2014 was not the best year in Samsung's modern history in terms of profit. The curved Galaxy Note Edge is more of a showcase than a smartphone with real benefits in the eyes of the consumer. Apple's revenues have skyrocketed, and the success of the arrogant neighbor is always perceived as harder than failure. Samsung not only had to think about something with the launch of a new flagship, but it SHOULD BE THINKING SOMETHING! It would be too little to simply improve the technical characteristics. Long before the official presentation and the first leaks, the company promised to start working on the product from scratch. Unlike HTC, Samsung did not change the chief designer and, again unlike HTC, radically changed the appearance of its flagship. Most of all, fans and ill-wishers expected a metal case, as in the A-series, in the end they got even more - a case of beautiful colors made of glass made of metal, simplified (apparently, in the heavenly office they finally got to these prayers), as well as a quick interface, more flagship, in which the company finally understood how a curved display can be useful and a warm welcome even from those who are not loyal to Samsung. Honestly, until recently, I did not want to believe that Samsung would release an S6 with two curved edges, because the implementation of even one curvature in the Galaxy Note Edge seemed to me unjustified. Even rather uncomfortable. But after the announcement, it became clear that the company had thoroughly thought about what a curved screen could bring to the user and implemented it. To be honest, I doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge will be able to catch up with the technology this year. Perhaps the new Galaxy Note.

What's this?

The most advanced smartphone on the market at the time of the review and, apparently, for at least another six months, until the release of the new Galaxy Note or the iPhone update. The smartphone has no equal in terms of display technology (resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels, curved on both sides, durable Gorilla 4 coating, improved Super AMOLED color rendering) and body (only 7 mm thick, Gorilla 4 protective coating and durable metal at the ends), among Android " The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge also has the most energy efficient processor on the market, which allowed - no, not to increase autonomy - to reduce the thickness of the case, without worsening last year's battery life. at the time of release, a sleek interface with Android 5.0.2 on board and a lot of charisma. As if there were no five generations of plastic devices before this, each of which had other flaws. Everything from scratch, as promised.

What's the difference between the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge?

We are not planning to do a separate review for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. So that you understand the difference between them, I give a comparative table of characteristics. In addition to the software differences that affect the side panel of the Edge, the latter also has the advantage of a larger battery capacity, lighter weight (less metal affects the ends) and a version in a beautiful green color. Only the Galaxy S6 has dual SIM support. Otherwise, these are two identical devices with powerful but energy-efficient Exynos 7420 processors, luxurious design, non-removable batteries and no memory card support (but in 32, 64 and 128 GB versions).

Specifications
Model	Samsung Galaxy S6	Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
Operating system	Android 5.0.2 Lollipop + TouchWiz
SIM card	nanoSIM, optional two	nanoSIM, one
Display	Super AMOLED, 5.1 inches, 2560x1444 pixels, 577 ppi
Frame	dimensions 143х71х7 mm, weight 138 g, material - Gorilla 4 glass and metal	dimensions 142x70x7 mm, weight 132 g, material - Gorilla 4 glass and metal
CPU	64-bit Exynos 7420 (14 nm process technology), 4 cores Cortex A-53 (1.5 GHz) and 4 cores Cortex-A57 (2.1 GHz); Mali T760 graphics
RAM	3 GB
Flash memory	32/64/128 GB
Camera	16 MP, f / 1.9, optical stabilization, autofocus, video [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], front 5 MP f / 1.9
Interfaces	Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac (2.4 and 5 GHz), DLNA, Bluetooth 4.1 (apt-X), NFC, MST, microUSB v3.0 (MHL 3.0 with TV-out)
Battery	2550 mAh, fast charging, wireless charging	2600 mAh

Why does he need a curved display?

With a curved display, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge serves two purposes - a wow effect and a purely practical one. I expected that the second would interest me more. But in fact, the impression that a smartphone screen makes with live contact overshadows any others. Text on such a curved screen without an air gap is perceived as a book or magazine page. The slightly sloped and generally cool screen of the iPhone 6 did not lie nearby in terms of the degree of "paper" effect. Plus, there is still higher detail (no joke, 577 ppi!). Swiping desktops and any horizontal scrolling also look like magic. This is beyond words or photographs. You need to pick it up and see it with your own eyes. In photos or videos, the wow effect of the curved screen is lost. The last thing that strikes the Edge is the sheer physical pleasure of touching the curved screen. Remember this ad?

The fact that it is subconsciously more pleasant for a person to contact not with a flat surface, but with a curved one is a fact with which it is difficult to argue when there is an opportunity to compare. It is not for nothing that in new advanced kindergartens it is customary to install furniture with smooth lines, without sharp corners. The point is not in possible physical injury, but in the fact that it is natural and comfortable for any living being. So it is with the smartphone screen.

In principle, everything was told about the functions of the curved display of the smartphone at the presentation of the Galaxy S6, words and screenshots cannot cover it. Yes, it is convenient, especially if you use voice intensively and live the life of a business consultant or a big leader, or a mother of many children with talkative girlfriends. But nowadays, most people have declining voice activity. Therefore, by and large, not everyone will be able to truly appreciate the notification system in a smartphone using multi-colored backlighting. Although this is a good idea, it lay on the surface and it is strange that the Note Edge has not reached it yet (I wonder, by the way, will the backlight appear in it after the firmware update?). Remained in the smartphone and the information strips known since the Note Edge - but here they are not present in an intrusive form, they can be activated by special stroking the display. Remained "night light" - this is a side panel with a clock. And most importantly, incoming calls are no longer sent to the side lane when the smartphone is in use. This is very inconvenient and really pissed me off in the pilot Edge.

Another reason I didn't like Edge in the Note line and really like the new S6 is the size of the device and the position of the power button. In the first model, everything was done to make it inconvenient for a person with a medium and small palm to use the device. The S6 Edge has a smaller screen and the lock button is in the right place. Ergonomics have not suffered, but, on the contrary, have improved. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is the third smartphone in Samsung's portfolio to feature a curved display. But this is the first model (including on the market) where this feature was implemented wisely and profitably, and really deserves extra money.

