By Jamshed Avari | Updated: 22 April 2015 18:11 IST
It's been a tumultuous year for Samsung.
Buoyant and complacent with being the world's most successful Android
smartphone vendor for ages, the Korean giant was perhaps not prepared
for its Galaxy S5 flagship last year to be so roundly criticised for not
breaking any new ground. The heart rate sensor was pretty much mostly a
gimmick, and the glossy plastic body did it no favours when seen next
to its competition. Chinese brands have started having an impact on
its low-end and mid-range sales, and Lollipop updates for older devices
have been coming too slowly, if at all.
Samsung's image has lost a
lot of its former sheen; even more so when it comes to the top-end
Galaxy S range. Under more pressure than ever before, the company is
betting on a major reinvention. Gone is the cheap plastic, in favour of
slick aluminium. Gone is the heavy TouchWiz skin with dozens of settings
and features that no one ever used - the software is more restrained than ever.
We first saw the new
Samsung Galaxy S6 (and its eclectic curved-glass twin, the Galaxy S6 Edge)
shortly after its launch at the 2015 Mobile World Congress show, but
now we've had enough time to conduct a full, thorough review. The device
is launching in India just over a month after its global debut, making
it the first of this year's flagship models to make it here. Should you
rush out and buy one?
Look and feel Samsung has been
experimenting with metal bodies up and down its product lineup, so it's
no surprise that the new flagship model comes in full aluminium trim.
Samsung's phones have been difficult to tell apart in the past because
of the company's very set template, and the Galaxy S6 feels like something of a
missed opportunity in terms of a breakout design. With new materials and new
priorities, Samsung could have gone in exciting directions but the
Galaxy S6 not only carries forward most of its predecessors' style, it
somehow simultaneously manages to look like it has borrowed cues from
Sony and Apple.
While the influence of the iPhone 6 (Review | Pictures) and its predecessors is apparent in
details such as the machined speaker grille and chamfered rim edges, we
find that the overall shape and style feel more derivative of the Sony
Xperia Z3 (Review | Pictures). Other touches, such as the silver-rimmed physical Home button
are pure Samsung.
The front and back are flat glass, and the
metal rim has a slight curve that fits nicely in a hand. Thankfully, the
Galaxy S5 (Review | Pictures) rim's ugly ridges were smoothened out. The power button and
Nano-SIM tray are on the right, and two separate volume buttons are on
the left. The only things on top are an IR emitter and secondary mic,
while the speaker, Micro-USB port and headset socket are all on the
bottom. Flaps over the ports and slots for waterproofing are
conspicuously absent. The home button has an integrated fingerprint
reader and there's also a heart rate sensor right beneath the flash on
the rear.
Samsung has clearly shifted its priorities as far as
design is concerned, and this is the first Galaxy S model not to have an
accessible battery. Also as a consequence, there's no room for a
microSD card slot - you'll have to choose a storage capacity at the time
of purchase and then live with that much.
The biggest problem
with the design is that this phone is extremely slippery. We often found
ourselves uncertain of our grip on it; holding it extra tight to
compensate. The camera module sticks out quite a bit from the rear -
it's larger and more obtrusive than the infamous one on the iPhone 6,
and the Galaxy S6 wobbles when you try to use it lying face up on a table.
Specifications The
fact that Samsung has gone with its in-house Exynos processor for all
global versions of the Galaxy S6 signals the company's growing
confidence in its ability to compete with top-tier technology firms such
as Qualcomm. The Exynos 7420 SoC has four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex A53 cores
and four 2.1GHz Cortex A57 cores, allowing the phone to strike a balance
between performance and power consumption for all kinds of tasks.
There's 3GB of RAM, which is standard for top-end phones now.
With
no microSD card slot, Samsung has made the Galaxy S6 available in
multiple storage configurations. The strategy and pricing follow Apple's
precedents, but the base model comes with 32GB rather than 16GB, which
seems like a direct shot across the bow.
Predictably, the screen
moves up to QHD resolution, which is 1440x2560 pixels. At 5.1 inches
diagonally, it's a lot easier to handle than last year's QHD flagships.
The screen is beautifully crisp and bright, and it's protected by
Gorilla Glass 4.
Like last year's Galaxy S5, the physical Home
button has an integrated fingerprint sensor, but now you don't have to
swipe your finger across it - a simple touch will do. The heart rate
sensor on the rear is also still around. We found the one on the Galaxy
S5 gimmicky and ultimately forgettable. This one is positioned to one
side of the camera hump, making less likely that regular usage will
become a habit.
Software Samsung has famously reduced a lot
of the software clutter that defined its Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S5
devices. TouchWiz has tried to mimic some of Google's Lollipop-era
Material Design aesthetic and it is a marked improvement over previous
Samsung attempts at UI design. Responsiveness isn't a problem, and we
never got the feeling that any of the customisations were a step
backwards from stock Android.
There are some things that you might
never use, but are fairly unobtrusive and can be disabled, such as the
Fliboard-style news reader to the left of the primary home screen, and
the ability to run two apps simultaneously in a split-screen mode. The
quick settings and notifications shade is handy - for example, grabbing
the brightness slider makes all other controls temporarily disappear
from the screen, letting you see how your adjustment will affect the
underlying app or content.
