Samsung Galaxy S6 Features And Specs [REPORT]

With 2015 on the horizon, rumors related to the next flagship smartphone from Samsung are proliferating. The Galaxy S6 will be a critical device for the Korean manufacturer as it attempts to get its financial affairs back on a firm footing.

Samsung’s testing year

2014 was a difficult year for Samsung in many ways, as the consumer electronics giant failed to keep up with the mammoth success of Apple, and was forced to concede recently that its profits had plummeted from 2013 levels. Samsung still remains a hugely significant manufacturer of mobile devices, and it share price has recovered to some degree from the earlier lows of the year.

But with some analysts suggesting that the corporation is beginning to flounder somewhat in the face of serious challenges in East Asia from other affordable manufacturers, the next 12 months will be critical in the future of the company.

In this context, the Galaxy S6 will be a vital release for Samsung, given that it will be its first major piece of kit in 2015. When new mobile releases are contemplated the essential issue considered is usually whether they will represent a reboot of the entire concept, or whether the manufacturer will be more inclined towards a gradual upgrade of existing technology.

Samsung Galaxy S6: Aluminum design

Well, the latest information relating to the Galaxy S6 suggest that the former is more accurate than the latter. Reports issued in recent days suggest that the Galaxy S6 will be constructed entirely from aluminum, and that the display included in the device will curve at both edges.

Both of these murmurings seem to be based in Logic. Samsung has been attempting to move away from the plastic-dominated design of its previous devices. The last range of Galaxy handsets had a much more metallic feel to them, and it would seen to be common sense for Samsung to advance this design principle further. Certainly Apple has had massive critical and commercial success with producing metallic devices in the smartphone niche.

Samsung has not always been praised for the physical design of its mobile devices, even if they are generally considered to be excellent in terms of functionality and specifications, and a significantly redesigned Galaxy S model would seem to make commercial sense.

Curved screen common sense

Additionally, the notion of a curved screen is hardly a new one for Samsung. Indeed, the corporation is already to some degree associated with this technology owing to its range of curved television sets which was unveiled relatively recently. Samsung has also put this technology to good use in the release of the Galaxy Note Edge phablet, which featured one curved edge of the type proposed for the forthcoming Galaxy S6.

With Samsung attempting to make its devices really stand out from the crowd and embody a significantly different approach to the Apple iPhone series, a fully curved screen would seem to be a natural physical characteristic to distinguish the Galaxy S series.

Previous reports have differed on whether there will be a so-called ‘Galaxy S Edge’ device. But the suggestion that such a handset would not be produced could hinge on the fact that the curve element is to be a central aspect of the standard Galaxy S6, and therefore there is no need for any Edge composite device.

Other recent reports have suggested that Samsung may put back the announcement of the Galaxy S6, and that we shouldn’t necessarily expect to hear about it at the CES show in January 2015. Past speculation had indicated that this would be the setting for the first official announcement of the Galaxy S6, but it is now suggested that the handset may become official at the beginning of the second quarter of next year.

Rumored specs

Aside from these rumors, it is already strongly suspected that the Galaxy S6 will be a very high specification device. Samsung will be responding to the massive success of the Apple iPhone 6, and if it is to attract consumers over to the Galaxy S series then it will need to produce something outstanding.

A larger screen size than the previous Galaxy S iterations is expected in the Galaxy S6, with suggestions already in the public domain that the display of the device could be around 5.5-inches. Leaked specifications from a benchmark test also suggest that the smartphone will feature a Quad HD screen, with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. Apple would then feel under pressure to respond to this quality with the iPhone 7, especially considering that the market-leading smartphone manufacturer has yet to release a smartphone-sized device with even an HD display.

Other likely specifications incliude a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 or Exynos 7420 processor, with octa-core technology expected to be utilized, although internal storage is not expected to be increased beyond 128GB. With suggestions that Apple may manufacture the first 256GB iPhone in its seventh-generation, it is possible that Samsung will enable the Galaxy S6 to be upgraded further via micro-SD.

The Galaxy S6 will also have a world-class camera, possibly with a twenty-one-megapixel rating, and the internal memory of the system will also be upgraded to 4GB.

There are mixed reports regarding when we can expect to see the Galaxy S6 revealed, but a likely date remains the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which is taking place in March 2015. This has been the venue for previous galaxy S revelations, and it would seem important for Samsung to get this handset into the public domain sooner rather than later.

Based on the murmurings that we’re hearing about this device so far, the Galaxy S6 will be, perhaps not a radical departure from previous devices in the series, but certainly more than a minor upgrade.