What about the display?

According to our capricious colorimeter, the Galaxy S6 Edge turned out to be so-so - and the maximum brightness is just above 300 cd / m2, the graph of temperature and sRGB colors is crooked in all modes. In fact, all smartphones with such a high screen resolution (2K) lack the stars from the sky in terms of brightness. But there is a nuance - all measurements were made in a room where there is no bright sun by definition. Last year's Galaxy S5 was brighter with automatic brightness setting than with manual maximum backlight setting. So, Galaxy S6 Edge does not get lost in the sun either. Now, of course, the sun is not what it will be in summer. But so far there are no problems. And if you remember that we have a test sample in our hands, which almost certainly performs worse than what will be on sale, I am sure that the smartphone will not have problems with the sun. The auto light works fine. Both during the day and at night in the dark. There are no questions for her. The screen is in the "Adaptive" mode. Traditionally, there are four color rendering modes in the settings. "Basic" and "AMOLED Photo" are warm, good for reading and viewing photos, "AMOLED Movie" is cold, it can be turned on in the summer under the fiercest sun.

Screen with settings out of the box.

The screen is in the "warmest" mode - AMOLED Photo.

The oleophobic coating is also on the top five, the screen sensitivity is also excellent. But the strange thing is that the display settings do not have the usual "High sensitivity mode", which is needed to recognize gloves. Through the thin fabric, the screen reacts to touch - that is, there are no problems when running in light gloves, but our Galaxy S6 Edge did not make contact through the wool.

Does it look expensive?

This is the first Samsung flagship to be made from head to toe with premium materials, rather than "leather" plastic and plastic that pretends to be metal. It seems to me that if Samsung had not finally released a flagship made of normal materials this year, plastic "remnants" for almost $ 1000 would still seem to be the norm. But now, if LG decides to make its LG G4 smartphone not metal or glass, but plastic, the company's fans will have the right to be very offended. Although it is interesting that for a long time both Korean giants ignored noble materials, it was Samsung that was heavily criticized. And LG had either a body with an interesting texture, or a camera with laser focus, or buttons in an unexpected place, or an amazing price. For all this business, no one got around to scold her for plastic. In general, we are waiting for summer and one more novelty to wash the bones for both at once. Moreover, until the next presentation of Samsung and Apple, hardly anyone else will be able to surprise.

Despite support for wireless charging and optical video stabilization and a curved screen, the smartphone is very thin - 7 millimeters. The Galaxy S6, however, is even smaller, but the 0.2 millimeter difference will not be noticeable to the eye. The Galaxy S6 Edge is lighter than its counterpart, apparently because it is a little narrower and shorter and its metal frame is thinner. I even heard complaints about her scratching her palm, but this is clearly an exaggeration. The device is gorgeous in the hand, does not press anywhere. Looks decent. Again, as with the LG G Flex, tech-savvy folks don't notice that the screen is curved. What kind of magic is this!

They brought us a white copy for review. Fingerprints are completely invisible on it. But at the presentation of the device on the green case, obvious stains were noticeable. Conclusion - do not want to apologize for a dirty smartphone, take a white one or immediately take a cover. Although I am sick of the idea of ​​hiding such a beautiful device in some kind of cases.

The front panel looks typical for Samsung - there is one hardware button ("Home"), a camera peephole and light and proximity sensors. The camera clearly protrudes from the back, there is a risk that the peephole will get scratched over time. At the ends, the metal edging rises somewhat above the screen.

By the arrangement of elements on the ends of the case, you can also easily guess the handwriting of Samsung designers. Fortunately, the screen lock button is where it should be. And not on the top, as it was in the Galaxy Note Edge. Information leaks out on Western resources that the ends of a dark device are scratched quite quickly, as was the case with the iPhone.

For those who believe that the design is licked up with the iPhone 6, I propose to compare. Yes, the models have a similar bottom end, but otherwise they are two completely different devices. The iPhone is smoothed around the edges, the tactile feel is different. By the way, the iPhone is more slippery. Although the Galaxy S6 is far from ideal in this regard. Still, plastic smartphones are more secure in the hand than glass or metal ones.

But the Galaxy S6 Edge is next to the youngest smartphone of the company - Galaxy J1. There are both similarities and differences in the status of the models.

And how is the iron?

This year Samsung probably came to the conclusion - "if you want to do well, do it yourself" - and abandoned the version of the flagship with a Qualcomm processor. There can be any number of reasons: it heats up a lot, and the case is tiny, you can't fit a normal battery, and overlays with orders are possible, and your processor can do everything that is required of it. But the fact remains - the Samsung Galaxy S6 is powered by the 64-bit new flagship Samsung Exynos 7420 processor.

For those who want to know more

Let me remind you that Apple has become a pioneer in the creation of mobile 64-bit processors. It was first used in the iPhone 5s. The rest of the companies were able to catch up in about a year. And six months after the massive appearance of 64-bit processors, smartphone manufacturers began to release (or update) their devices on Android 5.0, where in fact the advantages of the new architecture for smartphones were able to manifest themselves. There are tons of mid-range and near-budget smartphones on the market today with 64-bit Qualcomm and Madiatek processors, but the irony is that they will almost certainly never see an update to Android 5.0. And the new flagships are released immediately on this version of the OS. The Exynos 7420 is made using a 14nm process technology, which provides it with better energy efficiency compared to competitors, the key among which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. For a device of the Galaxy S6 class and the size of the Galaxy S6, this is a very important advantage. Because it is physically impossible to fit a more serious battery into it. For the first time, Samsung used such an energy-efficient processor (Exynos 5430, although it was then a 20nm process technology, as in Snapdragon 810 now) in the Galaxy Alpha - this is the company's first smartphone with metal inserts in a very compact body. For him, a sparing attitude to the battery was also critical, because only a battery with a capacity of 1860 mAh fit into a thin 7-mm case.

