MWC 2015: Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are Finally Official, Full Specs and Availability Revealed

After months of rumors and speculations, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are finally here. Both smartphones were officially introduced by the South Korean phone maker earlier today during their Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event held in Barcelona.

Even though the rumors and reports that surfaced online over the past few months have already painted an almost complete image of the Galaxy S6, it’s still nice to have some official confirmation. Well, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are exactly how the rumors portrayed them.

The two smartphones are identical when it comes to hardware specifications, the main difference between them being the display. The Galaxy S6 comes with a standard flat 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with Quad HD (1440 x 2560) resolution and an amazing pixel density of 577 ppi. Galaxy S6 Edges’ screen has the same size, same technology, same resolution and pixel density, but it’s curved over both edges of the phone.

It seems that the rumors were true after all and we won’t get an Snapdragon-powered Galaxy S6 this year. Sources in the industry claim that even though Samsung planned to launch a Galaxy S6 variant powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 810 chip, the South Koreans had to ditch it because of overheating issues.

Both Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge are underpinned by the same 64-bit Exynos chipset based on a new 14 nm manufacturing process and using an Octa-core configuration. We are dealing with quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 and quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 processors and a Mali T760 GPU. The smartphones also arrive with 3 GB of DDR4 RAM and they are available with 32, 64 or 128 GB of native storage. Unfortunately, there’s no support for microSD card expansion.

Connectivity-wise, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge arrive with LTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy, NFC, microUSB 2.0, and IR blaster. The devices also arrive with a fingerprint sensor which, unlike the one used for the Galaxy S5 and other Samsung smartphone, is touch-based.

The new flagship smartphones run Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, of course, customized with Sammy’s proprietary TouchWiz UI. Samsung’s custom skin has been redesigned to follow the Material Design guidelines, but you will still be able to enjoy the company’s innovative features such as Ultra Power Saving Mode, S Health, Themes, Private Mode, S Finder, and the new Samsung Pay.

The main camera has a 16 MP sensor with optical image stabilization, phase detection autofocus, and 4K video recording support. The user-facing camera has 5 MP resolution and Wide Selfie feature.

Both terminals are 143.4 mm tall and 70.5 mm wide. The Galaxy S6 is only 6.8 mm thin, while S6 Edge is 7.0 mm. Also, the Galaxy S6 weighs in at 138 grams, being 6 grams heavier than S6 Edge.

Samsung promised that Galaxy S6 will become available for purchase in 20 countries as of April 10, while Galaxy S6 Edge will make its market debut sometime in Q2 2015. There are three color options available for both: White Pearl, Black Sapphire, and Gold Platinum, while the Blue Topaz color option is exclusive for the Galaxy S6 and Green Emerald reserved for the Galaxy S6 edge. Unfortunately, Samsung didn’t say anything about the price, but if you read this from the US expect both devices to arrive at Verizon, AT&T, and Sprit at $199 on-contract.

Sprint Teaser Reveals Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge in All Their Glory Before Announcement

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge official announcement is now just about two days away. By now we know a lot about the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge but the final design still remains a mystery. US carriers started sending out official teasers recently that gave us a glimpse of the Galaxy S6 Edge’s dual-curved edge display. However, a new Sprint promotional image leaked on Reddit earlier today gives us our clearest look yet at the possible final design of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones.

The image shows off almost the entire front panel of the two upcoming Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphones. While we can’t tell much from the image, both the handsets appear to have rounded corners and a metallic frame on the sides which seems to be quite shiny. We also see the individual volume rocket buttons on the side of the Galaxy S6 Edge, which seems to confirm the ‘iPhone 6’ like design language of the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. What does remain a mystery is if the back of the two devices will features glass like the recently leaked live pictures or is the two will come a metallic back (metal unibody) as was rumored initially. The homescreen seems to show off the new UI that the two smartphones will include, which doesn’t seem all too different from the Galaxy S5’s UI at first glance.

