MWC 2015 – Hands-On With The Samsung Galaxy S6 And Galaxy S6 Edge

Samsung wowed the mobile world earlier today by unveiling its latest flagship devices, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

Described by the company as their most advanced and beautiful devices ever, the two units offer massively improved power, media capabilities, and a full makeover, both inside and out, but what are they like up close? TechWeekEurope rolls its sleeves up and finds out…

Slick

The first thing that must be said about the new devices are that both are beautiful to behold. Samsung made a brave choice in ditching its plastic-backed body design for the Galaxy S6 family, choosing to follow the likes of Apple and HTC in going all-metal, but it definitely paid off.

Both devices are sleek and smooth to the touch, but there’s no fear that the device will fall out of your hands. The banding around the devices gives a good, strong grip, and makes for an elegant design feature with the five colour schemes on offer.

The pumped-up 577ppi screen is bright and colourful, with the new colour-focused design for different apps looking very appealing to the eye. The display is also highly responsive, and was able to deal with multiple apps being opened up all at once.

Curved up?

One of the major talking points of the day was the Galaxy S6’s Edge curved design (pictured right), and just how this would turn out in real life – happily, we’re glad to say it does.

The curved edge makes the Edge fit snugly in your hand, and means apps are at your fingertips however you hold the device. Despite being just 6.8mm across, the device never feels flimsy, but instead solid and well-made.

The display is, as mentioned, bright and vibrant, with the new notifications feature showing well on the Edge’s curved surface. We can see this being a major selling point for the Edge, as personalisation becomes a key way for customers to differentiate their device from everyone else.

Snappy

Sadly, we weren’t able to try out the camera capabilities on the new devices, but unlike contemporaries such as the iPhone 6, the lens doesn’t protrude, making for a smooth back to the Galaxy S6 pair. What we did see, however, was the quick-boost feature announced by Samsung, where tapping the home button twice quickly opened the camera lens and was ready to shoot.

All things being said, we were very impressed with our hands-on of Samsung’s hit pair – now we just have to wait until April 10 for everyone else to get the same experience too – so be sure to check out the rest of the gallery below!

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