Marco Angelo D'Souza
Samsung has announced its new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, featuring a curved screen and payments technology designed to replace credit cards. The S6 and S6 Edge have a completely redesigned look and feel and have ditched the cheap plastic for premium metal and glass.
The screens used are a 5.1-inch 1440x2560 Super AMOLED display (that’s a very dense 577 pixels per inch), making it the sharpest you could possibly find in a phone to date. The increased pixel density would contribute to a more effective VR experience. Unlike the current Note Edge, the S6 Edge now has both the left and right edges of the screen gently curved. It was demonstrated glowing configurable colors that could indicate specific people from your contact list calling, showing notifications and the like.
Powering each of these phones is a 64-bit 8-core Samsung Exynos processor (for the international versions; it’s yet to be see whether the same chip will be used in the one sold on our shores). There is 3GB of DDR4 memory (a faster type of RAM that should make for a snappier user experience). And even with the new hardware, the phone is supposed to be 35 percent more efficient than its predecessor.
The S6 phone's front camera has been upgraded to five megapixels, while the rear one stays at 16MP. Both the front and rear cameras are based on a F/1.9 lens. (which let in more light, and would make for better low-light shooters) The rear camera has optical image stabilisation.
A key feature is the camera’s ability to do ‘real-time HDR’, a capability that results in more balanced and clear photographs even in challenging lighting situations. Also the camera can be activated by double-tapping on the phone screen, and it wakes up in under a second; lesser instances of missed photo ops.
There seems to be new capabilities with the phone’s battery charging system (while there is a in-built 2550 mAh Li-Ion unit). Through the MWC presentation, Samsung insisted the battery in this phone charges faster than any in the industry. It does have wireless charging built in, and can apparently charge from empty to full in half the time it takes to charge the iPhone 6.
The smartphones will be available for sale in 20 countries from 10 April 2015 (it isn’t clear if India is included in this list, but it is very likely to be), and will be available in 32GB 64GB 128GB options.
