Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge + : First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge + : First Impressions

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge + : First Impressions

Almost six months after the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, the company has launched a bigger, upgraded version, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+.The premium smartphone is priced at Rs. 57,990, and will be available in two color options of silver and gold. Interestingly, Samsung did not launch the Galaxy Note 5 along with the Galaxy S6 Edge+ in India.
On paper, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ features a larger display, more RAM, and a bigger battery than the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge other than some minor changes. 
Let’s start off with the design, and at first glance the Galaxy S6 Edge+ doesn’t look too different from the Galaxy S6 Edge. It does look quite big courtesy of its 5.7-inch display, but the smartphone fits well in one’s palms. While it boasts a display bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus, in terms of length and width, it is more compact than Apple’s flagship smartphone. Thanks to the metal frame and the build quality, the smartphone feels quite premium, and seems worthy of its hefty price tag.

Specifications, software and camera

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Exynos 7420 SoC with four Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz. It also has 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM. It features a 5.7-inch QHD (1440x2560-pixel) Super-AMOLED display with a density of 515ppi. The Galaxy S6 Edge, on the other hand, has a 5.1-inch QHD display.
The Galaxy S6 Edge+ sports a 16-megapixel rear camera with f/1.9 aperture and optical image stabilisation, apart from a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The company at the event demoed its new Live Broadcast feature which can directly broadcast video to YouTube. We asked whether the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will be getting the Live Broadcast feature with future system updates, but Samsung India said that no final decision had yet been made.

It does see improvements in terms of battery capacity and RAM - the phone has a 3,000mAh battery and 4GB of RAM, upgrading the specs of the previous version - the Galaxy S6 Edge has a 2,600mAh battery and 3GB of RAM. Android has also moved up from version 5.0 to version 5.1.1.
The handset features Fast Charging technology which Samsung claimed will allow it to charge fully in roughly 90 minutes, though wireless charging will take roughly 120 minutes. The Galaxy S6 Edge+ comes with a Cat. 6 4G LTE modem and supports India's 4G LTE bands.
Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS/A-GPS, and Micro-USB 2.0. The Samsung Galaxy Edge+ measures 154.4x75.8x6.9mm, and weighs 153 grams.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ has a number of small improvements over the Galaxy S6 Edge, but nothing that is very noticeable except for the screen size. The company has launched the 32GB variant of the Galaxy S6 Edge+ in India priced at Rs. 57,900. The smartphone will go on sale on August 28.