Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge review

Pros

• Best cameras on any phone
• Innovative design
• Superb build quality
• Fantastic screen
• Monstrous performance

Cons

• Curve screen just for show
• Tricky to hold
• Costs more than S6
• No SD card slot anymore
• Gaming hurts battery life badly

Review Price £695.00

Key Features: 5.1-inch 1440 x 2560-resolution screen; Octa-core Exynos 7420 chipset; 2,550mAh non-removable battery; 3GB RAM; Wireless charging; Samsung Pay mobile payments; Android 5.0 L with TouchWiz Manufacturer: Samsung

What is the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge?

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is Samsung’s sexiest phone to date. In fact, it’s arguably the most beautiful phone ever made. It makes the standard Galaxy S6 look plain and the iPhone 6 look safe.

The headline feature is, of course, the curved screen. It’s only there for for show, really, but it makes the S6 Edge unique. You could never accuse it of being an “iPhone” clone – an accusation fairly leveled at the standard S6.

The Galaxy S6 Edge isn’t just about the looks. It has a brilliant 16-megapixel camera, an octa-core Exynos processor that’s faster than any other, a better fingerprint scanner and a slicker operating system. Samsung has improved nearly every core part of the phone for the better.

All these improvements come at a price, though, and we’re not just talking about the eye-watering £695 SIM-free price for the 32GB version. In making the S6 Edge more attractive, Samsung has removed features many of its fans have long appreciated, such as the microSD card slot and removable battery. It’s not water resistant like the S5 was and it has a smaller battery, which does impact battery life.

But the benefits outweigh the costs. This is the best phone you can buy right now.

Watch our S6 Edge hands-on video from MWC 2015

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – Design

Metal edge; Gorilla Glass 4 rear; 142 x 70 x 7mm; 132g; Home button; Soft keys

There’s a refreshing honesty about the S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge’s design. There’s no attempt to make smooth plastic look like metal, or textured plastic look like leather. No, this time around the edge is made of aluminium alloy that feels just as strong as it looks. The front is covered in Gorilla Glass 4 – the latest version of the popular toughened glass – and so is the back. Nothing feels cheap about the S6 Edge apart from a couple of tiny throwbacks to a bygone era – the ear speaker grille looks like metal-painted plastic and the inside of the SIM tray is plastic.

Related: 17 Best Smartphones and Mobile Phones 2015


It’s not just the materials that are top notch, either; it's the way they’re put together. The diamond-cut edging brings a lustre to the metal border that’s reminiscent of the iPhone 5, but thinner and more tasteful. The SIM-card tray sits flush with the top of the phone and looks better integrated than the slightly recessed tray on the HTC One M9.

What’s most amazing is that Samsung has managed to pack a 5.1-inch screen into a body not that much bigger than the 4.7-inch iPhone 6. That means you can easily get to all areas of the screen, even with normal-size hands, which is something you can’t on the 5-inch HTC One M9.

Related: Samsung Galaxy S6 vs Galaxy S5 Specs Comparison

The S6 Edge isn't much bigger than the iPhone 6

The buttons on the Galaxy S6 Edge are also brilliant – firm and with just the right amount of spring. Their location is excellent, with the power button a few inches from the top of the right edge, while the volume ones rest a little higher on the left. You’ll never mistake one for the other – a common complaint made against the One M9.

If there’s one thing we’d change, it’d be the rear camera. It juts out of the back like an unsightly pimple. It’s not quite as ugly as the one on the Galaxy S6, a marginally thinner phone, but it still spoils the otherwise perfect-ten looks of the S6 Edge.

Related: Samsung Galaxy S6 vs S6 Edge


On the plus side, the glass back is surprisingly grippy – much more so than the one on the Sony Xperia Z3. The white version we tested doesn’t have a problem with fingerprint marks, but you might want to keep a cleaning cloth handy if you go for the more colourful options. Some colours, like the gold and green, look a little tacky too.

If there’s a problem with the design, it’s how the edges make the S6 Edge less comfortable to hold than other phones. That’s because the edges taper the wrong way – away from your hand. What little edge there is slopes back into your hand to combat this, but it still has a sharper, pinching sensation compared to other phones. It’s not intolerably bad, but we prefer the iPhone 6’s curved edges and the HTC One M9’s curved rear, which follow the contour of your palm.

