Samsung Galaxy S6 hype thread

[CptObvious]

For me it was never hardware that was the problem with the Galaxy S (and some others), it was all the pre-installed Samsung and carrier bloatware. I dont want to go through the trouble of removing all of that manually. Stock Android and iOS still has a bunch of apps I never use but it's not as much a problem to hide/disable them.

It looks like the S6 is a step in the right direction but I would still take a stock OS over it any day.

 

[touchstone]

i think many people here are being short sighted in discounting the s6 just because it has no microsd or removable battery. this was bound to happen eventually. as storage prices have dropped we now see 128gb options available on android for the first time. so while you lost microsd you have also gained 32gb base storage which is about as much as you could even find on most android phones if you bought a stop spec flagship in 2014. now you get that as a base, and have the option to go all the way to 128. the battery is also not a big loss because you have 14nm finfet chip that gets awesome battery life even with a small battery.

this is awesome and i am definitely going to go for a 128gb s6 edge. for the first time since 2012 an android vendor is making hardware that not only competes with apple hardware, it beats it. this is how android is going to take back high end marketshare from apple.

 

[Anubis]

it really IMO comes down to price on the micro SD slot, because in general you can buy more storage for a lot less then it is going up in size in phone models

also people can reuse existing cards

I do 32 internal + 64 now
sure 128 is more space but I could just reuse my card

 

[lopri]

Wow, no mSD. This will be the first galaxy I don't get.

Strange as it might seem I am on the opposite side of the optics, and this could be the first Galaxy that I actually get. I think Russiansensation's account is spot-on and persuasive as to how consumers might respond to the S6 and the S6 Edge. The S6/Edge excite me and make me want to see them in person.

The screen looks lovely.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

If they get rid of the crappy over saturation on their screens I might get it. Otherwise it is just the HTC M9.

Rooting either one.

 

[Skurge]

it really IMO comes down to price on the micro SD slot, because in general you can buy more storage for a lot less then it is going up in size in phone models

also people can reuse existing cards

I do 32 internal + 64 now
sure 128 is more space but I could just reuse my card

SD card was probably not something they wanted to do as their NAND is so much faster than anything else out there, it might have been a better idea not giving people the option to ruin those speeds with an SD card that is much slower than even the S5's onboard NAND.

 

[lopri]

I am curious about that as well. What exactly is UFS 2.0? Is it a file system (software) or a different kind of NAND than eMMC (hardware)?

 

[ThisIsChrisKim]

If they get rid of the crappy over saturation on their screens I might get it. Otherwise it is just the HTC M9.

Rooting either one.

Supposedly the calibration on the Note 4's screen was spot on. Displaymate said it's the best screen out there.

 

[Anubis]

SD card was probably not something they wanted to do as their NAND is so much faster than anything else out there, it might have been a better idea not giving people the option to ruin those speeds with an SD card that is much slower than even the S5's onboard NAND.

hum yea had not thought of that, however, would it really make that big of a deal when say saving pics/vids or apps to it?

I mean besides file transfers to and from a PC will the user even notice when read/writing anything?

 

[Oyeve]

The screen looks lovely.

It does look nice. For some weird reason I am reminded of the Blackberry 9630 when I look at this phone.

 

[Dari]

How much cheaper do you think Samsung could price it though? Why should they price the S6 less than iPhone 6 when the S6 trounces it in almost every metric possible? Those customers who prefer IOS would get a $650 iPhone 6 16GB over a $500 Samsung S6 32GB anyway. Thus, even if Samsung were to price the S6 at $500 and 64GB at $600, it won't result in conversion of many loyal iPhone users. iPhone users upgrade to another iPhone in > 80% of cases.

"As part of ongoing research into mobile phone purchasing decisions simonlycontracts.co.uk polled 2,275 iPhone owners and found a staggering 59% admitted “blind loyalty” to the handset. The definition was users who stated they would not even consider researching other handsets when upgrading in future. Asked why 78% said they “couldn’t imagine having a different type of phone now” while 52% said they were just “really impressed” with their iPhone."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonk...o-blind-loyalty-why-this-a-problem-for-apple/

The developed world business model also hides the true cost of the phone into the contract's price. For most people who pay $60-70 a month x 24 months, $100 savings is more or less meaningless in the context of paying $1500-1800 for phone + data. Samsung needs to focus on attracting newer and younger clientele.

