Design and convenience

Let's talk about the main thing straight away. Samsung GALAXY S6 edge is the same S6, only with two screen curves, but the device now looks symmetrical, neat and very pleasant. In general, the curves and the company’s new course make the new product almost the most beautiful smartphone currently available on the market. Largely thanks to the design and materials in the best traditions of Sony.

Display

Traditionally for the latest Samsung models, the screen of the Galaxy S6 G920 smartphone pleases with a bright and very contrasting image. The display is created using Super AMOLED technology, its diagonal is 5.1 inches, but the resolution is truly amazing - 2560x1440 pixels. Imagine how incredible the resulting detail and picture quality will be. It is highly doubtful that a worthy competitor will soon appear on the market in terms of the functional qualities of the screen, because even supporters of energy-efficient models will be pleasantly surprised by the successes in this area of ​​AMOLED displays.

Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S6 G920 smartphone is equipped with two powerful cameras, thanks to which it is quite capable of successfully competing with most compact amateur cameras. The 16 MP main camera, equipped with a powerful LED flash and optical stabilization system, will allow you to create stunningly beautiful and clear pictures and videos. Well, we’re sure there’s no need to explain what the front 5 MP camera is for, since cheerful selfies and live communication in video chats have long become a common pastime.

Hardware and performance

In terms of hardware power, Samsung's new flagship, equipped with a serious 8-core Exynos 7420 processor with a performance of 1.5 and 2.1 GHz, is quite comparable to a good computer. Processing of graphic information is also excellent, fortunately there is a powerful and modern Mali-T760 video adapter, and the amount of RAM is 3 GB. At the moment, it is really difficult to imagine any tasks that this super-powerful unit could not cope with.

Battery and autonomy

The smartphone is equipped with a battery with a capacity of 2550 mAh. This figure, at first glance, is small, but in fact it is quite enough for comfortable use of the device, because this time the developers have found a much more elegant solution to the problems of autonomy than increasing the battery capacity. Even with the aforementioned energy-hungry screen and equally resource-hungry processor, the Samsung Galaxy S6 G920 solves all these problems with optimized software. It is thanks to this feature that the model uses battery power sparingly and lasts much longer than its predecessors, even those equipped with more powerful batteries. By the way, in addition to compatibility with most existing chargers, new technologies have even made it possible to equip this model with wireless charging capabilities.

Flagship with the world's largest double-curved screen

The prerequisites for creating such a model as the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ have matured as if by themselves. In this case, they were largely determined by the users themselves. Firstly, after the simultaneous release of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, most people showed much more interest in the option with a curved screen (edge) than in the usual “flat” one. Well, the fact that smartphones with huge screens are now popular and that Samsung Note series tablets have been in stable and unrelenting demand for several years prompted developers to logically combine all these features in one device. Which is what the Koreans did, introducing a smartphone with a huge curved screen called the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ this fall.

Naturally, the new product is for the most part a successor to the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, this is visible to the naked eye. And at the same time, it should not be considered the same device, only with a larger screen. There will be more differences between the two smartphones; for some, they may even seem so significant that they will push them to purchase a new product, but in any case, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is worthy of its own review.

Main characteristics of Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ (model SM-G928С)

	Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+	LG G4	Nexus 6	Huawei Mate S	Sony Xperia Z3+
Screen	5.7″, Super AMOLED	5.5″, IPS	5.96″, AMOLED	5.5″, Super AMOLED	5.2″, IPS
Permission	2560×1440, 518 ppi	2560×1440, 538 ppi	2560×1440, 493 ppi	1920×1080, 401 ppi	1920×1080, 424 ppi
SoC	Samsung Exynos 7420 (4 Cortex-A57 @2.1 GHz + 4 Cortex-A53 @1.5 GHz)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (2x Cortex-A57 @1.8 GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @1.5 GHz)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 (4 cores Krait 450 @2.7 GHz)	HiSilicon Kirin 935 (8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 @2.2+1.5 GHz)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 (4x Cortex-A57 @2.0 GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @1.5 GHz)
GPU	Mali-T760	Adreno 418	Adreno 420	Mali-T628	Adreno 430
RAM	4 GB	3 GB	3 GB	3 GB	3 GB
Flash memory	32 GB	32 GB	32/64 GB	32/64 GB	32 GB
Memory card support	—	microSD	—	microSD	microSD
operating system	Google Android 5.1	Google Android 5.1	Google Android 5.0	Google Android 5.1	Google Android 5.0
Battery	non-removable, 3000 mAh	removable, 3000 mAh	non-removable, 3220 mAh	non-removable, 2700 mAh	non-removable, 2930 mAh
Cameras	main (16 MP; 4K video), front (5 MP)	main (16 MP; 4K video), front (8 MP)	main (13 MP; 4K video), front (2 MP)	main (13 MP; video 1080p), front (8 MP)	main (20.7 MP; 4K video), front (5 MP)
Dimensions and weight	154×76×6.9 mm, 153 g	149×76×9.8 mm, 155 g	159×83×10.1 mm, 184 g	150×75×7.2 mm, 156 g	146×72×6.9 mm, 147 g
average price	T-12788831	T-12466715	T-11153512	T-12840967	T-12568232
Retail offers for Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+	L-12788831-10

• SoC Samsung Exynos 7420 (64-bit), two clusters of four processor cores: ARM Cortex-A57 with a frequency of 2.1 GHz and ARM Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.5 GHz
• GPU Mali-T760
• Operating system Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
• Touch Dual Edge Super AMOLED display, 5.7″, 2560×1440
• Random access memory (RAM) 4 GB
• Internal memory 32 GB
• Nano-SIM support (1 pc.)
• No microSD card slot
• Communication GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• Communication 3G WCDMA 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• LTE data transmission (Cat.9 or Cat.6) (FDD LTE Band 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,17,18,19,20,26)
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5 GHz) VHT80 MIMO (2x2), Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth 4.2 LE, ANT+, NFC
• USB 2.0, OTG
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• Position, proximity, lighting sensors, barometer, fingerprint sensor, heart rate sensor, electronic compass
• Camera 16 MP (F1.9), optical stabilization, autofocus, LED flash
• Camera 5 MP (F1.9), front
• Battery 3000 mAh, non-removable
• Wireless charging support
• Dimensions 154×76×6.9 mm
• Weight 153 g

Contents of delivery

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is sold in traditional packaging for modern Samsung flagship products. The box is made of hard matte cardboard and is laconically designed, with a minimum number of inscriptions, no pictures or colors. The packaging is not too large in size; the entire set of accessories is located in the lower tier under a plastic tray with the device itself.

The package is standard, it includes a charger (5 V, 2 A) with a Micro-USB connecting cable, a wired headset, a metal key for removing the SIM card, as well as several thin paper books with documentation.

The headphones are separately stored in their own plastic container, have a tangle-free flat wire and two sets of removable rubber ear pads.

Appearance and ease of use

As for the design of the new product, in this regard, the differences from the Galaxy S6 edge are minimal, there are almost none. The updated model with the prefix “+” in the name looks exactly the same from the outside as its predecessor. This is still the same rather original-looking smartphone with a “convex” screen, both sides of which are strongly curved, which, in fact, was the very highlight that attracted users so much. The smartphone really looks very impressive, unusual and catchy. Korean designers have made a giant qualitative leap and managed to raise the image component of their products to a completely different level.

At the same time, the dimensions of the smartphone have increased noticeably, and all the constituent elements of the body have increased proportionally. The stylish metal frame on the sides is no longer as thin and unpleasantly cutting into the hand as was the case with the regular S6 edge. On the other hand, due to the fact that the device has grown significantly in size, holding it in your hand with outstretched fingers has become less convenient. Naturally, some users have long switched to tablet phones and have no difficulties handling such “shovels,” but still the original S6 edge had dimensions that were much more comfortable to hold in the average hand.

At the same time, even the device, which has increased in size so significantly, does not weigh much more. A very large smartphone with a huge screen weighs barely over 150 grams, which is surprising and pleasant at the same time. Coupled with the very small thickness of the case, this significantly eliminates many of the unpleasant aspects associated with the large dimensions of mobile gadgets. Wide, but at the same time thin and light, the device fits quite comfortably into clothing pockets, although not just any pocket. In any case, with such dimensions everything could have been much worse.

As for the quality of materials and assembly, there can be no complaints here, everything is assembled and fitted perfectly, the body is monolithic, nothing creaks, does not play or bends. One can, of course, argue about the choice of materials themselves: slippery and easily soiled glasses used for the front and rear panels make up the largest part of the total surface area; the matte metal frame is lost against their background. Moreover, even this frame is very slippery for comfortable holding in the hand; in this regard, the new flagship Samsung devices cannot be called practical.

As for the elements placed on the body, in this regard, not everything exactly corresponds to the previous model. The increased size of the new product suddenly suddenly disappeared from the top end of the infrared port, which generally defies any logical explanation. But sometimes it was convenient to use a Samsung Galaxy S series smartphone as a remote control, which could not only turn on the TV, but also display the current program guide on the screen.

Perhaps this is due to the move of the SIM card connector to the top end, but the rationale for this move is also unclear. In any case, the card is now inserted into a slot located not on the side, but on the top. There is no slot for installing a microSD card either on the case itself or inside it, that is, the device, like its predecessors from the sixth Galaxy S series, does not support expanding the storage capacity using memory cards, you have to make do with what you have.

