Durban – I’ve been a fan of Samsung’s Galaxy range of smartphones ever since I bought my first Android phone, an S2, in 2011.
Back then, there were far fewer apps available for devices running Google’s Android operating system than for Apple’s iOS, but I could do so much more geeky stuff with my S2 than I could with an iPhone. From plugging in an external thumb drive and pairing it with a full-sized Bluetooth keyboard to installing non-approved third-party apps and swapping out the battery for a fresh one after a day of heavy use, it was a tinkerer’s dream and a breath of fresh air after spending a year of my digital life in Apple’s beautiful but claustrophobic walled garden.
If there was one big criticism I had of the Galaxy line it was that the handsets, powerful and feature packed (sometimes overly so) as they were, they always felt just a tad cheap thanks to the copious amounts of plastic that went into their construction.
As prices climbed towards the R10 000 mark and competitors began following Apple’s example to offer beautiful devices crafted of steel and glass, Samsung’s persistence with plastic began to look increasingly dated. Worse, it started to hurt sales. Last year’s flagship S5 with its dimpled faux leather back wasn’t a dud, but it was certainly not the blockbuster Samsung needed to stay comfortably ahead of the pack.
It was clear towards the end of last year that the South Korea-based tech titan would need to pull something special out of the hat with its next flagship if it was to reverse the dramatic slide. Well, “special” doesn’t even begin to describe what the design wizards at Samsung came up with in the S6 and S6 Edge.
I’ve spent several weeks with each and I can tell you that not only is Samsung back in the premium smartphone race, it’s back in the lead.
Gone are any traces of plastic, to be replaced with tempered glass and brushed aluminium fashioned into two stunning works of high-tech art. The S6 Edge with its wrap-around screen is particularly lovely to behold, easily the most beautiful smartphone ever crafted. Both now also feel like the premium devices their price tags denote, solid yet surprisingly light.
If the design isn’t enough to melt your resistance, a gaze into the 5.1-inch, Quad HD Super AMOLED screen will do the trick. There is simply no other display that’s as bright or pixel dense.
But in the high-end smartphone stakes, beauty is worth little if it’s not matched with equal doses of brains and brawn. Thankfully, the S6 pair has them in spades. Both run the latest version of Android (5.0.2 Lollipop) and are blisteringly responsive thanks to the beefy octa-core processor purring under the hood.
One of my beefs with Samsung has been its tendency to cram its phones with unnecessary apps that take up valuable storage space and put a drag on performance. Thankfully, it’s cut back dramatically on the bloatware this time round, making for a refreshingly uncluttered user interface.
The 16 megapixel camera is easily the best on any Android phone I’ve tried and arguably as good, if not slightly better, than that on the iPhone 6 Plus. Apple has always had the edge, particularly in low light. Samsung’s now closed that gap and I was able to achieve some really good low light shots with both S6 models.
The 5 megapixel front facing camera is also a big improvement on its predecessor with the wide angle allowing you to get all your chums into the selfie and the improved sensor letting you do this even in near darkness.
Samsung has had to make some sacrifices to achieve this startling combination of both form and function. Unlike the S5, neither of its successors is waterproof. Gone also are the swoppable battery and SD card slot so beloved of the Galaxy faithful.
Will these omissions be deal breakers? I doubt it. While I’m a huge fan of water resistant phones, I’m probably in the minority.
Battery performance is a bigger issue and I found that both S6 variants (the Edge has a slightly bigger battery) would comfortably last a working day under light to medium use. Take plenty of pics and do a lot of e-mailing and web browsing, though, and you’ll probably need a mid-afternoon top up. Fortunately the rapid charge feature means you can go from zero to 50 percent power in just 30 minutes. Some networks are also bundling the phones with a free wireless charger.
As for the loss of the SD slot, I’m finding that less of an issue now that all my pictures are automatically backed up to the cloud. I had no problem with my 32GB test models, but If I owned hundreds of apps and was a heavy mobile gamer, I’d opt for one of the pricier variants with more on-board storage (64GB or 128GB) although I’m not sure how widely available these options are.
None of this comes cheap, of course. An entry level S6 will set you back upwards of R11 000 if you were to buy it cash and you should be willing to fork out around R16 000 or more for the S6 Edge.
Is it worth it? Well, this is pretty much what you pay these days for top-end smartphones. If you can afford it and want the best Android phone available in South Africa look no further than the S6 line. As for the choice between the standard S6 or Edge, my head says buy the S6 and plough the extra cash into a model with more storage or a year’s premium cloud storage. But my heart says to hell with practicality. I’d get the Edge simply for its drop-dead gorgeous looks.
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