I have a Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, you have questions — ask me!

[Andrew Martonik]

Andrew,

I preordered the 64GB black sapphire GS6 on AT&T. Two questions.

1) I am a klutz sometimes and plan on using a rugged case. The Defender or Lifeproof Frė. Will these cases impede the functionality of the NFC/MST and wireless charging?

I see no reason why a case would get in the way of NFC or wireless charging. That's a pretty known quantity right now — most phones with those features work just fine through cases. As far as MST, I have no idea... Samsung Pay hasn't launched yet and isn't on the phone.

2) Of all the US carriers, why is it possible for TMO to leap frog carriers like AT&T in releasing the GS6 and the Edge?

Thanks very much for your time and attention.

Not entirely sure. T-Mobile seems to do that a lot lately, they're just first out the door in having stock ready to go and getting it to customers. They just strike the right deals.

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest) how angry are you that you were given the white model to test

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

8. Really don't care for white phones — I don't like how the white bezel around the screen looks, tbh.

How's the battery life? Is charging really as fast as they claim?

Not to be taken as gospel, but right now I'm looking at 12-14 hours use with ~2.5 hours screen on time at most on the GS6. That's about what I get on the Moto X 2014, for reference. We'll see if today's update improves that.

It charges fast, just like other phones with Quick Charge 2.0 charge fast... it just maybe feels a little faster because you're only charging a 2500mAh battery.

 

[dman777#AC]

I have a Note 2 in which I really like the speaker loudness and fullness(for music). I read where you didn't like the speaker to much for the S6. When comparing the S6 speaker against the Note 2's speaker, would they be on the same level for loudness and fullness?

 

[svenEDGE]

I didn't see anyone ask this yet, but sorry if I missed it. Any news on a developer edition? I have to pay retail anyway. Might as well get a dev phone while I'm at it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[warpdrive]

Not to be taken as gospel, but right now I'm looking at 12-14 hours use with ~2.5 hours screen on time at most on the GS6. That's about what I get on the Moto X 2014, for reference. We'll see if today's update improves that.

And the screen brightness is set at?

You know that you got a broken phone when you are the only one who says such low screen on time. Believe me, I trust you more then other websites, but your listing half of what others are saying and even if you are using max brightness, something is wrong.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Adranalyne]

And the screen brightness is set at?

You know that you got a broken phone when you are the only one who says such low screen on time. Believe me, I trust you more then other websites, but your listing half of what others are saying and even if you are using max brightness, something is wrong.

Posted via Android Central App

Between these supposed performance issues and the battery, I'm starting to think you got a lemon.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[fjd726]

Hopefully the battery life isn't like the 2014 Moto X. That was the reason I sold mine, battery was horrendous.

 

[warpdrive]

갤럭시s6 엣지 드랍테스트: https://youtu.be/_r5BFHDnCTs

Do I have to ask the question?

Posted via Android Central App

 

[thisislee]

The camera's only going to ratchet down to f/1.9 in super low light situations where it needs it. I haven't seen any "issues" there.

Cool. I didn't realize the aperture wasn't fixed. So thought at 1.9 for everything it would be difficult to get some shots in focus. Thanks for the info!

 

[Andrew Martonik]

I have a Note 2 in which I really like the speaker loudness and fullness(for music). I read where you didn't like the speaker to much for the S6. When comparing the S6 speaker against the Note 2's speaker, would they be on the same level for loudness and fullness?

Sorry don't have a Note 2 to test next to... I can just say that the speaker gets loud, but it isn't at all full or pleasant at higher volumes. When you look at the size of the speaker you can see why.

I didn't see anyone ask this yet, but sorry if I missed it. Any news on a developer edition? I have to pay retail anyway. Might as well get a dev phone while I'm at it.

Posted via the Android Central App

No word on that yet.

And the screen brightness is set at?

Auto brightness always.

You know that you got a broken phone when you are the only one who says such low screen on time. Believe me, I trust you more then other websites, but your listing half of what others are saying and even if you are using max brightness, something is wrong.

Posted via Android Central App

Find it hard to believe that I have two phones that are "broken" in identically the same way. Like I said I haven't read the other coverage from people, but I see under no circumstances how you could get double the battery life of what I'm getting. 24+ hours out of this phone is impossible, even in Ultra Power Saving Mode.

