Got my T-Mobile 128GB Edge this afternoon. Thanks T-Mobile!!! Have only had it for a few hours but here are my quick impressions:
1. Build quality - WOW! Very high quality build and materials. Feels amazing in my hand. The back is just stellar. Needs a case to improve grip. I find it a bit slippery. Slippery (but way cool) back and smaller bezel on the side due to the Edge reduce grippabilty.
2. Screen - Another WOW! I've never seen a screen so beautiful. It smokes my iPhone 6 Plus. Bright, vibrant and amazing definition/clarity from the high PPI. Apple is really falling behind here.
3. Fingerprint sensor - Amazing, but it's actually noticeably faster than the iPhone 6 Plus fingerprint sensor. The iPhone has a slight (but not annoying) delay in the recognition. The Galaxy S6 Edge is nearly instantaneous. So impressive! Very well done Samsung!
4. Battery - Potential issue here. I know it's early (so please don't jump on me yet) and I spent a while downloading all my Apps and updates (all while plugged in) but the device gets extremely hot when charging and being used. I also had it off the charger for a while (maybe 2 hours or so) just doing general setup things (but not downloading) and the battery was going down at a surprisingly fast rate and the device was surprisingly hot.
I'm not used to devices that get hot any longer (when not gaming). The 6 Plus is always cool (which is probably why such stellar battery life). I know it's really early but the heat and quick battery decreases may be a potential issue. Something to watch for sure and I'm sure I'll know in a few days for sure.
Honestly, battery life doesn't even seem close to my iPhone 6 Plus, which is nothing short of stellar in the battery life department. I was burning 15%-20% per hour just using the S6 Edge (not gaming, not downloading anything, just doing set-up/browsing/reading news). For comparison, the 6 Plus burns about 10% per hour in heavy (always on) use and a meager 1-2% per hour in standby, but often even less than that.
5. Speed - I'm noticing much more lag/stutter than I thought I would from such beefy specs. Again, early in the lifecycle due to initial set-up things which may be slowing things down, but something to watch. I only have that iPhone 6 Plus for reference (sorry) but if you touch the iPhone, things happen. The screen is instantly responsive. With the Edge there was a slight delay in doing normal things - pulling up menus, moving between screens, browsing. Again, not overly worried since it's early and maybe things were going on in the background and hopefully that shakes out but want to at least note it.
6. Edge - Well, here's my one potential problem that is not a set-up issue...I'm missing a lot of keyboard typing with letters/numbers on the left edge. (Right is not as bad for some reason, maybe because I'm right handed so my right thumb sits more flat on the screen and has a better angle). Anyway, the curve zone just doesn't seem to register well.
That said, there doesn't appear to be any dead zones along the edges like initial reports had but if a tap zone is on the apex of the curve itself there seems to be reduced recognition of finger presses. I found myself having to hit letters/numbers that were directly on the curve two or three times when typing. Wondering if this is going to be a long term issue that drives me nuts or if I learn to tap in a better recognition spot or if it's something that's fixable by a software update. I guess this is the price of an early adopter.
7. Edge apps - The Edge notifications are far more useless than I hoped. I'm hoping developers will be able to program some cool alerts, etc. for the Edge but right now, all you can do is have a color show if one of 5 select people sends you a text, emails, etc. but ONLY if the phone is upside down where you can't really see anything since the phone is upside down!!!! Huh? It should just light up the Edge with the phone up with a special color plus their name so you aren't memorizing colors. And, why limit things to 5 people. Let all notifications show on the Edge if you want.
Clock and lame updates (only if you swipe the edge back and forth) are the only other things the Edge does. Samsung could have easily let updates stream across the Edge with the face up (at your option) showing time/recent texts/emails, etc. with very little battery depletion. There is so much potential for the Edge notifications, I really hope Samsung or some developers make something of this or it's relegated to not much more than a gimmick.
Still, all in all, LOVING the phone. Super impressed with Touchwiz and Android 5.0 improvements. Even liking the default Samsung keyboard. Haven't been in the Android world in a bit (moved between Blackberry, Windows Phone (Lumia 1520) and my iPhone 6 Plus). That said, I have pretty good exposure to all the major platforms and am super impressed with what Samsung and Google are doing here.
With a few of these things shaking out (hopefully), Samsung will have a winner on its hands with the S6 and the S6 Edge. Even with the things I noticed early on here, I am still VERY glad I got the Edge. It's just a beyond cool device.
