Samsung Galaxy S6 edge Review

Update: Read our Galaxy S7 edge review!

Introduction

What entails a flagship smartphone? The question posed here might be a simple one, as most companies put their best showing into one, singular product. To the Korean giant in Samsung, however, the idea of a flagship phone is now spread not to only one device, but surprisingly two instead. This notion of two variants of a flagship phone was first introduced last fall during IFA 2014, where alongside the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Samsung decided to out the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge.

Following forth with a similar move, the company decided that it would be beneficial to announce a second version of its flagship smartphone in the Galaxy S6. Rather than sporting one curved edge like the Note Edge last fall, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge favors a uniform approach by sporting a dual curved display – where the left and right sides are subtly curved. No doubt, it’s a strange direction, one that can also be viewed as foreign, but it’s the perfect complement to the line’s totally new redesign.

As we’ve experienced on the Note Edge, the curved area not only adds a unique aesthetic quality, but also a functional tool as well. With the Galaxy S6 edge, though, the benefits of going with a dual-curved display are mostly of aesthetic quality, dwindling the importance of its functional aspect.

The package contains:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Stereo headphones
• Start Guide
• Health & Safety and Warranty Guide
• SIM removal tool

Design

The new, premium design is profound, but the dual-curved display helps to increase its aesthetic appeal.

Alright, we absolutely adore the new direction Samsung has decided to go with the design language of its flagship series! Plastic is out, replaced instead by Gorilla Glass 4 surfaces held together by a slim metal trim bezel lining the entire length of its edges. The result, not surprisingly, is a smartphone that radiates with premium qualities we have never experienced before in a Samsung product.

To be fair, though, this new design change first started with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, which eventually became the design footprint for Note 4. With those aforementioned devices, Samsung choose to add a subtle presence of premium in its designs by adding metal trim bezels. However, for the Galaxy S6 line, Samsung went back to the drawing board and delivers something so immaculate and refreshing.

Indeed, the S6 edge is fashioned to look identical to the S6, but there’s something else more that makes its design look superior. What is that you ask? Well, it’s specifically due to the dual-curve display it’s sporting. Unlike the Note 4 Edge, the S6 edge has more of a subtle curve – so it doesn’t slope down as much as the curved edge of the Note Edge. The implementation makes the handset appear deceptively thinner than it is, although, it becomes sharper feeling in the process because of how the metal bezel is trimmed down on those edges.

Picking it up for the first time, there’s that sense of fragileness due to its sleek frame and glass surfaces, but the dual curved nature of the phone exemplifies the aesthetics to a higher degree than the standard S6. As we’ve said, there’s a sharper feel due to this, which makes it sit in a slightly more uncomfortable manner in the hand, compared to the regular S6. Still, swiping across the curved display feels natural – as if our thumbs prefer I more than the usual “flat” ending of a smartphone's screen.

So far, the Galaxy S6 line’s new design language is much better than before, but there were necessary compromises needed in making this phone. We can’t deny that we enjoy its premium feel, but it sheds some of the staple qualities of the S5 before it – like its water resistant construction, expandable microSD card slot, and removable battery.Now, as much as we adore the premium feel of the phone, it’s just a magnet for smudges and fingerprints. Trust us, it’s tough keeping it clean looking. Available in an assortment of colors, it’s mesmerizing how light bounces off its surfaces to give an even more dazzling, shimmering effect. Out of all the colors, the white version manages to maintain a cleaner look, just because fingerprints and smudges are less noticeable.

Looking around the phone, it’s sporting some of the same set of ports and buttons throughout its frame. The separated volume controls are placed on the left edge, the power button on its right, microUSB 2.0 port, 3.5mm headset jack, microphone, and internal speaker on its bottom, and finally the IR blaster, noise-cancelling mic, and nanoSIM slot placed on its top edge. Distinctively a Galaxy phone, the same home button is present beneath the display – flanked by the Recent Apps and Back capacitive buttons.

Fingerprint sensor

Indeed, the home button incorporates the unit’s fingerprint sensor, but this year’s implementation is vastly better, since it now follows the operation we’ve seen employed by the iPhone. Rather than swiping down for it to register our fingerprint, all that’s needed now to unlock the phone is to gently press it over the home button. It’s simple and effortless, whereas before, it was a frustrating process at times. Getting it set up is similar to Apple’s Touch ID sensor, as we’re required to gently press our finger over the sensor multiple times – where it’s mapped entirely for accuracy.