On the opposite, lower end there were more various elements. There is a universal Micro-USB connector embedded in the middle, and an audio output for headphones and a speaker grille located on either side of it. Thus, a smartphone stuck in a pocket “head down”, even with headphones connected, will not cause discomfort. However, different people carry their mobile gadgets in their pockets in different ways.

The front panel of the smartphone remains unchanged; it is completely covered with protective glass Gorilla Glass 4, which has a curved shape, causing the metal frame to narrow on the sides. All together, this creates the impression that the smartphone has no side frames at all - naturally, this effect is achieved when the screen is turned off.

However, with the screen turned on, the smartphone looks even more impressive, especially when you look at it from the side. The screen curves on the sides along with the glass, creating a feeling of volume, it’s impressive.

At the top of the front panel, along with the eyes of the front camera and sensors, there is such a useful element as an LED event indicator. The large round dot lights up in different colors depending on the battery charging status or incoming messages.

At the bottom, under the screen, there are the usual control buttons, the central one of which is mechanical, and the other two on the sides are touch-sensitive and have their own backlight. A fingerprint scanner is built into the central key; it works without the need to “drag” your finger - just with a single touch. The finger can be placed at any angle, and the fingerprint will still be identified. The sensor works accurately, almost no errors were recorded.

The remaining buttons are located on the sides of the device: on the right side there is a power and lock key, on the left there is a double volume button. The keys are not as large as they were previously installed in Galaxy S series smartphones. Now they are quite small, thin metal buttons, which have, perhaps, too hard and a short stroke.

On the back of the smartphone there is still a large camera module that protrudes noticeably beyond the surface, adjacent to a single LED flash and a heart rate sensor that can act as a photo button when taking selfies with the front camera. The flash can act as a flashlight.

The smartphone is not protected from dust and moisture, and there is no fastening for a strap on the case either. The device supports wireless charging, compatible with WPC 1.1 (output power 4.6 W) and PMA 1.0 (4.2 W) standards. The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ goes on sale in two design options, which the developers traditionally gave sublime names: “Black Sapphire” and “Dazzling Platinum”.

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ smartphone is equipped with a Super AMOLED touch screen protected by Gorilla Glass 4. The display glass is curved at the edges on both sides (Dual Edge), the developers claim that this is the world's largest screen curved on both sides. There are no separate side matrices along the beveled edges; the display here is a single whole, although the curved edges of the screen can carry additional load, acting as separate side mini-displays.

The physical dimensions of the display are 71x126 mm, diagonal - 5.7 inches. The screen resolution is 2560×1440, the pixel density is 518 ppi.

The frame around the screen is quite narrow. The sides from the edge of the screen to the edge of the body are a little more than 2 mm, and the convexity of the screen itself and the curved edges of the glass further conceal the width of these side strips. When the screen is turned off, it generally seems as if the smartphone is “frameless”. The top and bottom edges are 14 mm wide.

The display brightness is automatically adjusted based on the light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to process 10 simultaneous touches.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photograph in which a white surface is reflected when the screens are turned off (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is slightly darker (brightness according to photographs is 109 versus 111 for the Nexus 7, the glare curved edges of the tested screen are excluded) and does not have a pronounced tint. The ghosting of reflected objects on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, slightly better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When the white field was displayed in full screen and with manual brightness control, its maximum value was 400 cd/m², the minimum was 1.7 cd/m². You also need to take into account the fact that in this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the brighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. As a result, readability during the day in the sun should be at a fairly good level. The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device even in complete darkness without any problems. Automatic brightness adjustment works based on the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). You can make adjustments to the operation of this function by moving the settings slider. Below, for three conditions, we present the screen brightness values ​​for three values ​​of this setting - for 0%, 50% and 100%. In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness is reduced to 1.7, 7.3 and 16 cd/m², respectively (the first and second are too dark, the third is normal), in an office illuminated by artificial light (approximately 400 lux) the brightness is set to 43 , 130 and 325 cd/m² (dark - just right - bright, which corresponds to the specified correction), in a brightly lit environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) - increases to 450 cd/m² regardless of the position of the slider. This value is greater than the maximum for manual adjustment. If you increase the brightness of external illumination (in the area of ​​the light sensor) to somewhere around hundreds of thousands of lux (corresponding to direct sunlight), then the screen brightness increases to 550 cd/m². This brightness should definitely be enough for the image on the screen to be clearly visible in any natural conditions. In general, the result of the automatic brightness adjustment function is as expected. Note that even with automatic brightness correction disabled in a dark environment, the smartphone does not allow you to set the brightness above 170 cd/m². At any brightness level there is significant modulation with a frequency of approximately 60-odd or 242 Hz. The figure below shows brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum and close to it brightness, the modulation amplitude is not very large, and as a result, there is no visible flicker. However, as the brightness decreases, modulation with a large relative amplitude appears. Therefore, the presence of such modulation can already be seen in a test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, this flickering may cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

In the fragment above you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), and by repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without breaks or overlap. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer calculates the screen resolution based on the green subpixels; based on the other two, it will be two times lower. The location and shape of the subpixels in this version is close to the case of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and some other newer devices from Samsung (and not only) with AMOLED screens. This version of PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and stripes of green subpixels. However, some unevenness of contrast borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to the very high resolution, they have a minimal impact on image quality.

The screen is characterized by excellent viewing angles, although the white color, when deviated even at small angles, alternately acquires a light blue-green and pinkish tint, but the black color is simply black at any angle. So black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is excellent. For comparison, here are photos in which the screens of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ (profile Basic) and the second comparison participant, identical images were displayed, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 170 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera was forced to switch to 6500 K. White field:

We note the excellent uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field (with the exception of darkening and changes in hue towards the curved edges). And a test picture (profile Basic):

Color rendition is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens varies slightly. Note that in this case, the image occupies the height (at this screen orientation) of the entire area available for image display and extends onto the curved edges of the screen, which leads to darkening and color distortion. Also, in the light, these areas almost always glare, which makes it even more difficult to view images displayed on the entire screen. And even the picture of films with an aspect ratio of 16:9 bends, which greatly interferes with watching movies. The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Basic in the screen settings, there are four of them:

Profile Adaptive display differs in some kind of automatic adjustment to the type of image displayed and environmental conditions, and what happens when choosing the two remaining profiles is shown below.

Movie AMOLED:

Saturation and color contrast are noticeably increased.

Photo AMOLED:

Saturation is still high, but color contrast is closer to normal.

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile Movie AMOLED). White field:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed has been increased compared to previous photographs), but in the case of Samsung the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since you often have to look at the screen of a mobile device from at least a slight angle. And a test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Samsung at an angle is noticeably higher. Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but at the switching edge there may be a step with a width of approximately 17 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). For example, this is what the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects. However, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “jerky” movements.

For profiles Photo AMOLED And Basic constructed using 32 points with equal intervals according to the numerical value of the shade of gray, the gamma curve did not reveal any blockage in either highlights or shadows, and the index of the approximating power function is equal to 2.23, which is close to the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma -the curve deviates little from the power-law dependence (the captions in parentheses show the exponent of the approximating power-law function and the coefficient of determination):

For profile Movie AMOLED The gamma curve has a pronounced S-shaped character, which increases the visible contrast of the image, but in the shadows the distinguishability of shades remains.

Let us recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for generally light images. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) most likely slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen.

Color gamut in the case of a profile Movie AMOLED very wide, it almost covers the Adobe RGB gamut:

When selecting a profile Photo AMOLED coverage is adjusted to Adobe RGB boundaries:

When selecting a profile Basic coverage is compressed to sRGB boundaries:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In case of profile Basic with maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut, without appropriate correction, the colors of regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation - in most cases, watching movies, photographs and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Basic, and only if the photo was taken on an Adobe RGB setting, does it make sense to switch the profile to Photo AMOLED. Profile Movie AMOLED, despite the name, is the least suitable for watching movies or anything else.

The grayscale balance is good. Color temperature in profile Movie AMOLED above 6500 K, in the remaining two - close to 6500 K, while in a significant area of ​​the gray scale this parameter does not change very much, which improves the visual perception of color balance. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) across most of the gray scale remains below 10 units, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, and also does not change very much:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale can in most cases be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Let's summarize. The screen has a very high maximum brightness and has good anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors even on a sunny summer day without any problems. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is acceptable (and even necessary in bright light) to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works quite adequately. The advantages of the screen include a good oleophobic coating, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB and an acceptable color balance (if you select the appropriate profiles). At the same time, let us remind you about the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen), excellent uniformity of the white field, noticeably less than that of LCDs, and a drop in image brightness when viewed at an angle. Disadvantages include modulation of screen brightness. For users who are particularly sensitive to flicker, this may cause increased fatigue. However, overall the screen quality is very high. Separately, we note that from the point of view of image quality, curved edges are only harmful, since this design discovery introduces very noticeable distortions of the color tone and reduces the brightness at the edges of the picture, and in ambient light conditions it leads to inevitable glare along at least one long side of the screen.

Sound

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ sounds quite decent. Both in the headphones and in the main speaker located at the bottom, the sound is clear, bright, thick, saturated with the entire spectrum of frequencies - there is not an abundance of lows, but the bass is noticeable. There is a volume reserve, although the device at the maximum level is not deafening. The sound at any volume level remains clear, without distortion or wheezing. In general, there are no complaints about the microphone - however, at the highest frequencies, interlocutors note a barely noticeable hiss, but this is already in the category of minor quibbles. The second microphone for noise reduction generally copes adequately with its functions. In conversational dynamics, the voice of a familiar interlocutor, timbre and intonation remain recognizable.

