S5 or S6? can't decide....

[njitgrad]

Not happy about the fact that the S6 has no replaceable battery. Completely 180'd my decision to get one. Actually three.....one to replace my S4, one to replace my wife's S3, and one for my 11 year old son who will be getting his 1st phone.

Do I get three S5s instead and wait for Samsung to come to their senses on their next Galaxy? I will be switching over to Verizon's Edge program as well in order to eat the costs of three new phones.

 

[Inders99]

You'll probably have the ability to take the phone into a store to have its battery changed in the not to distant future.

 

[STEVESKI07]

Is the non replaceable battery really that important to you, your wife and your son? You have to weigh the pros and cons of each device. If you need a phone now and are on Verizon you have a few options. The S5 is really the only decent option that has a removable battery. If that is most important to you, then get that. The Droid Turbo doesn't have a removable battery, but it does have a huge battery and great battery life. It also has wireless charging and fast charging. I'd prefer that over the S5 if it was me. Also, the Xperia Z3v is worth looking into as well, but again, no removable battery.

The S6 looks the best, performs the best, has the best features, camera, etc. But probably the worst battery life of the 4 and not removable. Everybody has different priorities. Maybe your family members have different priorities as well!

 

[vegasdroid]

The Non-removable battery, should not be an issue, the phone has both adaptive fast charging and wireless charging. If you are concerned about battery life, I believe that when the phone gets updated the battery life will be much better.

 

[njitgrad]

All good points. I have to say that 90% of the time I do not need the extra battery, however having that extra battery was always so useful when on vacation or just when I forgot to charge the phone. Our vacations typically involve a lot of sight-seeing and walking and my S4 would eat up its battery by dinner time every day just by using it for navigation and looking up general info. We just got back from Disney World and I had to replace my battery every day by 4pm. If the battery life on the S6 is worse than on the S4, I can't see that being a step forward.

BTW, if the S6 is already out, why is Verizon taking pre-orders for them?

 

[clevin]

buy one s6, one s5, whoever is more enthusiastic get to use s6.

your son can have the retired s4, with a new battery of course. sell s3 to save $100.

 

[STEVESKI07]

All good points. I have to say that 90% of the time I do not need the extra battery, however having that extra battery was always so useful when on vacation or just when I forgot to charge the phone. Our vacations typically involve a lot of sight-seeing and walking and my S4 would eat up its battery by dinner time every day just by using it for navigation and looking up general info. We just got back from Disney World and I had to replace my battery every day by 4pm. If the battery life on the S6 is worse than on the S4, I can't see that being a step forward.

BTW, if the S6 is already out, why is Verizon taking pre-orders for them?

I think battery life will probably be pretty close to the S4. Maybe a little better, but nothing huge. I do understand the desire of having a removable battery "just in case", but you have to figure out if it's worth giving up all the other things for just those 10% of times when it would be nice. Like others have said, this phone will charge from 0-100 in a little over an hour, so if you have a charger in your car or something, it will be easy to give yourself some juice in very little time. You can also carry an external battery pack for those full long days at disney world and let it charge in your back pack for an hour or so.

The phone isn't officially released until April 10th, but T Mobile shipped their out early so some people have them already. You can't go get them in a store until the 10th. My suggestion is to just wait until the general public gets their hands on the S6 and you get to see and play with one yourself. My guess is the battery won't be as big of a deal as you think, but maybe I'm wrong and it is. Only you can decide. I think the exceptional camera on the phone more than makes up for it. I'm using my camera on my phone pretty much every day. Having a quality camera can really help capture some nice moments in life.

 

[warpdrive]

buy one s6, one s5, whoever is more enthusiastic get to use s6.

your son can have the retired s4, with a new battery of course. sell s3 to save $100.

Best answer. Extra lollipops for you.
With the S4 going to the child, you should save some money with Verizon.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[njitgrad]

You can also carry an external battery pack for those full long days at disney world and let it charge in your back pack for an hour or so.

Never considered that for a second. Can you recommend one that will work with the S6? That just might be what makes me go through with it.

 

[Cobravision]

Any external battery pack will work. The larger ones have 2amp ports and will charge faster.

Amazon Best Sellers: Best External Cell Phone Battery Packs

I usually get the Anker ones. I'm probably going to buy the Anker 2nd Gen Astro E3 because it's smaller than the current 12KmAh model I own. The Astro E3 is about the size of two S6's stacked on top of each other.

 

[STEVESKI07]

Never considered that for a second. Can you recommend one that will work with the S6? That just might be what makes me go through with it.

Like the person above me said, I've had good luck with Anker. They use quality battery cells. Don't go for the cheap stuff, it won't last as long and the horror stories you hear of batteries blowing up are usually the cheap ones. I'm personally waiting on buying an external battery pack because I'm not sure which quick charging technology the S6 is using. There is a standard out there now called Quick Charge 2.0, but it is a Qualcomm standard and it's made to work on their chips (which most phones use). But the S6 doesn't use their chip so maybe that same standard won't work on the S6. All chargers will work, but if you want one that will work faster, I'd wait and see what people say after the phone is released.

If I were to buy right now, I'd get this one: Amazon.com: Anker® 2nd Gen Astro E5 16000mAh Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank with PowerIQ™ Technology 2-Port 3A for iPhone 6 Plus 5S 5C 5 4S, iPad Air, mini, Galaxy S5 S4 S3, Note 4 3 2, Tab 4 3 2 Pro, Nexus 4 5 7 10, HTC One, One 2 (

It can charge the S6 about 4 times and it's the size of a glasses case. If you want something more compact, you can scroll down on that page and see the different sizes/capacities they offer. But for me, I only need an external battery pack when I'm either traveling or I'm away from somewhere for a long time so I have a backpack or luggage or something that I can easily put it in. If you want something to fit in your pocket, you could get this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005X1Y7I2...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU4335490 It will only charge your phone once, but it's only the size of lipstick so would be easy for you or your wife or kids to carry.

On top of the fact that it's a good brand, the reason I like that one is because it can deliver up to 3 amps per port, which means faster speeds. Most "good" chargers have a 2.1 amp port and a 1 amp port. Being able to go up to 3 amps into 1 port may make a big difference (if the S6 allows it). It can also charge 2 devices at once if you want to. But to reiterate, I'm going to hold off on buying one for now to see if Samsung ends up using some other standard that companies adopt to charge as quickly as possible.

 

[jcp007]

Samsung Galaxy S6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5

PhoneArena article

 

[jcp007]

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge review: Double down - GSMArena.com

GSM Arena Review

 

[jcp007]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6/506586-samsung-galaxy-s6-reviews.html

 

[jcp007]

http://youtu.be/pYYAR62tyOc

DetroitBorg GS6 Review

 

[jcp007]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6/499781-gs6-hands-videos-keep-them-coming.html

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Is the S6 screen any bigger than the S5?

 

[STEVESKI07]

Is the S6 screen any bigger than the S5?

Same size, but the S6 has double the pixels.

 

[Jdane07]

Go for the S6. But get your kid the S5, just for the fact it can take a dip in water or survive a drop a little better.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

OP it's hard for us to make that call for you.

As others have mentioned, there are external power packs that will juice the phone when you need it, also the phone has power saving modes that you could consider activating if you know you're going to have a long day or something.

However if the replaceable battery is very important (admittedly it would be very convenient in certain situations) then maybe the S5 would be the better option. If you can live without the removable battery (as you mentioned, 90% of the time you don't need it), then the S6 IMO is the better phone.