Apart from the absence of microSD card and removable battery, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus offers a super-duper experience, says Himanshu Juneja
Samsung has been successfully adding feature-packed flagships to its Galaxy series. While on one hand it has the Note phablets, which concentrate more on productivity and brings the S pen to the table, there are other premium handsets as well, which are directed at regular users.
Along the way, the Galaxy series got the Edge display and while it was an innovative take on the display, Samsung is yet to achieve something phenomenal with it.
Nevertheless, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ has been the handset to compete with in the year 2015; it's still a class leader in many aspects comfortably.
Let us find out what made the phone a winner.
Design
The S6 Edge+ is a stylish looking handset which demands attention whenever whipped out of the pocket. As per Samsung, they have made it doubly strong since the last edition, and this is good to hear for a device which has glass on both sides. Needless to say, the phone is slippery and attracts fingerprints as well.
The phone measures 154.4 x 75.8 x 6.9 mm in dimensions, and weighs about 153 gms. There is the Gorilla Glass 4 on both sides to provide resistance even from scratches, which is reassuring.
The phone uses 7000 series aluminium alloy frame which has both the glass panels slapped on either sides. The unibody design gives a confident feel and adds to the aesthetics surely, but the trade off being the missing microSD card as well as non-the removable battery.
As for the button placements, the left side presents you with the volume buttons, whereas the right side witnesses the power/lock key. These buttons look well crafted and have a good tactile feedback. The top edge carries the nano SIM card tray, and the base plays host to the 3.5 mm audio jack, the microUSB port and the speaker grill.
The camera at the back however sticks out a bit, and is the only eyesore on an otherwise brilliantly crafted device. Thankfully, the phone doesn't wobble on a flat surface due to this.
Display
The Edge 6 Plus carries a 5.7-inch screen and the 2560 x 1440 resolution is the same as from its smaller sibling. The pixel density of 515 ppi is nowhere lamentable.
The screen is Super AMOLED, and the quad HD display brings just about every corner of the screen to life. The colours are superbly punchy, while the deep black accentuates the effect nicely. Contrast blows away the viewers with ease.
The fact that this device is smaller than the iPhone 6+ while carrying a larger display underlines the achievement by the Samsung team. Having said that, it is still going to be a task for some to get their thumbs glide across with consummate ease. It is a big display.
But as far as the performance goes, the screen stands second to none. This right here is the class leading material for the aficionados.
Hardware
The Snapdragon 810 chipset has given many flagship devices a proper roasting (pun intended) and it was not a surprise to see Samsung opting for its in-house Exynos processor instead.
The device comes with Exynos 7420 chipset. The Octacore set up comprises of Quad core 2.1 GHz processor, and another one clocked at 1.5 GHz. While the GPU tasks have been assigned to Mali T760MP8, Samsung went the full monty with its premiere device, and supplied a 4 GB RAM to it.
The phone comes in either 32 GB onboard storage capacity. The lack of microSD card slot will definitely make even Samsung loyalists wince painfully.
Connectivity
A 4G enabled handset, it provides options for connectivity like WiFi, Bluetooth (ver 4.2), NFC and GPS navigation with GLONASS assistance.
The absence of IR blaster and FM radio was disappointing.
Performance
As expected, the performance was indeed something to behold. The apps went about with their business as expected, and the HD content played to perfection as well. The 3D games rendered were every bit fantastic, screen and hardware coming together nicely to give that effect.
The phone will get warm when you are playing games and the edges particularly heat up as well, but nothing alarming here, and the cooling off is quick as well. The speaker supplied is loud and maintains the fidelity at topmost volume levels too.
Plugging in the headphones of your choice takes the quality to the next level, and the content watching or the music experience becomes sublime.
Operating System
The good news about TouchWiz being toned down has been going around for quite some time now. The OS is zippy, but further work should show up as competition gets hotter. There is the toned down bloat from Samsung, like S Health, Smart Manager, S Voice, Voice Recorder, propriety Galaxy Apps store, SideSync etc.