Related: Best Cheap Phones and Budget Smartphones in 2015


We can put up with some idiosyncrasies for a phone this stylish, though, and there a few other foibles you should be aware of.

One is how, at first, it’s all too easy to hit the soft keys accidentally. There’s so little space left for them that you’ll often find yourself pressing the Back or App Switch key by accident. You learn to hold the phone more tentatively over time, but it’s an issue.

Another is the home button, which houses the fingerprint scanner. It isn’t flush with the front of the phone and, like the Galaxy S5 before it, this means that it can be unwittingly pressed while in your pocket. It might sound like a small issue, and as long as you have a lock you shouldn’t be calling any people you don’t want to, but it does turn the screen on and this could have a direct impact on the S6 Edge’s battery life.

Related: 10 Best Android Phones in 2015


Trickier to solve is how the curved screen makes it all too easy for your hand to brush against the edge of the screen, which prevents you from scrolling or hitting a link with your thumb. It takes a moment to realise that the phone hasn’t frozen; it’s just that part of your palm is resting on the edge of the screen. We fear this could become a common problem as brands push edge-to-edge displays.

But so far we’ve found these little irritations to be just that – little. We can forgive them for the general look and build quality of the S6 Edge. They could grow into relationship-ending resentments, but our gut feeling says they won’t.

Review Price £695.00

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – Screen

5.1-inch; 1440 x 2560 pixels (QHD or 2K); 577ppi; Super AMOLED; Gorilla Glass 4

The screen on the Galaxy S6 Edge is a marvel. It’s not just the soft flowing curves that makes it special – Samsung’s Super AMOLED display technology makes it a cut above anything else on the market right now – barring the standard Galaxy S6, of course.

What makes the screen so special? First, it’s stunningly sharp – its 577ppi (pixels per inch) is a truckload more than the iPhone 6 and a fair amount higher than the Full HD (1080p) display on the HTC One M9. It's incredibly sharp, even if it’s hard for the untrained eye to really care about the extra resolution. Both of those other phones are plenty good enough in the sharpness stakes.
The S6 vs the S5 pixel density

The benefits of the AMOLED screen come from its performance during dark scenes – this is a display that can show true black. That’s because, unlike the LCD technology on most other phones, AMOLED doesn’t rely on backlighting to illuminate its pixels – each pixel is illuminated individually.

Read also: OLED VS LCD

It means when you’re watching a movie in the dark you won’t see light bleeding through the display, making dark scenes look grey. It’s just that bit more immersive. Dimly lit scenes look more authentic because the contrast ratio – the difference between the darkest black and whitest white – is effectively infinite. All this leads to a more engaging viewing experience when compared to the competition.




Colours are good, too, though you might want to tone down the initial, oversaturating settings to something less gaudy. Samsung’s Basic setting is the most true to life, but we find the AMOLED Photo setting strikes the right balance between colour vibrancy and accuracy.

In contrast to the stellar colours and deep blacks, whites don’t look as pure on the AMOLED Galaxy S6 Edge display. They have a slight bluish tinge that gets worse when viewed from an acute angle. It’s not bad – the iPhone 6 and HTC One M9 have a slight pinkish tinge – but the viewing angle on IPS LCD phones appears slightly better.

The curved edges also means that the top and bottom of whatever you’re watching is slightly off the main screen. It shouldn’t bother you too much, but it's most likely to when you're reading. The first letter on the left-hand margin goes a little over the curve. It remains legible, but in sunlight this edge gets some glare, making it harder to decipher the writing underneath.




These are very minor gripes. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has one of the best screens, if not the best screen, you can get on a phone. We score it better than the HTC One M9's and iPhone 6's – the Galaxy S6’s flat screen is the more sensible option in terms of day-to-day use, though.

Samsung Galaxy S6 – Speaker

The single speaker on the Galaxy S6 Edge isn’t as impressive as the screen, but it is very loud – as loud at top volume as similar smartphones, and a little louder than the Galaxy S5's. It’s great for an evening’s bout of Netflix viewing – dialogue is crisp and clear – and it’s a perfect speakerphone for conference calls.

But it’s no good for music – there’s just not enough depth and the S6 Edge can sounds harsh and forced at higher volumes. If you want to listen to music then your best bet is to crack open the supplied earpod-style earphones, invest in a more serious pair of cans, or buy a Bluetooth speaker.