Exynos 7420 is an "eight-core". It uses four less powerful Cortex-A53 cores (1.5 GHz) and four powerful Cortex-A57 cores (2.1 GHz). Graphics - Mali-T760. In synthetic tests, it gives the most impressive result. We have not yet had a real opportunity to compare it with a competitor: HTC One M9 has not been in the editorial office yet, and the devices on the K1 Tegra at the time of their appearance on the market and in our editorial office were rather buggy.

I never had a chance to complain about the performance - in any mode of use, in any game, in any program with a million applications running in the background, the smartphone “flies”. The same impression is produced by any top-end Sony smartphone. But everything has been clear there for a long time: a light shell, 3 GB of RAM, a FullHD display. The Galaxy S6 Edge has one and a half times the display resolution, but the effect is the same. The smartphone is the benchmark star. But this is not the main thing at all (although it will obviously amuse something there among its owners). The main thing is that the shell does not lag. Smartphone resources are enough for everything. Apparently, the company's programmers received a good thrashing after the difficulties of last year. Yes, and Android 5.0, 64-bit processor. In general, a typical flagship of 2015.

And what about the battery?

Autonomy is the only parameter that hasn't been improved in Samsung's new flagship. To be honest, it was so-so in the S5, especially with the first version of the firmware - the device lasted less daylight hours with GPS navigation and a clock, and a day without them. The firmware update brought last year's flagship the ability to work up to a day and a half without navigation and Bluetooth. This is much better, but weak compared to the rivals HTC One (M8) and LG G2. In the new flagships Samsung, the battery capacity is also not amazing. The Galaxy S6 Edge has 2600 mAh, while the Galaxy S6 has 2550 mAh, and the screen is big and good, and the resolution is high. And the performance is flagship. In general, everything is conducive to the fact that battery resources are consumed quickly. In the Galaxy S6 Edge streaming video mode, I lasted 9 hours at medium display brightness, with no Bluetooth accessories connected and with GPS turned off. The autonomy benchmark also showed not very impressive, but not depressing results. The screenshots below show the result with all kinds of communication modules enabled and disabled.

My Galaxy S6 Edge "with all the stuffing" worked for 12-16 hours on a single charge. Yes, that's not much for a $ 1000 device, but it's not a disaster either. Firstly, if you turn off GPS and turn on the simplest power-saving mode, the device will even last two working days. Secondly, a day of work at full load is already a lot, and a tragedy only for those who are constantly on the road. But I repeat that this is a result obtained without any additional attempts to tweak something, to save somewhere. This is what any person who is accustomed to the outlet will get without doing anything.

Samsung's new flagships support wireless charging. It doesn't look as stylish as Microsoft's. But it has another advantage - a round shape. That is, it is difficult to put a smartphone on such a charge so that it does not charge. With the Lumia 1020, this happened to me all the time. You had to aim hard to get to the right place. Some domestic retailers offer wireless charging as a gift upon pre-order.

And they also quickly charge - in an hour completely from a complete charge. True, both the charger itself and the body of the smartphone get very hot in the process.

How has the interface changed?

One of the main accents during the presentation of the Galaxy S6 was made on the fact that Samsung has rethought the interface of its smartphones. I considered it too complicated (the market considered it as such for a long time, it's good that the company finally heard it) and decided to simplify and visually “lighten” it. The TouchWiz redesign was not as radical as HTC's Sense at the time. Samsung hasn't given up on paint - just opted for more muted shades. They did not abandon the bright icons of their applications - but brought them to the same style and size. The capabilities of the programs were not curtailed (except that the voice recorder again became the smallest in comparison with the Galaxy Note 4), on the contrary, there are many new functions where there are new functions. The designers threw out the frames, replaced the pictures with words (brand fonts, by the way, are excellent - thin, slender, easy to read). A lot of semi-transparent or fully transparent backgrounds appeared in widgets. It turned out nicely. The interface has become more from Android. For example, these messages on the lock screen that fall out completely. Those who are in favor of privacy can turn off the demonstration of text in the security settings. In the settings, there was a change of "checkmarks" to sliders. This is generally some kind of general trend. Everyone now has these sliders. But they are cute. More than any sliders, I was pleased with the transformation of the inconvenient scrolling of time in the clock (for example, when setting an alarm) into a more practical and pleasing to the eye option. And Samsung is now a little friendly with Microsoft versus Google. Therefore, the flagship smartphone has a daddy OneDrive, OneNote and Skype. For some reason, I subconsciously expected that in each of the applications some kind of gift would be waiting for me - either an additional free space in the "cloud", or a month of free communication. But no. The S6 also comes with Facebook, Instagram, and even a link to the Whatsapp messenger. It's unusual to see such things in Samsung smartphones. Dropbox - okay. There is also a large piece of bonus space awaiting the user, this is understandable.

In displaying the settings menu, Samsung settled on last year's version. Basically, it's comfortable. The settings menu is long. Something is added all the time. Sometimes it's even difficult to remember - it was or not. The security menu has grown a lot - here you can download KNOX, and assign a device administrator, and generally encrypt the data (the procedure takes about an hour), protect the smartphone or part of the data with a fingerprint (by the way, finally, a year after implementation, it began to work like a clock, more precisely as in the iPhone and Huawei Mate7).

The latest version of Touchwiz has some features that have long been found in other devices. For example SmartManager. It monitors the state of memory and allows you to quickly remove any junk. A useful thing for Android. Although I never used it in S6 (in cheaper models - literally every day) - for a little over a week, spent in an embrace with the device, I did not have time to properly clog its memory. The menu for settings of autonomy and notifications has practically not grown. This is in vain, it certainly would not be superfluous. The updated player interface is a treat for the eyes. I love Samsung smartphones for good sound and a user-friendly player. Its interface also received "cosmetic" changes, although new features were not added. Unless files in loseless formats have a UHD inscription on the widget. I also did not like the fact that the size of the player control buttons on the lock screen has been greatly reduced - it is so inconvenient to switch songs on the go. And the leapfrog continues with the name of the songs in Cyrillic - they pull up every other time.