It needs to be cheaper because it's not a complete package. It's no iPhone, that's for sure. No iPhone user buys an iPhone just for the hardware. They buy it for what it can do. Samsung has tried to ape Apple on this front for half a decade with bloat. Now they're relying purely on hardware to move units. Iow, they're doing things half-ass. You and dawheat keep talking about the average user. Truth is, the average user likes an iphone because Apple combines excellent hardware and softwarw to solve problems. Samsung, historically, gives you everything and hopes you like something. That is npt premium. And since it's not a premium product it needs a discount. All this glass won't change the fact that the gs6 is a phone on steroids that really doesn't answer anything. All of samsung bad software is gone but nothing replaces it that makes their phone unique. No one is going to be running benchmarks all day, eveey day.

 

[kaerflog]

I have to admit the EDGE is pretty damm cool looking.
I would get one to to show off people how cool looking it is.
After that, it will probably be an annoyance more than anything.
I'm one of those who likes all the latest tech stuff but I will never spend more than $500 on a phone again.
There are plenty of fantastic phones for <$500 these days.

 

[Sweepr]

Is there any benchmarks of Snapdragon 810 vs Exynos 7420 that actually says Samsung will outperform?

Here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2407781&page=12

Not only faster CPU but also GPU.

 

[Radeon962]

If they get rid of the crappy over saturation on their screens I might get it. Otherwise it is just the HTC M9.

Rooting either one.

Just switch the display to cinema or movie mode or whatever Samsung will call it on the S6.

Screen is beautiful in this mode on the S5 or Note 4 and colors look very realistic and none of the oversaturated colors.

From one review:

The experts over at DisplayMate found that while in Cinema Mode the Galaxy S5 had the most accurate colors of any smartphone or tablet they have ever tested. This mode is great for viewing photos of friends and family, watching movies and TV shows, and even when shopping for products online. It's best to use Cinema mode when you are inside and in areas with low ambient lighting.

 

[rcpratt]

I still don't understand of the Edge has standalone functionality like the Note Edge or if it's just a useless, curved extension of the display.

Seems pretty love/hate so far. Should be interesting. Tech people will like it less but it may do better with average Joe iPhone.

 

[rcpratt]

Double post...

 

[zerogear]

i think many people here are being short sighted in discounting the s6 just because it has no microsd or removable battery. this was bound to happen eventually. as storage prices have dropped we now see 128gb options available on android for the first time. so while you lost microsd you have also gained 32gb base storage which is about as much as you could even find on most android phones if you bought a stop spec flagship in 2014. now you get that as a base, and have the option to go all the way to 128. the battery is also not a big loss because you have 14nm finfet chip that gets awesome battery life even with a small battery.

this is awesome and i am definitely going to go for a 128gb s6 edge. for the first time since 2012 an android vendor is making hardware that not only competes with apple hardware, it beats it. this is how android is going to take back high end marketshare from apple.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sams...pe-the-S6-edge-128-GB-might-cost-1049_id66640

The prices doesn't reflect the storage price drops -- I still would rather pay 80$ for 128GB.

 

[zerogear]

Anyone who is honestly dead serious about high quality audio will have high-end headphones.

I have a 399 IEM. I still use the speakers most of the time, because it just really isn't necessary to have super high quality audio everyday for everything. Speakerphone/Alarm/YouTube all benefits from having a good set of front facing speakers

Fair enough. However, a lot of people store files on the cloud now. S6 comes with > 100GB of free cloud storage.

Cloud storage is good and all, but it doesn't replace local storage, especially if you hit a deadspot or are in areas without signal.

From the front and back S6 looks nothing like an iPhone. The only area where they look similar is the bottom where the headphone jack and the speaker are. But, if S6 doesn't suit you in Android land, your options today are very limited. HTC M9 is worse in nearly every way besides the microSD card. The cameras, the CPU, the chassis, the screen, quick charging and UFC 2.0 NAND/features are non-existent on the HTC.