Rounding things out, the Galaxy S6 edge is armed with a new 16-megapixel rear camera, which is the only thing in the back that juts out from the rest of the surrounding area – causing it to come in contact with surfaces when it’s laid down. This presents an issue, one that’s exemplified because of the handset’s top-heavy feel, just because if you’re not careful and try to prop the phone against something, there’s still a distant possibility it can fall over and somehow mess with the lens covering the camera. And finally, we find the LED flash and heart rate sensor nearby.

Display

Clearly pushing the envelope, this quad-HD display is not only rich with detail, but it’s the most color accurate AMOLED display to grace a phone to date.

Samsung didn’t stop at just the design when it comes to leaving a lasting mark on us, as the display has undergone a similar level of treatment. Keeping the same screen size as its predecessor, Sammy moves forward in that incremental manner by gracing the Galaxy S6 edge with a drool worthy 5.1-inch 1440 x 2560 (QHD) Super AMOLED panel. In all honesty, the decision to go forward with quad-HD resolution was expected – more so when it’s increasingly becoming the resolution of choice amongst Android flagships.

Going with this, you can imagine that this leads to one staggering pixel density, we’re talking about a mark of 577 ppi! That’s mind-blowing to say the least, which leads to a display that’s rich with detail and exceptionally sharp looking. Most folks would be hard-pressed to distinguish how much more detailed this panel is than others with 1080p resolution, especially from a normal distance, but it goes to show that Samsung won’t settle for anything but being class-leading.

Besides its detail superiority, its Super AMOLED panel follows in fashion to the improvements we’ve seen exhibited already by the Note 4 – thus, shedding the inaccuracies of the Galaxy S5 display, replaced by the color accurate AMOLED panels in other more recent Samsung devices. The company’s continued fine tuning of the display technology has given the Galaxy S6 edge, alongside its brother, as having the best Super AMOLED display to date.

Without factoring in its dual-curved nature, one would suspect that this is exactly similar to the standard S6’s Super AMOLED display. Our benchmark tests reveal otherwise, as the S6 edge boasts a color temperature of 6800K, a slightly colder toned panel than the 6550K color temperature of its sibling’s screen. Putting the two next to one another, the slight difference in color temperature is apparent, since the Galaxy S6 edge’s panel appears cooler. It’s not bad quite honestly, especially when it’s close to reaching that ideal reference value of 6500K.

Setting the display to basic mode, as opposed to adaptive, which changes the contrast, color saturation, and other parameters depending on what’s being shown on screen, the Super AMOLED panel is extremely color accurate. It’s revealed through the color gamut chart, as each color gradient closely matches the reference points throughout the chart. Blues look blue, reds look red, and greens appear green – so the result here is a display with very high color accuracy.

Oddly enough, the S6 edge’s maximum brightness output is vastly less than the S6’s radiance when the brightness is manually adjusted to the highest setting. At that mark, the S6 edge achieves an output of only 172 nits, in comparison to the S6’s 332 nit brightness at the same level – albeit, the difference is minimal once it’s set to automatic brightness and high contrast mode jumps in. Only then is it able to closely match its sibling's mark! Specifically, the S6 edge’s Super AMOLED display shines brilliantly at 553 nits, which is oh so close to the 563 nit brightness produced by its brother. In any event, the achievement deserves adulation, mainly because it allows for good visibility when the sun is present – instead of being washed out and unviewable.

Dual-curved edges

Undeniable to say the least, the dual-curve display is what separates this model from the standard Galaxy S6. Therefore, what’s so special here? Much like the Note Edge before it, the subtle curved edges are used for a variety of things – though, we believe it’s there more for the aesthetics than function.

When it’s off, we can simply swipe back-and-forth from one of its sides to activate various information tickers, like those that offer stock prices, news, notifications, the time, and more. There are a few that are available out of the box, but the collection can be supplemented by downloading additional ones. Frankly, as much as it’s useful to glance at it, the limited space that’s available to the feature makes it tough to distinguish things if we’re not very close to the phone. However, we do appreciate that the information ticker can automatically be set to turn on for a duration of time at night.

Besides that, the dual-curved edges also provide us instant access to People Edge – a small ribbon that offers us access to up to five favorite contacts. From the lock screen, the convenience factor is there because it’s accessible at a moment’s notice. However, if you opt to have a security lock of some kind, the feature might not be available – that’s unless you enable the lock screen to show all notifications.