Samsung smartphones usually have a lot of pre-installed apps. Only Sony and Lenovo have more. But recently, there has been a tendency to bring applications of dubious usefulness into Galaxy Apps, from where the user can download them if desired. The truth is, only those people who are interested in what kind of Gifts and Essentials widget hangs on their desktop can find out about the existence of this option. Let me remind you that some camera shooting modes and additional panels for Edge also need to be downloaded from Galaxy Apps. You also need a Samsung account to sync data to S Health. This is roughly the assortment of gifts and extensions that Samsung recommends to download additionally.

What's new in S Health?

According to the tradition, started back in the days of the Samsung Galaxy S IV, I dwell on the S Health sports application separately and in more detail. Firstly, the interface of this application has also become simpler and more concise, but at the same time it has received new functions. There is no longer an impressive panel with all the possibilities, they are collected on the "My page" in the application.

The application learned to count the water and caffeine consumed (the number of cups must be added manually and see the average result in milligrams), as well as oxygen in the blood. The Galaxy S6 Edge, like the Galaxy Note 4, has a UV sensor. But a thermometer with a humidity sensor seems to be a thing of the past forever. But this is not the main thing in the new features of S Health. The key, in my opinion, updates are the emergence of running training programs (there are only three of them, aimed at amateurs, but it's still cool that they are), healthy eating programs and "sliders" that allow you to turn off unnecessary crap in the menu. The application is still only compatible with Samsung Gear, Garmin and Adidas gadgets.

In general, I am very sympathetic to S Health, and I actively use some of its functions when I have Samsung flagships in my hands. But I'm not ready to switch to it completely. Because for running I have my favorite application (miCoach), although it is crooked and oblique, but it is for all platforms, it is not tied to one vendor, it has many programs for different tasks and it already has a large database about me. Hopefully someday a normal database from different apps in the Google Fit platform will start working.

Is the camera better?

The Samsung Galaxy S5 had a fast camera. It's even faster on the Samsung Galaxy S6. Almost instant start by double tap on the Home key (on the one hand it is very convenient, on the other - I now have a lot of photos of my pockets), very fast shooting. No slower than the iPhone 6 and, I suppose, definitely no slower than the competitors' cameras. The interface has the same parsley as with other applications. Everything began to look lighter and more airy, fewer pictures, more words. She shoots HDR in real time and without prompts in the form of poking a finger at the screen. In general, the S6 Edge's camera is great in auto mode. And this is important for a device that claims to be understandable to everyone and everyone.

Clubs, sunsets, cloudy weather, a shaking hand, a dark night, a beautiful building against a bright sky, cute March snow - all this is not a problem at all for the Galaxy S6 camera. The front camera also does not get lost in poor lighting, although it gives a weaker result (pictures in original resolution are in this gallery on Torba).

For comparison, I also present several photos taken under the same conditions on the iPhone 6.

What are your impressions? In my opinion, the S6 Edge definitely shoots better in difficult conditions. It is a pity that so far there has not been an opportunity to compare with the new HTC flagship. But in recent years, Samsung, Apple and LG have pulled ahead so well in terms of the photographic capabilities of their devices that I anticipate in advance that a head-to-head comparison will not be in favor of the Taiwanese, no matter what breakthrough they made in comparison with last year's flagship. year.

The Galaxy S6 camera can record video in 4K, can make slow-motion and accelerated videos, and shoot FullHD video at 60fps. There is optical stabilization. The camera also writes the sound to the video perfectly. With her talents in night photography, she will be a good companion at concerts and parties.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge video review

And what about the competitors?

Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge appeared in our edition earlier than HTC One M9, so it's too early to compare them. But I have no idea what HTC has to offer to get close to the capabilities of the S6 Edge. Today the smartphone is unique in its kind and, perhaps, only LG G Flex 2 can become its only competitor in the near future. The smartphone also has a curved screen, and it is also successful. Top-end hardware, probably a great camera. For those who are looking for something extraordinary, a curious option. But I wonder what he has with the software capabilities.

Among all the Android flagships that are already on the market, only Sony can oppose something to the new flagships of Samsung. The Xperia Z3 is a very beautiful phone in a glass case in unusual colors. In terms of design, this is the best on the market. It also has protection against dust and moisture. And support for memory cards, which Samsung's flagships lack (those who need the maximum memory, 128 GB, will have to shell out one and a half thousand dollars, and a little more than a thousand for a regular Galaxy S6). The younger version of the Xperia Z3 plus a microSD card will cost significantly less.

Of all that is on the market today, the Galaxy S6 and its Edge version can also compete with the iPhone 6. But the choice between these models does not lie in the plane of characteristics and design, but in the plane of addiction to a particular ecosystem. By all the parameters by which gadgets are usually compared by geeks, the devices are equal.

Should you choose the expensive Galaxy S6 Edge when there is a “direct” version? I think it's worth it. If the issue of finance is not acute (and it hardly stands when choosing a top model). Or if you don't need a dual SIM flagship.

We also have a review of the Samsung Galaxy S7, the next generation flagship.

In the dry residue

The Galaxy S6 Edge is the third curved smartphone in Samsung's portfolio, but the first truly worthwhile model with this feature. It is also the first Samsung smartphone to be made entirely of premium materials and looks expensive. Compared to last year's version, it has become better in everything, including the speed and cleanliness of the interface. Perhaps this is one of those exceptional cases when all owners of last year's flagship can be recommended, subject to the availability of funds, to transfer to a new device. Yes, autonomy was not improved in the smartphone, it is not clear what happened to the support of gloves and the memory card slot disappeared. But in terms of user experience, this is the best Android device today.

