Samsung Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge User Thread

[smorcy11]

I cannot speak for them, but I believe that some are calling it a "lemon" not only because of the bugs but also because of the step backward in raw RF performance.

 

AJ

Anybody who was paying attention to s4gru could have predicted that it was going to perform slightly worse than the leaders. -5db is about what I've seen and others reported. If this makes it a "lemon", then I have to wonder why someone on this forum would have bought it, knowing it would not perform as well.

 

Most people seem to be referring to the dropped calls and some other issues.

[Ascertion]

I played with my brother's S6 Edge for a few minutes. I applied some rather..feminine themes on his phone for his reaction. I noticed after applying 4 themes in like 10 minutes, the battery went down 8%!! That's crazy, coming from an HTC One/LG G2 owner.

 

The B26 appears to match the M8's connectivity, slightly lower than the S5 in my experience. Not sure about B25/41.

[WiWavelength]

The B26 appears to match the M8's connectivity, slightly lower than the S5 in my experience.  Not sure about B25/41.

 

Yeah, band 26 performance is not the concern.  Those figures are fine.  But band 25 is just okay, and band 41 is flat out poor.

 

AJ

[JosefTor]

I was one of those who had the phone on pre-order and backed out due to the rf issues that AJ brought to the open (thank you) and after playing with it in the store and noticed it got really hot and lost like 8% I battery life after just loading up YouTube for a couple minutes.

[S4GRU]

Not everyone who owned a Peugeot had a problem with it. Those 5% thought their cars were spiffy. 95% thought they were lemons. Were the 5% wrong? LOL

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[mmark27]

Sounds like Samsung made the Samsung Galaxy iPod Touch S6 for Sprint^TM

 

sent from an underwater dust storm from my Sprint S5

[smorcy11]

Not everyone who owned a Peugeot had a problem with it. Those 5% thought their cars were spiffy. 95% thought they were lemons. Were the 5% wrong? LOL

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

That'd make sense if 95 pct of s6 owners thought they were garbage.

[S4GRU]

That'd make sense if 95 pct of s6 owners thought they were garbage.

Are you trying to disprove a joke? Holy hell...

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[jreuschl]

It seemed that the S5 wasn't anything special RF-wise, and now the S6 is worse.  I was even hesitant to consider my Note 4 because I knew the RF tests were so-so (Samsungs $200 trade in offer made me bite the bullet).

 

I'm actually surprised at the number of S4GRU users who bought the S6 considering the front page article warnings!

 

Unfortunately, RF testing is ignored by most reviews so Samsung won't change.

[S4GRU]

 

 

Unfortunately, RF testing is ignored by most reviews so Samsung won't change.

Too true. And it seems like most consumers then in turn blame the provider not seeing the correlation to their phone. When I explain to friends, family and coworkers that phones all have different RF prowess, their heads explode. Everyone assumes they all would be the same. Or at least would be better in the more expensive phones.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[JosefTor]

Too true. And it seems like most consumers then in turn blame the provider not seeing the correlation to their phone. When I explain to friends, family and coworkers that phones all have different RF prowess, their heads explode. Everyone assumes they all would be the same. Or at least would be better in the more expensive phones.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

I blame review sites too. They either don't want to upset the device manufacturer because they get free phones, they don't want to upset anyone, or they are stupid themselves. There are actually review sites with battery tests that show the Galaxy S6 as the best performing phone out there.... Dumb

[Ascertion]

I blame review sites too. They either don't want to upset the device manufacturer because they get free phones, they don't want to upset anyone, or they are stupid themselves. There are actually review sites with battery tests that show the Galaxy S6 as the best performing phone out there.... Dumb

That's why I really only take Anandtech's reviews seriously.  

[themuffinman]

For what it's worth I haven't had any issues to speak of. My edge been running smooth with no drop calls or any other noticeable bug, I have the gold 64gb.

[Galaxyguy]

My wife has dropped a few calls in the past few days, which she never did before on her S4 and S4T. I'm guessing the next update will fix that issue. It's just a little inconvenient until they do. I'm sure they'll figure it out.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[optimummind]

I'm mostly connecting to Band 41 at locations where I used to connect to Band 25 with my old single-band Galaxy S4.  This was my first Speedtest run in Orange.

 

 

I'm impressed with the results.  This is faster than anything I got on my old S4 and even on my Nexus 5 on the AT&T network.

 

These are my battery results.

 

18 hrs & 37 mins off the charger with 4 hrs 8 mins of SOT.

 

App usage battery taken up by Android System and Kernel.  Surprisingly, they don't take up as much batter as they do on my N5 with the 5.1 update.

 

 

My usual idle battery drain rate with light usage (1.9%/hour).

