I spent around 20-30 minutes with demo units of Samsung’s latest flagship phones in Telstra store yesterday. Galaxy S6 is… just like any other high-end modern smartphones. After several years into existence, smartphones have become the new normal for mobile phones. Phone design has reached some sort of a “stable” pattern and S6’s design is exactly is: a model following a stable pattern coming from most smartphones.
Basically, I don’t have issue with its design, but it doesn’t give me the wow factor either. Nothing stands out. Just what you would expect from a new iteration of an established brand.
S6’s screen is typical Samsung. The display is bright. The pixel density is good. It’s the color that always turns me off. Every color looks a bit exaggerated, perhaps from the high gamut? As a result, the entire display looks like an unrealistic toy, at least for my personal preference. I tried opening demo photos available in the device, the photos looks VERY colorful. So colorful that it becomes not realistic. Just like few years ago when I bought a digital camera that produce images more colorful than the original objects. It does not seem natural. And I don’t like it.
Everything else about S6 is somewhat predictable. Faster processor, which does not really show when people just browsing the launcher and opening some built-in apps. Better camera compared to most other smartphones out there, but still can’t compete with my dedicated digital camera without a phone. Newer OS means this phone gets the new stuff from Google’s mobile OS. Just what I would expect from a new phone.
Galaxy S6 Edge gives me very different impression. The rounded edges on both sides bring a unique feel to the phone. The vibrant display appears to be somewhat closer to the glass surface. It gives me the feeling that I actually touches those icons, not a glass. Strangely, I did not have this feeling when playing around with Galaxy Note Edge few months ago.
Having said that, I still could not imagine myself using this phone as my primary phone. For starter, even with the latest Gorilla Glass, I still feel the absolute need to having a screen protector. Based on my experience, most screen protectors does not work well in curved surface. Another reason, I am well aware that the excitement of having a curved display will only last a while. After the initial excitement period is over, that curved edge will not bring anything beneficial to the overall user experience with the phone.
Overall, Galaxy S6 (and S6 Edge) fail to even tempt me to upgrade my Android phone. I am still happy with my iPhone 6 as primary phone and Nexus 5 as secondary phone.
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