8 reasons to buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge:

• it is the fastest smartphone on the market;
• there are no devices equal to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge in terms of interface capabilities;
• the smartphone is very thin and finally made of noble and tenacious materials;
• they really redesigned and simplified the interface, now it is neat, fast and beautiful;
• new functions of the S Health app can now measure your everything (oxygen in the blood, UV, caffeine, stress levels, etc.) and create training schedules for you;
• the best and fastest camera on the market;
• KNOX, a normally working fingerprint scanner and other ways to protect corporate and personal information;
• a really comfortable curved display with really useful features.

3 reasons not to buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge:

• you had a hard time picking up on the new Galaxy S6, but nothing on the Edge;
• but the autonomy did not get any better;
• S6 Edge is not available in the dual SIM version.

South Korean manufacturer has announced an improved version of the curved flagship smartphone GalaxyS6edge -GalaxyS6edge +. He got a much larger screen. This can be seen in the comparative photo. But what other surprises did she give him Samsung? Let's find it out right now.

1 - size

The first thing that catches your eye when comparing two phones lying side by side is the changed dimensions. New variant GalaxyS6edge + gained height and width, but at the same time was able to become slightly narrower than the original version.

The overall dimensions look like this: 154; 76; 6.9 mm y GalaxyS6edge + against142; 70.7 mm y GalaxyS6edge.

2 - weight

Of course, this also affected the weight of the new device. The extended version now weighs 153 grams versus 132 for its predecessor.

3 - structure of the body and cover

Nothing has changed in the body and lid material. Still aluminum, still Gorilla Glass 4 on the non-removable lid. It does not happen that a version marked with + suddenly starts to be made from something else. So the designers here rest in peace, enjoying a well-done previous work.

4 - color palette

Remained and the classic black and white body colors. Also, both options have gold. And in order to be somehow different, the new phone with a curved display received a silver color, and the old one differs from the entire line. Galaxy green.

5 - display

You can clearly see that the new display has become much larger. More precisely, by 20 percent. 5.7 inches received GalaxyS6edge +. This is the size of a great phablet, and is a good replacement for a mini tablet. GalaxyS6edge has 5.1 inches, which is also not bad, but not so catchy.

But in the screen resolution and display type, nothing has changed. The QHD screen has 2560 by 1440 pixels. The display type is oleophobic, or AMOLED, as the buyer is more accustomed to seeing on the product box. Only the density of pixels per inch has changed. From 577 units to 518. That is, the picture has become less sharp, but it is hardly noticeable to the eye at this resolution.

Of course, there were also curved displays, which are usually called "triple". Samsung also did not add support for the S Pen stylus, so that the model would not compete with another product of the company - the Note 5 phablet.

6 - processor

The processor remains the same. For almost half a year Samsung did not have time to release a more advanced chip than that of Exynos 7420... This eight-core and 64-bit chip operates at 2.1 and 1.5 GHz frequencies and allows the battery to last much longer than the opponents.

7 - RAM

The update lies in the fact that the new version has received the maximum possible at the moment for smartphones 4 GB of RAM. The original version has "only" 3 GB. Support for multitasking just got better.

8 - internal memory

In order not to increase the cost of the extended version of the smartphone with a curved display, Samsung had to abandon the 128 GB version for sale. Then it would cost almost as much as meaningless branded phones. And the South Korean manufacturer prefers cutting edge and affordable. Support for Micro SD memory cards was also not added. It will slow down the device as Samsung has switched to a new type of flash memory that offers improved performance.

9 - cameras

The cameras have remained the same. 16 megapixels for the main camera, 5 megapixels for the front. Support for automatic digital stabilization is included.

10 - battery

The new growth and width (even despite the thinner body) allowed Samsung to solve the main problem of the flagship - to supply a more capacious battery. The new smartphone received 3000 mAh, while the previous version had only 2600 mAh. A few extra hours of work will not hurt the device.

The batteries are still non-removable, have fast charging capabilities and support wireless charging.

11 - other

Both devices support the company's instant mobile payments - Samsung Mobile Pay. Both also still have a heart rate sensor. But the new phablet also received support for an additional qwerty keyboard from the Blackberry company. The device clings to the case and you can type quickly with both fingers if you miss the physical buttons on your phone.

12 - software

Latest version Android 5.1.1 stands on both smartphones running a proprietary shell from Samsung.

13 - release, price and withdrawal

The first version of the smartphone with a curved display on both sides entered the market in April 2015 and is offered for $ 750. The extended version will appear at the end of August 2015 for $ 800. For those who do not care about the $ 50 difference (and for everyone else), of course, we recommend the extended version. It has no drawbacks other than the lack of a 128GB storage option. And the huge display of this device can easily replace any tablet. And even the tablets that will be released next year will not compare with GalaxyS6edge + by performance.

Surely you have already learned characteristics and you know about all the possibilities Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge... Today, I'm going to share a real-life experience with 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 contains a charger (5 V, 2 A), a wired headset, a Micro-USB cable and a metal SIM card extractor. It is good that the Koreans have abandoned the use of yellow boxes made of thin and super cheap cardboard. Now, of course, the packaging still doesn't make much of an impression, especially against the background of the price of more than fifty thousand rubles per phone, but it's still better than it was 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 - Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F). The specs of the regular S6 and its curved version are no different from each other. In comparison with last year's version, a lot has changed: in green he marked what has changed in the direction of improvement, in red - in the direction of deterioration.

	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 128GB)	No
Display	Super AMOLED 5.1 '', 1920 × 1080 pixels (432 ppi)	Super AMOLED 5.1 '', 2560 × 1440 dots (577 ppi)
Main camera	16 megapixels	16 megapixels
Front-camera	2 megapixels	5 megapixels
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 resistant	Yes (IP67 standard)	No

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

Design

Let's talk a little about the design of the device. I want to say right away that the device looks much better in real life than in photographs and, moreover, in press images. Judging only by the photos, it may seem that Samsung continues to stubbornly bend its line of monotonous devices with a missing design, but now it also tries to deceive the user, 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 you have a really interesting, beautiful device in front of you.

