Everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S6
The
Samsung Galaxy S6 release date is fast approaching, and with 2014
quickly drawing to a close rumours and leaks have started to surround
the next big talking point on the tech calendar.
With the eagerly awaited iPhone 6
rival expected to touch down in early 2015, latest Samsung Galaxy S6
rumours have suggested the handset could pair an all new, premium design
with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, high-speed storage and
Google’s
Android 5.0 Lollipop OS direct from the box.
Given
that the first S6 pictures have leaked and the phone has prematurely
appeared under the codename ‘Project Zero’, it is expected that the
Galaxy S6 will be a comprehensive refresh over the Galaxy S5 – a handset which has failed to ignite substantial consumer interest.
The S6’s screen is one such area expected to be given a sizeable update.
Earlier this year the LG G3 introduced the 2560 x 1440p QHD display to the mainstream smartphone space. Such a component has since been bestowed on the Galaxy Note 4 and recent S6 leaks have suggested the upcoming phone will follow suit.
That is not all the phone’s screen could have to offer. It has been suggested a Galaxy Note Edge mimicking double-edged display could also be heading towards the Galaxy S6.
While
some reports are farfetched and others more likely, what is almost
certain is that the Samsung Galaxy S6 will be unveiled in Q1 2015 as a
direct rival to the
Nexus 6, remaining consistent with previous launches.
What’s more, with both the Samsung Galaxy Alpha
and Galaxy Note 4 having bestowed with metal-framed designs recently,
it is now widely expected that next year's Galaxy S6 release will echo
its siblings and adopt its own premium materials.
We will be
updating this page with all the latest Samsung Galaxy S6 release date
details, leaks, news and rumours as new information emerges. Bookmark it
now to ensure you are kept in the loop on all things S6.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Release Date
As
you would expect, Samsung has yet to offer any official details on the
distant Samsung Galaxy S6 release date. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a
good idea as to when the phone will launch, however.
Like
Apple, Samsung has become a creature of habit, with the company’s annual
product cycles bringing a level of expectation to certain points in the
year. For example, September and the Berlin-based IFA conference means a
new Note.
Since the Samsung Galaxy S2,
the Korean manufacturer’s flagship phone line has been reserved for
unveiling during – or within weeks of – the Barcelona-based Mobile Word
Congress conference in February. As such there is no reason to believe
this will be different for the S6.
With MWC 2015 to be held between March 2 and 5, we would anticipate that
the Samsung Galaxy S6 release date could be confirmed during the
manufacturer’s dedicated press conference on either Sunday 1 or Monday 2
March.
This tradition could be thrown off by falling profits,
however. With Samsung predicting a 60 per cent drop in annual earnings,
analysts have suggested the S6 release could be pushed forward in order
to stem the rot.
“Samsung’s profits in the mobile division will
continue to deteriorate during this period of changing their line of
smartphones,” Lee Min-hee, an analyst at IM Investment and Securities,
told The New York Times.
Speaking with Bloomberg, Claire Kim, an
analyst with Daishin Securities Co in Samsung's native Korea added: “We
all know Samsung’s third-quarter earnings will be pretty ugly. The
earlier release of its new phones could be reflected in its
third-quarter earnings, it could give them a slight boost.”
Reflecting
this need for a fast phone introduction, recent leaks have claimed
Samsung could pin a surprise S6 launch on us as early as
CES 2015 in January.
According
to claimed Korean insiders, the S6 will take a formal bow in Vegas.
However, given the less than official avenue of these claims, and the
slightly questionable nature, we would suggest taking them with a hearty
pinch of salt for now.
We will of course update this post as soon as more concrete Samsung Galaxy S6 release date details are available.
Samsung Galaxy S6 News
The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a number of big changes in store, according to latest leaks and insider reports.
With
the Galaxy S6 reportedly being pieced together inside Samsung HQ under
the codename 'Project Zero', it is believed the phone will be the
biggest update yet to the company's flagship phone line.
