technology Galaxy S6 - Is it Worth It?

[Guest]

So with smartphones advancing every year and the Galaxy phones dropping only a few months ago, they've had time to iron out ant kinks they may have had. With both the Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 being pretty damn close in terms of specs it's all apples and oranges with the two. Apple dropped the iPhone 6S just last week and with Samsung and Apple really leading the way with flagship phones it's time for the big questions such as:

 

• Does the S6 stand up to the 6 month newer iPhone 6S?
• Does it stand up over time?
• Is it a necessary upgrade?
• What kind of new features are we looking at?
• Etc.

Well, let's start off with a little visual, shall we?

 

 

(Screenshot Shrunk to better fit your screen)

 

I came from a Nexus 5 to this phone, which for those who don't know that's basically stock android. Pretty much no flavor to it whatsoever, all completely basic bare bones. That's how I liked it though. Well going to the S6 was a big change for me. Customization wise, the S6 is solid. There's plenty of apps to help you build your own themes, use themes and lots of great premade themes on the market already. You can change the icon of nearly any app. TouchWiz UI is far better than it was, but now you also don't ever have to even deal with it!

 

So what's new in the S6 that the S5 did not have?:

 

• The S6 no longer sports an SD card slot or removable battery, however this is due to SD cards constantly slowing down Android phones. Samsung instead opted to include a larger storage on the phone. The S6 comes in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB (though much harder to find) sizes. Having all the internal storage makes needing an SD card almost obsolete unless you are a user who has so much music and video that it can not even be contained on 128GB of storage. The change of not having SD slots though is becoming more and more common on all Android devices these days.
• Durability wise, the S6 is sporting a more metal finish chassis with a tougher Gorilla Corning Glass 4.
• Your screen is going to be the biggest difference. While the S5 sported a 5.1 inch full HD 1920x1080p at 432ppi, the S6 is going for Quad HD with 1440x2560 at 577ppi. So that is a huge jump in picture quality. The S6 also is about 600cd/m2 brighter than the S5, so you are going to have a more vibrant screen that's easier to see in odd lighting situations.
• Size wise, the S6 is thinner and lighter than the S5.
• The processor is another huge change. The new Exynos 7420 is a 64-bit processor meaning that Samsung too has made the jump to 64-bit phones like Apple has. It is an octa-core that runs about 30% more efficient than the S5 running at 2.1-2.5GHz. The S5 was only sporting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (which at the time was an amazing chip, but had some overheating problems). 
• RAM wise, you're going from 2GB to 3GB, so multitasking is far better.
• Benchmark wise, the S6 managed a much higher mulkti-core result in Geekbench 3.0. The S6 scored 4438 according to PCadvisor vs. the S5 which only scored 2869.
• Speaker wise, the S6 is capable of being 50% louder. I have tested this, it is absolutely true.
• The 16MP camera on the S5 is nothing compared to the 16MP on the S6. The image quality due to the optical image stabilizer is absolutely amazing. To top this off, the front facing camera on the S5 was a mere 2MP while the S6 is sporting a 5MP HD camera on the front making for better selfies.
• The rear camera's video capabilities have improved. The new S6 can record in 4K up to 30FPS, and 1080p in up to 60FPS. Capturing the moment just got a lot nicer.
• One of the big advertising points of the S6 is wireless charging. It's a really cool feature and charges significantly faster than wires.

So if you have an S5 and are thinking of upgrading, the S6 is going to be a noticeable improvement, and if you are waiting for your 2 year payments to end with your S4, you DEFINITELY want to upgrade.