Sadly, aside from the differences in build materials, the Galaxy S6 still looks largely similar to the Galaxy S5. This is quite disappointing since we’ve been hearing from a long time that the Galaxy S6 will feature an all-new design that will not bear any resemblance to previous Galaxy flagship smartphones. With the codename ‘Project Zero’ we were hopeful that would actually be the case but the leaked image from Sprint promotion does make it seem a little disappointing. In fact, the front of the two new Galaxy S flagships seems to draw heavily from the Galaxy S5 than the Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy A-series and the Galaxy Note 4. We were expecting the Galaxy S6 design to be similar to these new devices but it looks like Samsung hasn’t concentrated much on the overall design on the front but only refined the sides and edges of its upcoming new flagship smartphone along the lines of the Apple iPhone 6 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus.

Anyway, we don’t need to speculate much for now as everything will be revealed on Sunday when Samsung officially unveils the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones. The two devices are expected to include a 5.1” Quad HD Super AMOLED display, Exynos 7420 64-bit chipset, 3GB RAM, 32/64/128GB internal storage, 20MP rear camera with optical image stabilization, 5MP front-facing camera, and a lighter version of TouchWiz based on the latest Android 5.0.2 Lollipop version.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Antutu & Geekbench Scores Blow Away the Competition

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has recently been spotted in not one but two popular benchmarks – Antutu and Geekbench. This time, not only are the specifications of the device revealed, but we also have the benchmark scores to go by. Honestly, we expected the Samsung Galaxy S6 to be one the most powerful Android devices at launch, but the Galaxy S6 Edge benchmark scores on these two popular benchmarks put it on another level altogether when it comes to performance. The Galaxy S6 managed to set new performance records in both the benchmarks.

The Samsung SM-G925W8 was put through the Antutu benchmark and managed to score an incredible 60,978 on the benchmark. This is not just the highest score recorded on the benchmark yet, but also significantly higher than anything else on the market currently. So if you were worried about Samsung not using the Snapdragon 810 chipset on the Galaxy S6, you can put all those worries to rest now. The Exynos 7420 chipset on the Galaxy S6 Edge has proved to be an absolute beast and is likely to maintain a lead over the Snapdragon 810 and other mobile chipsets currently available in other benchmarks as well. In the Antutu test, the Exynos 7420 is reported to bring major gains as far as graphics performance goes, which is great news as the Quad HD resolution and also a heavy TouchWiz UI should be no problem for the chip to handle.

The Antutu benchmark leak also reveals most of the specifications of the Galaxy S6 Edge. Unlike the older Antutu benchmark leak where the Galaxy S6 display was reported to be 5.5-inches, the latest leak suggests that the Galaxy S6 Edge will come with a 5.1” size display with Quad HD 2560 x 1440 resolution. This translates to a mind-boggling pixel density of 576PPI, the highest pixel density among smartphone displays yet. The RAM has been reported to be 3GB and not 4GB as was reported earlier. The internal storage was reported to be 32GB, similar to the previous leak. As for the cameras, the Galaxy S6 Edge includes a 20MP camera at the back and a 5MP front-facing camera according to the benchmark.

The Galaxy S6 Edge impressed in the Geekbench benchmark as well. The model that went through the Geekbench test was the the SM-G925P variant of the S6 Edge. In the single-core test the smartphone managed to score 1492 while in the multi-core test it scored 5077 points. Although not as impressive as the earlier leaked Geekbench score of the Exynos 7420, the scores are still very impressive and higher than almost every other mobile device available in the market currently. Its closest rival, the Apple iPad Air 2, manages a score of 4532 in the same test. However, when it comes to the single-core test, a few devices like the Google Nexus 9 do score slightly higher. Overall though, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (and the Galaxy S6) are shaping up to be truly impressive smartphones and may enjoy a slight lead over other flagship smartphones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, at least as far as benchmark performance is concerned.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge are expected to be announced at Samsung’s UNPACKED event scheduled to be held on March 1 in Barcelona.