Gadgetory

the newest flagship from Samsung changes much of the established formula to create what might be one of their best devices yet this is Joshua Fogg our from Android Authority what's going on everybody and this is the Samsung Galaxy s6 a new material choice in the design is perhaps the main headline of the galaxy s6 what was once a glossy plastic finish in a dimple the backing is now a metal frame with glass on both sides though some of the design cues might seem to come from specific sources of inspiration the Essex still retains the Samsung aesthetic with its shape and button layout making very clear that this is still a galaxy device the middle frame is a very welcome change with the button layout following suit as the power button and the volume rockers now have a very meaty and reassuring press and click to them and the buttons up front are still comprised of the tactile home button flanked by recent apps and back capacitive keys and even then the metallic frame has some of the tapered rises on the top and bottom halves that are reminiscent of the Galaxy Note 4's frame the vast majority of the phone's hardware is found on the bottom now with the microUSB charging port now flanked by both the headphone jack and the newly located speaker grille 2.5 D glass adds a little dimension to the glass atop the display and now the backing itself is made of glass there are some obvious issues with this design choice because the backing is no longer removable and thus a couple of key features go by the wayside replaceable battery and expandable storage this will be the topic of debate for quite some time I'm sure as many users have grown accustomed to having these two features in their galaxy phones the camera optics are up top on the back accompanying by the heart rate monitor that is now vertically placed in order to better capture the finger it is monitoring now the main issue I always had was with the camera because it sticks out quite a bit now I know that I say this a lot about similarly constructed cameras but with the galaxy s6 this became a real-world issue when I was trying to shoot the phone standing up on location a gust of wind simply just made the phone go splat like that but when I picked up the phone and looked at the glass that covers the lens there was a crack now thankfully this was just a cosmetic issue and it did not hinder the camera experience one bit still it's very unfortunate that it even happened and though it might have been acing situation in my case it still didn't make me feel very secure about the crystal that is supposed to protect the camera on this phone aside from just the material change what is also noticed about the s6 is its light weight it's pretty easy to handle this phone and keeping the screen around the 5-inch size keeps this phone accessible for the vast majority of users though there was some slippage from time to time it definitely didn't keep me from rating the s6 as a very comfortable phone to use I can't help but think that the people who use to lament the plastic build on samsung devices are going to be happy now and then everybody else now are going to be upset because those users who wanted their Samsung devices to pretty much literally be everything to them are just not going to get it in this version replaceable batteries and expandable storage have gone by the wayside but it's going to be up to you to figure out if those are actually going to be deal-breakers nonetheless this might just be one of the best-looking phones that Samsung has ever made and we are quite happy with the step forward that Samsung has taken this long to finally take a 5.1 inch display as I mentioned already keeps the phone accessible for plenty of users who don't want to go up to the growing group of sub six-inch phones but even if you settle for this size of screen you'll still get all of the power with the Super AMOLED display that now comes in a quad HD resolution Super AMOLED will bring what many of its fans already enjoy deep blacks and highly vivid colors that are Samsung's signature with the full freedom to still change the color saturation if it is too much for you and with the high resolution just about everything on this device looks absolutely gorgeous text is incredibly sharp with the 577 pixels per inch videos are a blast to watch even if the full 2k resolution isn't really being taken full advantage of and I've already played and enjoyed my fair share of games viewing the phone in broad daylight is not difficult at all though some issues with glare were expected and observed but at full brightness I still had few issues getting things done in an incredibly open and sunny area of SoCal I noticed that was such a dense display it is also a little sensitive swiping down the notification drop-down requires just the right kind of flick and even a small touch from the skin on the sides of the device when playing games for example can mean the difference between living and dying in it these aren't necessarily issues per se but things that I simply noticed when using the s6 and perhaps they are testaments to how advanced the screen is on of just being one of the best viewing experiences available now in the galaxy s6 Samsung set a precedent by not looking to Qualcomm this time around for their chipsets the Korean giant has been making processes of their own for quite some time now and it looks like the s6 is the Exynos coming-out party so globally the exceed no 7420 processor will power the s6 bringing 2.1 gigahertz of performance with the mali t760 and 3 gigabytes of ram backing it up it almost made perfect sense to me that Samsung would optimize their operating system for their own processing packages and it looks like this combination has actually paid off performance on the s6 absolutely screams with even the normal movements through the TouchWiz interface speedily going along in smooth transitions hitting the recent apps screen and jumping among the applications is a breeze the performance of the galaxy s6 is perhaps most easily demonstrated though by the camera shortcut simply double tap the home button and the camera application will gingerly slide up from the bottom in under a second and almost every single time it will do so without a hitch the multi graphics also do well to produce a good gaming experience and the only slowdown I noticed was when there were too many things happening on screen like let's say all the explosions and Sky Force but even then the stutter was cosmetic