 

Now I know a lot of you are iPhone users, and I am not going to tell you to switch, but for those who are considering switching and want to know if the S6 will be an improvement over their iPhone, here are some points for you. A lot of the features that Apple has boasted are available on the S6:

 

• The S6 is actually a much better display than both the iPhone 6S and the 6S+. With the 6S+ at 1080p and the 6S at 750p, the S6 smokes them both with its astonishing 1440p.
• The S6 is lighter than the iPhone 6S by about 10%.
• The S6 camera does beat out the iPhone 6S camera which is only 12MP vs. 16MP.
•  Both record 4k in 30FPS, but the iPhone wins in 1080p recording as it can record in 120FPS vs. the S6 which can only do 60FPS.
• The S6's processor absolutely destroys the A9 chip in the iPhone 6S. The Exynos is an 8 core processor vs. the A9 which is still dual core. Both are 64-bit, but the A9 is clocked at a measly 1.8GHz vs. the 2.1-2.5GHz of the Exynos.
• The first iPhone to go above 1GB of RAM, the iPhone 6S is sporting 2GB, however the S6 wins out at 3GB.
• Storage wise, they both have a 128GB model, but the iPhone 6S loses this one for still having the option of a tiny 16GB model while the S6's smallest size is 32GB.
• Battery wise they are about on par. The S6 will get better talk time, but the iPhone will get better music playback. The S6 gets about 2 hours more of video playback, but the iPhone has slightly better standby time.
• Speaker wise, I've played with both and the S6 is definitely louder.
• The S6 does in fact feature a finger print sensor and does have a finger print lock just like the iPhone. It works almost identically and just as great.
• You can get both phones on almost every network these days.
• Android can sync with iTunes thanks to new apps such as iSync,
• The Galaxy S6 now comes with a pair of headphones just like the iPhone which is a nice addition.

So if you were worried about making the move to Android because you would lose that which you loved on iPhone, you'll be happy to know that the switch is relatively easy nowadays. Android has come a long way from its humble origins and is far more usable now than its first induction.

 

So time to answer the questions:

 

Do I think that the S6 is a necessary upgrade? If you are on the S5 and don't have an upgrade coming up, I would wait just a littttle bit longer, however if you're on the S4, by all means you should upgrade.

 

Is the S6 better than the S5? Yes. Hands down, no contest.

 

Is it better than the iPhone 6S? This is a complicated answer, but for the most part Yes. In terms of specs, features and such the S6 smokes the iPhone. However the iPhone still has their amazing back up abilities that Android phones still don't have mastered. The ability to upload your entire phone more or less as a back up image onto iTunes and then put it back on if you lose your data or get a new phone is still better than the improved Android back ups. Don't get me wrong, Android has improved significantly regarding this, but it's still far behind. However if you are someone who cares about getting the most for your money, the S6 hands down wins.

 

How do we even know you've handled both phones? I work at a phone retailer, selling and activating phones. I play with every new flagship phone that hits the market. I spent all weekend activating iPhone 6S's.

[North 288]

I think the S6 has some hefty competition with the 6S. I mean, they're Apple, ya know...

[Guest]

I think the S6 has some hefty competition with the 6S. I mean, they're Apple, ya know...

In terms of fans, I would agree. Apple has very devoted fans, and it's hard to convince them that anything non-Apple is even worth looking at. However at the end of the day, the iPhone 6S and the 6S+ are nothing compared to the S6. The Galaxy S6 defeats them in almost every major department. However Apple fans seldom bother looking at the specs, they will say stuff like "Apple is just smoother" despite Android being more or less the same level of smoothness these days.

[KatonRyu 1,034]

While I heartily agree with everything you have said, I must say that I think that, software-wise, Samsung took a step back. Nothing serious, just a few pet peeves.

 

One of them is that you can no longer loop through the app screens, so if you're on the last screen and need to be on the first, tough luck.

 

Another thing is that, in my opinion, the mail app seems more cluttered while at the same time removing the messages fairly quickly.

 

On a more positive note, switching from my S4 to my new S6 was very easy using Samsung's Smart Switch app, which lets you transfer literally everything from your old phone to the new in minutes, or even faster with NFC enabled. It also allows using an iPhone as the source device, but I didn't test how well that works because I loathe Apple and everything they stand for these days, so I don't own an iPhone.