Samsung Galaxy S6 (and GS6 edge) vs. iPhone 6
Gizmag compares the features and specs of the Samsung Galaxy S6 (left), Galaxy S6 edge (middle) and iPhone 6
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As recently as a year ago, iPhone vs. Galaxy showdowns required you
to choose between premium builds and big screens. But now that the
iPhone has a spacious screen, and the Galaxy has a high-end build,
you're going to have to base your decision on other factors. Let Gizmag
lend a hand, as we compare the features and specs of the
Samsung Galaxy S6,
Galaxy S6 edge and
iPhone 6.
Size
The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge are a little taller and wider than
the iPhone 6, but all three are incredibly thin handsets – with the GS6
just barely taking the crown for thinnest of the bunch.
Weight
All three are very light for their respective sizes, but the Galaxy
S6 edge gives you the best size-to-weight ratio (though the fact that
its front face slopes off around the edges gives it an unfair advantage
here).
Build (back)
With the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung is kissing plastic goodbye. Their glass (
Gorilla Glass 4) backs put the phones in a premium stratosphere that we haven't seen from the company in years past.
Like in previous years, there's no questioning the quality of the iPhone's aluminum unibody design.
Build (sides)
The GS6 and edge have aluminum sides, to complement those glass backs.
Colors
You'll have more color options to choose from for the pair of Galaxy phones.
Display (size)
The iPhone 6's screen size is much bigger than any pre-2014 iPhone's
display, but it's still only 85 percent as big as the pair of 2015
Galaxy phones.
... of course if you want an even bigger iPhone, the
iPhone 6 Plus is Apple's first phablet.
Display (resolution)
The iPhone 6 has a great display ... but it isn't even close to being
as sharp as the Quad HD displays on the pair of Galaxies. There's a
degree of eye candy there that the iPhone's 326 PPI display (the same
density as 2010's iPhone 4) can't match.
Display (type)
Like in previous years, the two Samsung phones use Super AMOLED displays, while the iPhone sticks with an IPS panel.
Curved display
Picking up where Samsung left off with the
Galaxy Note Edge,
the GS6 edge has a screen that slopes down on either side. It's largely
cosmetic, but it will flash notifications and let you use some
shortcuts on the edge displays.
Fingerprint sensor
Could this be the year that Samsung's fingerprint sensors catch up to
Apple's? Unlike Samsung's 2014 sensors, the ones in the Galaxy S6 and
GS6 edge will register with a touch – no swipe required. Apple's Touch
ID has always been touch-based as well.
Battery
Stay tuned for more on this front. We do know that, in our video
streaming test (over Wi-Fi, with brightness at 75 percent) the iPhone 6
dropped about 14 percent per hour. That's a good result, but off the
pace of the longest-lasting phones we've handled.
Removable battery
Samsung flagships have historically had removable batteries, but those found in the GS6 and GS6 edge are sealed shut.
Fast charging
The GS6 and edge include a fast-charging tech that can give you an
estimated 4 hours worth of uptime in just 10 minutes of charging (though
you should only see that big of a difference when you start off with a
nearly dead battery).
Camera megapixels (rear)
We'd take this with a few grains of salt, as the iPhone 6 easily has
one of the best cameras you can find in a smartphone. We'll have more to
say on the GS6's camera after we get our hands on a review unit.
Camera megapixels (front)
The Galaxy phones may be better for selfies, with their higher-resolution (and wide-angled) front shooters.
Camera aperture
The Galaxy phones' cameras come out with the wider aperture.
OIS
The iPhone 6 Plus has Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on board, but
the iPhone 6 doesn't – giving Samsung's phones a leg up for
shaky-handed photographers.
Processor
We'd take this with a few grains of salt. It's quite possible the
Galaxy S6 pair will have faster performance, but know that Apple's
custom chips always outperform what you'd expect from their cores and
clock speeds.
RAM
The Galaxy phones should, however, be the better choices for
multitasking, as 3 GB of RAM is going to be better for that than 1 GB,
no matter how you slice it.
Storage
No drastic differences here, though the entry-level Galaxy S6 and GS6
edge do give you double the storage of the base-level iPhone 6.
MicroSD
In exchange for that premium build, Samsung cut a few corners that
were staples on its older flagships: microSD card slot being one of
them.
Water resistance
This was the killer feature of the
Galaxy S5, but Samsung dropped water/dust resistance from this year's flagships.
Heart rate sensor
The Galaxy S6 and edge do, however, keep the heart rate sensor around for a second straight year.
Gear VR
There aren't any high quality virtual reality options for the iPhone at the moment, but the GS6 and edge play nicely with the
new version of the Oculus-powered
Gear VR.
Mobile payments
Apple clearly set the tone here, as several months after the launch of Apple Pay, we now have –
ahem – Samsung Pay.
Samsung's mobile payments solution is actually built on a brilliant
premise, though: instead of requiring an NFC terminal (though it uses
those too), it can also work with standard swipe-based credit card
terminals. This makes it nearly universally accepted from day one.
Software
We're looking at
Android Lollipop with a layer of Samsung's TouchWiz UI (though that layer has much less bloat this year) vs.
iOS 8 for the iPhone.
Release
The GS6 pair launches on April 10, at which point the iPhone will have been around for almost seven months.
Starting price (full retail)
The iPhone starts at US$650 without a contract. That's what previous
years' Galaxy phones have started at as well, but Samsung hasn't
announced pricing for these yet.
You will, however, have to pay extra for the edge's curved screen.
Let's just hope the markup isn't as high as it was on the Note Edge.
Starting price (on-contract)
It's possible the GS6 will go toe-to-toe with the iPhone here, but nothing official yet on this end either.
