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Samsung Officially Unpacks Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge At MWC

Posted by samzenpus on from the check-it-out dept.

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.

13 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Nope by ledow · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

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

    1. Re:Nope by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Nope by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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)

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    3. Re:Nope by ganjadude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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)

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    4. Re:Nope by olddoc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
    5. Re:Nope by Dracos · · Score: 1, Insightful

      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.

    6. Re:Nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      /

    7. Re:Nope by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    8. Re:Nope by unrtst · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  2. What? by SternisheFan · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  3. Re: they have to compare it to the iphone 6, by unami · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  4. No SD card = major weakness by dwheeler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    - David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
  5. The good news is by denisbergeron · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !