Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Review

The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a hugely impressive handset and in many ways the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has even more potential. After all it’s essentially the same phone, just with an innovative and great-looking curved screen, which can hardly be a bad thing.

But in thinking outside of the box Samsung has also had to up the price. It’s clear that the S6 Edge is a great phone, in all the same ways as the standard Galaxy S6 is, but with a starting price of around £670 is it really worth the money? Read on to find out.

Design

While you can see the bones of the Samsung Galaxy S5 in the S6, the Galaxy S6 Edge is a different beast entirely. Like the Galaxy S6 , it has a metal frame and a glass back and like the Galaxy S6 it looks fantastic and premium for it, but the curved screen, which we’ll cover in more detail below, changes things somewhat.

As well as being likely to draw admiring glances form everyone who sees it, the display also means that the frame is thinner on the left and right edges, changing the look of the phone when side-on. The Galaxy S6 Edge is also slightly thicker than the Galaxy S6, but at 7mm it’s still incredibly slim.

Overall it’s an even better looking phone than Samsung’s main flagship, thanks to combining Samsung’s premium new design with a curved display, but like the S6 it lacks water and dust proofing which is slightly disappointing given that the Galaxy S5 had them.

Screen

Ah, the screen, the reason you’re all here. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has a curved screen, and not one curve like the Note Edge, but two. So, are two curves better than one? Well yes and no. Having a curve at each edge certainly gives it a symmetry that the Galaxy Note Edge lacked and leaves it looking far better as a result.

But the two edges are also smaller than the Note’s lone edge and as such they’re a little less useful. They’re still just about big enough to house media controls- so they don’t have to obscure the main screen and Samsung’s also added a feature which lets them flash in pre-set colours depending on who’s calling.

But that’s only really useful if your phone is face down and they don’t do much else and as they’re so small there’s not much that we could imagine them ever doing. Curved screens open up the potential for multiple displays on a single device, but on the S6 Edge you still only really have one screen, it’s just a very pretty one.

Thankfully it’s also a very good one, with a razor sharp 1440 x 2560 QHD resolution, which across its 5.1-inch expanse leads to a pixel density of 577 pixels per inch. It’s a Super AMOLED screen too, which means impressively bright and rich images. We said the Samsung Galaxy S6 probably has the best screen on any smartphone and the S6 Edge’s display is every bit as good, just with added curves.

Power

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has a 64-bit octa-core Exynos 7420 processor with four cores clocked at 2.1GHz and four at 1.5GHz and it’s designed to be both powerful and efficient. Plus there’s 3GB of RAM, allowing the S6 Edge to effortlessly multitask and run any app or game without any slowdown.

On top of that it supports Cat. 6 LTE for 4G download speeds of up to 300Mbps, ensuring it’s future-proofed to take advantage of the new and upcoming LTE-A networks rolling out in the UK.

Camera

Like so many other things, the camera on the Galaxy S6 Edge is every bit as good as on the Galaxy S6. It has a 16 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation, so it’s adept even in low light or when capturing movement and it’s packed full of shooting modes and options.

But if you prefer to just point and shoot it’s great at that too, with an effective auto mode, a fast shutter and the ability to launch the camera with a double tap of the home button, so no more hunting around for the icon.

If you’re more of a selfie fan then you’ll be well catered to as well, because the Galaxy S6 Edge has a 5 megapixel front-facing camera with auto HDR and a wide-angle lens, allowing you to fit more in your shots.

And smartphone Spielberg’s can take advantage of a powerful video camera which can shoot in up to 2160p at 30fps, for sharp, clear footage.

Interface

If you liked past versions of TouchWiz you’ll still like it here, but if you didn’t you might be pleasantly surprised, as Samsung has removed a lot of the bloat, allowing you to disable and hide pre-installed apps and cutting out unnecessary menu layers and popups, so the whole thing is less cluttered.

There’s still work to be done but it’s a huge step towards the minimalist style offered by stock Android, while maintaining most of the apps and features found on other Samsung phones, just in a less intrusive way.

The Galaxy S6 Edge also runs Android Lollipop, so it’s on the latest version of Google’s mobile OS and as a brand new flagship it’s likely to be supported with updates for quite a while.

Features

The main feature of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge other than its curved screen is its fingerprint scanner, but this is a far cry from the scanner on the Galaxy S5, as Samsung has changed and improved it so that rather than having to swipe your finger across it you can just place it on it.

As well as being easier to use it’s also more accurate than the old version, making using it a joy rather than a chore. Samsung has big plans for it too, as it’s central to its new Samsung Pay initiative, so you’ll be able to use the scanner to authorise contactless payments.

The S6 Edge also comes with a heart rate monitor, but this hasn’t really changed since the S5 and seems somewhat less useful than the fingerprint scanner. Still it’s there if you want it and there’s no downside if you don’t.

Battery Life, Memory and Connectivity

Battery life is the real Achilles heel of both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. On the Edge you at least get a marginally bigger 2600 mAh battery, but it doesn’t make much difference to the life, with the phone likely to run out of power by the end of the day.

However like the normal S6 it also has both wireless and fast charging, so its battery might feel a bit dated but charging it won’t.

There’s a choice of 32, 64, or 128GB of built in storage, though many places don’t seem to be stocking the 32GB option and there’s no microSD card slot so you’ll want to make sure you have plenty to play with. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC.

Conclusion

If the Samsung Galaxy S6 is a flagship fit for 2015 then the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge can be seen as looking ahead, towards what we might see in 2016 and beyond, with its unique and innovative design.

Which is to say that it’s both forward thinking and perhaps not quite ready for prime time, but that’s not to say we don’t like it. The Galaxy S6 Edge, like the Galaxy S6, is an incredible phone in numerous ways, it’s just not quite there yet. The curved screen looks the part but while it serves a purpose beyond just good looks its uses are still pretty limited.

As such it’s far from an essential element, especially given how much it’s driven the price up. That coupled with the same battery concerns as the Galaxy S6 mean we can’t quite give the Edge five stars.

But with mountains of power, an amazing camera, a premium design, an improved interface and the best and most unique screen we’ve ever seen on a phone it sure comes close. If Samsung can make the curved screen as useful as it is eye-catching then the S7 Edge could be truly formidable.

Dimensions : 142.1 x 70.1 x 7mm Weight: 132g Screen size: 5.1” (1440 x 2560) Screen Resolution: 1440 x 2560 display resolution Pixels Per Inch (PPI) : 577 Processor: 2.1GHz octa-core application processor RAM: 3GB On-board Memory: 32, 64, 128GB Camera: 16MP (rear) 2160p@30fps, (5 megapixel front-facing) Operating system: Android 5.0.2 Ultrafast / 3G / 4G LTE: Yes/ Yes/ Yes Bluetooth / NFC : Yes/ Yes Battery capacity: 2600mAh Colours: White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Green Emerald Launch Date: April 10th Price: £670