Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge review

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5 failed to rock, the company anticipated it would be. That, surfaced with the news that Samsung was going to switch on a smaller number of devices in 2015, signaled a tiny dramatic change for a brand that seemed like it was unstoppable.

As if to shut the mouth of the doubters, Samsung has not one, but two flagships on offer, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, and they're surrounded by questions. Can they bring Samsung to its former glory? Has the company figured out how to build a truly interesting smartphone again? It's too early to make a call on the former, but after a week of testing, the answer to the latter is a definitely yes. Samsung has a lot riding on its 2015 flagship, and this time it's put its best step forward. With its super-fast, homebrew processor, a pair of great cameras and a surprisingly clean version of TouchWiz, the S6 is the finest Galaxy Samsung has ever made. Now, if only it were waterproof.

Looking at it dead on, though, the S6 is pretty plain. Your eyes will immediately get sucked into the 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, but a 5-megapixel selfie camera sits above it while the Home button lies below, flanked by discrete Back and Recent Apps keys. High on the S6's back is a squarish plateau that houses the 16-megapixel camera, and to the right lies a tiny black divot where the LED flash and heart rate sensor live. Unlike the crater that marked the Galaxy S5's back, the assembly here is almost flush with the S6's rear. It's a small touch, but it makes taking heart rate and blood oxygen readings in S Health quite a bit easier. Aside from the obvious differences, the Edge has a wrap-around screen and a few additional softwares that take advantage of it. The Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge are absolutely identical. Same screen size, same 16-megapixel cameras, same octa-core Exynos 7420 brains, and so on. The two devices have been crafted with the same metal, glass and silicon, which makes the dramatic design differences between them all the more meaningful. This more expensive version of the Galaxy S6 covers it all on looks. It performs just as well as its cousin in every task we threw at it, but the few software gimmicks that make use of the Edge's beautiful curved display just don't do much to justify the extra cost. Buy it for its looks, not because it's any more functional.