Samsung unpacks Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge at MWC

Samsung has officially launched its latest flagship device, the Galaxy S6 alongside the Galaxy S6 Edge at MWC 2015, Barcelona.

Samsung Galaxy S6 design is a major evolution of its predecessors. The plastic bodies are now gone, now the new devices are constructed for a single piece of aluminium. The Galaxy S6 devices comes with all glass finish and has layer of Gorilla Glass 4 on both front and rear side of the device. Samsung at the launch touted that both the handsets have been "beautifully crafted from metal and glass." The Galaxy S6 is encased in metal and is about 6.8mm thick and weighs 138 grams. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge measures 142.1 x 70.1 x 7.0mm and weighs about 132 grams.

The home button on the Galaxy S6 has also been redesigned. It packs a new fingerprint sensor with enhanced touch type fingerprint scanner on the home button.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge sports 5.1-inch QHD super AMOLED display that offers vibrant colours, great viewing angels and stellar contrast. The only difference is the Galaxy S6 Edge sports dual-edge display. Samsung  touts that the Galaxy S6 Edge has the "world's first curved display on both sides."

 Both devices are powered by a 14nm 64-bit Exynos 7420 chipset (quad-core 2.1GHz + quad-core 1.5GHz CPU) paired with Mali GPU.

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge packs 3GB LPDD4 RAM and come in 32GB, 64GB or 128GB storage options. It doest not feature microSD card slot. It runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with TouchWiz UX on top.

Camera features on both models include ISOCELL 16-megapixel rear camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) and LED flash, 4K video recording. It comes with slew of camera features that include quick launch, tracking AF, auto real-time HDR, f/1.9, IR detect white balance, low light video, high clear zoom, virtual shot, slow motion, fast motion, pro mode, and selective focus. On the front there is a 5-megapixel camera.

Connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, IR Remote, USB 2.0 and Cat.6 LTE.  Both the smartphones support LTE Cat. 6 that supports up to 300Mbps of download speed.

The Galaxy S6 is backed by 2550mAh battery while the Galaxy S6 Edge is backed by 2600mAh battery. The rear panel is non removable, users can no longer replace battery. Both devices include  fast charging batteries charge that offers "about 4 hours of usage after only 10 minutes of charging.". It also supports wireless charging using both Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and Power Matter Alliance (PMA) standards.

Samsung also launched a new mobile data payment service called Samsung Pay. It works with NFC (neat field communication) and MST (magnetic secure technology) to pay for your purchases. To make it work on the store, users have to activate the card, authenticate using their fingerprint and hold up the smartphone to the magneticstripe reader. 

The Samsung Pay system has been certified by Visa, MasterCard and the company has partnered with banks like American Express, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, US Bank and Bank of America to provide service. Samsung Pay will debut on the flagship Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge in the US during second half of 2015. 

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will come pre-installed with updated Samsung Knox. It also comes preloaded with Microsoft apps like OneDrive (offers 115GB for 2 years) and OneNote.

The Samsung Galaxy S6  will be available in white pearl, black sapphire, gold platinum and blue topaz colour options while the Galaxy S6 Edge will come in only green emerald. 

The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will be available globally starting April 10.

Check out the promo videos of Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.