The speaker also suffers for being at the bottom of the phone, just like the iPhone 6's. This makes it all too easy to muffle with a finger or palm, so you have to be careful how you hold it when watching a film or playing a game.

The HTC One M9 is streets ahead of the S6 Edge, thanks to its fantastic BoomSound Dolby Audio stereo speakers, but the Samsung has nothing to be ashamed of, and has improved on last year's effort.

Review Price £695.00

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – Android 5.0, TouchWiz and Software

Android 5.0 Lollipop with TouchWiz; Samsung Pay; Fingerprint scanner

TouchWiz on the Galaxy S6 Edge is slicker and simpler than ever before.

TouchWiz is a layer that Samsung adds to its Android phones to make them feel, well, a bit more Samsungy. It’s never been very good, though. Most people prefer stock Android, because it’s faster to use and contains fewer bundled apps (aka bloatware).

In the past TouchWiz has been annoyingly slow. The fractions of a second between pressing an icon and it doing something caused murderous frustration among those more used to the instantaneous response of other interfaces. But those dark days are well behind Samsung – the Galaxy S5 and Note 4 are quick and responsive phones too – and it has moved in the right direction again with TouchWiz on the Galaxy S6 Edge.

There are still plenty of bundled apps that you might, or might not, want to use. The initial hope that these can be uninstalled has been dashed, however – the best you can do is disable them, casting them into some sort of app limbo where they disappear from sight, but still clog up some of your storage.

Yet the impact isn’t horrific – 100MB or so. S Health, S Voice and S Planner are hardly heavy-duty storage hogs and neither is Peel Smart Remote, Microsoft Onenote, Skype, Kid Mode or any of the other 40 or so bundled apps. Still, we’d like Samsung to free up the S6 Edge’s 64 or 128GB to do with as we please – around 8GB of storage is taken up by Android, TouchWiz and bundled apps. The Nexus 6, which uses pure Android, uses just 6.7GB.



One major improvement Samsung has made is reducing the steps it takes to get things done on TouchWiz. It’s now easier than ever before. Removing or uninstalling apps is very simple and apps open quickly, powered by that monstrous octa-core Exynos processor.

The design has had a facelift, too. Text-only buttons make things clearer and less ambiguous and the whole system feels a little more contemporary. But is it better than HTC’s Sense 7 on the One M9 or iOS 8 on the iPhone 6? Not really. It still looks dated compared to stock Android 5.0’s Material design and overall it feels a little at odds with the beautiful exterior of the S6 Edge. But it's a big step in the right direction 

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – Fingerprint, Samsung Pay & Edge Apps

Now it’s time to dig a little deeper into some of the features that make the S6 Edge unique among Android phones – Samsung Pay and its fingerprint sensor.

Fingerprint Sensor
Okay a fingerprint sensor on an Android phone isn’t unique to the S6 and S6 Edge, but one as good as this is.

Where the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 required a fiddly swipe down over the home button, the S6 Edge just needs you to rest a digit on it, just like Touch ID does on an iPhone. It’s a lot easier to use, even though Samsung improved its previous fingerprint scanners with multiple software updates.

Is it as good as Touch ID? Near enough as makes no odds. Touch ID is a fraction faster and, we still find, easier to use. That’s mostly because of the round shape and recessed nature of the home button on the iPhone 6, as opposed to any magical technological feat Apple has achieved. You can store up to four of your finger or thumb prints on the Galaxy S6 Edge, one less than on an iPhone, but four is plenty.



The recessed and round fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 6 (left) is a little easier to use

Being able to unlock your phone so easily is a great feature to have and the added layer of security it provides makes Samsung’s answer to Apple Pay possible.

Samsung Pay
When Samsung bought LoopPay a month or so ago, it wasn’t hard to figure out why. Apple Pay is another arrow in the quiver of Apple’s ecosystem – a way to pay using your iPhone or Apple Watch with a simple tap.

Both Apple and Samsung Pay let you store credit and store card details securely on your device and let you pay by placing a phone or smartwatch close to the credit card terminal. Both are secure and easy to use.