Now, there’s something interesting that happens when those chosen “favorite” contacts call us up. When the phone is placed face down, where the display is in contact with the surface, the edges of the phone will light up in a variety of colors to indicate who is calling. On one hand, we appreciate this discrete way of telling us who is calling, but its effectiveness is reduced if the phone isn’t placed on a glass or reflective surface – since the colors won’t be able to bounce off surfaces so much to produce its light show.

At the end of the day, the dual-curved display is here on the Galaxy S6 edge mostly for the aesthetics.

Interface and Functionality

TouchWiz sheds many of the vast collection of features found in previous iterations, opting instead for a “less is more” approach.

Without question, the design is what’s most profound with the S6 edge – so one can only hope that there will be a dramatic shakeup with the software experience too. That’s made more poignant, especially when TouchWiz has always been about the features more than the visual presentation. Now, Samsung has talked loudly about how this latest iteration of TouchWiz — which is running on top of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop — has been toned down in the features deparment.True to Samsung's claim, this most up-to-date version of TouchWiz forgoes the exorbitant features set seen in TouchWiz past, focusing instead on features that are pertinent and meaningful to the experience. Things like Air Gestures, Air View, and a handful of others we’ve come to find in previous efforts have been pushed deeper into the settings, but can still be found, if needed. The result is a familiar TouchWiz experience, but one that's direct, without too many redundancies that previously came off as overwhelming to some people.

Without question, running on top of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop enhances the experience, not only for the fact that it’s greeted to all the new features that come in tow with Lollipop, like Pinning and Android Smart Lock, but it bears some of the visual design elements of stock Android. In fact, it’s evident in some of the gesture motions of the interface, as in the way the notifications panel springs down with a couple of flicks.

Jumping straight to the homescreen, it’s something that’s overlooked at first, but there’s a neat parallax-like effect with the wallpaper. Whether you like this or not, it’s a pleasant gesture that gives the interface a dynamic look – albeit, a subtle one at that. Come to think of it, Sammy promised that “more is less” approach with this TouchWiz, which definitely manifests in things like the simplification of its system menus, but it still can’t shed the undeniable fact that it still exudes the foundational qualities of TouchWiz past. It’s simply inescapable. However, Sammy has something up its sleeve that draws some attention.

Themes

What’s that you ask? Well, there’s now the ability to download new themes that changes the look of the interface. Going through the Galaxy Apps Store, there are various downloadable themes that not only change the wallpaper, but also other aspects of the interface – such as the color accents, icons, and layout of some core apps. In comparison to what HTC offers with its level of personalization with Sense 7.0, Sammy’s implementation is more superficial – whereas Sense goes the extra step by using stored images/photos for custom themes.

One-handed mode

Enabling one-handed usage has been among the main priorities for Samsung while refining TouchWiz, and we can say that the Galaxy S6 is a top performer in that department. Its compact size, mixed with sizable icons and other user interface elements, make for an experience that facilitates easy and quick usage with just one thumb. Of course, more advanced tasks will still require you to use two hands, but when it comes to simple stuff like checking your email, checking the weather, or calling a contact, using one hand should be sufficient.

Multi Window

Power users will be pleased to know that TouchWiz’s staple feature of Multi Window is still present and enabled from the onset, which is accessed by simply long pressing the Recent Apps button. Alternatively, we can also go through the Recent Apps menu, now arranged in Lollipop’s rolodex style, to select what two apps we want to ride side-by-side.

So, what can be gather about the new TouchWiz? Basically, it’s more toned down with its approach, but still embodies the design language of the TouchWiz that we all know on the surface. Yeah, the new option to modify the look of the interface with downloadable themes is a logical step forward, but it still lags behind the modern attractiveness we see in other customized Android experiences.

Phonebook

Again, Google’s influence is evident when we look at the Phonebook, since the layout bears the distinctive qualities that encompass Material Design. So essentially, what we have here is dial pad that employs bright colors and a cleaner, overall presentation. Functionally, though, there’s nothing extraordinarily new that we haven’t seen elsewhere.

Organizer

Diving deeper into the S6’s wealth of organizer apps, the “less is more” approach is undoubtedly consistent – both in the visual presentation of apps and their functionalities. For example, the calendar is by default set to a monthly view, but Material Design is once again made profound in the way it’s flaunting a cleaner look – one that isn’t cluttered with pull down menus.