To play melodies, a proprietary player with a large number of settings is used. Sound effects are united under the general name SoundAlive. Enhancements using UHQ Upscaler technology, emulating the presence of a “tube amplifier Pro”, and adding SoundAlive+ surround sound effects are only possible when connecting headphones. For manual settings, an equalizer with preset values ​​is available, as well as separate controls for bass and treble. UHQ audio transmission via Bluetooth is supported with appropriate headphones.

There is no FM radio in the device. The standard voice recorder has several modes, including “interview” and “voice note”.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is equipped with the same two digital camera modules with a resolution of 16 and 5 megapixels as the S6 and S6 edge models released before it. The front camera is equipped with a 5-megapixel module with a CMOS sensor and an f/1.9 aperture lens. You can take pictures with the front camera using your voice or gestures, as well as by touching your finger to the heart rate sensor located on the back side next to the LED flash. This is convenient; it allows you to hold the device in front of you at arm's length in a more natural way; there is no need to touch the screen when shooting.

The front module copes with its tasks adequately. The camera works quickly, the color rendition is natural, the pictures are bright and detailed, there is even digital stabilization for video shooting. By the way, the front camera can shoot video in resolutions up to 2560×1440 (QHD). True, the wide-angle module, clearly designed for group selfies, partly distorts the proportions of the face at close range. Most likely, the developers were counting on using the now fashionable stick-bracket, which increases the distance to the object being photographed.

The main 16-megapixel camera has an f/1.9 aperture lens, very fast autofocus with subject tracking, optical image stabilization (OIS) and a single LED flash. You can quickly launch the camera by double-clicking the central hardware key under the screen, even if the smartphone is inactive (double-clicking the Home button turns on the camera in 0.6 seconds).

The camera settings are exactly the same as in previous models of the flagship series. They are combined into a long scroll, in addition to the usual automatic mode and manual settings mode, here you can also select panoramic, selective focus mode, HDR in real time (Real-time HDR), the ability to virtually shoot a three-dimensional object, GIF animation, as well as accelerated and slow motion video recording. In addition, using the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, you can make spectacular collages by combining up to four video fragments into one clip, each of which can be played back in slow motion.

Among the additions, we can note the new ability to save uncompressed images in RAW format in professional mode, and among individual modes, a new ability to live video broadcast to your YouTube channel. It is also possible to download additional various specific modes, from sports to food photography.

The video camera of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ can shoot in a variety of resolutions and options, including slow and fast shooting, shooting with 4K resolution (UHD), as well as Full HD at 60 frames per second. The camera copes well with any of the options; there are no complaints about the quality of the resulting video image or the sound recorded. The quality of video recording can be judged by test videos. Speeding up and slowing down is displayed when playing such videos on the smartphone itself, but not every player supports these functions when playing on a computer.

• Video No. 1 (64 MB, 1920×1080 @60 fps)
• Video No. 2 (55 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
• Video No. 3 (40 MB, 2560×1440 @30 fps)
• Video No. 4 (40 MB, 1280×720 @120 fps, slo-mo)
• Video No. 5 (12 MB, 1280×720 @30 fps, accelerated)

	Good field and shot sharpness, although distant shots are slightly blurred.
RAW
	Again you can feel the soapiness in the background, but the foliage is done well.
RAW
	The camera handles close and medium plans perfectly.
RAW
	If you look closely, you can see a subtle sharpening on the wires.
RAW
	The license plates of all cars are distinguishable. Sometimes the camera doesn't work at all in distant shots.
RAW
	The camera copes well with plain surfaces.
RAW
	The shadows are well done. Once again, the distant plans are not blurred.
RAW
	Noises in the shadows are muffled neatly and almost imperceptibly.
RAW
	Even with backlight, noise in the shadows does not go off scale.
RAW
	Good detail in difficult lighting.
RAW
	The sharpness across the frame is almost excellent.
RAW
	The foliage is only slightly merging in places. There is no soapiness in the distant plans again.
RAW
	The text was worked out well, although for some reason it was also processed by the program.
RAW
	The camera copes well with macro photography.
RAW

We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench using our method.

Lighting ≈3200 lux.
Lighting ≈1400 lux.
Lighting ≈130 lux.
Lighting ≈130 lux, flash.
Lighting<1 люкс, вспышка.

Perhaps there is practically nothing to complain about. Only a slight blur in the background and barely noticeable sharpening give away the smartphone camera. Otherwise, including the noise reduction work, the pictures already resemble a good compact.

From the photographs of the stand it can be seen that the quality of shooting is at a fairly high level - even at the edge of the frame. Due to the relatively narrow flash angle, the resolution at the edge of the frame drops, but in this case it is possible to adjust the flash power, which allows us to flatten our curve. True, for this it is advisable to have a darker center of the frame so as not to overexpose it.

The S6 Edge+ camera is far from the first to shoot in RAW. Talk about “why do you need RAW in a smartphone?” we won’t, because such a question doesn’t even exist. If it is possible to make a double in RAW, then why not, but the owner of the device will decide for himself whether to use this opportunity. But here you need to understand that “pulling” a smartphone RAW is a little more difficult than a photo from a good camera, although it is quite possible to do this. Much here depends on the quality of the sensor, and no less on the quality of the optics. But with optics, modern flagships practically do not sin, but sensors still have room to grow. Below are a few images, with minimal processing, output through Camera Raw and RawTherapee, which prove that it is quite possible to pull out Samsung RAW, and moreover, it is quite possible to work with it.

An archive with RAW images can be downloaded from the link.

The camera takes RAW pictures in DNG format, which avoids special problems with profiles. Perhaps a smartphone shouldn’t take pictures in anything else.

The photos of the stand were taken through Camera Raw in the “As Shot” auto mode, and they show that the computer retains a little more detail than a smartphone, but careful processing of noise and working with color in this case falls on the user’s shoulders. In normal scenarios, the machine copes well, even perfectly. If you want special colors, it makes sense to use RAW. The size of such a photo is about 32 MB, so it is impractical to constantly shoot in RAW, but switching between manual and auto modes does not take long.

In general, the camera turned out to be quite flagship. It will cope well with shooting in both auto mode and RAW, which it can really afford.

Telephone and communications

The smartphone works as standard in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth-generation networks LTE Cat.9 (or Cat.6 depending on the operator). The following FDD LTE bands are supported: B1(2100), B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B12(700), B17(700) , B18(800), B19(800), B20(800). That is, all three bands most common among domestic operators (B3, B7 and B20) are supported by the smartphone. In practice, with a SIM card from the Beeline operator in the Moscow region, the smartphone was confidently registered and worked in 4G networks. The quality of signal reception is not satisfactory; the device confidently maintains communication indoors and does not lose the signal in areas of poor reception.

The rest of the communication capabilities of the smartphone are also excellent. There is support for NFC technology, Bluetooth has version 4.2, and the ANT+ standard is also supported. Wi-Fi module 802.11n/ac, HT80 with MIMO technology (2×2, up to 620 Mbit/s) supports operation in both frequency bands (2.4 and 5 GHz), Wi-Fi Direct is supported. You can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. It is possible to connect external devices to the USB port in OTG mode. Payments in the Samsung Pay system can be made using NFC or MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technologies.

The navigation module works with all three world systems: GPS (with A-GPS), Glonass and Beidou (BDS). There are no complaints about the operating speed of the navigation module; the first satellites are detected during a cold start within the first tens of seconds. The smartphone is equipped with a magnetic field sensor, on the basis of which the compass of navigation programs operates.

The standard keyboard layout has a dedicated top row with numbers; it is possible to change the height of the row. For Swype fans, there is a method of continuously typing with a stroke from letter to letter when the T9 smart dialing system is turned on. The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts. It is possible to reduce the size of not only the virtual keyboard, but also the entire working area of ​​the screen for ease of operation with one hand. True, in this case all the information becomes too small and difficult to read. In order to reduce the working area of ​​the screen, you need to quickly press the central hardware button under the screen three times.

OS and software

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ runs on the fifth version of Android OS (5.1.1) with the proprietary TouchWiz shell installed on top of it. The TouchWiz interface here is almost the same as in the original Samsung Galaxy S6. Among the features: it is possible to work in multiple window mode (if the application supports split window mode) or in pop-up window mode. Gestures are supported (taking a screenshot or muting the sound with your palm, calling a contact by holding the device to your ear, etc.). For the convenience of working with one hand with an enlarged screen, the usual functions for this case have been added to shift the virtual keyboard closer to one of the edges of the screen and reduce the entire area of ​​​​the working space on the screen. From the fifth version of Android OS, the interface received pop-up interactive information tiles, a scrolling perspective menu of the latest open programs, and a guest mode. Of the additional themes immediately available for download and installation, you can choose the same soft pink for girls or inky blue with a cosmic twist for boys - for the rest you will have to go to the online theme store.

Naturally, additional functions are implemented for a curved screen, some of which, however, could well be used with an ordinary, flat screen - for example, the same multi-colored bookmarks, peeking out as labels on the side and tied to certain contacts. Of course, with a flat screen there is no way to provide backlighting to the side of the display when receiving calls or notifications, but it is, in fact, only useful if you place the device face down, and hardly anyone does this often.

