Late December through to early March is my favorite time of year. Partially, it’s because I like the crisp, cold bright mornings that we sometimes get in the United Kingdom at this time of year. Partially because it’s when friends and family make time to see one another for the holidays and partially because of the rumors and stories circulating possible devices at both the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress. There are a few games to play during this time, including “what news story will Apple drop to disrupt the show?” and “how many iterations will we see of Device X until it’s released?” And today, I’m writing about the Samsung Galaxy S6, which is what we believe Samsung’s next flagship Android smartphone will be called.
Arguably, the Galaxy line of smartphones is something of a bellwether for the Android smartphone industry. Samsung’s design may not lead the industry and arguably nor does their inclusion of software features and additional sensors (other manufacturers have not rushed to include heart rate sensors on their devices, for example) but instead, we get a real flavor for the chipset, screen size and resolution, plus camera and battery. The 2013 flagship, the Galaxy S4, introduced the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and Samsung scored the 1.9 GHz unit, compared with HTC’s 1.7 GHz. In 2014, Samsung scored the 2.5 GHz version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor; most competitor devices slummed it at the 2.3 GHz point. Samsung also used a 1080p 5.1-inch display, a 16 MP rear camera and a 2,800 mAh battery, thus drawing a line in the sand. Thus, even if you don’t like the Samsung Galaxy products for whatever reason, whatever Samsung do with the S6 will likely have a knock-on effect for your favorite manufacturer in 2015.
We’ve had more S6 rumors over the last few weeks than I’ve had hot coffees and now some corners of the Internet are getting excited about a video release by Samsung describing how to set up the My KNOX application. The device in question might be the Galaxy S6… but to my eyes it looks like a generic Samsung Galaxy flagship device set up in an emulator or simulator. I’d like to write, “nothing to see here, folks” and leave it at that. Sure; the device in question has thin bezels and a hardware button at the bottom, but Android emulators (like concept cars) tend to have outrageously thin bezels (low profile tires) that don’t necessarily reflect the genuine item. It’s likely that the Galaxy S6 will look something similar to the emulated device in the video clip, but then so too does the Galaxy S5, S4 and if you don’t look closely, the 2012 flagship Galaxy S III. Check out the clip below… and we’ll let you know as soon as we hear about the real smartphone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAl7FAX_-78