With recent reports on Micromax being the leading Smartphone vendor in the market, beating Samsung out of its league, the latter has come up with its flagship product, Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. However, the question still remains: will Samsung make it this time to the top position in smartphone sales with its new launches as Micromax, HTC, Xiaomi and other companies put up a tough fight?
Keeping in mind the last substandard and unsatisfactory performance of Samsung Galaxy when it updated from S4 to S5, the company really needs to up its sales bar much higher if it wants to stay at the pinnacle.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
This Sunday the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona saw Samsung unveil a sleek metal designed smartphones with attractive hardware displays for example Samsung Galaxy S6 sported a curvy style and the S6 Edge flaunted a curvy end that folds around both the ends of the phone, or has a dual edge display after its not-so-successful experiment of Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. Just like the latter, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge can be used to see notifications and keep a track of important information through edge swipes. Yes, the curves add an aesthetic sense to the gadget, but apart from that, there is no startling difference between the two versions of S6 due to release in April in U.S. Its release date in India is still unknown.
Samsung Galaxy S6
Both the versions have 5.1 inch Quad HD, with the highest resolution in smartphones ever till date, 1440 X 2560 pixels, with a pixel density of 577 ppi and Super AMOLED display. The phone also promotes 64-bit-octa-core Exynos 7 processor and 3 GB RAM for supporting different apps and services. Both versions come with Knox and Microsoft apps. Knox, the company’s own business security solution will come with upgraded features to protect phones against malicious malware attacks. Only the edges of S6 Edge are thinner than the Galaxy S6, however the metal body, screen size, hardware and software features are all the same. So when all other features are same, then why the launch of S6 Edge is the common question being raised by Tech Gurus. The company has already come up with Note Edge then why is it anyways coming up with Galaxy S6 Edge? Is it because of the restricted sales of the experimental fraction rolling out?
With the flagship models, Samsung has also planned to give a tough competition to Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus through Apple Pay and Google Wallet by introducing a mobile payments service for Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge that it plans to launch in U.S. and South Korea as of now.
Samsung’s new smartphones have drastically changed their design, hardware and software than the previous S5. The S5 had been the face of much criticism by consumers and critics alike for being exactly same to S4 model. Over the years, the South-Korean Smartphone maker has seen consistent downfall in its sales and reception with Apple delivering the highest quarterly profit recorded till date in the last quarter – 18.04 billion dollars. Each year the company comes with new Galaxy S models, since quite a few years now yet the consumers have found themselves either going for the cheaper and older models of Samsung Galaxy S rather than the new and more costlier ones or buying Xiaomi, Motorola and Micromax phones that have compelling features at a more economical value. The competition, however as Samsung portrays, is still on and going.
This it first achieves through the design of Galaxy S6 models where though the look is similar to S5, the touch-type fingerprint sensor enables quicker and safer access to the home screen. The complete metal-based look is also an add-on which gives the whole finish of the phone a class and elegance better than all its earlier versions.
Though Galaxy S6 has more of an utilitarian look, the S6 Edge is set to sell better as it comes with a whacky, unusual design which is both ergonomic and trendy.
The software of the smartphones have also gained a momentum with Android Lollipop featuring on a (the latest Android Version) TouchWiz User Interface. However, in the past this UI has had faced slowing down problems and we can only hope that Samsung has come up with a solution to this problem for its flagship devices.
The S6 Edge will also don a People Edge Feature letting users add their most called contacts on the edge they want and getting their daily dose of important notifications, weather and time details, etc. even while sleeping just by swiping the edge.
This time too like in Galaxy S previous models, Samsung has improved the optical facilities of its phone. It has come up with a 16-megapixel back camera along with optical image stabilization and LED Flash and a 5 megapixel front camera for all those selfie lovers out there.
However, any version you choose, the S6 or S6 edge, you will get f/1.9 aperture and a very quick shooting speed. Its newest feature includes accessing the camera app directly through double tapping the home button. However, these versions of S6 are not waterproof like the claims of Samsung S5!
The only debatable feature that Samsung’s flagship innovation has brought along is that just like Apple smartphones; Samsung will also have un-expandable storage capacities this time with fixed memory of 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB available with different versions. The device does not come up with any additional slot for memory cards (SD cards) for expanding memory whichever memory version you choose. Also, the 2550 mAh battery provided for the phone is non-removable and non-replaceable for both Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. The battery will last for an average user’s day and will only require 10 minutes of charging to last 4 hours and is also effective than iPhone 6 as it can get charged in less than half the time the iPhone 6 takes to charge to 100 percent. These features might be welcomed but mostly there are chances that they might be a let-down too.
However, if Samsung does not want its sales to droop down to that of Blackberry, a smartphone that had once gained much appreciation and sale because of its innovative phone-making capabilities, then Samsung will have to win its customers’ loyalty and even bag new clients, probably even the ones who are looking for attractive features in cheaper-end models!
Let’s see how the response among the people towards S6 and S6 Edge that the company is promoting with so much of eagerness turns out to be in this first week of official disclosure. The company is bound to induce some marketing campaigns and tactics to otherwise boost the sales once the products are launched.
With the powerful and highly responsive smartphone owing to its hardware and simpler more interactive and user-friendly interface, thanks to lesser number of pre-installed Samsung apps and intuitive software, it is estimated that S6 Edge will be responsible for 30 percent of total units that Samsung is going to yield for the entire S6 range, although the prices as compared to iPhone and iPhone Plus are greater. This shows that the company is surely betting on the dual-edged S6 Edge with its distinguished feature to entice and captivate buyers.