That's a personal opinion, and in my personal opinion, it looks like the iPhone.
The camera - No data to back that up, so I'll withhold my opinion.
The chassis - Personally, I still think M8/M9 is better designed with Unibody rather than glass/metal/glass. Had it on iPhone 4/4S, wasn't a fan.
The screen - Arguable, AMOLED isn't my cup of tea, disliked the inksplots.
Quick Charging - Quick Charging 2.0 is on M8 and I'll be willing to bet on M9

I'll give you the UFS 2.0 and *maybe* the SoC, again, I don't have an opinion until I actually get clear cut benchmarks, but for me, SoC hasn't mattered since Snapdragon 800 (for me).

At the end of the day, both of them are quality smartphone, and it's not as "clear cut" as you make it out to be.

Don't like it, don't use it. The will be "free" compared to all other comparable $650 phones.

Initial pricing indicates it will be more expensive than $650, and I rather avoid biometrics completely, but this is a completely personal choice, however it is behind why some people (like me) may not want the S6.

"Finally they also discovered the display 14% more power efficient than previous Note models and is as much as 40% more efficient than the 1080p panels used by the HTC One and Sony Xperia Z2."
http://www.phoneswithfreegifts.com/samsung-galaxy-note-4-screen-review-top-class/

Yeah.. I'm gonna need more references than a site than a site called "phones with free gifts" with no actual technical details.

--
For some reason you guys think I'm attacking the S6, I'm simply responding to someone's message on WHY someone would want something other than S6.

And @ RussianSensation, I'm not calling you a shrill, but man, you sound like Samsung marketing.

 

[grkM3]

I have a 399 IEM. I still use the speakers most of the time, because it just really isn't necessary to have super high quality audio everyday for everything. Speakerphone/Alarm/YouTube all benefits from having a good set of front facing speakers



Cloud storage is good and all, but it doesn't replace local storage, especially if you hit a deadspot or are in areas without signal.



That's a personal opinion, and in my personal opinion, it looks like the iPhone.
The camera - No data to back that up, so I'll withhold my opinion.
The chassis - Personally, I still think M8/M9 is better designed with Unibody rather than glass/metal/glass. Had it on iPhone 4/4S, wasn't a fan.
The screen - Arguable, AMOLED isn't my cup of tea, disliked the inksplots.
Quick Charging - Quick Charging 2.0 is on M8 and I'll be willing to bet on M9

I'll give you the UFS 2.0 and *maybe* the SoC, again, I don't have an opinion until I actually get clear cut benchmarks, but for me, SoC hasn't mattered since Snapdragon 800 (for me).

At the end of the day, both of them are quality smartphone, and it's not as "clear cut" as you make it out to be.



Initial pricing indicates it will be more expensive than $650, and I rather avoid biometrics completely, but this is a completely personal choice, however it is behind why some people (like me) may not want the S6.



Yeah.. I'm gonna need more references than a site than a site called "phones with free gifts" with no actual technical details.

--
For some reason you guys think I'm attacking the S6, I'm simply responding to someone's message on WHY someone would want something other than S6.

And @ RussianSensation, I'm not calling you a shrill, but man, you sound like Samsung marketing.

that site took all the info from display mate!

 

[WelshBloke]

This 'article' seems timely.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6787236

 

[Red Storm]

I have to be honest, I don't think the S6 looks good, like at all. Maybe I need to see it in person, but to me it does not look stunning. Not digging the rounded edges, I think it looks really bad on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (compared to the 5S), and it's no different here.

The Note 4 is still Samsung's best looking phone IMO.

 

[senseamp]

I think it's good they are making 1440p the flagship resolution, because it makes 1080p, which I think is perfect resolution for a phone, midrange, which I think is the sweet spot for Android phones.

 

[s44]

Damn the Edge looks sexy. Still not interested in replacing my flashable S4 though.

 

[lucia]

SD card, waterproofing and a removable battery are all missing? That is all a big loss for me. I remember my first "proper" smartphone dying in the rain.

 

[Ruiner1]

I am curious about that as well. What exactly is UFS 2.0? Is it a file system (software) or a different kind of NAND than eMMC (hardware)?

Probably the same or very similar NAND, but the interface is different. Much like serial ATA allowed the link speed to be increased, UFS is a serial interface which is much simpler to synchronise at higher speed than the previous parallel 8-bit interface. As far as I can read into press releases, UFS also improved the protocol, now you can read and write at the same time without waiting for a transaction to finish. No doubt there are other changes as well.

All told, UFS2.0 looks like a big upgrade to mobile storage speed, and it looks like it has headroom for a couple more big upgrades already.