By now, Google Now has become an invaluable feature for Android, so it’s no surprise to us that Sammy’s S Voice service has taken a back seat – albeit, it’s still something we can tap into by enabling it in the settings. After some training, where it’s able to accurately recognize our voice, we can perform simple organizer functions, but it just doesn’t compare to the all-encompassing experience of Google Now.

Messaging

Given the choice of using Samsung’s Email app or Gmail, we’d suggest going with the latter mainly because it does a phenomenal job or organizing emails. Not just that, but now that we can setup email accounts other than Gmail, it’s nice that it’s now a hub for all our emailing needs.

Taking a peak at the TouchWiz keyboard, there’s almost no change whatsoever with its layout, size, and function. Just as before, it’s great that there’s a dedicated row strictly for numbers from within the main layout, as opposed to accessing them from a secondary layout, but it would’ve been nice if buttons were a bit wider to fully make use of the space. Nevertheless, we can’t complain about its effectiveness, but other alternatives like SwiftKey are great options if you’re not a fan.

Processor and Memory

In keeping that momentum, this is the fastest phone yet in the series.

Keeping it in-house, Samsung has chosen instead to power the Galaxy S6 edge exclusively with its very own chip, an octa-core Exynos 7420 processor based on 64-bit architecture. Interestingly, it shares some commonalities with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 SoC, since the two consist of four Cortex-A57 cores running at 2.1GHz, while another four Cortex-A53 cores clock in at 1.5GHz. What’s most profoundly different between the two, is that the Exynos 7420 is manufactured using a 14nm process – whereas the Snapdragon 810 relies on a 20nm process.The result, theoretically speaking, is that Sammy’s chip should be more power efficient. More on that one later! Complementing the processor is the Mali-T760 GPU and a generous 3GB of RAM. All this talk regarding its hardware is nothing if it can’t perform flawlessly with its operations, but we’re happy to report that the cutting-edge goodies in tow make the S6 the fastest Galaxy smartphone to date.

One would suspect that employing quad-HD resolution would stall its performance, but that’s hardly the case, seeing that operations are accompanied with buttery and fluid responses. For the hardcore gamer, the S6 is arguably a choice handset to go with, ensuring that it’s unequivocally powerful enough to handle the most demanding gaming titles out there. The Mali-T760 GPU does a commendable job, but in looking at some graphics benchmarks, namely the T-Rex and Manhattan tests of GFX Benchmark, the results lag behind the HTC One M9.

As much as we’d like to say that the S6 edge is universally flawless with its performance, there’s always that nagging feeling in the back of our mind in how it’ll maintain its smooth performance long-term – more so when additional apps are installed on the phone and new services are added to the background process. For what it is now, however, we can’t deny that it’s utterly unstoppable. Comparing it to the Galaxy S6, we don’t notice any major differences with the performance and responsiveness here – they’re nearly the same.

In the past, Samsung has focused on the fact that its Galaxy smartphones offered expandable storage via their microSD card slots – a point they’ve kept on harking in its commercials. Sadly, though, they’ve made a complete 180-degree change by choosing instead to strictly stick with internal storage. Some won’t have too much of an issue with this loss, but others will miss the added versatility that the slot offers. Therefore, you’ll need to choose wisely on which model to go with; 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB.

Internet and Connectivity

Running at full throttle, there’s no surprise that the Galaxy S6 edge is a perfect thing when it comes to surfing the web. Once again, there is choice in what browser to use – either Samsung’s very own Internet app or Google’s Chrome. Whichever one you decide to use, just know that you won’t be disappointed by their offerings and executions. For starters, the S6 edge’s quad-HD Super AMOLED display brings an unreal level of detail to the tiniest of things. Overall, the experience is accentuated by its effortless handling of complex sites, instantaneous responses with navigational controls, and speedy page loads.

A new feature brought along with its new finger print sensor, we can now use it to allow us to automatically sign into certain sites Therefore, rather than having to input your user name and password, all that’s necessary now is to use the finger print sensor to sign in. Naturally, it’s there for the convenience, but it’s still nevertheless something we appreciate – though, it works for most web sites, but not all.

Sammy doesn’t disappoint, as the Galaxy S6 edge, being a flagship thing and all, is geared with a healthy arsenal of connectivity features. Being a GSM-enabled smartphone, it benefits from having a high degree of compatibility with an abundance of networks around the world. Throw in its expansive LTE band support, in conjunction with category 6 downlink, this model will deliver theoretical download speeds of 300Mbps.

