Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge: Double-Edged Phone

Think that the Note Edge is the only device about to get the curved screen fun? No way. Samsung is doubling down on its Edge proposition with the new Galaxy S6 Edge: a phone with subtle curves all the way around.


• More: Samsung Galaxy S6: Australian Hands-On

• More: Samsung Galaxy S6 Live Blog: All The News As It Happened


The Galaxy S6 Edge is a lot like the vanilla-flavoured Galaxy S6. Same processor, same screen, same drawbacks.

It’s packing a 5.1-inch Quad-HD Super AMOLED screen. That’s a screen resolution of 2560×1440, with 577 pixels per inch. It’s also stocked with an octa-core processor made up of a quad-core 2.1GHz processor and a quad-core 1.5Ghz processor sandwiched together to produce a stupid amount of power. That’s backed up by 3GB of RAM and a 2550mAh battery to keep it all going.



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Other features include a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera — complete with Optical Image Stabilisation — a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the same heart-rate monitor built into the flash unit from the Samsung Galaxy S5, a fingerprint scanner you no longer have to swipe your finger over and Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The S6 and the S6 Edge also have the same drawbacks: no removable battery, no expandable storage, no USB 3.0.

They also share another common trait: they’re both gorgeous.

The subtle curve on the Galaxy S6 Edge is really something to behold. Rather than drop straight off into a second screen like you get on the Note Edge, the S6 Edge has subtle curves on both sides of the device.



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This also makes the device’s metal banding almost non-existent. It’s so comfortable to hold and you never feel like you’re about to accidentally access the screen.

Those curves are used for two things right now. On the one side you get the Information Display. It’s similar to the ticker on the Note Edge and gives you notifications, news and other relevant information.

The new features come from the other edge, known as the People Edge. On it you get five contacts, all colour-coded to a new person. It acts as a drawer you can quickly swipe open to select people to contact. On top of that, the People Edge can be used while the phone is facing down to notify you of new calls and SMS messages. When a contact gets in touch while the phone is facing down, it glows with a the subtle hue of the colour you chose for them. Based on that information, you know who’s calling and decide whether you want to answer it during a meeting.

Samsung says it will roll out more features onto the Edge screens as time goes on.

What’s weird is that with the screen curvature and the eye-popping resolution, it’s almost like the screen has a kind of 3D depth when viewing HD content. It’s awesome.

Something that’s also interesting is that the S6 Edge gives you slightly more power than the S6, with a 2600mAh battery over the standard 2550mAh in the vanilla model. It’s also slightly lighter: six grams lighter to be exact.



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It comes in black, white and gold. Those three colours are common across the S6 and S6 Edge range, but there’s one especially pretty S6 exclusive colour, which is an almost British Racing green, which Samsung is calling Forest Green.

Samsung Australia hasn’t confirmed the pricing or the launch timing for the device but we do know that it’s headed for a global release in April.

Luke Hopewell travelled to Mobile World Congress 2015 as a guest of Samsung.


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