New Delhi, January 21 – Flagship phones come and go, but not many phones are spoken about in the same breath as the Apple iPhone 6. If there is truly one device that is spoken on equal terms as Apple’s iPhone, then it is Samsung’ Galaxy S. Since 2010, the Galaxy S range has been the only smartphone range that has given Apple’s iPhone a run for its money.
Unfortunately, in the last few years, Samsung’s pace of innovation with the Galaxy S line is perceived to have slowed down. The Galaxy S4 did not wow the world, while the Galaxy S5 was a borderline disaster.
Things are also harder for Samsung these days. Its profits are shrinking and now Apple makes an iPhone with a bigger screen but also a model, which competes with its successful Note line of products.
The Galaxy S6 hence becomes very important. If the rumours are to be believed, Samsung is hard at work at creating a product that will extinguish the disappointment caused by the Galaxy S4 and S5. Here are 6 things that are expected.
1, Better Design -Samsung’s new products like the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Alpha and the new budget Galaxy A range of smartphones all sport a nice metal frame instead of a faux metal like plastic frame with a chrome finish. This has made these phones vastly more attractive and more durable. Similar rumours have surfaced about the Galaxy S6.
During CES, there was a leaked image, which suggested a full metal body for the Galaxy S6 and today, there are reports, which suggest a glass back like older iPhones and Sony’s Xperia smartphones. Either ways, we are looking at a nicer looking phone, which will be a break from the same rehashed design Samsung has used since the Galaxy S3.
2, Top-notch processing power — Last year to our dismay, Samsung, at least in India, launched the Galaxy S5 with an old Exynos processor and no LTE connectivity. Of course, months later it made amends with the LTE enabled Qualcomm version, but by then the damage was done and it was too little too late.
This year, the Galaxy S6 is expected to sport either the very fast64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processoror Samsung’s new Exynos 7420 processor. This will be a massive upgrade from the Galaxy S5, and both processors will support LTE connectivity.
3, Hey RAM — The Galaxy S5 had 2GB RAM, which was fine but nothing drool worthy. Earlier in the month Asus launched the ZenFone 2, which became the first phone with 4GB RAM. Reports indicate that Samsung could be heading the same route with the Galaxy S6. We could also be talking about a phone with the faster LPDDR4 RAM.
4, Better Camera – Samsung has always offered great cameras on its Galaxy smartphones. However, to Samsung’s dismay, Apple has been even better without even adding more megapixels and new technologies like ISOCELL.
On the Galaxy Note 4, Samsung added the optical image stabilisation for the first time, which made it a capable shooter in low-light. Samsung is expected to equip the Galaxy S6 with a 20-megapixel rear snapper with optical image stabilisation.
While it may not beat the iPhone, it could turn out to be one hell of a snapper. On the front too, the phone is expected to have a 5-megapixel camera, which will be an improvement in terms of resolution from the Galaxy Note 4.
5, Cleaner Android — For years, consumers and tech reviewers have complained about Samsung’s overbearing TouchWiz user interface, which also slows down the phone. With the Galaxy S5, Samsung certainly took steps to curtail the amount of bloat it added on the phone.
With the S6, one expects more of the sameand it is likely the phone will run on Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. Whether, visually, it will have elements of Android Lollipop is another story.
Early leaked builds of Lollipop for the Samsung Galaxy S5 definitely don’t offer a lot from Google’s Material Design language. That said, the Galaxy S6 could come with a newer version of TouchWiz.
6, Curved Screens – The Galaxy S6 is expected to have a larger and sharper screen with a QHD resolution. However, the interesting bit is that there are reports, which suggest that it will screen with curves on both the right and left sides.
Samsung already makes the Galaxy Note Edge, which is curved on the right side, but a curve on both sides would be a technological achievement and rather drool worthy offering a level of novelty not seen before. Now one does not know whether this will be the standard Galaxy S6, ora separate version , but this appears to be happening.
-INDIA TODAY