Beyond that, it shares all of the cutting-edge connectivity that’s the standard fanfare with most of today’s high-end phones – they include aGPS with Glonass, Bluetooth 4.1, dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, NFC, DLNA, MHL, and a microUSB 2.0 port.

Samsung Pay

The Samsung Galaxy S6 will be the first phone to feature Samsung's new Pay service, which, as you might guess, is an alternative to Apple Pay. Right now, Samsung has completed deals with Visa and MasterCard, but it's yet to expand that partnership to other major players, such as American Express, Bank of America, or Chase. However, the company reassures that it's working on it. Easily the most interesting thing about Samsung Pay is the new Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) proprietary technology, which is said to widen Samsung Pay's compatibility with shopping terminals significantly. In addition to NFC for making contactless payments through terminals that support near field communications, Samsung Pay will also be able to communicate with traditional magnetic stripe terminal, thanks to MST.

Users will be able to use Samsung Pay to buy various goods in a quick and secure way, plus the whole process is promised to happen rather quickly. For example, should you wish to pay for something using Samsung Pay, you'd simply need to swipe of from the bottom bezel in order to bring up the Samsung Pay app (or just tap the icon, we guess), choose the desired card for the payment, authenticate using the fingerprint sensor, and from there, everything should be done in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, the bad news is that Samsung Pay will not be available to use with the Samsung Galaxy S6's launch, as the service will be enabled sometime during the summer, first in the Unites States and South Korea, followed by Europe and China a bit later.

Camera

Once you experience this camera phone, you won’t want to use anything else.

Always a delightful reputation to have, Samsung has proven time after time that they have an intimate relationship with the cameras on its phones. Quite simply, they really do care about the performance, which has become abundantly clear in our various photo comparisons. Last year’s Galaxy S5 continued the trend, only to be improved by the Note 4 later on, so it’s no surprise that the love is going to be extended here to the Galaxy S6 edge.

On the surface, the S6 edge boasts the same 16-megapixel 1/2.6” Sony IMX240 sensor used by the Note 4’s camera, but it’s been fashioned with an even wider f/1.9 aperture lens. Going with this wider aperture lens, it means that the sensor is able to draw in more light – something that’ll prove most useful for low light photography, naturally. Adding to this, the handset’s camera is paired with optical image stabilization, BSI, LED flash, and a new infrared white balance to perfectly adjust the shot to the present lighting conditions.

The camera app itself is also extremely fast to launch – you can even call it up by double-pressing the home button at any time, which takes less than a second to get running. The reason why the camera app is so quick to start is because it never gets cleaned up from the system memory, so it's always running in the background. Thankfully, Samsung promises that this isn't supposed to introduce any battery or performance issues, thanks to its software optimizations.

In keeping true to its word, Samsung has also retained the same new design principles of the new TouchWiz with its camera interface – one that’s refreshingly clean and minimalist with its layout. In fact, most of the interface is dominated by the viewfinder, only to be flanked on the sides by its on-screen shutter key, mode change, and various settings/effects icons. In selecting a mode, it’s been broken down to auto, selective focus, panorama, slow motion, fast motion, virtual shot, and pro.

The latter, needless to say, is a new one that greatly gives us all of the controls that are necessary to appease enthusiasts. In particular, it’s just a fancy classification for full manual control – allowing us to adjust parameters for ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, and now focus as well. Best of all, you can even save the settings for use later on. Aside from that, there are plenty of downloadable ones through the Galaxy App Store to further offer depth to the camera experience.

Image Quality

Dreamy, that’s the choice word that best describes the incredible, high-polished quality put out by the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge’s new camera. For the general folks out there, its use as a practical point and shoot camera will impress many by its fantastic results from automatic mode. Details has always been a strong point for many of Sammy’s high end phones, so it’s not shocking to find a lot of emphasis here once again, which is further accentuated by its not too overly sharpened composition.

In addition, it handles dynamic range decently – to the point that it casts a neutral exposure with most shots. Although, HDR mode definitely adds a touch to shadows and highlights to further draw out details that would otherwise be lost. Color production is quite natural looking, so it’s neither too warm, nor too cold in the process.

