Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Review: Tweaking the Winning Formula 

 

Samsung's new design philosophy for flagship smartphones has received nothing but praise the world over. Gone are the days of excessive chrome, plastic and faux leather - the new Samsung is all grown up and sophisticated. Roughly six months ago, the company launched the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which were in such high demand that Samsung had trouble keeping up. To meet the voracious appetite of consumers, Samsung began manufacturing its two flagships in factories across twenty countries, and India was one of the chosen ones.

Cut to the present and we now have two new additions to the flagship Galaxy series - the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5. Both follow the same design language that the S6 family set, and it seems as though Samsung will iterate on this formula for a while. Unlike the , the Galaxy S6 Edge+ is not a companion to the Galaxy Note 5 and doesn't have any of the special features like the S Pen. Today, we'll be focusing on the Galaxy S6 Edge+, which, at first glance, appears to be just a larger Galaxy S6 Edge. So does it justify the (approximate) Rs 9000 premium over its smaller sibling?

Look and feel
The S6 Edge+ scores big in the aesthetics department as it looks simply stunning from any angle. The Silver Titanium finish looks particularly good in daylight and is guaranteed to grab eyeballs. Samsung uses 7000-series aluminium for the chassis, similar to Apple's new iPhone 6s and the results are superb. The phone feels extremely sturdy and rigid but also delicate, in the sense that you instinctively begin to handle it with extra care. That's mainly due to the curved display, which leaves little room for grip. One side effect of all this metal and glass is that the phone is very slippery and not easy to hold, for example in a crowded bus or train.
The volume rocker and power button have good tactile feedback and are easy to reach. The sensors, notification LED, earpiece and 5-megapixel camera sit above the screen, while the home button with its integrated fingerprint scanner and the capacitive Back and Recents buttons are placed below it. We like how Samsung has raised the home button and used a different texture to make it easy to hit on the otherwise glossy panel.


On the top, we have the Nano-SIM tray and a microphone for noise cancellation. What's missing here is the infrared (IR) blaster which is present on the Galaxy S6 Edge. We're not sure why Samsung decided to leave it out. On the bottom, there's the headset socket, Micro-USB port, and speaker grille. Flipping the device over, we can see the 16-megapixel camera, LED flash, and heart-rate sensor on the rear. You can also see that our review unit had a 'Made in India by Samsung' inscription at the bottom.
The size of the display is the only major physical change in the Galaxy S6 Edge+, compared to the Galaxy S6 Edge. It sports a 5.7-inch Super Amoled screen with a 1440x2560 resolution, which keeps the pixel density well above 500ppi. The display is nothing short of stunning, producing inky blacks and saturated colours for viewing any type of content.
The Galaxy S6 Edge+ has excellent weight distribution due to which, the phone does not feel heavy. However, the larger curved display and narrow sides make this phone very tricky to use with one hand- almost impossible in many situations. There's a very good chance of you dropping the phone should you attempt to do so. Overall, ergonomics could have been better and it will take some getting used to holding this phone quite literally by its edges.
Specifications and software
The specifications are pretty much the same as those of the Galaxy S6 (Review) and Galaxy S6 Edge (Review), which we've covered in-depth in their reviews. New updates include Bluetooth 4.2 (instead of 4.1) and a larger serving of RAM, which brings the total to 4GB. It's hard to tell if the additional RAM makes any immediate impact on performance as we didn't notice any major difference between this and the S6 Edge with daily usage. However, as your app data grows and Android receives updates down the line, the additional gigabyte might prove to be useful.