Samsung to launch the new Galaxy S6, S6 Edge this April

Samsung hopes to reverse its fortunes with a radically redesigned flagship smartphone.

The company said that its Galaxy S6 smartphone, alongside its curvy sibling, the Galaxy S6 Edge, both can currently pre-order from the official Samsung Arabia website (samsung.com/ae) later it will become available for purchase at carrier and retail stores on April next month.

Samsung’s latest smartphones incorporate aluminum and glass, higher-quality materials that set them apart from previous Samsung phones, which largely used a plastic shell. But the change did come with sacrifices — the company ditched the microSD slot for expandable memory, as well as the removable battery.

The Arabian Gulf region will get the black, white and gold variants of the smartphones.

Specs
Samsung has redesigned the Galaxy S6, along with the Galaxy S6 Edge, from the ground up.

The smartphone has a metal body clad in Gorilla Glass 4, much like the Sony Xperia Z3, which is 50 percent tougher than those used in other smartphones on the market, according to Samsung.

The firm took a dig at Apple with the claim that the S6 “will not bend”. In terms of size, the Galaxy S6 6.8mm thick and weighs 138g.

Galaxy S6 has a 5.1in QHD screen
The Galaxy S6, according to Samsung, features the best smartphone display available today, with the AMOLED screen measuring in at 5.1in with a 2560×1440 resolution and 577ppi.

It’s sibling, the Galaxy S6 Edge, comes with a unique curved display, which adds ‘Edge’ screens to the right and left hand sides of the smartphone. These additional displays provide functionality such as the ability to access favourite contacts and to quickly view information such as the date and weather.

The Galaxy S6 features a Samsung-branded Exynos processor, which is the first 14nm smartphone chip. This comes with 3GB RAM.

Of course, the Galaxy S6 will ship running Google’s Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system and, as rumours had suggested, comes with a stripped-back version of Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface.
The firm has reworked the interface, equipping it with a simpler, flatter design and less bloatware. The smartphone ships with just two Samsung apps pre-loaded.

Samsung’s software does debut Samsung Pay, however, a mobile payments service that looks to challenge Apple Pay.

Set to launch in the US in the second half of 2015, the NFC-based payments service, much like Apple’s, allows users to make payments by scanning their fingerprint.

An upgraded version of Samsung’s Knox security suite is also included on the Galaxy S6 as the firm looks to tackle iOS and Windows Phone in the enterprise.

This upgraded security software takes advantage of the handset’s upgraded touch-based fingerprint scanner, and comes with a new remotely controlled ‘Reactivation Lock’ feature.

For those not looking to use the smartphone at work, the Galaxy S6 features a 16MP sensor on the rear, similar to that found on last year’s Galaxy S5, complete with optical image stabilisation, 4K video recording and a new feature called object-tracking autofocus.

There’s also a 5MP camera on the front, improving on last year’s 2MP offering.

The Galaxy S6 ships with a 2,560mAh battery, although Samsung has yet to say how long this will last.
Support for wireless charging is also included, Samsung boasting that the device can charge fully in “half the time of the iPhone 6” and to 40 percent in just 10 minutes.

The Galaxy S will be made available in gold, black, white and blue, and will ship with 32GB, 64GB or 128GB internal storage.

Unlike the Galaxy S5, there is no microSD slot included on the Galaxy S6.