Will Samsung’s upcoming flagship signal a new direction for the company?
While Korean juggernaut Samsung is still the top dog in Anroid smartphones, its lead has slowly been erased by its other competitors. For the first time in years Samsung now needs to
show the world it still has the manufacturing chops to compete with the very best of them, and to show that its top-tier devices can still lure in the Android faithful. It’s under this
atmosphere that Samsung had to labor with in creating the Galaxy S6, which, according to rumors, has the gotten the most thorough redesign of any Galaxy device in recent memory.
DESIGN
One of the biggest changes in terms of design for the upcoming S6 is the material used – Samsung is finally ditching plastic in favor of an all-metal body – you can finally say goodbye
to faux leather and dimpled plastic backs. We’ve already seen the company’s efforts with metal designs with the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Alpha and more recently, the all meta Galaxy A-
Series of devices, all of which hit all the right notes in terms of overall design and build quality. There’s also rumors that the S6 will have copius amounts of glass in addition to
the metal back, though more rumors point to a unibody metal design. Whatever the final design is, we’re glad that Samsung is finally done with plastic, at least in their high-end
offerings.
There’s also rumors of a variant of the Galaxy S6 called the Galaxy S Edge that will feature an edge display that’s similar to the Galaxy Note Edge. The Galaxy S Edge will have two edge
displays on both sides, instead of the single one that’s present on the Note Edge.
According to the teasers released by T-Mobile, the Galaxy S6 carries an enlarged home button that may contain a fingerprint scanner that’s similar to the one used by other devices like
the Huawei Ascend Mate7 and the MX4 Pro. We’re really hoping this is the case, because we found that the integrated fingerprint scanner in their previous models are a pain in the butt
to use and aren’t as intuitive as the ones in the devices of their rivals.
DISPLAY
Speaking of display, the Galaxy S6 will carry a 5.1-inch QHD (quad HD) display. While the screen size is the same as the previous model, the bump in resolution should make the display
even sharper. As always, Samsung will probably stick to its tried and tested Super AMOLED panel for the Galaxy S6.
HARDWARE
It seems that the trend of Samsung going with two processor options for its high-end phones will end, at least for the S6. Samsung was tipped to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor on the latest flagship, but alleged overheating issues put a kibosh on those plans. Instead, the company will pair up the S6 with their Exynos 7420 processor, along with 3GB of RAM. Other specs include a 2600mAh battery, as well as a new fingerprint scanner, NFC and a whole host of other features that usually crop up on other high-end Samsung devices as well.
The Galaxy S Edge is expected to run on the same processor, but is pegged to come with 4GB of RAM instead of 3.
OPTICS
According to a detailed leak from Sam Mobile, the Galaxy S6 will come sporting a 20-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization which is paired with a front facing 5-megapixel camera. Both camera modules are made in-house by Samsung, and will feature a “Pro” mode that allows users to choose between three focus modes, including a manual focus mode. Samsung is hyping the camera on their next flagship, with Samsung’s own Dong Hoon promising that the new model will come with the company’s most intelligent camera tech to date.
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