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

S6 Edge owners should be warmed by the thought that nothing like this will appear on the market any time soon. Yes, perhaps in early 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 directions (lack of side frames, etc.) and this is certainly a plus for us, consumers.

Sorry, but I can't help but compare the device with the iPhone 6. In Edge, like the regular S6, the rear camera sticks out very noticeably above the surface of the case. It is clear that this nuance is due to an engineering decision - to place an excellent photo module in a thin case - this is a task that is beyond the power of anyone. However, the Koreans managed to beat this moment and the back side, even with a bulging camera lens, is perceived as a whole.

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

The convenience of use

Curved screen gives +50 to the charisma of the device, but at the same time -25 to usability.

The thing is that in the course of normal operation, accidental pressing on the screen in the place of its curved ends is not uncommon. Sometimes it happens in the browser when you accidentally click on some link with an advertisement like "How to lose weight by 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 do not understand why the device does not respond to your attempts. After 5 seconds, it becomes clear that at this moment the thumb touches the curved part of the screen and the viewfinder stops responding to any touches.

Here's another scenario for everyday smartphone use. In the morning, while still lying in bed, the first thing many of us do is reach for the phone to check the time, find out the weather, or check our mail. It is clear that we do this either in a completely horizontal position or in a reclining position. So, using "edge" in any of these cases is very difficult. The device is tilted downward towards your face and it is clear that the phone rests on your thumbs. And given that it is impossible to hold it along the edge in this position (false presses on the curved edges of the display will be triggered), then it is impossible to use the smartphone lying down.

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

There is 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 come, during which you will constantly compromise when using your smartphone. Either it is difficult to pick it up when it is lying on the table, then you accidentally and constantly press the screen with your palm and something goes wrong - all these troubles will haunt you constantly.

Think carefully whether you need such an attraction and whether you are ready to sacrifice the convenience of using 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. Managing in this regard, for example, with the iPhone 6 is much more difficult.

During operation, of course, small scratches on the glass will begin to appear, but on a white model they are very difficult to notice. In my copy, these were available, but it is very difficult to photograph them.

The movement of all physical buttons is moderately soft and clear. It is pleasant to press them, even in spite of the barely noticeable but still present backlash.

In general, the assembly of the smartphone is at its best, but we still managed to find a couple of nuances.

In the corners, in the places of smooth transitions on the case, 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 bezel fits as tightly as possible, and there are no even tiny gaps.

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

This is somehow not very cool for a fashion product that costs more than 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 the 5.1-inch display it is very compact, lightweight and very thin. The smartphone seemed small to me, and it would be great if Samsung released something larger. I think we should wait until autumn and try the Galaxy Note Edge 2. By the way, there is no mode of operation with only one hand here. You can use the device comfortably like that.

Display

Despite the seemingly big 5.1-inch screen, don'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 is placed on the screen, more precisely, that remains readable. For example, in the browser we are accustomed to the system automatically aligning the text to the edges of the screen with a double tap, but here the text goes to the curved sides and it becomes difficult to perceive the text in this position. Each time you have to adjust the text to the useful area of ​​the display by manually scaling the text with two fingers. Comfortable? Unlikely.

The above concerns only full versions of sites. For clarity, in the left photo below you can evaluate how one of the popular resources on the topic of mobile devices looks 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 very beginning.

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

I liked the display of the time on the side bar of the display in night mode. I woke up so suddenly at night, turned my head, looked at the glowing clock on the side of my smartphone and slept on until the alarm clock. Comfortable? Yes. Necessary? Um ... I guess.

As for the viewing angles, there is something to tell about here. In my test photos below, I compared the S6 Edge's screen (left / top in photos, display mode: Responsive) with one of the best displays I've seen on mobile in the last year - (right / bottom).

As you can see, the display of the Korean smartphone shows itself, in general, not bad, but the stock of brightness is still lacking in comparison with the Chinese.

I would not say that color rendering is perfect in both devices. In the S6 Edge, the image is slightly green, while in the MX4 Pro the colors are slightly pink. At this point, someone likes something, but traditional green displays in solutions from a Korean corporation are not close to me.

However, the edge screen is out of competition in terms of black transmission.

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

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

Processor, graphics and memory

The most modern mobile processors from Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa are used as the "brains" of the smartphone. It is based on 4 high-performance 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.

Responsible for the graphics 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. According to some tests, this video chip built into the processor bypasses Adreno 430 and PowerVR GX6450 (Apple A8) in performance. The high resolution 2560 x 1440 in games is what the graphics do with a bang.

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

Performance

The speed of the animation, the interface is maximum. Any menu, graphics fly and it becomes clear that you are dealing with a perfectly debugged interface.

The camera starts up in less than a second and takes photos even faster. During the entire testing period, I could not find any bottlenecks where the device stuttered at least once.

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

The same goes for performance in various benchmarks.

In the 64-bit test AnTuTu Galaxy S6 Edge managed to score as many as 70 641 virtual parrots! That's really really: "And your smartphone can do that?"

More details in the screenshots below.

Camera

Gorgeous! Seriously! It is really the best among all currently existing mobile devices (spring 2015). Don't believe me? Then watch the bee peacefully collecting nectar on the blossoming almonds below.

If you still have doubts, then here are examples with the rest of the frames captured on the device. The originals can be taken from here in one archive and in detail how to study them 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 it never hurts to take two or three frames at a time. It happens that the photos are blurry, but it turns out it's too late.

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

The device takes pictures very quickly. The same goes for HDR shots, and indeed the launch of the camera. In the parameters, you can set that the photo application is launched by double-clicking on the "Home" key. Thus, you will have about 1.5 seconds from the moment you discovered an interesting plot, until the image is saved to the smartphone's memory.

Samsung has taken a welcome path. Firstly, we improved the already excellent camera compared to the same Galaxy Note 4. And, secondly, we simplified the process of creating photos and menus. Previously, when you click on a button with gears, a matrix with monochrome icons and inscriptions opened in front of you, from which your eyes were watery.

