The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have been launched in India, less than a month after their initial announcement at the MWC. While the Galaxy S6 will start selling at Rs. 49,900 for the 32GB version, the S6 Edge will cost Rs. 58,900 for the same. Both the devices will start selling from April 10 onwards.
Display
Quad-HD on a 5.1 inch display doesn't exactly make a big difference, but Samsung's Super AMOLED panel does look really sharp. That said, the contrast seemed a bit off on the demo devices.
Rear
The glass finish on the back is different from any Samsung design till date, but it doesn't seem as tough as Samsung says it is. Also, it may be prone to scratching. Of course, we'll have to wait for the full review to find that out.
Metal
The use of metal is easily discernible on the side of the device. Yes, there are some similarities to the iPhone 6, but not enough to be called a rip-off.
Overall though, this is definitely not the best looking phone you can find out there. While the design is a fresh for Samsung devices, it still doesn't stand a chance against the HTC One M9, or even the iPhone 6.
Rear Camera
The 16MP camera on the back bulges out from the rest of the body, but it is fast to launch and shoot images with. Samsung wasn't lying about that one.
Front Camera
There's also a 5MP front camera on both the devices. Samsung talked about the f/1.9 aperture, along with real time HDR. If the Note 4 is any evidence, this could be one of the best selfie cameras out there.
UI
Samsung says it has made Touchwiz bloatware free and we didn't see a lot of bloatware on the demo devices. That said, the company seems to have intentionally made the transitions between screens slower, which gives the UI a sluggish feel.
Slimness
At 6.8 mm and 7 mm, the S6 and S6 Edge are amongst the thinnest devices in the market. The trade off seems to be smaller 2550 mAh and 2600 mAh batteries. While Samsung has a pretty good track record in batteries, a quad-HD screen is a hard deal.
The Edge
When Samsung introduced the Note Edge alongside the Note 4, it seemed like something that could eventually be useful. It was a whole new panel, which had features of its own. The S6 Edge though is a new iteration, which seems rather like a gimmick.
It's no longer a seperate panel and hasn't much usability. You get a few inbuilt functions with the phone, but that's about it. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of scope for improvement.
Performance
The S6 and S6 Edge both run on Samsung's new Exynos 7 Octa processor, which is manufactured using the company's 14nm process. According to Samsung, it's more powerful than the Snapdragon 810 and we can confirm that after out full review.
Bottomline
The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are competitively priced, that is, if the iPhone 6 is their competitor. They have nothing to take the market away from the liked of Xiaomi and aren't likely to deter Apple either. They really don't seem like the devices that will bring Samsung back, despite finally using premium design elements.
Here are a few more images of the S6 and S6 Edge.
As mentioned above, the Edge display is not a standalone display anymore.
Both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are available in a bunch of colours, including, White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum. In addition, there's a Blue variant for the Galaxy S6 and a Emerald Green variant for the S6 Edge.
Register for Samsung Galaxy S6 on Flipkart at Rs. 49,900
Register for Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge on Flipkart at Rs. 64,900