Samsung Galaxy S6 Reviews

[Adranalyne]

Pretty fair review. Andrew makes some good points but putting the conclusions in the article lead could have waited until the Conclusion section.

Comments on TouchWiz and battery are fine. I know that might shock some folk. However, a couple of caveats. Context is important in a review.

Touchwiz is more unified and streamlined. Could it be cleaned up further? Sure and I hope that the trend continues. Does Samsung still have a lot of work to do? Yes. While not fast enough for me, familiarity for users and a little caution never hurts.

Battery life under "intense" is still decent but not great. For me, light to light-medium use with the customary battery saving practices, the battery should last a full business day until you get home from work. If you plan ahead for those times when you know that charging opportunities are around a premium, keep car chargers or power banks handy.

Samsung, in a very short window, produced an amazing device. Battery usage is not the same for everyone. Were there things that could have been better thought out? Yes, but removable storage and swappable battery are not one of them. A larger battery? Yes. I like the fact that we seem to be moving away from old plasticky design choices. Reviewers are never going to totally like TouchWiz.

My point is to take his comments with an open mind and a grain of salt. At the end of the day, he is just another user, albeit a more knowledgeable one. You can take what these say in consideration but, there is no substitute your research and testing. Go in a store and try it for yourself. You decide. Don't feel pressured by opinions.

Posted via My Samsung Galaxy S4 Handheld Device

He reviewed the speaker like it's supposed to be stereo grade. It's not. The obligatory mention of Boomsound was fine, but the speaker on the S6 isn't bad; it's just not the best.

The specific mention of lag just amuses me. I can get my Nexus 6 to lag. I can get the M8 to lag. These instances are few and far between and don't merit a mention, especially when there's no consistency to them. It's mentioned here because some people just won't let go of criticizing Touchwiz no matter how improved it is. You can't be cool on the interwebs without some tech snark towards things people universally hate.

The battery issue goes far deeper than "It'll last you 11 hours with heavy use" and leaving it at that is just lazy. This is one variant, technically still pre-release, with a clear issue with cell standby. This battery can perform better than that, proven by those with much better stats sharing their screens. I'd have stated that and provided an update once I reached out to Samsung to discuss/other variants were released.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

In Andrew's review, it looked like the camera module had some scratches on it. Probably due to it sticking out.

Man I never buy cases for my phones as I like to use them naked, but looks like I'll have to invest in a battery pack and now a case to prevent the camera module getting scratched up.

 

[jcp007]

In Andrew's review, it looked like the camera module had some scratches on it. Probably due to it sticking out.

Man I never buy cases for my phones as I like to use them naked, but looks like I'll have to invest in a battery pack and now a case to prevent the camera module getting scratched up.

Hopefully, the GS7 is more aluminum unibody thick enough to make the camera flush which would a larger battery. Still convinced that no card slot was a good design choice.

Posted via My Samsung Galaxy S4 Handheld Device

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Hopefully, the GS7 is more aluminum unibody thick enough to make the camera flush which would a larger battery. Still convinced that no card slot was a good design choice.

Posted via My Samsung Galaxy S4 Handheld Device

Yeah I agree with that. If the S7 is thicker, it would allow a larger battery along with keeping the camera module flush with the body. Kill two birds with one stone. Would be a great change imo.

I don't get why OEM's are so fascinated with getting phones thinner and thinner. 1 or 2mm thicker still means it's a very thin phone, but would also have a battery....which surely people would find more useful than a thin body.

 

[Gray Area]

Yeah I agree with that. If the S7 is thicker, it would allow a larger battery along with keeping the camera module flush with the body. Kill two birds with one stone. Would be a great change imo.

I don't get why OEM's are so fascinated with getting phones thinner and thinner. 1 or 2mm thicker still means it's a very thin phone, but would also have a battery....which surely people would find more useful than a thin body.

agreed, the super thin trend leads to bending! lol couldn't resist. but it reminds me of when flip phones got smaller and smaller, then BlackBerrys and palms got bigger and thicker, then smartphones followed the Galaxy Note and got bigger and bigger till now it seems like they've reached a happy sweet spot. hopefully they do the same with thickness, 2mm more wouldn't hurt the overall look and comfort of the phone.

Posted from my Monster Galaxy Note 10.1 via Android Central App

 

[Joe the Insider]

Nova launcher will fix any lag...