The heart rate monitor and the finger print scanner in the home button do allow the users to do more than what meets the eye. The finger print is easy to set up, and unlocks the device in a jiffy. NFC and Samsung Pay possibility enriches the experience here.
Using two apps has been in Galaxy phone's DNA for quite some time, but without any delays, let us address the dual edge screens. The unique display allows only one of the edge to be active at a given time. Users can choose to activate the preferred side.
The users get to select their most frequently used apps, and favourite contacts from settings menu. The contacts get their own custom colours, with the screen lighting up upon notification whenever the phone has been put screen down. This is a nice touch.
The edge display comes particularly handy in getting information like news, sports, stocks, date, time, battery percentage display etc. More can be obtained from the market place. The edge display can be turned on to work independently while main screen remains off. Sadly, Samsung hasn't been able to farm the utility despite introducing the feature more than an year ago.
Overall, the OS experience is zippy, and an update to Marshmallow is in the pipeline as people have started getting the beta versions already.
Camera
The phone carries a 16 MP rear camera with an f/1.9 aperture and it supports optical image stabilisation. The front camera is a 5 MP affair.
Double tap on the home button and you will be straight into the camera app, which is simple, yet packing lot of options. The Pro mode has got a good range of settings for the users to delve into, and as a bonus, the settings can be saved for future use.
The IR white balancing act gets proper colour tones and the result is for everybody to see. The pictures came up with brilliant details packed in, and consistent colour reproduction. Optical Image Stabilisation comes to the rescue when needed and executes well.
What really clinches it for the camera is the low light photography. The details packed in are good and one can zoom to a good degree, without fearing for ugly results. Noise is kept to a bearable level, and users get very satisfying results.
The HDR mode works nicely, bringing up the details even from the darker areas. This doesn't effect the well-lit areas and users get to see the live HDR feed to decide for themselves before finalising.
The Panorama mode especially benefits from the magnificent hardware and results were very well executed. High quality stitching and no blurs, apart from the moving objects of course, or artifacting was observed with the final results.
The option for capturing RAW images,a 360 degrees virtual shot, as well as Live broadcast acts as the icing on the cake. The video capture gives lot of options as well. Be it 2160p, the 1440p, or the 1080p videos. Of course there is the 720p videos as well.
The details are excellent, and even the screenshots of the still frames can be shared as regular photographs due the details present.
The front camera has a wide angle mode, and the amount of view field on option should satisfy most users. The detailed selfies capture excellent details as well.
Battery
The removable batteries are the first casualty for a unibody design, and the same is the case here. Though, Samsung has addressed the issue of supplying a good capacity battery pack to drive a very capable handset. The phone comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, and with a moderate to heavy usage pattern, lasts for about a day. It beats the iPhone 6+ easily in any case.
Turn on the power saver mode, and with a bit of judicial usage, one can pull off a 48 hour marathon run. If push comes to shove, there is also the ultra power saving mode, which reduces the phone functionality to just the calls and texting.
There is also the support for fast, as well as wireless charging. This should lessen the bitterness among power users.
The quick charger juices the battery completely from zero to hundred in under 95 minutes, whereas the wireless accomplishes the same in about 120 minutes.
Verdict
Class leading SAMOLED display and best camera, backed by a good battery to boot, that is Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus for you. The build quality is unmatchable, has the wow factor as well to go along.
But the cost now poses a problem along with the missing microSD card slot.
Introduction of the Nexus 6P and LG G4 has only added to the woes for Samsung. Users who care deeply for stock Android experience would rightly consider the Nexus 6P, but Samsung has largely toned down TouchWiz and the results have been very pleasing, then there is the option to get a custom ROM as well.
Another thing to note is, the camera on the Nexus 6P is brilliant as well.
Those who want to keep the memory card option alive will drift towards the fabulous LG G4, which has a fantastic camera too, and a removable battery as a huge plus.
It really will boil down largely to the class leading SAMOLED vs pure android vs MicroSD card here, and really, one cannot go wrong while picking from any of these three phones. It has been that good an year for mobile phone enthusiasts.
Photograph: Courtesy, Samsung