And of course I could get more screen on time out of this phone, but then the total battery life numbers would be shorter. In my time with it, the best way I can describe this phone is 12-14 hours life, with up to 3 hours screen on. Naturally if my first 3 hours of using the phone are with the screen on 100% of the time that 12-14 hour number isn't going to happen — not to mention that it matters what you're doing when the screen is on. That's why the whole focus on screen-on time is kind of a misnomer.

Between these supposed performance issues and the battery, I'm starting to think you got a lemon.

Posted via the Android Central App

As I note above, I find it hard to believe that I have two phones that are both "lemons" in the same way. Not to mention that I've done factory resets as well.

갤럭시s6 엣지 드랍테스트: https://youtu.be/_r5BFHDnCTs

Do I have to ask the question?

Posted via Android Central App

no.

 

[Darrkman]

Andrew

I was about to ask a notification light question but saw you answered that it has one. As a follow up can you set different colors for different apps or would I need to download something like Light Manager?

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[Darrkman]

갤럭시s6 엣지 드랍테스트: https://youtu.be/_r5BFHDnCTs

Do I have to ask the question?

Posted via Android Central App

WTF did I just see?? It was like watching someone kick their dog.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[ludim]

I can tell you that the T-mobile S6 comes with 5.0 but and update to 5.0.2 hits the phone out of the box

 

[warpdrive]

So based on the way you tested and with light to medium use (but little to no gaming/benchmarking), my m8 can get 30 to 40 hours with the same screen on time. I get more screen on time when gaming then you are with light to medium use.

I'm perplexed.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Kalvin Kerns]

So based on the way you tested and with light to medium use (but little to no gaming/benchmarking), my m8 can get 30 to 40 hours with the same screen on time. I get more screen on time when gaming then you are with light to medium use.

I'm perplexed.

Posted via Android Central App

Last year's tech better than this year's? No, I don't believe that for a second. If this is true then Samsung really screwed the pooch this year.

I can't believe they'd put anything less than the very best hardware/software in this device, including best possible battery.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[warpdrive]

Last year's tech better than this year's? No, I don't believe that for a second. If this is true then Samsung really screwed the pooch this year.

I can't believe they'd put anything less than the very best hardware/software in this device, including best possible battery.

Posted via Android Central App

Go argue with Andrew then. I personally trust him highly.
They are also on T-Mobile with a just released update.

I wanted this phone so bad, but I'm a medium to heavy user. It won't last me a trip to the mall or a picnic at the park. You can forget about going to an amusement park for the day unless you feel like being the only one with their phone sitting in the car charging.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Andrew

I was about to ask a notification light question but saw you answered that it has one. As a follow up can you set different colors for different apps or would I need to download something like Light Manager?

Sent from my Nexus 7

There's no built-in software to determine what colors are used for each app. Like you said you'll need an LED notification manager to do that.

Last year's tech better than this year's? No, I don't believe that for a second. If this is true then Samsung really screwed the pooch this year.

I can't believe they'd put anything less than the very best hardware/software in this device, including best possible battery.

Posted via Android Central App

Different phones have different qualities. Samsung chose not to put a large battery in this phone, but still went ahead with a QHD display and a very fast processor. Something has to give.

 

[clevin]

Different phones have different qualities. Samsung chose not to put a large battery in this phone, but still went ahead with a QHD display and a very fast processor. Something has to give.

size, not ppi, have more impact on battery life, and processor speed isn't always negatively correlated to the battery life.

Last year's tech better than this year's? No, I don't believe that for a second.

this is unfortunately true, both M9 and s6 regressed in battery performance, obviously they improved on other aspect.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

size, not ppi, have more impact on battery life, and processor speed isn't always negatively correlated to the battery life.

Size of course matters, but so does resolution. QHD at 5.1" means the phone is pushing even more pixels, taxing the CPU and GPU more to do normal tasks. Its far more intensive than if the phone had a 1080p screen.

 

[clevin]

Size of course matters, but so does resolution. QHD at 5.1" means the phone is pushing even more pixels, taxing the CPU and GPU more to do normal tasks. Its far more intensive than if the phone had a 1080p screen.

even though not as perfect as it can be, displaymate's power consumption test showed s6's screen is using 20% less power than s5. I don't dispute your statement that pushing more ppi requires more CPU/GPU power, but in this case, it doesn't seem to amount to much.

Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out
Samsung Galaxy S5 Display Technology Shoot-Out

 

[donutrev]

Thank you for answering my previous question. Had another quick one: does the fingerprint scanner work for Play Store purchases (or anything else besides unlocking the phone/PayPal for that matter)?