March 1, Samsung finally announced its latest flagship smartphone at an event at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The rumor mill has been hard at work, churning out photos and leaking specs, and we've amassed them all here.
So, what can we expect from a Galaxy S6? All of this is conjecture, of course, but here's our best educated guesses on the details of Samsung's next big thing. We'll also have a huge team on the ground in Barcelona, so be sure to check back regularly.
Preliminary specifications
Network
Technology
GSM / HSPA / LTE
Launch
Announced On 2015, March 1
Status Rumored. Exp. release 2015, Q1
Body
Dimensions 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm (5.65 x 2.78 x 0.27 in)
Weight 138 g (4.87 oz)
Build Corning Gorilla Glass 4 back panel
SIM Nano-SIM
- Fingerprint sensor (PayPal certified)
- Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified)
Display
Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 5.0 inches (~67.9% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels (~587 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch Yes
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 4
- TouchWiz UI
Samsung is set to stick with the excellent Super AMOLED displays we've seen from the company for quite a while on the Galaxy S6.
This time we can expect the S6 display to get a resolution bump, much like the Galaxy Note 4, with a 2560 x 1440 pixel QHD resolution.
Numerous sources including SamMobile, Cnmo.com and TechTastic have all published reports suggesting the Galaxy S6 will come with a QHD 1440 x 2560 display making it look very likely.
Galaxy S5 screen
As for the size of the display, it may be increased a little much like it has been for the last few iterations meaning it'll likely edge up to 5.2 or 5.3 inches.
It looks like there will also be a Galaxy S6 Edge with a curved edge on the display like the Galaxy Note Edge. A new advert from Samsung suggests it'll be happening with the first image of the handset – it isn't currently clear if this is the normal S6 or the Edge variant though.
Platform
OS Android OS, v5.0 (Lollipop)
Android 5.0 Lollipop will be the star of the show, coupled with Samsung's TouchWiz Android skin. But there's a curious wrinkle here: Some rumors claim that Samsung is hoping to dial down TouchWiz on the new device, with the aim of improving performance. But TouchWiz isn't dead: it's a critical part of Samsung's Android identity, and while the company has been reining in features for some time now, don't expect a pure Android experience.
Chipset Exynos 7420
OS Android OS, v5.0.2 (Lollipop)
Chipset Exynos 7420
CPU Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57
GPU Mali-T760MP8
Expect top-of-the-line guts for the Galaxy S6. We expect a Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor from Qualcomm (as found in the upcoming LG G Flex 2) , but reports suggest that Samsung may be opting for its own Exynos 7420 for the first run, and possibly even issuing two variants of the phone.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chip reportedly overheated during testing, which may have prompted Samsung to stick to its own wares. Microsoft has also confirmed that it will use the Snapdragon 810 in a flagship Lumia device, which could lend a new Lumia smartphone some extra processing power over a Samsung S6 equipped with an Exynos chip. That said, Samsung could also release variants of the Galaxy S6 with different processors in different territories -- something it's done with past flagship phones.
Memory
NO MICRO SD CARD SLOT
Internal 32 GB, 64GB Variants 3 GB RAM
Camera
Primary 16 MP, 2988 x 5312 pixels, optical image stabilization, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, Auto HDR, panorama
Video 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality
Secondary 5 MP, 1440p@30fps, dual video call, Auto HDR
Sound
Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker Yes
3.5mm jack Yes
Comms
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth v4.1, A2DP, LE, apt-X
GPS Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
NFC Yes
Infrared port Yes
Radio No
USB microUSB v2.0, USB Host
Features
Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, gesture, heart rate
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
Browser HTML5
Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
- Wireless charging (Qi-enabled) - market dependent
- ANT+ support
- S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart stay, Smart pause, Smart scroll
- Air gestures
- Dropbox (50 GB cloud storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264 player
- MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player
- Photo/video editor
- Document viewer
Battery
Li-Ion battery
Stand-by
Talk time
Samsung Galaxy S6 have fast wireless charging
Samsung outlines a "commitment to a wireless future" and hails the advances that've been made in wireless charging technology. The timing of these affirmations is so close to Samsung's upcoming Unpacked event that it's hard to dismiss as mere coincidence
Click here to view Version 1 of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 EDGE Discussion thread.
This post has been edited by TOMEI-R: May 2 2015, 01:37 PM
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Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 EDGE Official Thread V2, Samsung's Dual Edged "CURVED" Flagship