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Adranalyne]

Nova launcher will fix any lag...

Posted via the Android Central App

There really isn't any to speak of on the S6. Not anymore than you'd get out of any smartphone. Random, inconsistent slowdown can happen to any phone depending on the circumstances. It's just blown out of proportion by some people because "OMG Touchwiz".

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Gray Area]

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/review-samsung-galaxy-s6/

Posted from my Monster Galaxy Note 10.1 via Android Central App

 

[lando43]

Remember that a review is the personal opinion of that person,in the Andrew review you can see that he doesn't like the phone,he is going to find everything that he thinks is a problem and exaggerated it , I love the phone, personal opinion, my advice,try it yourself and former your own opinion

 

[jcp007]

Remember that a review is the personal opinion of that person,in the Andrew review you can see that he doesn't like the phone,he is going to find everything that he thinks is a problem and exaggerated it , I love the phone, personal opinion, my advice,try it yourself and former your own opinion

After reading the review the first time, that was my first impression as well. His opinion, just,like everyone else, is based upon his expectations which may have been too high. His conclusions at the beginning set the tone that gives one that impression. He may be one of the old guard, no expandable memory/no swappable battery, taking out their frustrations through a review. At least he was consistent, you find very few reviewers that are TouchWiz fans. Although he raised some good points, he could have been more objective. Samsung did a yeomans job of doing a complete redesign in less than a year and can't be expected to nail everything.

 

[stevelam]

There really isn't any to speak of on the S6. Not anymore than you'd get out of any smartphone. Random, inconsistent slowdown can happen to any phone depending on the circumstances. It's just blown out of proportion by some people because "OMG Touchwiz".

Posted via the Android Central App

It's not blown out of proportion at all. It's just something not expected from a phone with leading specs. Scrolling through Twitter app shouldn't lag. Typing on a keyboard shouldn't lag. Browsing mobile websites shouldn't redraw. Ever. I expect a flagship phone in 2015 to severely outperform my phone from 2012. It doesn't, which is unfortunate.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Remember that a review is the personal opinion of that person,in the Andrew review you can see that he doesn't like the phone,he is going to find everything that he thinks is a problem and exaggerated it , I love the phone, personal opinion, my advice,try it yourself and former your own opinion

I didn't get the impression that he didn't like the phone. He spoke more highly of it than he did negative things about it. He seemed to come from a neutral perspective, which is good and spoke (from what I could tell) honestly about various aspects of the phone.

Saying the battery life isn't great is something we've now heard from multiple reviews, multiple sources. Seems like that is the case with the phone. And the spots of lag is something we're hearing as well. Mentions of it not being as smooth as the One M8 is something I've come to accept, but will properly judge when I get to try it.

Aside from that Touchwiz is Touchwiz. If you like it, you should like this new revision. If not, then we're lucky Android can have 3rd party launchers installed.

Then he spoke highly of the design and build of the phone, spoke really highly of the camera as well. Was a more well balanced review that I've read. Didn't sound like he had a chip on his shoulder about it.


Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

 

[jcp007]

It's not blown out of proportion at all. It's just something not expected from a phone with leading specs. Scrolling through Twitter app shouldn't lag. Typing on a keyboard shouldn't lag. Browsing mobile websites shouldn't redraw. Ever. I expect a flagship phone in 2015 to severely outperform my phone from 2012. It doesn't, which is unfortunate.

It, like battery life, has been blown out of proportion. I tested the GS6 on the first day of preorders and really pushed the device to try create lag which is detectable on my GS4. No noticeable lag to speak of. Smartphones are like any electronic device. Given the right combination of events, hiccups sometimes occur. If you are waiting for the perfect device, you will waiting a long time.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

It's not blown out of proportion at all. It's just something not expected from a phone with leading specs. Scrolling through Twitter app shouldn't lag. Typing on a keyboard shouldn't lag. Browsing mobile websites shouldn't redraw. Ever. I expect a flagship phone in 2015 to severely outperform my phone from 2012. It doesn't, which is unfortunate.

Yeah. I'll be coming from the One M8 and it's disappointing to hear that the S6 may not be as smooth or as lag free as that along with worse battery life. But then there are other aspects of the S6 which are big improvements over there M8 (namely the camera) which I am looking forward to.

Every phone has good and bad. Just have to weigh up the pros and con's of each device and see what is right for you.