 

With my normal usage pattern during my working weekday. 

13 hrs & 9 mins off the charger with 2 hrs & 20 mins SOT -> 52% left.

 

I'm very happy with the batter life of my S6E so far.  My phone is not Rooted yet. 

 

Once 5.1 rolls out and I add Root + my usual battery-saving Root apps, I'm expecting to achieve 6-7 hours of SOT.

[WiWavelength]

I'm actually surprised at the number of S4GRU users who bought the S6 considering the front page article warnings!

 

Unfortunately, RF testing is ignored by most reviews so Samsung won't change.

 

To say that our article included "warnings" would be a bit strong.  I would rather say that we published full disclosure comparisons and advisements.  Then, potential buyers can make up their own minds.  And, for some, a new Samsung Galaxy handset is always "the next big thing," so they are going to get it, no matter what.

 

As for RF testing, yes, it gets no or only a cursory mention in most published reviews.  An additional problem is that a reviewer usually is sampled only one variant.  The odds of that being the Sprint variant are about one in four -- at best.  More likely, the review is of an international variant or AT&T variant, rendering relevance to Sprint practically zero.  As we know, different variants exhibit different RF performance on different bands.  So, even if a Samsung Galaxy S6 review includes some signal testing of an AT&T variant, that means nothing to a Sprint user.

 

AJ

[smorcy11]

I seem to be doing okay on B41 speed wise. I don't have another triband device to compare it to though.

 

[irev210]

It seemed that the S5 wasn't anything special RF-wise, and now the S6 is worse.  I was even hesitant to consider my Note 4 because I knew the RF tests were so-so (Samsungs $200 trade in offer made me bite the bullet).

 

I'm actually surprised at the number of S4GRU users who bought the S6 considering the front page article warnings!

 

Unfortunately, RF testing is ignored by most reviews so Samsung won't change.

 

 

I dont have issues with the RF performance, it's the S6's desire to hold on B41 beyond where the phone can reliability provide data services.  The cutoff for this phone should really be around -115dBm before switching to another band.

 

The crossover from B41 to B25/26 on my nexus phones was much lower.  When I disable B41, my service works as expected.

 

As for the dropped call issue, I do all my calls over hangouts dialer so I haven't had any issues.  Data performance is solid for me while on a call.

[Nogib]

 

I'm mostly connecting to Band 41 at locations where I used to connect to Band 25 with my old single-band Galaxy S4.  This was my first Speedtest run in Orange.

 

 

Once 5.1 rolls out and I add Root + my usual battery-saving Root apps, I'm expecting to achieve 6-7 hours of SOT.

 

 

What are you using that gives you your LTE band connection in the notification bar?

[chrisjcorbin]

Question for AJ -  In terms of RF performance, how you you rank the current flagship Sprint phones? For my purposes, voice is the most important factor, with data coming in second.

 

Thanks.

[njjdnt]

What are you using that gives you your LTE band connection in the notification bar?

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/3060-signalcheck-android-app-to-monitor-your-2g3g4g-lte-signal-strengths/

[WiWavelength]

Question for AJ -  In terms of RF performance, how you you rank the current flagship Sprint phones? For my purposes, voice is the most important factor, with data coming in second.

 

I will be happy to offer some thoughts, but I would not direct the question only to me.  Others, too, should share their observations.

 

First, I would consider the following to be the current Sprint flagship handsets (in order of release):

 

iPhone 6

iPhone 6 Plus

Nexus 6

LG G Flex 2

HTC One M9

Samsung Galaxy S6

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

 

Since you are posting this query in the Samsung Galaxy S6 thread, I assume that you are weighing its voice performance.  One thing to keep in mind, however, is that incoming CDMA1X voice is now linked to LTE data for single RF path handsets because of e/CSFB.  So, if LTE data performance is weak, that will not cause dropped calls, but it may cause missed calls -- unless you are willing to set the handset to a CDMA1X/EV-DO only mode.

 

AJ

[Adam G]

AJ, would your RF data also apply to Wifi and Bluetooth connections?  It seems that my GS6 drops Wifi and Bluetooth when my Nexus 6 rarely would.

[WiWavelength]

AJ, would your RF data also apply to Wifi and Bluetooth connections?  It seems that my GS6 drops Wifi and Bluetooth when my Nexus 6 rarely would.

 

Not necessarily.  Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on a separate RF chain from the cellular airlinks, so the two paths are not connected, do not share the same antennas.  The FCC OET testing docs do disclose Wi-Fi and Bluetooth EIRP, but we generally do not examine those filings nor include their figures in our articles -- simply because reader interest in cellular performance is much greater.

 

AJ

[Adam G]

I'll hope that it's just an anomaly then.  Thanks.