Built on a 14nm process, Samsung's chipset allows similar or higher clockspeeds (hence performance) with less power consumption, which by the way means it's easier to cool as well. In the end, the Galaxy S6 is powered by a beastly octa-core processor with four Cortex-A57 cores ticking at 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 "efficiency" cores at 1.5GHz. An octa-core Mali-T760 GPU and 3GB of RAM complete the tally.
Samsung worked on the camera department too, equipping the Galaxy S6 with a 16MP rear camera with optical image stabilization and a wide f/1.9 aperture. The 5MP selfie cam also got a f/1.9 aperture for superior low-light capabilities.
The connectivity package is better than ever with dual-standard wireless charging support out of the box, Samsung Pay, a better and faster fingerprint scanner and LTE Cat.6 connectivity. Let's get into the details, shall we?
Key features
Thin (6.8mm) profile, premium dual-glass design reinforced by a metal frame
5.1" Super AMOLED of QHD (1440 x 2560) resolution, class-leading ~577ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Exynos 7420 64-bit chipset, octa core processor with four 2.1GHz Cortex-A57's and four 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 cores, Mali-T760 MP8 GPU, 3GB of RAM
Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with TouchWiz and Samsung Pay
16MP camera, f/1.9 aperture, 4K video recording, LED flash, optical image stabilization
5MP front-facing camera, f/1.9 aperture, QHD video, HDR
32/64/128 GB of built-in storage
Active noise cancellation via dedicated mic
Fingerprint scanner
LTE Cat.6, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC, IR port, Bluetooth 4.1, ANT+
Heart-rate sensor, barometer, SpO2
Wireless charging (Qi/PMA)
2,550mAh battery
Main disadvantages
No water or dust protection
Rather pricey at launch, including really steep memory upgrade premiums
No user-replaceable battery
No microSD slot
No FM radio
No stereo speakers
Last season, the water and dust protection was a direct response to Sony's Xperia Z line. The Galaxy S6 gives it up, defying a natural Samsung instinct to match and beat every feature a potential rival may have. A Galaxy S6 Active will likely quell some of the disappointment.
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Samsung Galaxy S6 live pictures
But will there be an S6 version with a removable battery and one with a microSD card slot? Of course, Samsung will tell you the Galaxy S6 has the new UFS 2.0 storage, with the "Command Queue" tech used in SSDs. The end-result is 2.7x faster response than that memory found in the previous crop of flagships. A microSD card, regardless of specs, would have compromised the user experience. Plus, the base model starts at 32GB, the other options being 64GB and 128GB.