Interestingly, there's now a Themes
app and an associated online store from which you can download packs
that give your Galaxy S6 UI a complete visual overhaul. We noticed a few
branded options, so presumably Samsung is open to licensing deals. We
hope to see more variety in the store soon.
There are still
significant amounts of Samsung-branded bloat, such as the Galaxy
Essentials and Galaxy Gifts apps and widget. It looks like a bunch of
apps such as Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram are
preloaded, but these icons take you do download pages which means they
aren't taking up as much space by default. You also get the Peel Smart
Remote app with which to use the IR blaster.
Of course one of the
biggest stories here is the default inclusion of Microsoft apps and
services, right in Google's stronghold. Skype, OneDrive and OneNote are
preloaded, though not the Microsoft Office apps which would compete
directly with Google's offerings. OneNote is fantastically useful and
any use of OneDrive is a toe-hold for the company. Any more than this
and users would have been faced with confusing choices.
S-Health
is still around, tied in to the heart rate monitor on the rear but more
realistically useful if you have a smartwatch or dedicated monitoring
device. The app lists compatible accessories including of course the
Samsung Gear range, plus devices from Garmin, Adidas and others. We
didn't wind up getting much use out of S-Health during our review
period, but it will probably be useful over time to those who make it
part of their daily routine.
Camera Flagship phones today
are distinguished by their cameras, and the Samsung Galaxy S6 does very
well indeed in this department. We were constantly amazed by the quality
of photos we were able to take, and the accuracy of subtle little
details. Daylight shots were extraordinarily impressive, especially when
we were able to frame shots to get some depth of field. Close-ups
revealed that the camera can reproduce fine textures and really make
colours pop.
We were satisfied with the compression and noise
levels too, even in low light. While ambient lighting made a huge
difference to the colour accuracy of shots and the autofocus was often
unreliable at night, we were more than impressed with the results we
were able to capture. We have only seen better low-light results from
the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
(Click to see full size)
4K video came out well, though we
still feel that there aren't many occasions on which 4K makes more
sense than regular 1080p - especially if you go for the lowest-priced
32GB model. A 30-second 4K clip came to around 170MB, while an
equivalent 1080p clip took up just 60MB. The phone warns you that some
features, such as continuous autofocus and still grabs aren't possible
while recording in 4K, and we also found this to be the only time when
the phone really got hot in our hands.
Samsung's camera app has
also undergone a significant makeover. The massive grid of settings has
been distilled into a few options on screen, with a deeper menu for
things that spill over. A manual mode lets you drag sliders to adjust the focus and exposure compensation, which is really neat.
(Click to see full size)
There's a modular approach to features - a
"Camera Mode store" lets you add things that aren't already there, such
as a mode for sports or fast-moving objects, one for food, a face
beautifier, dual-cam PIP, and many more fringe use cases. It's a lot
better than having a thousand options by default, and we wonder if paid
camera software enhancements are on the way.
Performance Samsung
clearly believes its Exynos processors are mature enough to bet the
entire flagship Galaxy S line on, and we found that its confidence is
not misplaced. The Galaxy S6 will go up against multiple devices powered
by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810, but for now it can enjoy the first
mover's advantage as we can't compare the two processors yet.
Benchmark
scores were some of the highest we've ever seen - the AnTuTu score of
67,975 was significantly higher than our previous record, 52,686 set by
the Motorola Moto Turbo. Quadrant returned 34,417 points overall. Both
scores are significantly better than the Galaxy S5 managed to achieve.
Even
more interestingly, GFXBench ran at 39fps and 3DMark's Ice Storm
Unlimited test achieved 21,878 points. That means despite the
pixel-dense screen, there's more than enough graphics horsepower to let
you run today's most demanding games at adequate frame rates. Video
playback performance is just fine, and even the speaker is crisp and
clear despite being shoved into such a slim body.
The battery
lasted 13 hours, 8 minutes in our standard video loop test. This should
easily translate to a full day of heavy usage, including cellular data
and games. The phone also charges very quickly, which is a feature
everyone can appreciate.
Verdict We mostly approve of
Samsung's new direction. The company has clearly identified why the
Galaxy S5 didn't look so great against its competitors, and has taken
steps to rectify every problem. The Galaxy S6 is perfectly in line with
what we expect a 2015 flagship phone to be. It isn't perfect, but
there's seemingly a workaround for every problem: a 128GB version for
those who need storage space; downloadable components for features that
were dropped; slick features that don't make the software feel
excessive.
The Galaxy S6 is still a little bland in terms of
style, but at least it doesn't feel like an ugly toy. Only the camera
bulge is a real problem, though for the quality we're getting, we can
live with it. You'll want a protective case anyway, which will somewhat
tone down the bulge.
If you're in the market for a top-end Android
phone with a reasonably sized screen and cost is not a limiting factor,
there's really nothing to beat the Galaxy S6 at this moment. If you can
hold on for a little while, we'd suggest waiting till HTC, LG and
possibly Sony launch their own competitors. If style is more important
than anything else, the Galaxy S6 Edge has all the same features and
advantages.
Also worth noting, the Galaxy S5 has dropped to
nearly half of its launch price and is just a year old. Flagships don't
age in terms of specifications and capabilities, and so the S5 is a
viable alternative. If you want an Android experience that's closer to
stock, you could also consider the Motorola Moto Turbo (Review | Pictures).
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