Samsung Galaxy S6 Preview Thread (was "Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge pre-order page up.")

[greencat]

Our article was just posted to The Wall:

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-383-summer-of-69-samsung-and-htc-rock-out-with-their-flagships-for-the-season/

 

AJ

Wish we could compare it to the LG G4 right away. Cmon LG, speed your game up.

[transitwatch889]

I must admit that I have interest in this device since the s2 this is the first Samsung that I would have considered! but those RF readings are really something to be wary of. besides that this device seems to be very legit. I believe the difference between the processes has everything to do with the 14 nm process over the 20nm process and the throttling characteristics or lack of throttling that goes on when doing workloads during given task. Plus the memory io as well.. Writing to and from disk should be much faster than the 810. We will know more in a 3 weeks but Samsung did good!

[GoWireless]

Storage space on phones is the biggest ripoff. The cost to samsung or apple to give us 64GB instead of 32 is minimal, yet they won't do it.

Yeah, the markup on the additional memory is far more than the overall markup for the device as a whole which is why not providing expandable storage is a major disadvantage for a given device.

 

Consider that most flagships usually sell at about 2.5x unit production cost. However, the markup on the extra $100 for substituting a 64GB instead of a 32GB module probably results in a markup of 6x or more for the manufacturer for the extra memory. It's kind of like options on a car, where the car maker makes a whole lot more profit percentage-wise on the $1,700 "navigation package" than they do on the base price of the car.

Edited March 7, 2015 by GoWireless

[themuffinman]

Right off the bat you can tell the GS6 has faster I/O. If they stick to the Exynos CPU, expect it to blow the M9 away in real world performance.

We are at a stage now where the only way for a device to blow another device out of the water when it comes to real world performance is if that particular os/ui hasn't been optimized on that device. So with that, do I expect this newest version of touchwiz on the s6 to be more responsive than previous versions? No doubt, but do I expect it to blow the m9 out of the water? Not a chance in hell. We will see in a few weeks, plus I am getting one of each so I can do some real world comparisons myself.

[nexgencpu]

We are at a stage now where the only way for a device to blow another device out of the water when it comes to real world performance is if that particular os/ui hasn't been optimized on that device. So with that, do I expect this newest version of touchwiz on the s6 to be more responsive than previous versions? No doubt, but do I expect it to blow the m9 out of the water? Not a chance in hell. We will see in a few weeks, plus I am getting one of each so I can do some real world comparisons myself.

The main difference is all related to i/o performance, processing power is more subjective and harder to measure in real world unless you are rendering or "processing" something cpu/gpu intensive.

 

But i/o is more immediately apparent. if you pay attention to the video you will notice that the benchmark finishes quite a bit faster than the M9.

 

The memory technology Samsung has access too (NAND performance on there latest SSD is just short of a miracle) is far superior than any in the world, in this case LPDDR4-1552.

[themuffinman]

The main difference is all related to i/o performance, processing power is more subjective and harder to measure in real world unless you are rendering or "processing" something cpu/gpu intensive.

 

But i/o is more immediately apparent. if you pay attention to the video you will notice that the benchmark finishes quite a bit faster than the M9.

 

The memory technology Samsung has access too (NAND performance on there latest SSD is just short of a miracle) is far superior than any in the world, in this case LPDDR4-1552.

The s3, s4, s5 had better specs and better benchmark scores than the evo lte, m7 and m8 respectively but that didn't come close to reflecting real world results between those devices. Benchmarks has its place for sure but its the last thing you should be looking at when trying to figure out real world performance.  

[nexgencpu]

The s3, s4, s5 had better specs and better benchmark scores than the evo lte, m7 and m8 respectively but that didn't come close to reflecting real world results between those devices. Benchmarks has its place for sure but its the last thing you should be looking at when trying to figure out real world performance.

 

Notice how I said "finished" first not scored higher.

[themuffinman]

Notice how I said "finished" first not scored higher.

I understand but the s6 finishing much faster, specifically with geekbench, still does not mean anything.  I can come up with many examples of one device finishing faster and having higher scores than another device when running the same benchmark tests yet it doesn't translate to real world use.  Honestly, my main issue here is with touchwiz and I have zero faith in samsung when it comes their bloated UI that never seems to be optimized.  I will admit though, the new memory samsung is using is very impressive I just hope its as fluid as what they are making out to be.  HTC may not always be on top of the good chain when it comes to specs but man do they know how to make one hell of a responsive interface.