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

Again, there are not many modes, but there are all the most basic: shooting slow-motion or fast-motion video, creating panoramas, the now fashionable choice of focus after shooting, and so on.

Of course, there is a "Pro" mode, where you can play around with the exposure parameters yourself, tighten the picture using additional settings and choose the appropriate ISO. By the way, below is an example of a shot made from different frames at different ISO settings.

There are two sets of preset filters: the first is called by pressing a separate virtual key from the viewfinder, and the second is available 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. See example below.

As before, the camera is capable of shooting slow motion or fast motion videos. In this case, the resolution will not exceed 1280 x 720, and for the correct viewing of such masterpieces on a computer, special players and codecs are required. I am more close to the implementation of shooting such a video in. There, the feature is referred to as Timeshift Burst and is made more gracefully.

Battery life

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

Get a wireless charger and train yourself to put the device on it every day before bed. So life will become much easier and you shouldn't worry about the lack of battery power.

During the night, the device spends about 6-8 percent of the charge to nowhere. During the day, most of the energy is consumed by the screen, data transmission and, of course, built-in hardware. With very heavy use, the smartphone runs the risk of not surviving until night and being discharged halfway to the outlet. In this case, it is worth using the power saving mode. There is not much sense from the usual saving mode, but extreme energy saving will allow you to stay in touch 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 budget phone: it becomes slightly brooding.

Models and prices

In this article, I propose, in addition to feedback on the actual operation of the phone, 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 their vacation or business trip.

We have

There are several versions of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge at the moment. 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 bear 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 at once. True, we are talking about the usual Galaxy S6 Duos (SM-G920F), which will have 64 GB allocated for data storage. Nothing is known about the version with a curved display and two SIM cards.

And that is not all. More recently, the Korean company announced the start of sales of a special version of the smartphone in color with the brand name "noble emerald". The coloring itself does not carry any special bonus, this is something else. 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 Quintessentially Lifestyle Club membership card, a service that reservations hotels for you, restaurant tables and much more around the world. Not a bad opportunity to try the service for very little money. A subscription apart from a Samsung device costs very different money, much more than the price of the "edge".

They have

In the international arena (if you are on vacation in the USA - it 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 with Sprint 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 from 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 showrooms and points of sale. Declared 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 LTE FDD cellular network: 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 the 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 goes for 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 one missing 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: specify 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 models indicated above can be bought by non-US residents.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is a truly unique device. At the moment, it remains the market leader in both performance and innovation.

Most likely, the situation will not change until the end of the summer, until the moment when the Korean manufacturer presents the next generation Note 5 or Note 5 Edge to the world. Considering all this, the declared price of 54,990 rubles fully justifies itself. Moreover, the manufacturer could have set the cost even higher, since the S6 Edge plays alone in its league so far.

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 have analyzed what the manufacturer and other publications are silent about. Only two points remain unclear: why is the cost of 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 moment in some detail in the body of the review - there is everything that any user is likely to 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 lacks the same image component as Edge or iPhone 6. Such comparison has set the teeth on edge, but not we, journalists, do it, but the company itself.

Samsung is openly competing with Apple for its pricing policy. However, why the buyer should pay for the manufacturer's ambitions is not clear.

If Samsung set the price at 35-40 thousand rubles (which, in fact, happened during the spring-summer 2015 price war), it would have a chance to finally do away with such competitors as HTC or Sony and oust them from the Russian market. Nevertheless, the company did not want to do this, as well as remember about Chinese companies that are increasingly actively conquering the domestic market. In an unstable economic environment, users tend to save money and choose more affordable solutions. And there is still a vacation season ahead - you also want to relax. They have no extra money for the very 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 impossible to compete head-on with the Cupertinians. People are addicted to stereotypes that have stuck in their heads: iPhone is cool, it's status, period! So far, the Koreans are only partially able to convince buyers of the superiority of the same Galaxy S6 Edge (and, on all fronts).

Functional side panel.
Color-coding your favorite contacts makes it even easier to manage. Each of your 5 favorite contacts will have a different color for quick access from the sidebar and color notification for calls and messages. The side edge of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge screen has another function - night clock -. Now there is no need to turn on the main display to find out the exact time or turn off the alarm. It is enough to slide your finger back and forth along the side edge to activate the screen with the display of time and notifications.

New intuitive user interface.
The more structured and cleaner interface of the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, simplifies navigation and allows you to quickly and easily navigate the device. Each section of the menu is assigned a certain color, all applications are presented in the form of simple icons, the number of pre-installed elements has been reduced. You can even create your own smartphone themes using the Mobile Theme Editor app.

Clarity and brightness.
The camera allows you to take high quality pictures thanks to its high resolution and large aperture. And optical stabilization ensures blur-free photos.

Focus movement.
Moving subjects are always sharp with the new AF Tracking mode, which keeps your subject in focus no matter how it moves.

Correct exposure.
Photos with flawless color and detailed details. The pictures look the way they really are. Two images with different exposures are processed and combined in real time for stunning results.

Expressive selfie.
A lens with fast optics and an increased number of pixels is what you need for flawless shots with the front camera in any conditions.

Quick start.
Double-tapping the center button of your smartphone activates the camera in the blink of an eye. You will not miss a single highlight of your life.

Fast charging mode.
Recharging within 10 minutes will keep your smartphone running for up to 4 hours. If recharging is not possible, the maximum power saving mode will provide more economical use of the remaining energy.

Save energy.
Extend battery life and optimize your smartphone with maximum power saving mode.

Incredible power.
The super-powerful next-generation processor handles the most demanding game resources and multitasking with ease.

Visible benefits.
The innovative display of our flagship smartphone will allow you to enjoy accurate color reproduction and vivid, rich images, both indoors and in daylight.

