The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a very important device for Samsung. Of course, every flagship device has been important but the company has struggled in 2014 due to lacklustre sales of the Galaxy S5, despite the new features of the handset. Compared with the Samsung Galaxy S4, the S5 arrived with improvements almost right across the board. It had a more modern, powerful and efficient processor, a newer generation screen which whilst marginally less sharper, has reduced power consumption. The S5 is waterproof and comes with both a fingerprint scanner and a heart rate monitor. However, the device failed to reach the lofty sales figures of the Galaxy S4 and has put Samsung under immense scrutiny and pressure. We’ve seen speculation that there would be a major shake up at the top of the Samsung Mobile business unit.
However, as we wrote earlier today, this is no longer happening. Even so, the game is on! Samsung needs to be able to turn around their disappointing sales of the S5 compared with the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S III. In terms of the Galaxy S6, we’ve seen rumors of specifications, which include a QHD screen, 3 GB of RAM and the new 64-bit, Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor. Which combines two quad core processors. Not forgetting dual cameras. We likely have a couple of months though to wait until we see how accurate these specification rumors are. Although, at this juncture it seems a fair bet that Samsung will improve the S6 in the same respects that the S5 is an incremental improvement over the S4.
We’ve also seen a rumor that the Galaxy S6 will be released together with a curved edge model, similar to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Note Edge. We don’t have any more details at this point, but the Galaxy Note Edge is very similar to the Note 4, apart from the curved screen. Which is slightly smaller than the Note 4, but has more pixels due to the screen dripping over the edge. It is otherwise identical. It has the same processor, camera and radios. There is a difference in the software, which is where Samsung can add real value to the Edge products and where I would personally hope for an improvement between the S6 and the S6 Edge. The edge along the side of the device is perfect for showing notifications or additional controls, such as media buttons. It’s the Edge variant that’s more interesting than the improvements, because Samsung is trying to think outside the box. We’ll see if the S6 and S6 Edge are more metal-built compared with previous generation models. And if Samsung release the S6 Edge, will it too be a limited edition device as the Note Edge is?