[nexgencpu]

I understand but the s6 finishing much faster, specifically with geekbench, still does not mean anything.  I can come up with many examples of one device finishing faster and having higher scores than another device when running the same benchmark tests yet it doesn't translate to real world use.  Honestly, my main issue here is with touchwiz and I have zero faith in samsung when it comes their bloated UI that never seems to be optimized.  I will admit though, the new memory samsung is using is very impressive I just hope its as fluid as what they are making out to be.  HTC may not always be on top of the good chain when it comes to specs but man do they know how to make one hell of a responsive interface.

I definitely don't debate the Touchwiz vs Sense UI. HTC has done a great job in making Sense a very fluid UI. Matching Google's own launcher in fluidity. I think Sense being mostly light weight and running at a higher frame rate definitely serves the M series well.  

 

Touchwiz on the other hand has mostly been very heavy handed and bogs down, but as of late (Note 4 and S5) they have made it quite a bit more consistent. 

 

At the end of the day, I think Samsung did a great job with the design of the GS6 and for me personally, touchwiz is not my preference by far, but as long as the modding community is in full force (its a popular device, so it always is) I might bite.

[Rocket87]

G. F ,,..

[nexgencpu]

Stuff we knew about, but nice to take another look.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yGMUBbgFOc

[themuffinman]

I really hope the battery life and radio performance doesn't disappoint.

[travismheim]

I like the feature that emulates the mag strip on cards, allowing for phone payment pretty much anywhere. It's been a while since anyone did anything new regarding mobile payments.

[lou99/maximus1987]

I like the feature that emulates the mag strip on cards, allowing for phone payment pretty much anywhere. It's been a while since anyone did anything new regarding mobile payments.

How can you slide your phone through the swiper?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Syph3r]

How can you slide your phone through the swiper?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You don't, the phone uses a tech called MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) to basically broadcast the same data that is on a magstripe. This allows you to hold the phone near the swipe reader and transmit the data without swiping anything. Its pretty genius actually and I'm surprised no one else has thought to put this tech to use before now.

[mc_gusto]

You don't, the phone uses a tech called MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) to basically broadcast the same data that is on a magstripe. This allows you to hold the phone near the swipe reader and transmit the data without swiping anything. Its pretty genius actually and I'm surprised no one else has thought to put this tech to use before now.

So many variables and terminal types I wonder what the failure rate is.

[mmark27]

So many variables and terminal types I wonder what the failure rate is.

LoopPay is/was pretty consistent with their cases for iPhones, hard to say what the S6 internal hardware will be for that. Loop's website used to have all kinds of videos on it working from users and such. That's changed now, I see. I am interested in how quickly and easily this will work though as well.

 

sent from an underwater dust storm from my Sprint S5

[leozno1]

I definitely don't debate the Touchwiz vs Sense UI. HTC has done a great job in making Sense a very fluid UI. Matching Google's own launcher in fluidity. I think Sense being mostly light weight and running at a higher frame rate definitely serves the M series well.  

 

Touchwiz on the other hand has mostly been very heavy handed and bogs down, but as of late (Note 4 and S5) they have made it quite a bit more consistent. 

 

At the end of the day, I think Samsung did a great job with the design of the GS6 and for me personally, touchwiz is not my preference by far, but as long as the modding community is in full force (its a popular device, so it always is) I might bite.

 

I'm not really in the modding scene for android but I thought it was considered that Snapdragon SoCs is what you wanted to have in your phone in terms of modding, and that Samsung's Exynos chips were far from friendly in that regard. Not exactly sure how the modding community varies between Snapdragon and Exynos versions of like the Note 4 for example.

[jreuschl]

http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6-active-specs-surface-att-get-first-dibs

 

Sport edition coming?

[mmark27]

http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6-active-specs-surface-att-get-first-dibs

 

Sport edition coming?

This drops for Sprint with 64gb internal, with Qi, LoopPay, etc, etc. and I'm sold, sold, sold. Might be the first phone I get on launch day in 4 years.

 

sent from an underwater dust storm from my Sprint S5

[themuffinman]

Damn, this thread got really quiet.

[nexgencpu]

Ill just put this right here...

 

 

http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s6-review-595233/

 

and the edge review, just need to get through his strong Scottish accent.

 

 

[jamesinclair]

Damn, this thread got really quiet.

 

I just dont think theres any excitement about this model. For the hardcore, too many features were cut. For the casuals, theres nothing new and exciting to hook them. "Looks more like an iPhone" isnt a selling feature.

[themuffinman]

I just dont think theres any excitement about this model. For the hardcore, too many features were cut. For the casuals, theres nothing new and exciting to hook them. "Looks more like an iPhone" isnt a selling feature.

I thought there was quite a bit of excitement for the edge model, hell they got me excited and I am not that much of a fan.  

[tampaflusa]

I was excited until the RF specs came out.