Outdoor settings where lighting is abundant is one thing, but for many phones, their cameras crumble under the intense pressure of low lighting photography. As we’ve detailed already, the S6 edge aims to squash any of those concerns with its wider f/1.9 aperture lens. Paired with optical image stabilization, the S6 edge is a beast under low lighting conditions.

Indeed, there’s that certain degree of diminished quality when compared to its performance when lighting is insufficient, but it’s minimalized here with the S6 edge. Details, surprisingly enough, are still defined in its shots, which are further accompanied with a delightful white balance setting. Noise is usually of concern in this scenario, but thankfully enough, the S6 edge doesn’t exhibit much of it – resulting in nighttime photos with a solid balance.

By itself in automatic mode, the S6 edge is adept in capturing macro shots or close-ups – giving focus to the subject in the foreground, while softening the background in the process. However, by using its selective focus mode, the bokeh or out of focus effect is subsequently intensified. This, obviously, leads to the ability to have the focus set to the foreground or background post shot. Frankly, the results are quite good.

One new mode that catches our eye and makes its debut with the Galaxy S6 edge, Virtual Shot, offers a new experience in the form of a 360-degree capture. All that’s needed it to move the phone around your object, where it then stitches it all together to produce a 360-degree sample. And from there, we can interact with the object because it taps into the phone’s sensors for navigation. Seriously, though, we find it more gimmicky than anything else.

And finally, the panoramic mode of the S6 edge won’t disappoint either, since the final production is at a very high resolution. Panning in a steady motion to one side, the S6 does an outstanding job in stitching things together for a complete panoramic shot – with minimal distortion or artifacting evident. In fact, the powerful hardware allows the S6 edge to quickly churn out a final image in a short period of time.

Never one to disappoint, the Galaxy S6 edge’s camera ensures that you’ll be delighted beyond belief by the kind of images it’s able to produce. Impressively enough, the high-quality results provide versatility in the form of cropping photos post-shot, seeing that there are no compromises in its quality. Best of all, it’s a well-rounded camera that handles all sorts of shooting conditions – including the dreaded low light.

Video Quality

Memorializing a moment with a still shot is one thing, but video earns a higher degree of value. Those favoring video capture above all, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge doesn’t disappoint in its abilities to record the moment. Not only is there a wide degree of shooting modes, such a UHD, QHD, 1080p at 60 FPS, 1080p at 30 FPS, and 720p at 120 FPS to name a few, but the results from each are to die for.

If capturing as much detail is utmost importance to you, then you’ll be enthralled by the amount of fine detail captured by the S6 edge’s UHD video mode. There’s such a great deal of detail captured by it, that the digital zoom offered by the camera proves effective enough to an extent. Other agreeable qualities include its smooth auto-focus, minimal artifacting when panning, gradual exposure adjustment, and mostly clear audio recording.

Going with 1080p recording instead, we still can’t complain about the compositions. Naturally, 1080p at 60 FPS gives the entire package that “extra” level of motion, but details tend to be somewhat softer toned. In contrast, the 1080p recording at 30 FPS is better at keeping the visuals sharper looking.

When conditions are ideal, we can’t argue the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge is undoubtedly a perfect video recording machine. Under low light conditions, though, there’s that tangible level of diminished quality, but it’s still better equipped at handling the occasion better than most phones. Yes, noise becomes an apparent thing in our recordings, but it’s still usable because of the decent exposure – allowing certain details to manifest.

Multimedia

The internal speaker might be tepid in comparison to other things, but the S6 edge is still a multimedia power house fitting for watching videos.

For those of you choosing instead to stick with the TouchWiz music player, as opposed to Google Play Music, you’ll be presented with the same design changes already established with the updated TouchWiz experience. Simplicity, that’s the core principle of the music player, which now favors a cleaner look than before. We wouldn’t say that it’s as dazzling as say, the new Sense 7.0 music player, but it the toned down approach helps to give it a more streamlined feel.

Pounding out 75.4 dB of power through the speaker placed on its bottom edge, higher than the 73.7 dB reach of the S6, it’s undoubtedly strong toned, but it too lacks any bite behind its punch – so the entire thing sounds a bit subdued and thin. However, adjusting the settings for Sound Alive, it’s better able to deliver a robust package.

Resorting to listen to music using a pair of headphones, the 3.5mm jack outputs 0.536 V of power. It’s a good level for any Samsung-made smartphone we’ve reviewed, but it still trails the awesome firepower channeled by other phones like the HTC One M9 or iPhone 6.