According
to reports by SamMobile, unnamed insiders have stated: “Samsung is
developing its next-generation flagship device from scratch, with an
entirely new vision.”
They added: “
Project Zero is an indication that Samsung is trying to achieve something unique and different with the Galaxy S6.”
What's
more, Samsung itself has already teased aspects of its future
smartphones, a list expected to include the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Making
the announcement during its annual Analyst Day in Korea last November,
Samsung revealed that in late 2014 its first phones to run 2560 x 1440
pixel WQHD displays will land. This timeline came to fruition with the
Note 4.
Although not the company's first device to feature such a
screen, the Samsung Galaxy S6 looks set to make the jump beyond the
S5’s 1080p Full HD offering.
Despite being the company’s flagship phone, it appears that the Galaxy S6 will fall between Samsung’s technology cycles.
Although
Samsung has confirmed it will bring 3,840 x 2,160 pixel UHD displays to
its smartphone offerings during 2015, it is believed the Samsung Galaxy
S6 will arrive too early to benefit from this next-gen panel. Instead,
however, the S6 looks likely to mimic the rumoured LG G3 with a QHD
display.
Offering a further insight into the Samsung Galaxy S6’s
screen, Samsung’s promise to continue its push into AMOLED displays
leaves little doubt in the technology within the phone’s panel. As such
deep blacks and reasonable kindness to the battery can be expected.
Further screen changes expected to be bestowed on the Galaxy S6 include the move to more streamlined bezels.
Giving
the plus 5-inch display added pop and allowing a larger panel to be
sqeezed into a managable form factor, the slim bezel design has been
teased by a leaked Galaxy S6 picture (above).
Although echoing a
number of design traits from the existing S5, the leaked S6 image shows a
handset with slimmer edges and more rounded corners.
Further
hinting at a design refresh, lower than expected S5 sales have
reportedly forced Samsung to reassess its smartphone efforts, with the
company said to be ready to put more emphasis on high-end design and
premium materials.
"They made one mistake, one product that
didn't hold up to expectations and they are paying the price,"
Counterpoint analyst Tom Kang said speaking on the slow S5 sales
recently. "They will have to move forward and leave behind what has
failed and focus on the next product."
It's not just analysts
predicting a renewed smartphone effort from the Apple and HTC rival,
Samsung itself has pledged to improve its handsets moving forward.
"We
will strengthen our product competitiveness by reinforcing our premium
brand reputation, powerful product line-up, and cutting-edge
technology," an official Samsung spokesperson stated.
Now,
claimed insiders have told Chinese media that the Samsung Galaxy S6 will
be bestowed with a premium, metal design, much like the new Samsung
Galaxy Alpha. The metal S6 body has been tipped by 'sources within
Samsung’s supply chain’.
If moving to a new, metal form, Samsung will hope to avoid to construction issues which have troubled the release of the Galaxy Note 4.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Rumours
As
with the S5 before it, there have already been suggestions that the
Samsung Galaxy S6 will feature a curved, flexible display.
Building
on the Note Edge's single side including screen, it has been mooted
that the S6 will wrap its QHD panel around both the handset's left and
right hand edges.
Speaking in a note to investors, tech analyst
Jerry Kang claimed the S6 will take Samsung's flexible screen technology
to the mainstream masses for the first time.
With Samsung having already announced handsets with curved displayed - we're looking at the Samsung Galaxy Round and Samsung Galaxy Note Edge
here - we can’t see the manufacturer risking its flagship brand with
this novel technology. As such the flexible phone will be a separate
handset in its own right and the S6 will be a more traditional offering -
possibly a Galaxy S6 Edge.
With size being almost as important
to Samsung as image quality, it has again been rumoured that the Galaxy
S6 will feature a larger display than its predecessors.
With the
Samsung Galaxy S range having risen from 4-inches to 5.1-inches in just
five generations, we can see the S6 topping off somewhere around the 5.2
or 5.3-inches. This would put it in Sony Xperia Z3 territory. With the S5 still featuring quite a sizeable bezel, there is
certainly room for Samsung to squeeze a larger display into a similar
sized frame in 2015.