I'm hoping I can tolerate the speed and UI, which are major pet peeves for me. I absolutely cannot stand performance issues in the UI and I think I'll buy a power pack, so that should fix any battery issues.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

 

[Adranalyne]

Yeah. I'll be coming from the One M8 and it's disappointing to hear that the S6 may not be as smooth or as lag free as that along with worse battery life. But then there are other aspects of the S6 which are big improvements over there M8 (namely the camera) which I am looking forward to.

Every phone has good and bad. Just have to weigh up the pros and con's of each device and see what is right for you.

I'm hoping I can tolerate the speed and UI, which are major pet peeves for me. I absolutely cannot stand performance issues in the UI and I think I'll buy a power pack, so that should fix any battery issues.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

Good lord am I tired of hearing this. The type of "lag" we're talking about here is present on all phones if you try to get it to stutter. Your M8 does it. My Nexus 6 does it. The people who bring it up are still on the "Welp, it's Touchwiz" brigade.


Engadget: "Both the S6 and the Edge were incredibly snappy, with virtually zero lag during normal use. I could usually coax the phones to take a little longer than normal to figure out what to do next, but the keyword there is "coax" -- we're talking opening apps and leaping between them faster than anyone would ever need to just to be an ***. Whenever I used the phone as I normally would, both devices were basically butter."

Computerworld: "The Galaxy S6 uses Samsung's own Exynos 7420 octa-core processor along with 3GB of RAM. And while past Samsung flagships have suffered from lag and jerkiness despite their impressive-sounding internals, the Galaxy S6 is consistently smooth and snappy. From app-loading to Web browsing and multitasking, I've yet to encounter anything that hasn't felt fast and responsive." (And stevelam, this is from JR Raphael. He notices no redraw.)

Wired (David Pierce): "The S6 (from now on, assume I mean both models when I say that) has a new eight-core processor and 3GB of RAM. It’s extremely, remarkably fast. The software that Samsung adds to stock Android used to cause its phones to stutter and lag, but either its designers have figured out how Android works, or there’s just so much raw horsepower that it doesn’t matter anymore. I suspect it’s a little of both."

Gizmodo: "The Galaxy S6 is blisteringly fast. Switching between apps, scrolling through the multitasking queue, pulling down the notification shade, opening the camera, running games, I never once saw the slightest hitch in performance. There’s nothing wildly throw-your-hair-back about the speed; it’s not unbelievable or anything like that. Other recent flagship phones feel fast, too. But the S6 does everything you’d want it to as quickly as you could ask. And it does it consistently."


I could continue, but I hope you get the point. As far as the battery life is concerned, there is clearly an issue causing it to drain much quicker than normal. Whether it's the T-Mobile variant, Android Lollipop (which is likely so far), or a Samsung issue, it's clearly not performing as well as it could. This phone hasn't even launched yet. If people with all variants experience this 2 weeks after April 10th, there's cause for concern. Until then, the sky isn't falling and this battery performance is not indicative of what the phone can really do.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[jcp007]

I didn't get the impression that he didn't like the phone. He spoke more highly of it than he did negative things about it. He seemed to come from a neutral perspective, which is good and spoke (from what I could tell) honestly about various aspects of the phone.

Saying the battery life isn't great is something we've now heard from multiple reviews, multiple sources. Seems like that is the case with the phone. And the spots of lag is something we're hearing as well. Mentions of it not being as smooth as the One M8 is something I've come to accept, but will properly judge when I get to try it.

Aside from that Touchwiz is Touchwiz. If you like it, you should like this new revision. If not, then we're lucky Android can have 3rd party launchers installed.

Then he spoke highly of the design and build of the phone, spoke really highly of the camera as well. Was a more well balanced review that I've read. Didn't sound like he had a chip on his shoulder about it.


Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

I guess very reviewer has a different style. He must have been a former prosecuter. Hit you over the head with the desired verdict and then explains why. He made some valid points some i thought were accurate and some that showed his bias. He at least acknowledged that he used TMO but I don't recall if he said how much of his testing occurred before after the patch was applied.

 

[jcp007]

Yeah. I'll be coming from the One M8 and it's disappointing to hear that the S6 may not be as smooth or as lag free as that along with worse battery life. But then there are other aspects of the S6 which are big improvements over there M8 (namely the camera) which I am looking forward to.