Editing tools are diverse through the Gallery app, enabling us to do all sorts of editing on the fly with the Galaxy S6 edge. Come to think of it, the selection is what we’d expect from most high-end phones nowadays, but there’s nothing really exclusive or unique about the tools at our disposal. Sure, we have things like cropping, filters, and shaping effects, but the added option of making collages is an added treat – a feature that’s rarely seen through stock Gallery apps.

Nothing can replicate the movie-watching experience we get from an actual movie theater, but for a mobile device, the Galaxy S6 will capture and impress. When the display is set to adaptive mode, it’ll automatically adjust the color saturation of videos to make them even juicier looking through its high-res Super AMOLED display. And just as before, the Pop Up Play option is there to have a video continue playing in its own window – while being able to do other things in the process, like surfing the web.

Call Quality

Average, that sums up the call quality here.

When two devices are very close to each other in several ways, we’re not too thrown back to find the Galaxy S6 edge giving off the same, average-like performance with its call quality experience. Volume through the earpiece is decent, allowing voices to be easily heard, but the subtle hiss that accompanies it at times distorts the quality. Well, at least our callers fare better on the other end of the line. Going hands-free and using the speakerphone, voices don’t drown under noisy conditions – so it’s pleasing to know voices are still more than audible through it.

Battery

The battery capacity shrinks, but it still pulls out average results – plus, wireless charging is included!

Somehow, Sammy is actually able to stuff a battery capacity that’s a smidgen higher than what in the standard Galaxy S6. In particular, a 2600 mAh resides in the streamlined chassis of the S6 edge – versus the smaller 2550 mAh battery in the S6. Based on our usage, we feel as though the S6 edge eats up battery quicker than its sibling, resulting in mandatory sporadic charging throughout the day to keep a good level.

To combat this problem, however, the phone offers fast charging courtesy of the included rapid charger – one that juices the phone from 0 to 100 in a matter of 83 minutes. Additionally, it should be noted that the S6 edge now offers the convenience of wireless charging built-in (Qi & PMA standards), so there’s no added accessory purchase to gain the feature.

Our custom battery life test returned the respectable result of 8 hours and 11 minutes for the Galaxy S6 edge. While this isn't chart-topping, we have to take into account just how thin and compact the phone is. For comparison, the HTC One M9 survived for the shorter 6h 25 min, the iPhone 6's run was even shorter, at 5h 22 min, while the Xperia Z3 topped all of these with its result of 9h 29 min. Still, the S6 edge's result suggests that battery life with the handset will be far from a concern. As it can be seen from the benchmark results, the Galaxy S6 edge has managed to run for close to an hour longer than the regular Galaxy S6. We believe this should be attributed to two things: 1) the S6 edge has a slightly bigger battery, and b) the S6 edge's screen brightness couldn't be manually set to 200 nits (our standard benchmark brightness), so it had to go through the test with brightness set at 180 nits. This has most probably caused the difference in the battery life results of the two Galaxies. In real life, though, we expect both phones to exhibit almost the same battery longevity.

Conclusion

Cost aside, if we’re to choose a phone in this latest series, we’d have to go with the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge mainly because it’s every bit the class-leading performer of its sibling, but in a more aesthetically pleasing design. Superficially, the two Galaxy smartphones share several qualities with one another – in the design language, specs, and performance, they’re no doubt quite similar.

As we’ve seen, however, the dual curved display of the S6 edge is mostly there to supplement the handset’s already established attractive looks – one we view to be the most premium thing to come out of Sammy’s camp. Functionally, though, there’s not a lot going for it in terms of practical usage, since we find most of what it offers to be gimmicky, or simply ineffective. Regardless, when we look at the entire package, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge is a formidable phone that ensures it’s going to be very relevant for a long time.

Although exact pricing will be revealed through carrier announcement here in the US, there’s no denying that it’ll more than likely receive a cost that’s higher than its sibling. If you have the money, we would vouch heavily to go with this one. Being an attractive looking, solidly constructed smartphone gets it to a higher level, especially when it’s accompanied with the same impeccable performance that already graces its sibling in the Galaxy S6.

Software version of the review unit:
Android Version: 5.0.2
Build Number: LRX22G.G925TUVU1A0C9
Kernel Version: 3.10.61-4351282



You can now read:

• Samsung Galaxy S7 Review
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review