In addition, a scrolling information feed with news received from subscribed channels can be displayed on the side of the screen, as well as a clock in night mode, which looks more interesting and useful. At least you don't have to turn on the whole screen to see the time. True, this option can also be implemented with a regular, non-curved screen: in LG devices, for example, you can pull down the blank screen, and the time and date will be displayed at the top (Glance View function). So, in general, it seems that the presence of curved edges of the screen does not provide any special functional advantages - after all, this is, for the most part, an impressive-looking element of decoration.

The set of pre-installed applications is standard and familiar from previous models in the series. The Smart Switch application for PC and Mac is designed to synchronize data using iTunes, as well as for devices based on the Blackberry and Windows operating systems. The SideSync function provides both wired and wireless connections to a computer without additional settings and cables for synchronizing and controlling your smartphone. A set of system utilities Smart Manager is responsible for system optimization, memory cleaning and anti-virus security. A widget called Briefing, no longer in the first generation of top-line Korean smartphones, is responsible for collecting and displaying information from various news sources. S Health is traditionally associated with health indicators: the program works both with the heart rate sensor located on the back of the device, and with numerous individual accessories, such as smart bracelets and watches.

Performance

The hardware platform of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is built on the Exynos 7420 single-chip system (SoC) of Samsung's own production, produced according to the standards of the 14-nanometer technological process. The configuration of this single-chip system includes two clusters of four cores: ARM Cortex-A57 with a frequency of 2.1 GHz and ARM Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.5 GHz. The GPU is a Mali T760 video accelerator. The smartphone has as much as 4 GB of RAM (using LPDDR4), which is more than the regular S6 edge version (3 GB). The “plus” version is currently on sale in Russian retail only with 32 GB of internal memory, of which about 25 GB is available to the user. There is no possibility of expansion through memory cards; connection in OTG mode is supported.

According to the testing results, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, as expected, demonstrated the same high results as both previous flagship models S6 and S6 edge - fortunately they are based on the same platform. The scores in the 64-bit version of the popular AnTuTu benchmark are close to 67K points, and in the regular 32-bit version they are almost 63K, which has not yet been demonstrated by any of the competing SoCs Qualcomm and MediaTek. The most powerful of Huawei's platforms, the HiSilicon Kirin 935, does not reach such heights either. In other comprehensive tests, the results of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ are also maximum.

In terms of graphics and support for 3D games, the Galaxy S6 edge+ platform is also at its best, although here the Adreno 430 graphics subsystem of the competing Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 platform is almost on an equal footing with the Mali T760 GPU, which is part of the Samsung Exynos 7420 SoC.

In any case, the device is extremely productive; the capabilities built into it will be enough for a long time to complete any assigned tasks, including the most demanding games.

Testing in the latest versions of comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

	Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ (Exynos 7420)	Meizu MX5 (Mediatek MT6795T)	LG G4 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 808)	Huawei Mate S (HiSilicon Kirin 935)	Sony Xperia Z3+ (Qualcomm Snapdragon 810)
3DMark Ice Storm Extreme (more is better)	Maxed out!	Maxed out!	Maxed out!	6292	9817
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited (more is better)	23125	16390	18372	12553	20169
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Onscreen)	37 fps	27 fps	25 fps	16 fps	44 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Offscreen)	57 fps	27 fps	35 fps	12 fps	40 fps
Bonsai Benchmark	4237 (60 fps)	3966 (57 fps)	3340 (48 fps)	3396 (48 fps)	3846 (55 fps)

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Thermal photographs

Below are thermal images of the rear surface obtained after 10 minutes of battery testing in the GFXBenchmark program:

The specular nature of the back surface causes surrounding objects to be reflected in it (in particular, the hand holding the camera). However, it can be seen that the heating is highly localized towards the right edge, which seems to correspond to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat camera, the maximum heating was 40 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is the average heating in this test among modern smartphones.

Playing video

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the testing results, the subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed to fully play most of the most common multimedia files on the network. To successfully play them, you will have to resort to the help of a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it is also necessary to change the settings and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 sound format.

Format	Container, video, sound	MX Video Player	Standard video player
DVDRip	AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL SD	AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3	plays normally	plays normally
Web-DL HD	MKV, H.264 1280×720 3000 Kbps, AC3		The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹
BDRip 720p	MKV, H.264 1280×720 4000 Kbps, AC3	The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹	The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹
BDRip 1080p	MKV, H.264 1920×1080 8000 Kbps, AC3	The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹	The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹

¹ sound in MX Video Player was played only after installing an alternative custom audio codec; The standard player does not have this setting

Tested video output features Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We did not find the MHL interface, like Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices) 720/24p

Great No

Note: If in both columns Uniformity And Passes Green ratings are given, this means that, most likely, when watching films, artifacts caused by uneven alternation and frame skipping will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect the viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the device itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. In the case of files with 60 fps, one frame in 1-2 s is always displayed a little longer due to the strange screen refresh rate of 60-odd Hz. This effect also exists at lower frame rates, but it is more difficult to notice. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, going to the bends. The clarity of the picture is high, but not ideal, since there is no escape from interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experimentation, you can switch to the one-to-one mode by pixel; there will be no interpolation, but the features of PenTile will appear - the vertical world through the pixel will be in a grid, and the horizontal one will be slightly greenish. This is on test worlds; the described artifacts are not present on real frames. The brightness range displayed on the screen actually corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - in the shadows only a couple of shades merge with black, but in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed.

Battery life

The capacity of the built-in non-removable battery installed in the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ is a considerable 3000 mAh. An economical SoC, made using a 14 nm process technology, and a Super AMOLED screen did their job: the smartphone proved itself more than worthy in terms of battery life. Samsung flagships in recent generations have always demonstrated outstanding autonomy in the top segment, among their own kind, and the latest device in the series was no exception.

The settings traditionally contain two proprietary energy saving modes: normal and extreme. Maximum power saving mode significantly reduces energy consumption by turning off non-essential functions and preserving vital functions at the moment, and also, for visual effect, converting the color image on the screen to simplified shades of gray.

	Battery capacity	Reading mode	Video mode	3D Game Mode
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+	3000 mAh	15:30	10:50 a.m.	4 hours 20 minutes
Sony Xperia Z3+	2930 mAh	13:40	8:30 a.m.	3 hours 40 minutes
Huawei P8	2680 mAh	13:00	9:00 a.m.	3 hours 10 minutes
LG G4	3000 mAh	17:00	9:00 a.m.	3:00 am
Nexus 6	3220 mAh	18:00	10:30 a.m.	3 hours 40 minutes
HTC One M9	2840 mAh	11:00 am	8 a.m. 20 p.m.	3 hours 50 minutes
Samsung Galaxy S6	2550 mAh	20:00	12:00 pm	4:00 am
Meizu MX5	3150 mAh	15:00	11:00 am	4 hours 10 minutes

The developers themselves promise up to 20 hours of talk time, as well as 11 hours of continuous work on the Internet and up to 66 hours of audio playback. Our own measurements showed that continuous reading in the Moon+ Reader program (with a light theme, with auto-scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (the brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted about 15.5 hours until the battery was completely discharged. Without the auto-scroll feature, these numbers will increase even more. When continuously watching video in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device lasted almost 11 hours. In 3D gaming mode the device worked for about 4.5 hours.

At the same time, the smartphone charges extremely quickly. With a proprietary Samsung charger with an output current of 2 A, a large smartphone battery is fully charged in just 1.5 hours. We did not have the opportunity to check the charging time from a wireless device, but the developers promise that it will only be no more than 2 hours.

Bottom line

Samsung has once again released a very high-quality product, the main drawback of which is only its high cost: in the current conditions, not everyone can afford it. At the time of release on the Russian market, the official price of a certified Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ smartphone with 32 GB of memory in both color modifications is almost 55 thousand rubles. But those who are not put off by this price will be able to enjoy all the remarkable capabilities of this extraordinary smartphone with a high-quality large screen, one of the best cameras on the market, an impressive range of communication services, good sound and decent battery life. Not to mention the two most important features of any modern smartphone, such as expressive appearance and the highest performance of the hardware system.

Surely you have already learned characteristics and know about all the possibilities Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Today I will talk about the experience of actually using one of the hottest new products of this year. We will talk about the nuances of operation, useful or useless features, and also see what the built-in camera of a smartphone is capable of. Go!

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge package includes a charger (5 V, 2 A), a wired headset, a Micro-USB cable and a metal SIM card ejector. It's good that the Koreans stopped using yellow boxes made of thin and super cheap cardboard. Now, of course, the packaging still doesn’t make much of an impression, especially considering the price of more than fifty thousand rubles per phone, but it’s still better than before.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge SM-G925F

I think it will be interesting not just to look at the technical characteristics of the smartphone in its pure form, but to compare them with the capabilities of its predecessor - the Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F). The specifications of the regular S6 and its curved version are no different from each other. Compared to last year’s version, a lot has changed: green marks what has changed towards improvement, red – towards worsening.

	Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F)	Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (SM-G925F)
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 2.5 GHz (4 cores)	Exynos 7 Octa 7420, 2.1 and 1.5 GHz, 64-bit (8 cores: 4 Cortex-A57 and 4 Cortex-A53)
Video accelerator	Adreno 330	Mali-T760 MP8
RAM	2 GB LPDDR3	3 GB LPDDR4-3104
Built-in memory	16 GB	32 / 64 / 128 GB
Memory card support	Yes (micro SD up to 128 GB)	No
Display	Super AMOLED 5.1’’, 1920×1080 pixels (432 ppi)	Super AMOLED 5.1'', 2560×1440 pixels (577 ppi)
Main camera	16 MP	16 MP
Front-camera	2 MP	5 MP
Battery	2800 mAh	2550 mAh
OS	Android 4.4.2 (5.0 Lollipop available)	Android 5.0.2
cellular	2G, 3G, 4G	2G, 3G, 4G LTE-A Cat 6 (FDD LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26,
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, USB 3.0 (OTG), infrared port	Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, USB 2.0 (OTG), infrared port
Connectors	GPS/GLONASS/Beidou	GPS/GLONASS/Beidou
Sensors		Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, barometer, light sensor, fingerprint scanner, heart rate monitor
SIM card form factor	Micro	Nano
Water and dust protection	Yes (IP67 standard)	No

Later we will definitely talk in more detail about the hardware components and, of course, touch on performance.

Design

Let's talk a little about the design of the device. I want to say right away that in real life the device looks much better than in photographs and, especially, in press images. Judging only by the photo, it may seem that Samsung continues to stubbornly push its line of monotonous devices with a lack of design, but now it is also trying to deceive the user by saying that we are talking about a device with a first-class appearance.

When you take a smartphone in your hand, you understand that there is no deception here and this is a truly interesting, beautiful device.

The most surprising thing for me was that Samsung managed to combine the continuity of its design, which was correct in their opinion, and make an objectively very interesting device in terms of appearance. Of course, you may not like the design, but in any case, it’s worth admitting that it turned out to be interesting and, due to the curved display at the edges, there is simply nothing like it on the market.

Owners of the S6 Edge should be heartened by the fact that nothing like this will appear on the market in the near future. Yes, perhaps at the beginning of 2016 we will see something curved in a similar way from some eminent manufacturer, but not a single Chinese company rushing to Olympus will be able to do something similar in the next year or two. The latter will look for ways to stand out in other ways (lack of side frames, etc.) and this is certainly a plus for you and me, consumers.

Sorry, but I can’t resist comparing the device with the iPhone 6. In the Edge, like the regular S6, the rear camera protrudes very noticeably above the surface of the body. It is clear that this nuance is due to an engineering solution - placing an excellent photomodule in a thin body is a task that no one can yet do. However, the Koreans managed to beat this moment and the back side, even with a protruding camera lens, is perceived as one piece.

The same cannot be said about the Apple device. Here the camera sticks out, apparently because the engineers simply did not have time to complete the product in time. This is exactly the impression you get when you look at the iPhone 6.

Ease of use

Curved screens give +50 to the charisma of the device, but at the same time -25 to ease of use.

The thing is that during normal use, accidental presses on the screen at its curved ends are not uncommon. Sometimes this happens in the browser when you accidentally click on some link with an advertisement like “How to lose 65 kg in two weeks!” And it also happens that when shooting something with the built-in camera, you try to tap on the screen to focus on the object, but you don’t understand why the device doesn’t respond to your attempts. After 5 seconds, it becomes clear that at this moment the thumb lightly touches the curved part of the screen and the viewfinder stops responding to any touch.

Here's another scenario for everyday use of a smartphone. In the morning, while still lying in bed, the first thing many of us do is reach for the phone to check the time, check the weather, or check our email. It is clear that we do this either in a completely horizontal position or in a reclining position. So, using the “edge” in any of these cases is very difficult. The device is tilted down towards your face and, of course, the phone rests on your thumbs. And given that you can’t hold it on the edge in this position (false clicks on the curved edges of the display will be triggered), it’s impossible to use the smartphone while lying down.

It would seem that there is a simple way out - always hold the device by the metal edge. However, in this case, the area of ​​contact between the smartphone and the palm along the edge becomes smaller and the risk of dropping the smartphone from your hands increases many times over. Any S6 Edge owner will have to go through this stage and get the hang of holding the device correctly or end up dropping it and breaking it.

There's one more thing to consider if you can't decide between the regular S6 and its curved sibling. In about a week, the euphoria from a new, interesting and unique device will pass and, so to speak, harsh everyday life will begin, during which you will constantly make compromises when using your smartphone. Either it is difficult to pick it up when it is lying on the table, or you accidentally and constantly press the screen with your palm and something goes wrong - all these troubles will haunt you constantly.

Think carefully about whether you need such an attraction and whether you are willing to sacrifice the ease of use of your device for the sake of the wow effect that the Galaxy S6 Edge produces.

By the way, due to the use of tempered glass on the front and back (the latest generation of Corning Gorilla Glass 4), the device itself does not try to slip out of your hands. In this regard, for example, the iPhone 6 is much more difficult to manage.

During use, of course, small scratches will begin to appear on the glass, but on the white model they are very difficult to notice. My copy had these available, but it was very difficult to photograph them.

The movement of all physical buttons is moderately soft and clear. It’s pleasant to press them, even despite the barely noticeable, but still present, play.

In general, the assembly of the smartphone is excellent, but a couple of nuances were still discovered.

In the corners, in places of smooth transitions on the body, a gap is visible between the glass and the metal bumper.

In the photo below, I even managed to insert a piece of paper into this slot. In other places, the front panel fits as tightly as possible and there are not even tiny gaps.

The paint on the sloping end of the protruding camera lens peels off quite quickly.

Somehow this is not very healthy for an image product costing over 50,000 rubles. Perhaps the manufacturer will solve this problem in future batches.

	Length	Width	Thickness	Weight
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge		71,7
Samsung Galaxy S5		72,5
Apple iPhone 6	138,1
HTC One M9	144,6	69,7	9,61
Sony Xperia Z3	146,5

Fans of compact smartphones will be happy to get their hands on the Galaxy S6 Edge, as despite its 5.1-inch display it is very compact, light and very thin. The smartphone seemed a little small to me and it would be great if Samsung released something larger. I think we should wait until fall and try the Galaxy Note Edge 2. By the way, there is no one-handed operation mode here. You can use the device comfortably this way.

Display

Despite the seemingly large 5.1-inch screen, you shouldn't expect the screen to be large. Such is the paradox. Due to the rounded sides, the useful area of ​​the screen is reduced and this is reflected in the information that fits on the screen, or rather, which remains readable. For example, in the browser we are used to the system automatically aligning the text along the edges of the screen with a double tap, but here the text extends onto the curved sides and it becomes difficult to perceive the text in this position. Each time you have to adjust the text to fit the usable display area by additionally scaling the text manually with two fingers. Comfortable? Unlikely.

The above applies only to full versions of sites. For clarity, in the left photo below you can see what one of the popular resources on the topic of mobile devices looks like on the S6 Edge screen. In the photo on the right, our website is open in the browser, which is specially optimized for mobile devices - nothing needs to be scaled, everything remains readable from the start.

In general, a curved screen makes you take a fresh look at the already boring interface of many applications. Thus, Instagram began to play differently due to its rounded edges. The same applies to other utilities on Android. And this is certainly very cool! A completely useless, but very cool feature of the Galaxy S6 Edge.

I liked the time display on the side strip of the display in night mode. You woke up so suddenly at night, turned your head, looked at the glowing clock on the side of your smartphone and continued to sleep until the alarm clock. Comfortable? Yes. Need to? Um... I guess.

When it comes to viewing angles, there is a lot to talk about. In the test photos below, I compared the S6 Edge's screen (left/top in photos, display mode: Adaptive) with one of the best displays I've seen on a mobile device in the last year - (right/bottom).

As you can see, the display of the Korean smartphone performs, in general, quite well, but it still lacks the brightness reserve in comparison with the Chinese one.

I would not say that color reproduction is ideal in both devices. In the S6 Edge, the image is slightly green, while in the MX4 Pro the colors go a little pink. Here, everyone likes what they like, but I’m not close to the traditional green displays in solutions from the Korean corporation.

However, the “edge” screen is unrivaled in terms of black transmission.

Samsung displays the deepest possible blacks, which the Meizu device cannot boast of. By the way, the latter, so you know, conveys a dark tint quite well if you compare its display with that of Huawei Honor 6 Plus. Here you can look at the comparison of these two Chinese and see the veracity of this statement.

The same applies to the behavior of the screen in the sun. The display remains readable in any conditions. The backlight adjustment sensor, of course, does not react the fastest to sudden changes in lighting, but it always does it correctly.

Processor, graphics and memory

The most advanced mobile processor currently available from Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa is used as the “brains” of the smartphone. It is based on 4 powerful Cortex-A57 cores with a frequency of 2.1 GHz and 4 additional Cortex-A53 with a lower frequency of 1.5 GHz (big.LITTLE). The processor is created using 14-nanometer technology. The closest competitors are the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, which has some overheating issues, and the Nvidia Tegra K1.

The graphics are handled by the ARM Mali-T760 MP8. The frequency of each shader cluster reaches 772 MHz. Support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 1.1 and DirectX 11 is declared. According to some tests, this video chip built into the processor outperforms Adreno 430 and PowerVR GX6450 (Apple A8). The high resolution of 2560 x 1440 in games is something that the graphics cope with with a bang.

