Samsung Unveils Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and Samsung Pay

All kinds of hot smartphone action took place at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona yesterday, not least of which was Samsung revealing its new set of flagship phones, the Galaxy S6, and the Galaxy S6 Edge. As predicted, the new handsets are encased in metal bodies, and the Edge is, well, edged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raAoYFrIm0I

The S6 – both flavors – sports a 5.1-inch, quad HD display, with a resolution of 2560×1440. It’s also got 3 GB of RAM, and a base internal storage capacity of 32 GB, with options including 64 GB and 128 GB – which is a whole lot of storage for a smartphone. It’s also got a 2,550 mAh battery (though the Edge has a 2,600 mAh battery, just barely, uh, edging out the regular S6), and it sports an Octacore application processor. Though it’s not mentioned by name, that processor is almost undoubtedly Exyos 7. The S6 also offers wireless charging and Samsung Pay (more on that in a minute).

A post on CNET fully explains how the S6 Edge offers minimal extra functions compared with the regular S6: a night mode which shows the clock on the curved edge of the display, notifications, and different color flashes based on a favorite callers list. Other than that, the big advantage of the Edge is the simple fact that it looks cool as hell. But, hey, isn’t that kind of enough?

The phones also come pre-loaded with Microsoft’s mobile apps, including 115GB of OneDrive storage and OneNote. Both run Android 5.0 out of the box, and while I can’t know for sure until I try one, it seems that Samsung has made good on rumors that it’ll limit the amount of bloatware pre-installed on these new handsets.

Finally, Samsung also announced Samsung Pay, the fruits of its recent acquisition of LoopPay. Baked into Samsung’s phones going forward – including the S6 – Samsung Pay is accepted at about 30 million retail locations all over the globe, relying on current credit card reading technology rather than forcing merchants to buy new reader machines.

Altogether, Samsung has some very compelling new phones. What we don’t have just yet are release dates or prices for the S6. Chances seem good that with their all-metal designs – and particularly the Edge’s production-challenging curved display – the prices for both these phones will be pretty high. Will their great looks and full features be enough to combat sticker shock? Will Samsung bring home the bacon with these new phones? Maybe!

[Samsung Tomorrow: Galaxy S6, Samsung Pay]