Every phone has good and bad. Just have to weigh up the pros and con's of each device and see what is right for you.

I'm hoping I can tolerate the speed and UI, which are major pet peeves for me. I absolutely cannot stand performance issues in the UI and I think I'll buy a power pack, so that should fix any battery issues.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

The device, at least the demo unit in Best Buy, which I don't recall the branding, was lightning fast and smooth as butter. Granted I only had 15-20 minutes last Friday with the GS6 but I spent nearly the entire time trying to get it to lag but to no avail. I would tried more but people were waiting to try it out.

 

[jcp007]

Good lord am I tired of hearing this. The type of "lag" we're talking about here is present on all phones if you try to get it to stutter. Your M8 does it. My Nexus 6 does it. The people who bring it up are still on the "Welp, it's Touchwiz" brigade.


Engadget: "Both the S6 and the Edge were incredibly snappy, with virtually zero lag during normal use. I could usually coax the phones to take a little longer than normal to figure out what to do next, but the keyword there is "coax" -- we're talking opening apps and leaping between them faster than anyone would ever need to just to be an ***. Whenever I used the phone as I normally would, both devices were basically butter."

Computerworld: "The Galaxy S6 uses Samsung's own Exynos 7420 octa-core processor along with 3GB of RAM. And while past Samsung flagships have suffered from lag and jerkiness despite their impressive-sounding internals, the Galaxy S6 is consistently smooth and snappy. From app-loading to Web browsing and multitasking, I've yet to encounter anything that hasn't felt fast and responsive." (And stevelam, this is from JR Raphael. He notices no redraw.)

Wired (David Pierce): "The S6 (from now on, assume I mean both models when I say that) has a new eight-core processor and 3GB of RAM. It’s extremely, remarkably fast. The software that Samsung adds to stock Android used to cause its phones to stutter and lag, but either its designers have figured out how Android works, or there’s just so much raw horsepower that it doesn’t matter anymore. I suspect it’s a little of both."

Gizmodo: "The Galaxy S6 is blisteringly fast. Switching between apps, scrolling through the multitasking queue, pulling down the notification shade, opening the camera, running games, I never once saw the slightest hitch in performance. There’s nothing wildly throw-your-hair-back about the speed; it’s not unbelievable or anything like that. Other recent flagship phones feel fast, too. But the S6 does everything you’d want it to as quickly as you could ask. And it does it consistently."


I could continue, but I hope you get the point. As far as the battery life is concerned, there is clearly an issue causing it to drain much quicker than normal. Whether it's the T-Mobile variant, Android Lollipop (which is likely so far), or a Samsung issue, it's clearly not performing as well as it could. This phone hasn't even launched yet. If people with all variants experience this 2 weeks after April 10th, there's cause for concern. Until then, the sky isn't falling and this battery performance is not indicative of what the phone can really do.

Posted via the Android Central App

I couldn't agree more. I can't remember a device launch where there was so much consternation driven by reviews in which battery life,a single aspect of the device, dominated all the discussion. We got the point that the device should have had a larger battery and all the rants in the world will never change that. After a couple of weeks, the expandable memory issue faded. why? Isn't the lack of it not deserving of the same undue upset especially as in both cases, there is not enough information from multiple carriers being used in multiple reviews to discern a possible trend? Instead of discussing some of the new or improved features of the device and learning more about them, we hear how outraged people are over battery test results which were all over the place due to firmware, device setup, carrier or network issues and the level of the load placed on the device to test the battery. Who has 4-7 hours to spend on a PHONE? Every Samsung Galaxy phone that I have had has gotten me through an entire day. Every one pounces on the review that best supports their side. When enough people, more than the small universe here in the forum, start reporting back actually results from off the shelf devices, then we will know for sure. In the meantime, let's chill and stop the whining. It's been more than a month, we get you think Samsung screwed up on the battery even though the things good thing that Samsung was able to accomplish in their massive reddsign effort over such a short period of time to bring what most reviews call an incredible device, possibly the best of 2015. Is it really? Well never know at this rate.

 

[Inders99]

Who has 4-7 hours to spend on a PHONE?

Good grief no kidding...and the second point would be who would want to? If I spend that much time looking at a stupid phone I need to rethink my life.

 

[edgefever]

The battery is not that small , its obvious there something wrong ..That's why people or complaining . There's nothing wrong with storage, so no reason to complain about that..