Gadgetory

deciding between the Samsung Galaxy s6 and its new active counterpart might seem at first to depend only on how active you are but there's more to it than just a little rubber cladding i'm michael fisher with pocket now and let's find out which is the better fit for you in galaxy s6 active versus galaxy s6 let's get the most obvious difference out of the way first yes the galaxy s6 active is a much more rugged smartphone than the standard s6 how much more rugged well the active is rated to ip68 for complete protection against dust and water resistance even beyond 1 meter of Total Immersion on top of that it comes packing a mil standard 810g certification for among other things temperature extremes and shock resistance when dropped from a height of 4 feet or less how does the standard galaxy s6 fare under the same conditions we have no idea and we're not keen on sacrificing our own device to find out suffice to say the s5 active is by far the more durable of these 2 phones and our review device spares the scuffs to prove it but you can learn all that from a spec sheet in real life these phones also feel completely different in the hand thanks mostly to the added mass and thickness of the active wear the delicate glass ingot of the s6 feels like an expensive fashion accessory the solid block of the active feels more like a piece of military equipment the active is also much easier to hold onto than the standard s6 whose all glass construction is very slippery by comparison there's a shift in buttons here to wear on the stock s6 a pair of touch sensitive capacitive keys flank an integrated home button and fingerprint scanner the active brings a row of rubberized physical buttons with no fingerprint sensor in sight that's a plus if you're on a dusty jobsite or a wet work boat we're finicky touch sensitive buttons aren't always a great fit and Samsung has also added another button alongside the volume rocker on the active by default it takes you to the activity zone a hub of outdoorsy apps like compass barometer and s health and you can also set it to launch any app you want which makes it a very versatile and handy addition while most of the important specs remain identical across these siblings Samsung has reshuffled some internal components between the two the speakerphone has been moved from the bottom edge to its erstwhile location on the backside of the active that's good for gaming because you're not as likely to block the port with an errant finger when playing a stressful title but we wish Samsung had found a way to put it up front instead speaking of gaming the s6 active doesn't get quite as hot in the hand as its glass sibling thanks to its construction and you also won't run into the problem of squeezing the phone too hard and activating the front side capacitive keys because there aren't any back to the spec changes while the s6 comes in capacities all the way up to 128 gigs the s6 active for now at least comes only in a 32 gig version considering only about 24 of those are available to the user out of the box this is something to keep in mind especially when you take into account the lack of microSD the final component change is the biggest one the embedded battery the galaxy s6 active ups the capacity by an impressive 37 percent over the standard s6 which makes a huge difference in day-to-day endurance while it's always a struggle for us to get even four hours of screen on time from our stock s6 the s6 active delivered five-and-a-half hours of screen on time over 13 hours off the charger on our first day and that's with heavy use of the battery intensive game ingress over the same period while there's a small caveat here our s6 active is on AT&T while our stock s6 is on t-mobile there's not a significant enough difference in coverage or network architecture here in Greater Boston to make us question the end result with such a massive power pack the s6 active is a much longer lasting phone than its non active compatriot just keep in mind that it also takes slightly longer to charge even with the adaptive fast charger included in the box if you want to charge wirelessly both G and PMA are supported just like the standard s6 there's one critical availability difference to touch on here in the states the galaxy s6 active is an ATT exclusive so if you want one you'll have to be cool with you they're moving to big orange or unlocking it for use on t-mobile without band 12 you'll also lose ATT HD voice service in that case which by the way is really nice more on that in the full review any other differences are extremely minor the display on our active looks a little greener than its counterpart but it's not a big enough difference to show on film the metal encased camera lens on the s6 active is more protected because it's more recessed but the cameras produce very similar if not identical and results in their photos and AT&T has chosen to bundle ear buds with the stock s6 but not the active for some reason or some because the active actually costs $10 more at full retail so obvious conclusion first the straight-up galaxy s6 is the smart phone to get if you're looking to impress in the looks department and you want a gadget that feels more like a luxury item or you absolutely need a fingerprint scanner the galaxy s6 active is the phone for you if you're a roughneck a boat captain or championship klutz of the first order now sure you could just slap the stock s6 in a protective case but you wouldn't necessarily get the milspec rugged ization or water resistance and you definitely wouldn't get the beefier battery of the active personally I carry a pocket external battery most of the time I'm pretty careful with my gadgets and I love a phone that looks and feels great so I'd probably go for the stock s6 if this were my decision but if you're the type who pushes a smart phone to its limits in more ways than just durability and you don't mind some limit pushing aesthetics to go with that lifestyle the s6 active will certainly be the better call find out how the Galaxy s6 active performs all the way around head on over to pocketnow.com the week of June 21st for our full review and subscribe here on youtube if you did enjoy this comparison until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on twitter reminding active owners to let us know how your experience has been down in the comments below thanks for watching everyone we'll see you next time