge).

Samsung has lost its way

[sremick]

No MicroSD slot and no removable battery means no sale for me. And from the posts on this forum, I'm far from alone.

When my S2 died a couple weeks ago I had already read the rumors that the S6 would lack these critical, basic features. So I went ahead and bought an S5. So glad I didn't wait for the anti-consumer S6.

Removable batteries are both about getting through a full day of hardcore usage without ever being tethered to a charging wire, as well as increasing the overal longevity of the phone by being able to replace it 2-3 years in when it no longer holds a decent charge.

Expandable storage isn't just about having more storage in the device. It's about being able to have safe storage independent of the device that can survive the device failing. Every night my phone does an automatic backup of all my apps and data to my MicroSD card. I can't tell you how many times this has saved me over the years, on multiple phones. More than once on my Samsung Captivate (original Galaxy S). More than once on my S2... including this most-recent time 2 weeks ago. I moved my MicroSD card over to my new S5, restored my data and I was right back where I left off.

And don't give me that crap about backing up to the "cloud". The "cloud" is a joke, and those of us in the Real World don't have data, let alone wifi access 24/7. Just because I don't have wireless signal doesn't mean I don't want my data backed up that night.

Every cell phone I've ever owned has had a removable battery, and every smartphone I've ever had has had a MicroSD card... including some non-smartphones from back when they were called TransFlash. There's no way in hell I'm going to start giving up these basic, core features of owning a phone. If Samsung doesn't get its head out of its ass, stop being stupid and stop being anti-consumer then the S5 could easily be the last Samsung phone I ever buy. I'll miss the OLED screen but they won't deserve my money at that point. I'll vote with my money and give it to a company that isn't into the business of screwing the user and forced-obsolescence.

Alternatives ?

[markus_baertschi]

It looks like the Galaxy line is dead for me (no SD, no battery change).

What phones with both of these features are still out there ?

Re:Alternatives ?

[zequav]

LG G3. I'm very happy with it.

Re:Fags and hipsters

[stealth_finger]

These phones are not hard to aquire. Sure if you want to buy it flat out sim free you're looking at a steep price tag, but like 90% of people (statistic provided by my ass) you get one on contact, so unless you have less than £20/30 (dunno what price contacts run in US) and can afford the monthly payment you can get practically any phone you want. Not hard, not exclusive, certainly not for the blessed few. Even fucking tesco workers are running around with latest model phone (or n-1 if their contract still has another year to run). If you can't afford one (if you want one) then you have a real shit job that pays peanuts, or no job at all.

I have been using both AMOLED and IPS

[Anonymous Coward]

since the introduction of the N9. IPS on the iPhone from my work, AMOLED first on the N9. Exactly because it was miles ahead of the iPhone screen (unbelievable blacks, unlike what you say no problem in daylight), after the N9 I have only been buying AMOLED phones for myself.

It won't fill the hole you feel inside.

[zawarski]

Only love can fill the hole.

Tear down, yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would like to see the product details of individual components, if there is a

Case for replacable batteries is solid

[fyngyrz]

The use case for easily replaceable batteries is pretty weak.

Not until the phone can run for several days of hard use without a charge, it isn't.

Re:Case for replacable batteries is solid

[Anonymous Coward]

The use case for easily replaceable batteries is pretty weak.

Not until the phone can run for several days of hard use without a charge, it isn't.

At the moment you're getting about a day of hard use so exactly who is carrying around several charged spare batteries?

Re:Fags and hipsters

[stafil]

leave = live