In addition, it uses the fastest memory 3 GB LPDDR4-3104 (speed up to 24.8 Gbps).

Performance

The speed of animation and interface is maximum. Any menu and graphics fly and it becomes clear that you are dealing with a well-functioning interface.

The camera starts up in less than a second and takes photos even faster. During the entire testing period, I was never able to find any bottlenecks where the device stuttered at least once.

Have you read above about the smartphone specifications? So, does it make sense to say that the performance of modern 3D games is maximum? I think this is unnecessary.

The same applies to performance in various benchmarks.

In the 64-bit AnTuTu test, the Galaxy S6 Edge managed to score a whopping 70,641 virtual parrots! It’s really: “Can your smartphone do this?”

More details in the screenshots below.

Camera

Gorgeous! Seriously! It is truly the best among all currently existing mobile devices (spring 2015). Don't believe me? Then look at the bee peacefully collecting nectar from the almond blossom below.

If you still have doubts, then here are examples with other frames taken on the device. The originals can be taken from here in one archive and studied in detail offline.

Even photos taken at night look good. Check out how the Samsung plant turned out in one of the photos below.

Optical stabilization works well in most situations, but taking two or three shots at a time never hurts. It happens that the photos turn out blurry, but this is discovered too late.

Examples of 100% crops are below, in their proper places.

The device takes photographs very quickly. The same applies to HDR images, and indeed launching the camera in general. In the settings, you can set the photo application to launch when you double-click the Home key. Thus, you will have approximately 1.5 seconds from the moment you discover an interesting plot until the image is saved to the smartphone’s memory.

Samsung has taken a path that can only be welcomed. Firstly, they improved the already excellent camera compared to the same Galaxy Note 4. And, secondly, they simplified the process of creating photos and menus. Previously, when you pressed a button with gears, a matrix with monochrome icons and inscriptions opened in front of you, which made your eyes water.

Now everything is simple. Basic settings, including choosing a resolution, activating geotagging, setting up additional shutter buttons (volume keys), and so on, are available by pressing the same gear.

Again, there are few modes, but all the most basic things are there: shooting slow or fast video, creating panoramas, choosing the focus after shooting, which is now fashionable, and so on.

Of course, there is a “Pro” mode, where you can play around with the shutter speed settings yourself, tighten up the picture using additional settings and select the appropriate ISO. By the way, below is an example of a picture put together from different frames at different ISO settings.

There are two sets of preset filters: the first is called up by pressing a separate virtual key from the viewfinder, and the second is accessible from the “Pro” mode. Korean developers apparently don't like what Instagram has to offer.

The smartphone is capable of recording video in a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels at 30 frames per second. Example below.

As before, the camera is capable of shooting slow-motion or sped-up videos. In this case, the resolution will not exceed 1280 x 720, and to correctly view such masterpieces on a computer, special players and codecs will be required. I'm more interested in the implementation of shooting such a video in . There the feature is called Timeshift Burst and is made more elegantly.

Battery life

Forget about two days of battery life on a single battery charge. The Galaxy S6 Edge will need to be charged every day, unless, of course, you bought this smartphone just to make calls.

Buy a wireless charger and train yourself to place the device on it every day before going to bed. This will make life much easier and you won’t have to worry about the lack of battery power.

Overnight, the device spends about 6-8 percent of its charge to nothing. During the day, most of the energy is consumed by the screen, data transfer and, of course, the built-in hardware. If used very intensively, the smartphone runs the risk of not surviving until the night and being discharged halfway to the outlet. In this case, you should use the energy saving mode. The usual saving mode is of little use, but extreme energy saving will allow you to stay connected for twice as long. By the way, when this feature is activated, the device is not only limited in the use of all its functions, but also behaves like some kind of budget phone: it becomes slightly thoughtful.

Models and prices

In this material, in addition to reviewing the actual use of the phone, I propose to touch upon the issue of existing models. The range of prices and modifications, of course, is not great, but the information will still be useful. This is especially true for those who decide to buy a gadget abroad during a vacation or business trip.

We have

There are currently several versions of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. First of all, they differ in the size of the built-in memory: it can be 32, 64 or 128 GB. The order of prices, respectively, is as follows: 54,990, 57,990 and 62,990 rubles. All these modifications have the same marking: SM-G925F.

A little later, another model will appear on our market, which will have support for two SIM cards on board. True, we are talking about the regular Galaxy S6 Duos (SM-G920F), which will have 64 GB allocated for data storage. Nothing is yet known about the version with a curved display and two SIM cards.

And that is not all. Most recently, the Korean company announced the start of sales of a special version of the smartphone in a color with the brand name “noble emerald”. The coloring itself does not carry any special bonus, the point here is different. For only 89,990 rubles, the lucky owner of the device will receive a wireless charger and an external battery included.

In addition, the buyer will receive a membership card to the Quintessentially Lifestyle Club, a service that books you hotels, restaurant reservations and much more around the world. A good opportunity to try the service for very little money. A subscription in isolation from a Samsung device costs completely different money, much more than the price of an “edge”.

They have

In the international arena (if you’re on vacation in the USA, this will come in handy) there is a whole scattering of different types of “edge”. Below is a selection of models with approximate prices for them as a guide.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge SM-G925P- this option is available from the Sprint operator and has support for the following cellular networks: UMTS: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz. As for LTE, the modification is designed to work in networks with the following bands: FDD LTE: 700 (12), 850 (5), 850 (26), 1700 / 2100 (4), 1900 (2), 1900 (25) MHz ; TDD LTE: 2500 (41) MHz.

SM-G925A- sold to AT&T operators and supports UMTS networks (850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz), as well as LTE FDD: 700 (17), 800 (20), 850 (5), 900 (8), 1700 / 2100 (4), 1800 (3), 1900 (2), 2100 (1), 2600 (7) MHz.

SM-G925V— can be purchased at Verizon stores and points of sale. Declared to work in UMTS (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) and LTE FDD: 700 (13), 850 (5), 1700/2100 (4), 1800 (3), 1900 (2), 2600 (7) MHz .

SM-G925T from the American operator T-Mobile - will be able to connect to UMTS (850 / 1700/2100 / 1900 / 2100 MHz), as well as the 4th generation cellular network LTE FDD: 700 (12), 700 (17), 800 (20), 850 (5), 1700 / 2100 (4), 1800 (3), 1900 (2), 2100 (1), 2600 (7) MHz

And a relatively rare modification SM-G925R from U.S. Cellular is equipped with support for UMTS (800/1900 MHz), as well as LTE FDD: 700 (12), 700 (13), 700 (17), 850 (5), 1700 / 2100 (4), 1900 (2), (7 ) MHz.

The same applies to the regular version of the Samsung Galaxy S6 SM-G920F. It is enough to remove the last letter in the model name and substitute the missing one from the operator: substitute A, T, V or R instead of F at the end of the model name.

The only parting word before purchasing: check which bands are broadcast in your city by the operator whose services you are going to use. This is an important point that should be taken into account in advance, in addition to the fact that not all of the models indicated above can be purchased by non-US residents.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone is a truly unique device. At the moment, it remains the leader of the entire market both in terms of productivity and innovation.

Most likely, the situation will not change until the end of summer, until the moment when the Korean manufacturer introduces the next generation of Note 5 or Note 5 Edge to the world. Considering all this, the stated price of 54,990 rubles is completely justified. Moreover, the manufacturer could set the price higher, since the S6 Edge is still playing alone in its league.

We talked about everything that is important to know when purchasing a device. I did not touch on the points that you already know. We looked at what the manufacturer and other publications are silent about. Only two points remain unclear: why is the regular Galaxy S6 so overpriced and how will you deal with the curved edges of the hero of today’s article? I described the last point in some detail in the body of the review - it contains everything that any user will most likely encounter during real, normal use of a smartphone.

As for the price for a regular, non-curved modification, everything is different here. Yes, we have before us a very powerful, productive device with excellent body materials. However, the device does not have the same image component as the Edge or the iPhone 6. Such a comparison set the teeth on edge, but it is not we, journalists, who do this, but the company itself.

Samsung openly competes with Apple when building its pricing policy. However, why the buyer should pay for the manufacturer’s ambitions is unclear.

If Samsung had set the price at 35-40 thousand rubles (which, in fact, happened as part of the price war in the spring-summer 2015), it would have had a chance to finally do away with competitors such as HTC or Sony and push them out of the Russian market. However, the company did not want to do this, nor did they want to remember Chinese companies, which are increasingly conquering the domestic market. In unstable economic conditions, users tend to save money and choose more affordable solutions. And there’s also the holiday season ahead—after all, you also want to relax. They don’t have extra money for the very best device.

Now, after the publication of sales reports from Apple and the Korean electronics giant, it becomes clear that Samsung’s strategy is not working and it is still impossible to compete head-on with the Cupertino team. People are addicted to stereotypes that are stuck in their heads: iPhone is cool, it’s status, period! So far, the Koreans have only partially succeeded in convincing buyers of the superiority of the Galaxy S6 Edge (on all fronts).

A few days before the start of sales in Russia, read the full review of the hot new product from the Koreans. Meet the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge! Below are a lot of photos, rave reviews and a few comments.

About the smartphone

At the annual exhibition Mobile World Congress 2015 Samsung has two flagship Galaxy devices: Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Both devices received positive reviews from the press, and mere mortals were eagerly awaiting the announcement of prices and the start date of sales. And so, after some time, it became known that in Russia the first phones will fall into the hands of happy customers starting on April 16.