So why might Samsung Pay be better? While Apple Pay uses just NFC tap-and-pay, Samsung Pay uses a combination of NFC and LoopPay’s MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission). This means you can use the Galaxy S6 Edge in stores and countries that haven’t adopted NFC payment terminals. According to Samsung its service is compatible in 90% of US stores. Apple Pay? Just 10%.

We still need to see both these services in real-world action, though.

Flipboard
Samsung’s answer to HTC’s Blinkfeed is Flipboard. It aggregates all the news you’re interested in so you can browse it without having to go to specific websites. It’s slick and easy to set up and use, but lacks Blinkfeed’s ability to bring in Facebook, Twitter and other social media elements into your reading stream.




Edge Apps
The edge screen isn’t just for show. Actually it is, but it can do a few things, some niftier than others.

People Edge lets you assign up to five contacts to the edge of the screen to give you quick access, while Notifications and Information Stream let you see, you’ve guessed it, latest notifications and information.

Review Price £695.00

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – Performance

Octa-core Exynos 7420 big.LITTLE Processor; Mali T760 GPU; 3GB RAM

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is the fastest phone we’ve ever tested. It wasn’t very long ago that we said that of the HTC One M9, but the S6 Edge is significantly faster in benchmark tests.

Let’s have a look at the octa-core Exynos processor first.

For a long time now Samsung has used Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in its flagships, at least in the West. In Asia it's been using its own-brand Exynos processors, which it's now opted to put in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. And it looks like the right decision.

The Exynos is a 64-bit processor, so some 64-bit compatible apps should see a modest performance boost. More importantly, and just like the 810, it uses ARM’s big.LITTLE configuration. This allows a ‘big’ quad-core CPU (2.1GHz) to be paired with a ‘little’, low-power quad-core (1.5GHz). Smaller tasks like browsing the web and listening to music use the little quad, which uses less juice. Intensive tasks, like 3D gaming, use the big quad.  

Here’s how the processor performs in power saver mode and full power mode.

Even in power saving mode, the S6 Edge has a higher Geekbench 3 score than the HTC One M9 running at full speed. When it comes to 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test – a test that focuses on gaming performance – full power results are a lot closer, but even here the S6 Edge comes out on top.


What makes the Exynos 7420 special is that it uses a 14nm manufacturing process, like the latest Intel chips, that puts it ahead of the 20nm process used by Qualcomm on the Snapdragon 810. In layman’s terms, smaller manufacturing processes provide benefits to processing speeds and help reduce the use of battery power.

Not only is the Exynos 7420 super-fast, it also seems to run a lot cooler than the Snapdragon 810 on the HTC One M9 and LG G Flex 2. Even during a prolonged gaming session the Edge remains cool to touch, although battery drain rises significantly.

Gaming performance is top-notch with intensive games like Riptide 2 running like a dream. We didn’t experience a single dropped frame or stutter. The S6 Edge is a real powerhouse thanks to that beast of a processor. Samsung made the right move dropping Qualcomm’s effort.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge – Connectivity and Storage

We’ve already mentioned it a number of times, but it’s worth reiterating – the Galaxy S6 Edge does not have a microSD card slot. Instead Samsung has packed the entry-level Edge with 32GB of internal storage, rising up to 128GB for the top model. That’s more enough for most people, so the microSD card slot won’t be missed too much if you don’t mind splashing the cash on more pricey internal storage.

It’s still a bit of a slap in the face for Samsung fans who’ve always loved second-to-none functionality of Samsung Galaxy phones, and particularly for those who have bought 64 or 128GB cards they planned to use from flagship to flagship.

Aside from the microSD card slot, the Micro USB 3.0 connector has also gone. Introduced on the Galaxy S5, it allowed much faster transfer of data, but did have an effect on design. Micro USB 3 ports are a lot bigger than Micro USB 2.0, and it was really only a power-user feature.

So what does the Galaxy S6 Edge come with then? There’s the usual list of dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 (a/b/g/n/ac), Wi-Fi Direct, 4G, NFC. Bluetooth 4.1 and MHL 3 TV-out, which as the name suggests lets you connect to a TV using a cable.

One feature Samsung has kept is an infrared blaster. It’s a small, tasteful oval located at the top of the S6 Edge and works with the bundled Peel app to let you control your home cinema system via your phone. You need a separate product sitting in your living room to do that with an iPhone.