Samsung Galaxy S6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and marketed together—the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge—with the latter differentiated primarily by having a display that is wrapped along the sides of the device. It is distinguished from its predecessor through an internal battery with an increased charging speed but a decreased capacity, an optically stabilized camera, sound in slow motion video recordings, a glass back, and it lacks a user-replaceable battery, a memory card slot, water resistance, and MHL-to-HDMI connection for viewing on an external monitor or television set. The S6 was the first edge model, this continued with the release of the S7 Edge and was discontinued with the introduction of the successor, the Galaxy S8 Edge. The Edge name returned with the release of the S25 Edge.
The S6 and S6 Edge were unveiled on March 1, 2015, during the Samsung Unpacked press event at MWC Barcelona, and released April 10, 2015, marking a counter-utilitarian and fashion-oriented course in the Galaxy S series. During the subsequent Samsung Unpacked event on August 13, 2015, Samsung unveiled a third model, the Galaxy S6 Edge+, which features a larger phablet-sized display and more memory, but lacks an infrared transmitter used for remote controlling. The S6 Edge+ was the last Edge+ model as there was no S7 Edge+.
Although the overall design of the Galaxy S6 still features characteristics from prior models, its construction was revamped to use a metal unibody frame and glass backing instead of plastic. Samsung also promoted an improved camera, streamlined user interface, support for major wireless charging standards, and support for a mobile payments platform that allows the device to emulate the magnetic strip from a credit card.
The Galaxy S6 received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised the devices' upgraded build quality over prior models, along with improvements to their displays, performance, camera, and other changes. However, Samsung's decision to remove the ability for users to expand their storage using microSD cards or remove the battery, and the lack of water resistance were panned as being potentially alienating to power users, and the S6 Edge was also panned for not making enough use of its curved display to justify its increased cost over the standard model on-launch. It was succeeded by the Samsung Galaxy S7 in March 2016.
Development
Rumors
Rumors surrounding the Galaxy S5's successor began to surface in January 2015, it was reported that Samsung would be using an in-house Exynos system-on-chip rather than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 on the S6 due to concerns surrounding overheating. Later that month, Qualcomm affirmed in an earnings report that its products would not be included in " large customer's flagship device". Fellow competitor LG Electronics disputed the allegations surrounding the 810; although demo units of the 810-equipped LG G Flex 2 at Consumer Electronics Show experienced signs of possible overheating, the company emphasized that they were pre-release models.In early-February 2015, Bloomberg News reported that the S6 was to have a metal body, and was to be produced in a normal version, and a version with a screen curved along the left and right sides of the device, similarly to the Galaxy Note Edge. The S6's design was officially teased in a promotional webpage released by T-Mobile US on 22 February 2015, which showed a curved body and carried the tagline "Six Appeal".
Keynote
Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge during the first Samsung Unpacked 2015 event at Mobile World Congress on 1 March 2015, for a release on 10 April 2015 in 20 countries. In Japan, the S6 and S6 Edge are marketed solely under the Galaxy brand, with most references to Samsung removed; sales of Samsung phones have been impacted by historical relations between Japan and South Korea, and a Samsung spokesperson stated that the Galaxy brand was "well-established" in the country.Design changes
The Galaxy S6 models are designed to address criticisms and feedback received from prior models, and target the majority of users; during its unveiling, Samsung stated that it had placed a particular focus on design, its camera, and wireless charging. As part of these goals, a number of features and capabilities seen on the Galaxy S5 were removed, such as its waterproofing USB 3.0 port, MicroSD expandable internal storage and Mobile High-Definition Link.Additionally, the Galaxy S6's battery is no longer user-replaceable; Samsung had been a major holdout from the trend against removable batteries, but argued that due to the S6's fast AC charging and its support of both major wireless charging standards, it no longer needs to provide the ability for users to remove and replace the Lithium-Ion battery.
The decision of denying users the replacement of their batteries is claimed to have been postponed throughout the Samsung Galaxy S series until users be "confident about charging their phones", as stated by Justin Denison, then-vice president of product strategy at Samsung, on stage at the Unpacked 2015 Episode 1 keynote event, whereas a mockery commercial for the preceding Galaxy S5 against iPhones' non-replaceable batteries was aired the previous year, referring to its users as "wall huggers", citing their incessant dependence on wall charging.
