Four months ago I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S6, and back then I said it was the best Android phone of 2015. Today I stand by that claim - in fact, I loved it so much I went out and bought one. Find out why in my Samsung Galaxy S6 review.
Four months ago I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S6, and back then I said it was the best Android phone of 2015. Today I stand by that claim - in fact, I loved it so much I went out and bought one. Find out why in my Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone review. Also see: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge review.
It's really not the done thing, for a tech reviewer to openly admit to not only favouring but buying one particular piece of technology over another. Stand back and watch the comments roll in with cries of bias and 'How much is Samsung paying you for this?'
(That would be nothing, by the way. And I paid for the phone, too. I pay £48.99 per month on a Vodafone UK contract with 6GB of data and unlimited minutes and texts for my S6. I probably could have got a better deal if I had looked around - and here are some of the best Galaxy S6 deals - but I was already a Vodafone customer and, well, I'm lazy.)
But we're not in the business of pulling the wool over people's eyes here at PC Advisor, and despite the fact we have new phones coming in for review every week and can more or less take our pick of what to take home for the evening, we are real people who also have personal phones that we use day in, day out. And we use them a lot.
Indeed, to the left of me is an LG G4; to the right an iPhone 5s; in front are three moreiPhones (I do sit opposite the Macworld UK team - and even they liked the Samsung Galaxy S6); and beyond them loads more Android phones and the odd iPhone. And you should see all the Android phones sitting in Chris Martin's drawer. But in front of me is a Samsung Galaxy S6, and even four months on I wouldn't have it any other way.
I continue to stand by every comment I have made in this review, although there are a few additional points I'd like to add, having now spent an extended period with the Galaxy S6.
I'm not usually the type of person to put my smartphone in a case, particularly if I've chosen it partly because I like its design. I've rounded up some of the best S6 cases you can buy but, even so, I really do have better things to do than protect it from everyday wear and tear - it's a smartphone, not a princess. So my phone usually gets thrown in a bag or pocket, along with my car keys, probably some loose change, and whatever other bits are in there. And after four months, there isn't a single scratch. If I were to wipe off the fingerprints from the screen it would still look as good as the day I got it.
The new super-skinny build does mean that this Samsung gets very warm in use, however. Actually, not warm, it gets plain hot. Finger-burning hot. This is something that's becoming more and more common with today's increasingly thin smartphones, particularly those that have metal bodies. But I'm pleased to report that even when it's got a fever on performance doesn't appear to be affected.
One time you really notice it getting hot is when playing games. And with all the various little people in my life my S6 is often taken off me and not handed back until the battery is flat. Fortunately (and not only because Samsung took away the ability to remove the battery), battery life is good. As an example, last night before I went to bed I fancied a bit of Plants vs Zombies action. As a reasonably heavy user I had just 33 percent battery remaining. Two hours later (I got carried away), still 10 percent. Pretty tired by then, I gave up before the phone did.
And that leads me on to another thing I really like about the S6: built-in wireless charging and quick charging. When the aforementioned little people get hold of my phone and return it with an empty battery, it's genuinely useful being able to draw a usable amount of power in just a few minutes. You can do it while their backs are turned. And wireless charging, when you're not in a rush for that power (such as overnight), is great - it's so cool being able to literally chuck your phone down on the side and not have to fumble about with cables, then just pick it up and walk away when you want to use it.
Another thing I noticed on a recent hen do in Ibiza is just how good is the Galaxy S6's camera. You can see our standard test shots of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel further down this review, but for a real idea of how it fares you need to take out the phone and capture photos of everyday life and events. Now I'm no photographer (I leave that to Jim Martin, who has compared the Samsung Galaxy S6's camera performance to leading rival phones in his articlebest phone camera of 2015 - and it won), but my holiday photos were miles better than any of the other girls' shots, and every single one of them commented on it. I have never, ever had anyone comment on my photography before.
The fingerprint scanner is good enough now that the only time I turn it off is when handing over the S6 for gaming duties, but I have to admit that I haven't once used its heart-rate monitor.
One thing that does annoy me is the Galaxy S6's speaker. If I'm ever listening to music without my headphones I have a tendency to accidentally cover the bottom-mounted speaker with my palm. And I wish it was a bit louder, too.
That aside, the Samsung Galaxy S6 is still the best Android phone of 2015. Read on to find out why.
What an upgrade: a gorgeous Quad-HD screen, vastly improved build quality, astonishing performance, more manageable software, even better photography performance... And yet, much of the debate surrounding the new Galaxy S6 goes something like this: "It looks like aniPhone 6, and just like Apple's phone it now has a non-removable battery, and no microSD support or waterproofing. Samsung's lost me as a customer."
But let's not get our knickers in a twist: the S6 gains so much more than what it loses. And we can quite easily live with what we're losing. Also see: Best phones 2015.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 does indeed look a bit more iPhone than did the Galaxy S5, but it's still Samsung through and through. Remember what we had before, with that awful dimpled plastic rear? It's no longer waterproof, but at least those who don't drop their phone in the loo needn't fiddle with that irritating plastic flap each time they need to charge their phone. For those of you who really need the waterproofing, look to the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S6 Active.
With 32-, 64- and 128GB storage options, OTG support, 100GB of free OneDrive space and unlimited Google Photos storage for your photos and video, is the lack of microSD really a problem? Storage has only ever really been a genuine issue when it comes to apps, which more often than not couldn't be moved to the SD card, and the Galaxy S6 now has at least double the amount of internal storage for these. You will likely find faster performance when accessing files stored on internal- rather than removable storage in any case. Also see:How to add storage to Android.
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