1. Build quality - WOW! Very high quality build and materials. Feels amazing in my hand. The back is just stellar. Needs a case to improve grip. I find it a bit slippery. Slippery (but way cool) back and smaller bezel on the side due to the Edge reduce grippabilty.
2. Screen - Another WOW! I've never seen a screen so beautiful. It smokes my iPhone 6 Plus. Bright, vibrant and amazing definition/clarity from the high PPI. Apple is really falling behind here.
3. Fingerprint sensor - Amazing, but it's actually noticeably faster than the iPhone 6 Plus fingerprint sensor. The iPhone has a slight (but not annoying) delay in the recognition. The Galaxy S6 Edge is nearly instantaneous. So impressive! Very well done Samsung!
4. Battery - Potential issue here. I know it's early (so please don't jump on me yet) and I spent a while downloading all my Apps and updates (all while plugged in) but the device gets extremely hot when charging and being used. I also had it off the charger for a while (maybe 2 hours or so) just doing general setup things (but not downloading) and the battery was going down at a surprisingly fast rate and the device was surprisingly hot.
I'm not used to devices that get hot any longer (when not gaming). The 6 Plus is always cool (which is probably why such stellar battery life). I know it's really early but the heat and quick battery decreases may be a potential issue. Something to watch for sure and I'm sure I'll know in a few days for sure.
Honestly, battery life doesn't even seem close to my iPhone 6 Plus, which is nothing short of stellar in the battery life department. I was burning 15%-20% per hour just using the S6 Edge (not gaming, not downloading anything, just doing set-up/browsing/reading news). For comparison, the 6 Plus burns about 10% per hour in heavy (always on) use and a meager 1-2% per hour in standby, but often even less than that.
5. Speed - I'm noticing much more lag/stutter than I thought I would from such beefy specs. Again, early in the lifecycle due to initial set-up things which may be slowing things down, but something to watch. I only have that iPhone 6 Plus for reference (sorry) but if you touch the iPhone, things happen. The screen is instantly responsive. With the Edge there was a slight delay in doing normal things - pulling up menus, moving between screens, browsing. Again, not overly worried since it's early and maybe things were going on in the background and hopefully that shakes out but want to at least note it.
6. Edge - Well, here's my one potential problem that is not a set-up issue...I'm missing a lot of keyboard typing with letters/numbers on the left edge. (Right is not as bad for some reason, maybe because I'm right handed so my right thumb sits more flat on the screen and has a better angle). Anyway, the curve zone just doesn't seem to register well.
That said, there doesn't appear to be any dead zones along the edges like initial reports had but if a tap zone is on the apex of the curve itself there seems to be reduced recognition of finger presses. I found myself having to hit letters/numbers that were directly on the curve two or three times when typing. Wondering if this is going to be a long term issue that drives me nuts or if I learn to tap in a better recognition spot or if it's something that's fixable by a software update. I guess this is the price of an early adopter.
7. Edge apps - The Edge notifications are far more useless than I hoped. I'm hoping developers will be able to program some cool alerts, etc. for the Edge but right now, all you can do is have a color show if one of 5 select people sends you a text, emails, etc. but ONLY if the phone is upside down where you can't really see anything since the phone is upside down!!!! Huh? It should just light up the Edge with the phone up with a special color plus their name so you aren't memorizing colors. And, why limit things to 5 people. Let all notifications show on the Edge if you want.
Clock and lame updates (only if you swipe the edge back and forth) are the only other things the Edge does. Samsung could have easily let updates stream across the Edge with the face up (at your option) showing time/recent texts/emails, etc. with very little battery depletion. There is so much potential for the Edge notifications, I really hope Samsung or some developers make something of this or it's relegated to not much more than a gimmick.
Still, all in all, LOVING the phone. Super impressed with Touchwiz and Android 5.0 improvements. Even liking the default Samsung keyboard. Haven't been in the Android world in a bit (moved between Blackberry, Windows Phone (Lumia 1520) and my iPhone 6 Plus). That said, I have pretty good exposure to all the major platforms and am super impressed with what Samsung and Google are doing here.
With a few of these things shaking out (hopefully), Samsung will have a winner on its hands with the S6 and the S6 Edge. Even with the things I noticed early on here, I am still VERY glad I got the Edge. It's just a beyond cool device.
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