The device's software was also simplified; a Samsung representative stated that 40% of the features in TouchWiz were removed or streamlined in comparison to the S5.
Galaxy S6 Active
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Active is a variant of the Galaxy S6; the S6 Active contains similar specifications, but it also features waterproofing, shockproofing and dustproofing designed around the IP68 specifications, along with a more rugged design and physical navigation buttons instead of touch sensors; it was released on 12 June 2015. In the United States it was only available on the AT&T network.The S6 Active was first released in the United States by AT&T on 12 June 2015 in the gray, camo-blue, and camo-white colors; its model number is SM–G890A.
Software
The Galaxy S6 received two major updates: Android 6 "Marshmallow" and Android 7 "Nougat". It can run Android 13 unofficially. An unofficial build of Android 14 is under development; this is expected to be the last Android release for the S6 series.| Creator | Operating system | Android version |
| Samsung | TouchWiz | 5 "Lollipop" |
| Samsung | TouchWiz | 6 "Marshmallow" |
| Samsung | Experience | 7 "Nougat" |
| Lineage | LineageOS | 7 "Nougat" |
| Unofficial | Experience | 8 "Oreo" |
| Unofficial | LineageOS | 8 "Oreo" |
| Unofficial | One UI | 9 "Pie" |
| Unofficial | LineageOS | 9 "Pie" |
| Unofficial | LineageOS | 10 |
| Unofficial | LineageOS | 11 |
| Unofficial | LineageOS | 12 |
| Unofficial | LineageOS | 13 |
Specifications
Hardware and design
Design
The Galaxy S6 line retains similarities in design to previous models, but now uses a unibody frame made of aluminium alloy 6013 with a glass backing, a curved bezel with chamfered sides to improve grip, and the speaker grille, as well as the 3.5mm headphone connector was moved to the bottom next to the MicroUSB 2.0 type B charging port, located there for the first time in the Samsung Galaxy S series.The devices are available in "White Pearl", "Black Sapphire", and "Gold Platinum" color finishes; additional "Blue Topaz" and "Emerald Green" finishes are exclusive to the S6 and S6 Edge respectively.
The Galaxy S6 was also available in a limited Iron Man edition, in promotion of Avengers: Age of Ultron, with six additional colour options.
The S6 carries some regressions in its design over the S5; it does not contain a MicroSD card slot, and reverts to a micro-USB 2.0 port from USB 3.0. Both also lack water resistance and use non-removable batteries with decreased sizes.
Battery
The Galaxy S6 includes a 2550 mAh battery, while the S6 Edge includes a 2600 mAh battery, both non-user-replaceable.The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are the first mobile phones in the Samsung Galaxy S series to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0, allowing it to reach charging speeds of up to 15 Watts if used with a compatible charger. However, fast charging is deactivated while the device is in operation.
Hardware
The Galaxy S6 line is powered by a 64-bit ARMv8 Exynos 7 Octa 7420 system-on-chip, consisting of four 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 cores, and four 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 cores, and 3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM for the S6 and S6 Edge while 4 GB of LPDDR4 for the S6 Edge+, being the first Samsung flagship phones to utilize 64-bit processing. The processor is Samsung's first to use a 14 nm FinFET manufacturing process, which the company stated would improve its energy efficiency. It is available with 32, 64, or 128 GB of non-expandable storage, implementing Universal Flash Storage 2.0 standards. It is the first device in its series that uses UFS instead of eMMC. The S6 and S6 Edge features a 5.1-inch 1440p Super AMOLED display; similarly to the Galaxy Note Edge while the S6 Edge+ features a 5.7-inch 1440p Super AMOLED display, the S6 Edge and S6 Edge+'s display is slightly curved around the two lengthwise edges of the device, although not as aggressively as the Note Edge. It has a screen reflectance of 4.6% and a peak brightness of 784 nits.The Galaxy S6 line supports both the Qi and Power Matters Alliance wireless charging standards.
Mobile High-Definition Link, a feature introduced with the Galaxy S2 in 2011, has been removed from the series with the Galaxy S6.
Some Galaxy S6 uses an additional Qualcomm MDM9635M modem for CDMA support, such as units for Verizon.