SAMSUNG S6 AND S6 EDGE .

Hi Folks it’s a tech day

Our stop is on the new galaxy s6 and s6 edge phone.

With their slim, seamless, full metal and glass construction, the sleek, ultra thin edged Galaxy S6 and unique, dual curved Galaxy S6 edge are crafted from the finest materials. Its interesting to see Samsung dispose off their traditional utilitarian plastic, back cover, removable battery and SD card into the bin.

Samsung unveiled the fraternal twins during its press conference at Mobile World Congress, the annual trade show here in Spain that has become arguably the most important global Smartphone showcase. And while the phones won't be available worldwide until April 10

Some of the new S6 features -- upscale metal design, updated fingerprint scanner -- play catch-up with the iPhone 6, which, last year, pursued Samsung's pioneering large-screen phones.

The S6 and S6 Edge lack a removable battery and a microSD card slot, not to mention the Galaxy S5's waterproofing. Meanwhile, the curved strips of screen that make up the Edge's borders do so little compared to the Note Edge's screen that it's hard to justify their existence other than giving you something to do with those curved edges. And Samsung's own untested Exynos processor (versus the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 that will be found in most of its high-end Android rivals) is a performance wild card.

That said, the new Galaxy S6 models set some of their own Android trends. Both deliver built-in wireless charging support and compatibility with a new version of the Gear VR virtual reality accessory -- two features you won't find on the iPhone. And with the S6 phones' new designs, Samsung has addressed the predominant critiques of 2014's Galaxy S5, viewed by many as an uninspired doppelganger of the 2013 Galaxy S4.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S6, S6 EDGE DIMENSIONS	Galaxy s6	Galaxy s6 Edge
Dimensions (inches)	5.6x 2.8x 0.27	5.6x 2.8x 0.28
Dimensions (millimeters)	143.4x 70.5x 6.8	142.1x 70.1x 7.0
Weight (ounces)	4.9	4.6
Weight (grams)	138	132

The phones feel thin and fluid in the hand. The S6 Edge tapers on its right and left edges, where the curved portion of the screens arc to meet the back. As with the Note Edge, the S6 Edge manages balance despite its sharper shape.

Although the colors are fairly staid -- both models comes in platinum gold in addition to sapphire black and white pearl -- Samsung injects shots of color into the lineup. The straight-sided S6 also gets topaz blue, while the S6 Edge harnesses emerald green. The incredibly reflective rear surface flashes color and lights. Samsung says this is to add depth and warmth, but the skeptic in me thinks this relentless reflecting could become visually annoying.

A few negatives: the camera protrudes a bit from the back, which some may not like and the glass surfaces also become a smudge gallery for your finest fingerprints.

Screen size stasis

The S6 and S6 Edge hold steady with last year's size, 5.1 inches. This is a good call, since a larger phone would encroach on phablet territory -- and Samsung already offers that option in the excellent Galaxy Note 4, with its 5.7-inch screen.

Even though Samsung hasn't bumped up the size, it has spiked the resolution of its AMOLED display to 2,560x1,440 pixels, a density of 577 ppi, currently the best on the market. Now comes the inevitable questions: can the human eye really appreciate detail that fine, and is the higher resolution worth the likely impact on battery life? We'll test both out when we have more time with the phone.

Hardware triumphs and upsets

Samsung rocked the boat with these dramatically different additions and omissions.

Exynos over Qualcomm: Why did Samsung chose its own chipset (Samsung won't share which one) over the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, especially after years of partnership between the two companies? Samsung won't say, but it's a fair guess that keeping things in-house also translates into a more reliable manufacturing pipeline and better margins on its own 64-bit octa-core chip. Seeing how the Exynos model performs compared to Snapdragon -- the latter is basically the new standard for non-Apple superphones -- is something we're anxious to test.

Embedded battery: The S6 devices are totally sealed, so you won't be able to swap out the battery. The trade-off is a potentially larger (and longer-lived) battery for the phones' size.

No microSD card: Samsung omitted this staple feature to maximize slimness. However it's also increased default internal storage to 32GB, with 64GB and 128GB models also available. Samsung will also throw in 115GB free Microsoft OneDrive storage for two years, stating that people increasingly use cloud storage these days.

Camera quick launch: This is a great one. Double click the home button to launch the camera app in just under a second, and from any screen. This worked flawlessly during my demo period.

Smarter fingerprint scanning: The same home button is now equipped to read your fingerprint when you rest it on the button. Before, you had to slide it, which often didn't produce an accurate reading. I wasn't able to test this yet.

Wireless charging: The S6 and S6 Edge have wireless charging built in, using WPC and PMA standards (that includes Qi). Samsung will sell its own charging pads, but the S6 phones will be compatible with some other chargers as well. You should be able to top up 20 percent of your battery in about a half hour.

Quick-charging: Support for this fast-charging feature comes with the Exynos chip, which Samsung says should give you a 30 percent charge in about 30 minutes. In addition, the phones will work with a Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 charger (like the Note 4's charger).

Camera action

A 16-megapixel camera juts out slightly from the phones' back, sporting the same resolution we see on the Note 4. Since these phones do use a different chip, it'll be interesting to see if the internals make a mark on image quality. The lens itself gets an upgrade over the S5, to f/1.9, from the S5's f/2.2 rear camera.

Softer software

Android 5.0 Lollipop, the latest Google phone operating system, ships with the S6 and S6 Edge, with a refreshed version of Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top and far fewer preloaded apps. Samsung is trying to embrace a simpler role without shedding everything it's built over the years.

You'll see an adjusted look and feel and folders pregrouped by vendor, like a bucket of Google apps and services, and one for new partner Microsoft (this one has Skype and OneDrive, for instance).

Menus are also whittled down. Multi-window still lets you open two programs at once, but instead of toggling it on yourself and selecting from a pop-out menu, it's always on and launchable from the Recents tray. You can still drag and resize these windows, even turning them into floating bubbles.

Everything else

The Galaxy S6 battery is rated at 2,550mAh, with the S6 Edge getting a tad more capacity at 2,600mAh. On paper, that's less than the 2,800mAh found on 2014's Galaxy S5, but we'll need to see if the new CPU (and Android 5.0 Lollipop) offer any efficiencies.

If you head can hold a few more hardware details, the S6 phones will have 3GB RAM, but there's no word on the GPU spec.

Pricing and availability

Look for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge to hit some territories starting April 10. Pricing is still up in the air, but carriers and retailers like to set those individually. Expect the S6 to cost about the same as the S5, and for the S6 Edge to cost more.

source: CNET News