For years we have been complaining about Samsung’s plastic phones. The Galaxy S5 and its predecessors, all the way back to the Galaxy S in 2010, were plastic. In the old days it was fine, but we got tired of paying expensive for phones that felt, well, cheap. But all that has changed. There is practically no plastic on the Samsung Galaxy S6. Its front and back are super-tough Gorilla Glass 4, its sides aluminium.
The Galaxy S6 takes everything that was great about the Alpha, its gorgeous shape, sleek profile and excellent contouring, and takes it several steps further. The result is a brilliantly realised handset that sits perfectly in your hand and pocket. The Galaxy S6 is a goldilocks handset if ever there was one, being just the right size. Handy if phablets aren’t your thing and you want a phone with the very best specs and hardware currently available.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 feels more high-end, more expensive than any phone Samsung made last year. It’s a unibody mobile too, meaning you can’t rip off the back panel to get hold of the battery. Samsung Galaxy S6 has an excellent hardware. As usual, it’s jam-packed with features including an IR transmitter, NFC, apt-X support and Wi-Fi ac. There’s even a barometer inside.
There’s also a big shift in screen tech. As with the LG G3, the Samsung Galaxy S6 makes the leap up to QHD screen resolution. Stretched across 5.1 inches that gets you pixel density of 577ppi. Pretty amazing, right? Both use Super AMOLED screens getting you flawless contrast and deep blacks regardless of whether you’re outside or frantically sending a text in the cinema before the trailers start. It’s the sort of screen that makes you wonder: where do we go from here? Well, there are still reflections and we bet there are a few more curved screens like the S6 Edge’s and LG G Flex 2’s somewhere on the horizon. But this is quite the achievement already.
The Galaxy S6 is of course running Android Lollipop out the box and benefits from all of its excellent and well executed optimisations and tweaks. Most Android handsets these days run pretty damn smoothly, but it is clear some firms –– notably HTC and Samsung –– are better at tying their software in with Google’s world-beating mobile OS. Sense and TouchWiz are both liquid-smooth these days, running with the same level of performance that was once usually only reserved for iPhones.