Another Samsung Galaxy S6 rumour which has
already started to rumble – and will likely follow the phone to launch –
is claims of Samsung finally ditching its fascination with plastic in
favour of a more premium build quality.
It has even been
suggested that the S6 could utilise graphene in elements of its design
as Samsung makes progress with the material. This, however, would likely
further bump the handset's premium price.
Following a recent graphene development by Samsung, industry experts praised the potential implications.
"This
is one of the most significant breakthroughs in graphene research in
history," SAIT Lab leaders said. "We expect this discovery to accelerate
the commercialisation of graphene, which could unlock the next era of
consumer electronic technology."
Although there has been much
talk about the first Tizen phones, Android will remain the OS of choice
for the Samsung Galaxy S6, a feature seemingly confirmed by the
manufacturer. Yoon Han-kil recently stated that Android "still needs to
be out main business," despite the continued push of Tizen.
With
Google having recently detailed Android 5.0, it is all but a given that
the Samsung Galaxy S6 will run Lollipop direct from the box.
This
new OS will bring with it a new, 'material' design, reworked Gmail app,
improved notifications menu, improved battery life, and 64-bit
architecture support.
A selection of Samsung Galaxy S6 concept
designs have also surfaced, though they're little more than fan
'visions' that offer little in terms of a reliable insight into the
phone. One feature we'd like to see, however, is forward-facing stereo
speakers similar to the HTC One M8.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Specs
The
Samsung Galaxy S6 specs sheet will feature a number of cross over
features from the S5, with a wealth of new offerings thrown into the
mix.
Given the focus Samsung heaped on the S5’s water resistant
coating, fingerprint scanner incorporating home button and rear-mounted
heart rate sensor, you can all but guarantee that all three will make
another appearance next year and hopefully in improved forms as well.
In
terms of power, however, things are all change, and the chipset likely
to feature within the Samsung Galaxy S5 has already been unveiled. In
early April, processing giant Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 808 and
Snapdragon 810 CPUs. These chips are set to appear in their first
handsets during "early 2015," a window that fits the expected Samsung
Galaxy S6 release date.
With the Samsung Galaxy S5 running a
2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset following the S4’s own
Snapdragon 600 internals, the Samsung Galaxy S6 looks set to run either
the 808 or 810 units.
Knowing what processor the handset will run has seen a number of further Samsung Galaxy S6 specs teased.
According
to Qualcomm, the processing units will allow for everything from UHD 4K
displays to be supported to the introduction of Cat 6 LTE connections
and the option to run up to 55-megapixel camera sensors.
At
present the 64-bit, six-core Snapdragon 808 processor is looking the
more likely to feature, with support for display resolutions up to 2560 x
1600 pixels fitting with claims of a WQHD S6 screen. The 808 will also
introduce LPDDR3 memory, a range of battery management improvements and
an Adreno 418 GPU that will boost graphical performances by a reported
20 per cent.
Samsung though likes to bring a second flagship
phone option to certain territories. In the case of the S6, this could
be the company's new Exynos 7 octa-core processor.
The Exynos 7 comes with an octa-core CPU with four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores inside.
The 20nm manufacturing process also means the Exynos 7 is much less of a battery drain than its forebears too.
There
is currently no word on the phone's camera, although we would be
surprised if the S6 didn't improve on the S5's existing 16-megapixel
snapper.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Price
The Samsung Galaxy S6
price is one area where there are currently few details available. Given
the flagship nature of the ‘Galaxy S’ range, however, there is no point
holding out for a wallet-friendly fee.
At launch the Samsung
Galaxy S5 cost £579 on a SIM-free basis. As such, we can’t see the
Samsung Galaxy S6 price starting off much lower than the £600 marker.
For
all the latest Samsung Galaxy S6 rumours, including details on the
phone’s specs and release date, bookmark this page now as it will
continue to evolve as new information emerges.
Share your thoughts on what you would like to see included in the Samsung Galaxy S6 in the comments boxes below.