and the game speed itself did not let up where you might have always noticed and got maybe angered by the stutters and slowdowns of TouchWiz we now have one of the smoothest iterations of Samsung's UI yet and it only further justifies Samsung's move to stick with the processors that they've made in-house but now in the hardware segment we might see some of the appeal fading because where we once looked to Samsung as at least having all of the features that other devices didn't we are now seeing a dialing back of that very philosophy let's get one of the audience holes out of the way right now expandable storage while it is an issue that even I am a little bit peeved about the bottom line here is that with the galaxy s6 there are no slots or trays anymore on the samsung galaxy device that you will able to put your microSD cards in and you might start to collect a little bit of dust in this iteration and while this is definitely an issue for most the s6 will at least now come with a minimum 32 gigabyte storage option with 64 and 128 gigabyte options available for those powered users who do need that space connectivity was no issue with the phone easily connecting to my LTE networks on t-mobile and AT&T and the call quality proving to be as good as ever and speaking of sound the s6 is probably the best speaker experience Samsung has ever put out on a flagship with the bottom located speaker bringing some pretty loud audio enjoyable and even some noisy environments it still isn't as good as front-facing speakers but it's vastly superior to any of the rear mounted units Samsung has used in the past you the heart rate monitor makes a return and works a little better this time around mainly because of its orientation even if you don't use it very often the updated s health application and the ability to use the sensor as a trigger for self-portrait camera shots give it a couple extra capabilities underneath the home button is the fingerprint scanner now that is a press type which is much better than the swipe version found in previous iterations unlocking the phone gets easier now as you can just wake the phone by pressing the home button and leave your finger on the button and in a moment the phone opens up what we like most about this is that unlocking the phone in this method is finally about as fast as it would be with the typical swipe method and finally we make it to the battery a non removable one which is an issue for plenty of people that is also a little smaller than previously found in Galaxy devices 25 50 milliamp hours is its capacity and with the quad HD display it's easy to dismiss the gallery life of the s 6 s subpar but that's only half the story now what I didn't mention in the performance aspect was that the processor in the Galaxy S six is now over 14 nanometer construction what this basically means is that the same data transmission can be done on a smaller area and this supposedly is supposed to help power consumption unfortunately when you factor in all of the other powerful specs on here including the screen the battery life just seemed to even out rather than get better than before as such the s6 performs about where you would expect a bit over the full day of work for the typical user with the power user probably relying on the power saving modes and the occasional connection to a fast charger or a wireless charging dock because the s6 supports wireless charging out of the box to say that it is a bummer the s6 isn't an overachiever in the battery life Department is unfortunate but the fact that it is an average performer at best is something we quite frankly expect it to say hardware is rounded out by the camera package which brings some of the best specifications we've seen from a Samsung device 16 megapixels in the rear facing unit and 5 megapixels in the front with both shooters sporting f 1.9 apertures for better low-light shots and auto HDR modes to easily add a pop to photos what's easy to see in the camera app is that things have been dialed back a bit with elements on the viewfinder relegated to the sides until you hit the pro mode which is a very welcome addition while pro modes aren't necessarily very knew what I personally enjoyed about this one is the ability to manually adjust the focus this to me is a better way to take advantage of the depth of field and F 1.9 aperture provides though if you do prefer to change the focus of a shot after the fact instead the selective focus mode is still available panorama in virtual shot modes are available too if you want to get fancy and the panoramic captured does well to keep stitching to a minimum unless your subjects are moving way too much and video can be captured in slow motion or in 4k though both of these modes will not have the benefit of HDR and various other enhancements 1080p video capture gets the front-facing camera though not an overachiever is more than enough for self-portraits and just about any situation and having HDR available means you can get a somewhat better shot if you need a better exposure compensation though the viewfinder might not always show you how good the photo will turn out in live view the pictures I got in situations where I expected lackluster quality frequently turned out better having HDR on auto takes the guesswork out of double exposure situations but I do think that its effect is too light in good lighting the camera gets highly detailed very vivid photos that are worthy of everything from social media to capturing key moments and rarely did I get a dull photo auto focus tracking proved to be useful for moving subjects as the camera did well to keep focus steady and had few missteps it is certainly better than feverishly tapping on the screen yourself and in lower light situations the F 1.9 aperture definitely helped though there is a law of diminishing returns as the light gets dimmer but for these shots in the dead of night outside I was still pretty impressed with what came out and I was even more impressed when I zoomed in normally on Android camera zooming into the darker spots of a photo reveals smudges and overly fuzzy interpretations of the captured noise after all it's not necessarily how much the camera will be able to capture but what is done to that data after the photo was taken but in the galaxy s6 the noise is largely left alone so the portrayal of the scene remains pretty accurate this is a much better way of handling the lower light situations as you get the photo just the way it can be given