Leaks may have spoiled the surprise somewhat, but Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge is still a smartphone that makes you sit up and take notice.
The Korean company has officially unveiled the S6 Edge, which has the distinction of being the world’s first phone with a screen on three of its four sides: a 5.1in quad-HD Super AMOLED display that covers almost the entirety of the device’s front and most of its left and right edges.
BEND IT LIKE SAMSUNG
The screen is supremely sharp, boasting a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels (QHD or 2K to you and I); that’s a pixel density of 572ppi (to give you some idea of where it stands in the current market, the iPhone 6 has 326ppi and the LG G3 has 538ppi).
But it’s the screen’s wraparound design that arrests the eyes. Samsung has bettered its own Galaxy Note Edge by bending the display around two edges rather than one, and allowing the edge sections to function not merely as supplementary screens but – thanks to a tweaked TouchWiz OS – as extensions of the main screen itself.
Turn off the phone, however, and edge-specific functions kick in: Information Edge displays widgets down the side; and People Edge (which works when the phone is placed face down on a desktop) can let you know who’s calling by shining a pre-set colour.
MORE METAL, LESS PLASTIC
The other big news is that the design and build quality of the Galaxy S range has been given something of an overhaul. Gone is the creaky plastic of yesteryear, replaced here by a metal chassis. Four colour finishes – white, gold, blue and a charcoal grey – will be available. It looks sturdier than previous Galaxy S phones (it’s actually 10g lighter than the S5 at 132g, mind you – and thin at just 7mm deep) and the fixed back panel should help reduce flex – albeit at the cost of being able to swap batteries and insert microSD cards.
Storage is fixed on the Galaxy S6 Edge, and you’ll have a choice between 32GB, 64GB and 128GB of it. At the heart of the phone is an octa-core Exynos processor with 3GB of RAM – that seems like plenty of power. Then there’s a 2600mAh battery (wireless charging comes built in) as well as a 16MP rear camera with f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilisation, and a 5MP front camera with f/1.9 aperture. Samsung claims the built-in speaker, meanwhile, is one-and-a-half times louder than the S5’s.
Price and availability for the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge are yet to be confirmed, but we’ll let you know as soon as they’re set in stone.