The price tag of more than sixty thousand rubles seems quite high, because the cool reviews from the owners of the previous flagship, the Galaxy S5, are still fresh in memory. And in this article we will dot all the E’s so that, after reading to the end, you can decide for yourself whether to go to the “Android” camp or remain a supporter of your native “Apple”. I am sure of one thing: there will be no indifferent people, because the devices turned out to be truly new and technologically advanced.

It was in my hands Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, color Black Sapphfire, with 32 gigabytes of memory on board (of which 25.3 GB is available to the user). I find it more interesting than just the Galaxy S6 because of the curved screen on the sides. Whether this is good or bad, we will try to determine together with you in this review.

Equipment

A box made of white, thick cardboard with a laconic design contains:

• the device itself;
• documentation in a separate box;
• micro USB cable;
• adapter for 220v;
• headset with remote control;
• one set of replacement tips for the headset;
• a paperclip for removing the SIM card tray.

There was nothing supernatural in the box: everything was needed and neatly packed. The brief user manual contains a minimum of information. It is assumed that the lucky owner of the gadget will be able to read the full instructions on the Samsung website.

First look

When you first touch the device, you understand: the company has done a great job of rethinking the concept of a “flagship smartphone.” No plastic, only metal and glass. The aluminum frame gracefully curves around the edges of the device, and the electronics are reliably protected by Gorilla Corning Glass 4 on both sides.

There shouldn't be any scratches or abrasions, but such a coating will collect fingerprints (a criminologist's dream!). So you definitely need to buy an additional cover, or periodically wipe the screen and back of the device with a cloth.

In general, despite jokes about the two designers, the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have no similarities. It seems that someone in the depths of the management department of the Korean company slammed his fist on the table and demanded that all past complaints and customer dissatisfaction be urgently corrected. The team was executed perfectly. The device does not creak, there is no play, all the buttons are clear and pleasant to press.

The battery is now non-removable, and there are no memory cards (just the way we like it!). Particularly malicious people can compare the location and shape of the device’s elements on the bottom edge, but these are minor things.

The color of the device is a separate topic for discussion: indoors the smartphone appears blue-black, but when you hold it up to the light, you realize that the color is actually deep dark blue. I think that this is exactly the color scheme that the palantirs had in the trilogy about the hobbits, because such a transition of colors is fascinating: several times I caught myself just twirling the phone in my hands, watching how its color changed.

The SIM card tray is located on the top edge of the device, next to the infrared port (sic!). The S6 Edge “eats” a SIM card of the smallest format, the principle of removing the tray is simple and familiar: with the included paperclip, you need to press into the special hole until it stops. You can only insert one SIM card, no multi-SIM solutions. This is a premium smartphone, remember?

Screen

The screen is gorgeous. No, really, the screen is simply gorgeous! Super AMOLED technology, 5.1″ diagonal, with a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels, pixel density 577 ppi – this is no joke. For comparison, the Galaxy S5 had 432 ppi, the iPhone 6 Plus - 401 ppi, the LG G3 - 543 ppi (although the LG G3 has a larger diagonal - 5.5 inches). Black color is truly black, all other colors are bright and rich. In the sun, of course, readability is not very good, but it’s a solid four. There is no change in brightness or contrast when looking at the screen at an angle. The curved sides of the screen also do not distort the perception of the picture.

operating system

I wanted to include a description of the OS as a separate paragraph, because it is clear that the company has done a lot of work to change and optimize the software component. Used as an operating system Android 5.0.2(Lollipop), on top of which is traditionally installed its own proprietary graphical interface - TouchWiz. However, little remains of the usual clumsy TouchWiz with a bunch of unnecessary software. All unnecessary animation has disappeared, and the controls and overall appearance are as consistent as possible with the canons of the new Android.

Performance

Several days of active use and AnTuTu tests confirmed that the smartphone’s performance is excellent.

This is understandable - eight cores after all. By the way, the Galaxy S6 Edge is the first smartphone in which the company used the Exynos 7420 processor, built on the new 14-nanometer technology. It consumes significantly less energy. The operating principle is no different from Octacore chips, where the processor is divided into two clusters of four processor cores: ARM Cortex-A57 with a frequency of 2.1 GHz and an energy-saving ARM Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.5 GHz. The overall performance was impartially shown by a test from Geekbench:

“Heavy” games just fly, there are no lags. The Mali-T760 processor is responsible for the graphics, there are no complaints about it.

The 3D Mark test confirmed: in graphic terms, the Galaxy S6 Edge is more than fine. Based on test results, the smartphone currently has no analogues on the market.

Connection

I got the phone with a SIM card from MTS, so I didn’t experience any problems with communication. The device operates in GSM networks 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, and the data transfer speed via 4G LTE reaches 150 Mbit/s. I tested Internet connections in different parts of Moscow and everywhere the smartphone quickly loaded website pages and was able to use streaming radio. Of course, I didn’t see the ideal 150 Mbit/s, but the Speedtest service consistently showed data transmission and reception results at the level of 20-27 Mbit/s. I never experienced any problems with the Internet, which left me very pleased.

In addition, the device has Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, Supports DLNA, OTG, MTP, Miracast and GPS/Glonass. At the top end there is an IR port for controlling various home appliances (such as a TV) through a standard application.

Also Samsung has finally used the technology wireless charging in their flagships the most common standards are Qi and PowerMat. In addition, the company will release its own wireless chargers. Models in the colors “White Pearl” and “Blue Topaz” have already been presented. Judging by the photographs on the Internet, they look stylish, and during charging they are also illuminated around the perimeter.

Camera

In the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, engineers used a camera similar in characteristics to that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (the same 16 megapixels, with an optical stabilizer), but the f/1.9 lens decides that the camera is better in the dark than in the notorious Note. There are many settings in the application itself, for every taste.

In general, the camera is one of the strongest points of the Korean flagship: real-time HDR shooting is implemented (without the need to take several frames sequentially) and a special mode for photographing in low light. The camera starts up and is ready for use within 0.7 seconds. There is no dedicated button to launch the camera, but there is an option to double-click the center key (Home).

The comparison used was an iPhone 6, the difference in the photo can be seen below.

Samsung S6 Edge

Samsung S6 Edge

If you crop the photo, the advantage of the Galaxy S6 Edge camera becomes clear:

Samsung S6 Edge

Shooting at night:

Samsung S6 Edge

The device can shoot video in both Full HD and ultra-clear 4K resolution.

Full HD:

4K

Among other camera functions, an interesting 3D photo mode was discovered. You need to walk around the object of interest with the camera turned on, and the resulting three-dimensional image will be saved in the photo gallery. Subsequently, such a photo can be viewed from different angles using a gyroscope. This function is best illustrated by this animation.

The front camera with a resolution of 5 megapixels is simply created for self-examination and video communication. The quality is also excellent.

Bottom line: The camera in the new device from the Koreans is amazing in its clarity and number of additional settings. You can manually set the ISO parameters, white balance, focus, and various color filters. Objects photographed in motion are not blurred, continuous shooting produces up to 35 frames in 10 seconds. The resulting images can be immediately shared on social networks, sent by mail or saved in cloud storage.

I would like to give the camera a five plus. Well done.

Chips

One of the main features of the new smartphone is, of course, the screen rounded on the sides. In the notebook and browser, it is very convenient to scroll through lists and pages by sliding your finger along the side of the screen. In addition, an additional menu has appeared on the desktop, which can be called up by swiping from the right edge. In this menu, the user can assign up to five important contacts from the address book. Each contact is assigned a different color (your choice of purple, green, blue, yellow and orange).

If the phone is face down and one of these five contacts is trying to call you, the edge of the phone begins to glow in the color that was assigned to the contact. Convenient for meetings or in silent mode, and it looks very stylish.

The side edge can also inform you about missed calls and notifications regarding five selected contacts. There is an “Information Flow” function, when notifications are displayed as a line on the side when the screen is off, and a “Night Clock” function, when the current time is also displayed on the side if the screen is not working.

Specifications

A dry language of numbers and facts for those who like this:

SoC Exynos 7420 (64-bit), two clusters of four processor cores: ARM Cortex-A57 with a frequency of 2.1 GHz and ARM Cortex-A53 with a frequency of 1.5 GHz

GPU: Mali-T760

Operating system Android 5.0 Lollipop

Touch Super AMOLED display, 5.1″, 2560×1440

Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB LPDDR4

Internal memory 32, 64 or 128 GB

No microSD card slot

Data transfer speed max 4G LTE up to 150 Mbps

Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5 GHz), Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC

Support DLNA, OTG, MTP, Miracast

GPS/Glonass, IR port

16 MP camera with optical image stabilizer (OIS)

Front camera 5 MP

Barometer, fingerprint sensor, Hall and heart rate sensors

Non-removable lithium polymer battery 2600 mAh

Dimensions: 142×70×7 mm

Weight: 132 g

Conclusion

Samsung listened to the complaints and wishes of its smartphone users. The company's engineers have created unique, original devices that will no longer be compared with Apple products. I think that you can really fall in love with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, not because it is not like an iPhone, but because it is simply good. And this is great, because competition spurs progress.