and the photo doesn't get any worse than it should be because of shoddy post-processing in the end when the best camera is the one you have on you you can do so much worse in the galaxy s6 and that's really saying something when it comes to software one of the first things we noticed about the galaxy s6 is that in this version of TouchWiz we no longer have all of those sounds that used to annoy us from before everything from those water sounds to the water droplets that were happening are now replaced by much simpler sounds like just a click and this story of trimming down continues when you get to the settings screen many of the features that oversaturate previous Galaxy S devices are nowhere to be found like the air gestures or the toolbox and even the settings screen itself is not an incredible mess of dozens and dozens of circle icons this time it's a simple list with an easily editable quick settings area on top the notification drop-down is still of the signature Samsung iteration made a little bit easier on the eyes with the lollipop aesthetic put in and speaking of lollipop the recent apps screen has the card layout but it is also the place where multi window can be activated either hold down the recent apps button to be guided into creating your dual panel or press the icon found on any of the compatible cards the next thing we noticed in this touch wiz was the lack of incessant tutorials rather than throwing all of its capabilities in the users face the galaxy s6 seems content to be used based on the user's own sensibilities and if that person wanted the extra Samsung capabilities they're available if they know how to trigger them the multi window is the main example of this but there is also the small window capability that was originally introduced in the note 4 which I accidentally discovered on my own when swiping down from the top sure enough this feature is still available by swiping from any top corner to create a smaller version of my screen which could then be made into a multi window setup or a floating icon for safekeeping and nowhere in this situation was I interrupted with an annoying tutorial screen with many of the questionable features of TouchWiz also go many of these Samsung applications that are now no longer pre-installed but I do tip my hat to the new look in s-health which is a bit more attractive to look at as I check my heart rate from time to time this dialing back of the software is a refreshing change of pace even if touch which still looks a little too bubbly or is a bit too colourful like before but there's even an answer for that as the s6 introduces a theme store where you can find and install a whole new look for the interface it's not the most customizable version of themes we've seen but it's a big step in the right direction as already mentioned before the galaxy s6 absolutely flies through all of its elements even through the overachieving features like the multi window and the S window functionality that I just showed you so what's great about the galaxy s6 is that if you are used just the typical Android experience you get it skins via TouchWiz but the experience is still as smooth and as speedy as it should be and then if you want to dig a little bit deeper you can find those extra features without TouchWiz parading itself all over your face on the daily this is definitely one of the smoothest and easy a software experiences Samsung has ever put out and it stands as one of the best in this current crop of flagship devices this year now we don't quite know what the price will be on carriers in the States but the s6 should come out at the typical prices on contracts with the equally typical price of around or at least $700 unlocked it is a flagship device after all for even more premium price the s6 edge is a choice that brings a unique take on the galaxy s experience though our review will soon give the verdict on whether the edges are worth it and of course other flagships this year will contend with the s6 like the HTC One m9 which is very soon on the market and in our hands for a review and of course the usual main competitor the iPhone 6 sometimes a company needs a different perspective to gain all of its attention back and with the galaxy s6 Samsung has definitely brought back quite a bit of the buzz at lost in the s4 and 5 a pretty drastic change in design philosophy brings one of the best-looking and handling devices the Galaxy S line has ever had but sacrifices some of the key elements that Samsung fans Pine over if I'm honest I haven't really carried a spare battery nor used any of them for any of the phones that support them in the past let's say two years and even then it's been a while since I've used a microSD card inside of any of my daily driver so the lack of expandable storage even though it is a bit of a sore point for me is not something that I truly need in this for my daily driver but I do realize that I'm only one half of the story one side of the story in this new chapter in Samsung's history it is yet another polarizing phone to the masses just like iterations from before but perhaps for different reasons now but for all that has changed on the outside what has changed on the inside might even out the negatives TouchWiz is better than ever which is something I kind of never thought I'd say the camera experience continues to improve and keeps Samsung among the top Android shooters and a powerful screen and processor underneath it lent to an easily recommended daily driver for many users whether forward or backward song has finally shifted in a number of key areas and the s6 is the change we've been waiting for and the result is one of the best devices they've ever put out one that won't as easily fade into obscurity the way its predecessors did thank you guys very much for watching this review of the Samsung Galaxy s6 our s6 coverage does not end here as I have plenty of videos coming in the next week or so to really show you how it fares against a competition I have a camera shootout that is really close to coming out so you make sure you stay tuned for that and then I will be pitting this phone against all of the major flagships including the iPhone and the HTC One m9 in the coming days so keep it tuned here and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already so you can keep up with all of that and don't forget to head on over to android authority dot-com for even more in-depth coverage because we are your source for all things Android