Today officially marks the beginning of Mobile World Congress 2015, and like most big tech conferences, a lot of the big product announcements happen even before the conference even begins. Such was the case at the annual mobile event held annually in Barcelona, as Samsung announced the long-awaited and fully expected Galaxy S6. Not only did Samsung announce the follow-up to the Galaxy S5 with the Galaxy S6, but its fraternal twin with the Galaxy S6 Edge.
There was much to be anticipated with the Samsung Galaxy S6, and although the S6 Edge was a surprise, their specs look very much the same, according to Samsung Mobile Press. Both of the have 5.1 inch Super AMOLED screens, and I'll explain the S6 Edge later. Each of them have Android 5.0 (Lollipop) right out of the box, and their camera specs are identical at 16 Megapixels in the rear and 5 Megapixels in the front. They also both have a Quad 2.1GHz plus Quad 1.5Ghz Octacore application processor. They also have a new feature to the Galaxy series as they both support a new industry standard for wireless energy charging.
Samsung also announced another bonus with Samsung Pay, a new and easy-to-use mobile payment service that plans to be compatible with more locations than any competing offering in a single application. This is expected to hit both the S6 and the S6 edge "during the second half of this year", and it will be protected by Samsung KNOX, fingerprint scanning, and will work with Near Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST). KNOX Security is Samsung's end-to-end secure mobile platform, which will offer defense-grade features for real-time protection from potential malicious attacks.
As for the Galaxy S6 Edge, it has the world's first curved display on both sides. At first, it looked like the S Edge was stealing a page from the Galaxy Note Edge playbook, but the curved edges aren't made for getting any notifications or anything. CNET reports that the optional Edge screen slides out from the left or right when you want it, but will otherwise remain hidden from view. It is definitely a fancy aesthetic, and could easily become the new standard of design for the Galaxy series as well as all other smartphones.
According to TechCrunch, the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge will have a release date of April 10 in markets all around the world. In the United States, users of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon should be able to get them through their subscriber as well as at Best Buy, Amazon.com, Costco, Sam's Club, Target, and Wal-Mart.
So far, I haven't seen any word of a price, and I can only find cases of it on Amazon. However, when the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge become available, they will have 32, 64, and 128 GB storage options in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Green Emerald (just for the S6 Edge), and Blue Topaz (just for the Galaxy S6).