(No votes)

A few days before the start of sales in Russia, read the full review of the hot new product from the Koreans. Meet the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge! Below are a lot of photos, rave reviews and a few comments. About the smartphone At the annual exhibition Mobile World Congress 2015, Samsung presented two flagship devices of the Galaxy series: Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Both devices...

Devices of the GALAXY S series have been known for almost their entire existence solely due to their advanced technical characteristics coupled with a moderate – by flagship standards – price. And now the time for change has finally come: it seems that this year some manufacturers themselves will want to “circle” the GALAXY S6 Edge. But this device also costs more than others.

Samsung GALAXY S6 Edge, official photo

From the point of view of hardware, everything has also changed dramatically over time with the GALAXY S5, although the policy has remained the same: the new flagship gets the best, the most advanced. The S6 and S6 Edge smartphones boast a Quad HD display, the latest Exynos platform - 7420, the most advanced LPDDR4 RAM, support for LTE Cat. 6 and 16 megapixel camera. In general, “complete stuffing”, all with the latest technology. Are the new flagships really that good? Let's try to answer this question after a detailed test.

⇡ Technical specifications

	SamsungGALAXY S5	SamsungGALAXY S6	SamsungGALAXY S6 Edge
Touch screen	5.1 inches, 1920 × 1080 pixels, AMOLED, 432 ppi;	5.1 inches, 2560 × 1440 pixels, AMOLED 575.9 ppi; Capacitive, up to ten simultaneous touches	5.1 inches, curved on the sides, 2560 × 1440 pixels, AMOLED; 575.9 dpi; Capacitive, up to ten simultaneous touches
Protective glass	Corning Gorilla Glass 3		Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on both sides
Air gap	No	No	No
Oleophobic coating	Eat	Eat	Eat
Polarizing filter	Eat	Eat	Eat
Factory film	No	No	No
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC v3: four Qualcomm Krait-400 cores (ARMv7, 32 bit), frequency 2.46 GHz; process technology 28 nm HPm	Samsung Exynos 7420: 14 nm process technology	Samsung Exynos 7420: four cores ARM Cortex-A57 (ARMv8, 64 bit), frequency 2.1 GHz; four cores ARM Cortex-A53 (ARMv8, 64 bit), frequency 1.5 GHz; 14 nm process technology
Graphics controller	Qualcomm Adreno 330	Mali-T760 MP8	Mali-T760 MP8
RAM	2 GB LPDDR3	3 GB LPDDR4	3 GB LPDDR4
Flash memory	16 GB (~12 GB available to user) MicroSD memory card slot	32/64/128 GB	32/64/128 GB (64 GB version tested, ~53.7 GB available to user); There is no memory card slot
Connectors	1 × Micro-USB 3.0 (MHL) 1 × 3.5mm headset jack 1 × Micro-SIM 1 × MicroSD	1 × Micro-USB 2.0 (MHL)	1 × Micro-USB 2.0 (MHL) 1 × 3.5mm headset jack 1 × Nano-SIM
cellular	2G/3G/4G One SIM card in Micro-SIM format	2G/3G/4G	2G/3G/4G One Nano-SIM format SIM card
Cellular connection 2G		GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Cellular 3G	HSDPA (42.2/5.76 Mbps) 850/900/1900/2100 MHz		HSPA (42.2/5.76 Mbps) 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
Cellular 4G	LTE FDD band 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20 (2100/1900/1800/850/ 2600/900/800 MHz) LTE Cat. 3 (150/50 Mbit/s)		LTE FDD band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 20 (2100/1900/1800/1700/850/ 2600/900/700/800) LTE Cat. 6 (300/50 Mbit/s)
WiFi		802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 and 5 GHz	802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 and 5 GHz
Bluetooth	4.0 + A2DP	4.1 + A2DP	4.1 + A2DP
NFC	Eat	Eat	Eat
IR port	Eat	Eat	Eat
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Sensors		Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer/Gyroscope, Magnetometer (Digital Compass), Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Heart Rate Sensor	Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Accelerometer/Gyroscope, Magnetometer (Digital Compass), Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Heart Rate Sensor
Main camera	16 MP (5312x2988), CMOS matrix Samsung S5K2P2 size 1/2.6’’ with back illumination and ISOCELL technology, element size 1.12 μm; Autofocus, single LED flash	16 MP (5312 × 2988),	16 MP (5312 × 2988), BSI matrix Sony IMX240 size 1/2.6’’ with back illumination, element size 1.2 μm; Optical stabilization system; Autofocus, single LED flash
Front-camera	2 MP (1920x1080), No autofocus, no flash		5 MP (2592 × 1944), No autofocus, no flash
Nutrition	Removable battery 10.78 Wh (2800 mAh, 3.85 V)	Non-removable battery 9.69 Wh (2550 mAh, 3.8 V)	Non-removable battery 9.88 Wh (2600 mAh, 3.8 V)
Size	142 × 73 mm Case thickness: 8.3 mm	143 × 70.5 mm Case thickness: 6.8 mm	142 × 70 mm Case thickness: 7 mm
Weight	145 g	138 g	132 g
Housing protection	IP67	No	No
operating system	Google Android 4.4.2 (KitKat)	Samsung's own TouchWiz shell	Google Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop) Samsung's own TouchWiz shell
Current price	29,990 rubles	49,990 rubles	56,990 rubles

The only major difference between the Samsung GALAXY S6 and S6 Edge is in the display and design: the first device has a completely standard screen, while the second one is curved on the sides. Otherwise, the devices are very similar to each other, but are not completely identical. There is a slight difference in dimensions: the case thickness of the regular version is 6.8 millimeters, while the Edge is 7 millimeters. But the modification with a rounded display is a little lighter - 132 versus 138 grams. Finally, different batteries are used: 9.69 Wh (2550 mAh, 3.8 V) for the regular version and 9.88 Wh (2600 mAh, 3.8 V) for the Edge. Otherwise, the S6 and S6 Edge are identical in terms of technical stuffing.

⇡ Appearance and ergonomics

All Samsung devices are similar to each other in one way or another. They have similar body proportions, approximately the same corner radius, an elongated central key at the bottom of the front panel... in general, a Samsung smartphone has always been easy to recognize. The situation has not changed much: the appearance of the GALAXY S6/S6 Edge remains very characteristic - even if you see this couple for the first time, it will not be difficult for you to guess that this is a Samsung.

Nevertheless, the GALAXY S6/S6 Edge differs radically from its predecessors. So much so that, if we draw parallels, we can say: the S6 and S6 Edge are not even a “restyling”, they are a full-fledged new “body” for Samsung flagships. The company's designers and engineers finally abandoned the use of plastic in favor of metal and glass. This is perhaps the key difference between the S6/S6 Edge and its predecessors. The front and back panels of the device are covered with protective glass Corning Gorilla Glass of a relatively new, fourth generation. For the first time, by the way, it was used in the Samsung GALAXY Note 4 “phablet” - the company’s first production device with a curved screen. The glass quite reliably protects the panels of the gadget from scratches and other minor damage.

The GALAXY S6 Edge is available in four colors: Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, White Pearl and the exclusive Green Emerald. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to order the device in the branded green color in Russia. A black sapphire gadget came to us for testing. In our opinion, this is a very good color. The smartphone appears black, but when light hits it, a dark blue glow appears. In general, the phrase “dark blue metallic” characterizes this color much better and more accurately than “black sapphire”. It is worth considering that the “regular” GALAXY S6 has different body colors.

The Samsung GALAXY S6 Edge is a pleasure to hold in your hands. The gadget is quite convenient to operate with one hand: you don’t have to move it and hold it with the other - it’s good that Samsung decided not to increase the screen size compared to the GALAXY S5. Yes, the display here is 5.1-inch, which by modern standards is not so much. The device does not slip in your hands, although its panels are quite smooth. During operation, the palm somehow touches the “side” of the screen, but the gadget does not react at all to these false presses. They are probably blocked at the software level.

The layout of controls and connectors is quite standard - plus or minus the same as in previous Samsung devices. Getting used to a smartphone is very easy. At the top of the front panel there is a front-facing camera lens, a 5-megapixel camera, an earpiece mesh, a proximity sensor optocoupler and an LED indicator.

Samsung GALAXY S6 Edge - front-facing, five-megapixel camera

At the bottom of the front panel there is an elongated Home key with a metal edge, which has a built-in biometric sensor. Next to it are two standard touch buttons equipped with switchable backlighting - “Menu of open applications” and “Back”.

The thickness of the body here is by no means outstanding - seven millimeters (excluding the protruding rear camera lens). However, due to the tapering metal edge on the sides, a deceptive feeling is created that the smartphone is much thinner than stated.

The device's power key is located on the right side under the thumb, and the volume control buttons are on the left. The keys are metal, with a short and distinct stroke. The Nano-SIM SIM card tray is hidden at the top end, and next to it there is an infrared port for controlling household appliances.

The external speaker slot is located at the bottom end. Its placement is good - during operation it is not blocked by hand in any way. Next to it is a Micro-USB interface combined with a video output (MHL), as well as a universal 3.5 mm jack for connecting a wired headset.

On the back panel there is a main 16-megapixel camera lens along with an LED flash, as well as a heart rate sensor. The panel is quite easily soiled - it gets dirty quite quickly and very readily collects fingerprints. However, you can get rid of them using any cloth at hand. The body of the device is non-separable.

Samsung GALAXY S6 Edge - back panel. Peeling off a sticker with barcodes is quite a task