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

About smartphone

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

The price tag of more than sixty thousand rubles seems quite high, because the cool reviews of the owners of the previous flagship - Galaxy S5 are still fresh in the memory. And in this article we will dot all the Y's so that, after reading to the end, you yourself decide whether to go to the camp of "androids" or to remain an adherent of the native "apple". I am sure of one thing for sure: there will be no one indifferent, because the devices turned out to be really new and technologically advanced.

I ended up in my hands Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Colour 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 rounded sides of the screen. Good or bad, we will try to determine together with you in this review.

Equipment

The 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 replaceable earbuds;
• a paper clip to remove the sim card tray.

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

First glance

When you first touch the device, you understand: the company has done a great job of rethinking the concept of "flagship smartphone". No plastic, just metal and glass... The aluminum frame gracefully wraps around the edges of the device, and on both sides the electronic filling is reliably protected by Gorilla Corning Glass 4.

There should not be any scratches or scuffs, but such a coating collects fingerprints, be healthy (a forensic scientist's dream!). So you definitely need to buy a cover, or periodically wipe the screen and the back of the device with a cloth.

In general, despite the jokes about the two designers, the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have no similarities. It seems that someone in the bowels of the management department of the Korean company hit the table with his fist and demanded that all past complaints and customer complaints be urgently corrected. The command was executed perfectly. The device does not creak, nothing backlash, the movement of all buttons is clear, it is pleasant to press.

The battery is now non-removable, and there are no memory cards (everything we love!). Especially malicious ones can compare the location and shape of the device's elements on the bottom edge, but these are trifles.

The color of the device is a separate topic for discussion: in the room the smartphone seems to be bluish-black, but as soon as you bring it up to the light, you realize that in fact the color is deep dark blue. I think that this is exactly the color scheme the palantiri had in the trilogy about the hobbits, because such a transition of colors is mesmerizing: 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 upper edge of the device, next to the infrared port (sic!). S6 Edge “eats” a SIM card of the smallest format, the principle of removing the tray is simple and familiar: with a paper clip included in the kit, you need to press into a 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, a pixel density of 577 ppi - this is not a joke to you. For comparison, the Galaxy S5 had 432 ppi, the iPhone 6 Plus had 401 ppi, the LG G3 had 543 ppi (although the LG G3 had a larger diagonal - 5.5 inches). Black is really black, all other colors are bright and juicy. In the sun, of course, readability is not very good, but on a solid four. When looking at the screen from an angle, there is no change in brightness or contrast. Curved sides of the screen also do not distort the perception of the picture.

Operating system

I wanted to make the description of the OS a separate item, because it is clear that the company has done a lot of work to change and optimize the software component. The operating system is used Android 5.0.2(Lollipop), on top of which its own proprietary graphical interface is traditionally installed - TouchWiz... However, little is left of the usual lurid TouchWiz with a bunch of unnecessary software. All unnecessary animation has disappeared, and the controls and general appearance are as much as possible in line with the canons of the new Android.

Performance

Several days of active use and AnTuTu tests have confirmed: the performance of the smartphone is at its best.

It 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 principle of operation does not differ 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 the Geekbench test:

"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 confirms that the Galaxy S6 Edge is more than fine graphically. According to the test results, the smartphone has no analogues on the market at the moment.

Connection

I got the phone with a SIM-card from the MTS company, so I had no problems with communication. The device works in networks GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, and the data transfer rate via 4G LTE reaches 150 Mbps. I tested Internet connections in different parts of Moscow and everywhere the smartphone quickly loaded the pages of sites, could use streaming radio. Of course, I did not see the ideal 150 Mbps, but the Speedtest service consistently showed data reception and transmission results at the level of 20-27 Mbps. I have never experienced problems with the Internet, which I was very pleased with.

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 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 - Qi and PowerMat. In addition, the company will release its own wireless chargers. Models are already presented in the colors "White Pearl" and "Blue Topaz". They look, judging by the photos on the Internet, stylish, and during recharging 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 a lens with f / 1.9 decides - 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 sides of the Korean flagship: real-time HDR shooting (without the need to take several frames in succession) and a special mode for photographing in low light are implemented. The camera starts up and is ready to work within 0.7 seconds. There is no special button for launching the camera, but there is an option to use a double click on the center key ("Home").

In comparison, we used an iPhone 6, the difference in the photo can be estimated below.

Samsung S6 Edge

Samsung S6 Edge

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

Samsung S6 Edge

Filming at night:

Samsung S6 Edge

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

Full HD:

4K

Among other functions of the camera, an interesting 3D photo mode was discovered. It is necessary to bypass the object of interest with the camera turned on, and the resulting three-dimensional picture 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 just made for selfies and video communication. The quality is also excellent.

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

The camera wants to put 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 a 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 invoked by swiping from the right edge. In this menu, the user can assign up to five important contacts from the notebook. Each contact is assigned a different color (you can choose from purple, green, blue, yellow and orange).

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

Also, the side edge can inform about missed calls and notifications regarding five selected contacts. There is the "Information flow" function, when notifications are displayed as a line on the side edge when the screen is off, and the "Night clock" function, when the current time is also displayed on the side edge, if the screen is not working.

Specifications

Dry language of numbers and facts for those who love this:

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

GPU: Mali-T760

Operating system Android 5.0 Lollipop

Super AMOLED touchscreen display, 5.1 ″, 2560 × 1440

Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB LPDDR4

Internal memory 32, 64 or 128 GB

No microSD card slot

Max 4G LTE data rate up to 150Mbps

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

DLNA, OTG, MTP, Miracast support

GPS / Glonass, infrared

16MP camera with optical image stabilization (OIS)

Front camera 5 MP

Barometer, fingerprint sensor, Hall and heart rate sensors

Non-removable lithium polymer battery 2600 mAh

Dimensions: 142 x 70 x 7mm

Weight: 132 g

Conclusion

Samsung has listened to the complaints and wishes of its smartphone users. The company's engineers have created unique, distinctive 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 just good. And this is great, because competition spurs progress.

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