The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 is one of the most important for Samsung in a long fourth dimension. The company's smartphone revenues are slipping, profits are down, and competition is stronger than ever. Apple's stiff launch of the iPhone half dozen heaped a particularly large corporeality of pressure on the company, especially after the relatively tepid launch of the Milky way S5.

Noticing that the company was falling behind Apple and other smartphones OEMs in the looks department, Samsung sought to completely revamp the design for their next flagship: the Galaxy S6. Combined with peak-of-the-line hardware on every forepart, this was undoubtedly going to be Samsung's best endeavour at creating a compelling high-terminate phone in a long time. It could finally be the Samsung device I can safely recommend.

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But this fourth dimension around at that place's non just one flagship from Samsung, but ii: the company has released a curved-display Edge variant that carries mostly the same hardware as its standard flat-screen blood brother. Both come with a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED brandish with a top-end 1440p resolution, a brand new Exynos vii Octa 7420 SoC, and a 16-megapixel optically stabilized camera. Different with the past three generations of Galaxy flagships, there'southward no Qualcomm model in sight.

The Border model is especially interesting, because simply like the mediocre Milky way Note Border, information technology brings few new features to the tabular array for an inflated toll tag. This time there are two curved edges to contend with, as well every bit a refined pattern and better software, merely going in to this review I certainly wasn't optimistic virtually the improvements.

From the moment I unboxed both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, it was clear that these devices accept the nicest designs Samsung has ever produced. Late last year the company finally got the message that inexpensive, crappy plastic isn't good enough for a high-terminate smartphone, releasing both the Galaxy Blastoff and Galaxy Note 4 with a bear on of metal. Samsung has refined this further with the S6, opting to use swish, smooth glass on the front and back of the device reminiscent of Sony's Xperia Z line.

The metal effectually the edges of the Galaxy S6 complements the clean glass on the front end and back well from a visual standpoint. Samsung has opted for an attractive matte finish to the aluminium side panels, with comfortable curves and slight sculpting on all sides. And like almost phones with metal edges, there are a few polycarbonate strips that pause up the solid metal frame to ensure acceptable wireless functioning.

Like most current flagships, the S6 is available in a range of colors that include black, white and gold. I received the black S6 and S6 Edge to review, which has a slightly blueish hue when the reflective glass panels are viewed under potent lighting. This effect is rather unusual, but the cogitating panels bereft of texturing look slick and classy from most angles.

When the Galaxy S6 was announced, many comparisons were fabricated betwixt its blueprint and that of the iPhone 6. It'southward true that the lesser border that features the three.5mm audio jack, microUSB 2.0 port and speaker grille is suspiciously close in design to the latest iPhones, but that'southward where the similarities cease. The top edge features but an infrared LED for controlling home theatre equipment, while the left side has the volume buttons, and the right side has the power button.

The S6's bezels to the top and bottom of the display aren't the smallest going around, and that'due south in part due to the inclusion of offscreen navigation buttons. However the handset is very sparse, with well-nigh of the body clocking in at 7.0mm thin, or vii.1mm on the S6 Edge (Samsung lists both devices as slightly thinner, simply real earth measurements tell the total story). I was also pleased by how light both devices are: 138 grams for the S6 and 132 grams for the S6 Edge is pretty svelte for devices that uses large portions of metal and Gorilla Glass 4.

Of the two flagship handsets, the S6 Edge has the nicer visual design. The manner the screen curves away to either side is unlike whatsoever other telephone on the market place, and this creates a very swooshable front console. The curvature of the metal edges besides adds that extra fleck of interest that y'all only don't get with the regular Galaxy S6, and it's head and shoulders above the awkward, lop-sided look of the Notation Edge.

Nonetheless I wouldn't say the Milky way S6 or the S6 Edge have the nicest smartphone designs I've always seen. The iPhone 6 has a more refined body that continues to set the standard for seamless craftsmanship, and I still love the full-metallic design of HTC's latest smartphones, including the One M9. But for the first fourth dimension ever, I can comfortably say the Galaxy S6 is right up there with the all-time designed phones on the market.

Unfortunately the beautiful Galaxy S6 blueprint comes with a number of pretty significant merchandise-offs compared to its predecessor. The use of drinking glass on the front and back, coupled with relatively smooth metallic, makes the S6 an extremely slippery handset. You're going to demand a firm grip on this device, or at that place'south a good chance it will slide out of your manus and stop in disaster.

Samsung has also removed 2 features that select users loved about the Galaxy line. The S6 doesn't come with a removable battery – which isn't a big deal considering a sealed battery leads to a slimmer, more elegant design – but more importantly there's no microSD card slot. Smartphone OEMs continue to rip consumers off with the pricing of higher chapters devices, and microSD cards accept been a not bad way to combat this. Without the inclusion of expandable storage though, you're forced to pay exorbitant amounts for more internal storage, which is an unacceptable solution.

And it's not similar Samsung couldn't take implemented a microSD card slot on a device without a removable back cover. The company already implemented a nano-SIM tray below the S6's ability push (or on the top border of the S6 Edge), and then in that location's no good reason why at that place couldn't be some other tray to facilitate expandable storage.

While the regular S6 is mostly a very comfortable device to agree and operate, despite its slippery body, the same tin can't be said for the S6 Edge. Similar with the Annotation Border, this is down to the relatively sharp metallic edge below the curved brandish on either side. Every bit the brandish'southward curve is gentler on the S6 Border, the device is easier to agree than the Note Edge, only the outward-angled metallic sides aren't as comfy to grip as the regular S6, even though it reduces the slipperiness somewhat.

The side buttons on the S6 Border, especially the power button, also aren't equally ergonomically positioned as they are on the regular S6. Due to the angle of the metal border and their slimmer design, they're harder to hit; another compromise relating to the curved display. Luckily Samsung had the sense to move the power button from the top edge, which is where information technology was positioned on the Note Edge, although usability still remains an issue.