تاریخ عرضه و مشخصات احتمالی گلکسی اس 6 سامسونگ

The way Samsung launches phones is easy to work out: the flagship ‘S’ model appears, and then a few months later the improved Note pops up. So now the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has arrived the path is clear for the Samsung Galaxy S6.

In fact, with the possible exception of the Nexus 6, the Galaxy S6 is the next biggest phone launch, despite being many months away.

We’re already seeing a few whispers and wonderings about this next model, and with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha trying to fix some of the design failings of the Galaxy S5 – plus the vaunted Galaxy A5 options appearing soon – there’s definitely been a quick change at the South Korean brand to try and make its phones look much better.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The next flagship smartphone from Samsung
When is it out? Early 2015, probably March or April
What will it cost? A lot, at least as much as the pricey Galaxy S5

Samsung Galaxy S6 release date and price

There’s no official word on when the Samsung Galaxy S6 might launch, but Samsung has a yearly product cycle which it rarely deviates far from.

In fact from the Samsung Galaxy S2 onwards the company has always announced its phones at or close to MWC, and we’re certain the same will hold true for the Galaxy S6.

2015’s MWC is set to take place between March 2 and March 5, so it’s likely that we’ll see the Samsung Galaxy S6 sometime around then. Possibly not at the show itself but perhaps at a press conference a day or two before it starts, much like Samsung did for the Galaxy Note 4 launch before IFA 2014.

However, that’s not when it will actually go on sale. The Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 both launched in April, of 2013 and 2014 respectively, so there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 from April 2015.

There’s no real information on what the Samsung Galaxy S6 might cost either, but this is a flagship phone we’re talking about.

This means it’s not likely to be any cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S5, which at launch sold for £579 (around $972 / AU$1048) SIM free.

Given that the specs will presumably be better and that it may even have a premium build for once it’s possible that it could be even more expensive, but we’d be surprised if Samsung went much higher than £600 / $1000 / AU$1100.
Samsung Galaxy S6 screen

There’s no sign that Samsung is ditching Super AMOLED in its screens, so we expect that to make a return in the Galaxy S6.

The resolution will likely get a boost though, as Samsung has already revealed the 2560 x 1440 Galaxy Note 4 and even among smaller screen sizes there’s the equally QHD Galaxy S5 LTE-A in South Korea, so we expect the Galaxy S6 to have a resolution at least that high.

Galaxy S5 screen

In fact Samsung has previously said that it hopes to have smartphones with 4K 3840 x 2160 displays on the market by 2015. It’s possible then that the S6 will leapfrog 2K and go straight to 4K, but with an early 2015 launch expected we’d be surprised.

More likely Samsung will save that for the Galaxy Note 5… plus, surely, that’s getting to the point of just too many pixels in a phone screen?

Either way, the Samsung Galaxy S6 may have a slightly bigger screen than the Galaxy S5. The company has slowly been increasing the size of the screens on its flagships and we wouldn’t be surprised if the Galaxy S6 were to push things up by another 0.1 or 0.2 inches to 5.2 or 5.3 inches.

If Samsung can shrink the bezel then it could probably even achieve that without increasing the phone’s footprint. On the other hand the Note 4 is no bigger than the Galaxy Note 3 and Samsung’s going to want to keep its two premium brands differentiated, so maybe it will decide that 5.1 inches is the sweet spot.

Note Edge

There’s also an outside chance that the Galaxy S6 might have a flexible display. Samsung has been looking at this sort of technology for a while and has even recently revealed the Galaxy Note Edge: a version of the Note 4 where the screen curves down one side, so it’s possible.

But we doubt Samsung would equip its flagship with such an untested technology, so we’d expect the S range to stick with a flat screen for at least one more year.

It would be cool if the S6 had a bendy screen though – something different from the continuously-similar rectangular designs, right?
Samsung Galaxy S6 power

With Android L arriving shortly and bringing 64-bit support with it we fully expect the Galaxy S6 to have a 64-bit processor.

As for which processor specifically that’s still rather up in the air, but traditionally it’s been equipped with a Snapdragon chip of some variety and both the Snapdragon 808 and Snapdragon 810 are expected to start appearing in devices during the first half of 2015, so one of them seems likely.

The Snapdragon 808 is a six-core 64-bit processor with support for 2K screens, while the Snapdragon 810 is an octa-core 64-bit chip which can power screens of up to 4K resolution.

This includes an Adreno 430 GPU, which is said to be 30% faster than the Adreno 420, so either way it should be in for a boost in terms of gaming and general screen flutterings.

Though it’s always possible that it will stick with the Snapdragon 805 that’s found in the Galaxy Note 4 – but come on Samsung, surely you’ll go harder than that? After all, there’s a strong Exynos chip in the Galaxy Alpha, so perhaps Samsung will go for its own chip design for the next flagship.

There’s no word on how much RAM it will have, but a 64-bit processor works well when imbued with north of 4GB, so Samsung should be looking to get the best out of its new devices’ power range.

Having said that the Galaxy S5 only has 2GB of RAM and even the Galaxy Note 4 has stuck with 3GB, so we’d be surprised if the S6 had more than 4GB – and lest we forget, specs for the sake of specs is never a good thing.
Samsung Galaxy S6 chassis

While we don’t know what the Galaxy S6 will look like there’s every chance that Samsung will mould it on the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, which launched with a metal frame but still kept hold of the polycarbonate rear from the Galaxy S5.

At just 6.7mm the Galaxy Alpha is considerably thinner than the Galaxy S5, and we hope this is a positive sign for the Galaxy S6.

A metal frame would finally make Samsung’s flagship look almost as premium as it is and it’s hard to imagine that it wouldn’t roll something similar or at least similarly high end out for its flagship, especially as the Galaxy Note 4 has now arrived with a metal frame too.

In fact sources in Samsung’s supply chain have been talking fast and loose about the Galaxy S6, claiming the Galaxy Alpha and Note 4 will test the waters for Samsung’s metal design ahead of an all-metal flagship in the form of the S6.

Weirdly we haven’t seen any leaks of the new phone, even in its usual prototype form, so we’ll have to make do with this interesting concept from Josip Jakubiv – it’s the same mottled back, but with a much larger screen and a refined design – perhaps even a spot of metal there?

Galaxy S6Credit: Josip Jakubiv, Part Community

Samsung Galaxy S6 operating system

While Samsung is cooking up its own Tizen operating system, the Galaxy S6 will almost certainly stick with Android, and probably Android L since it should arrive several months before the S6.

It will also run Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top, albeit streamlined once more to make sure it doesn’t annoy consumers who are becoming aware of the simplicity of raw Android, so given the Samsung Galaxy S5 was made sleeker, this could well happen again in the S6.
Samsung Galaxy S6 camera

One of very few rumours that specifically refers to the Galaxy S6 notes that it may have a 20MP camera, up from 16MP in the Galaxy S5. Samsung’s always about more and bigger so this seems believable.

Galaxy S5 camera

According to ETNews the Galaxy Note 4 was originally going to have a 20MP sensor but Samsung dropped it to 16MP (the report actually says 12MP, but we now know that’s wrong) to keep it thin while still including OIS, however the company will instead use the 20MP sensor on the Galaxy S6 apparently.

What it doesn’t say is whether the S6 therefore won’t include OIS or won’t be all that slim, since reading between the lines one or the other is likely to be the case. In fact at 8.5mm thick the Note 4 is already slightly fatter than the Galaxy S5, so if the Galaxy S6 does get OIS then it’s likely to put some weight on too.
Samsung Galaxy S6 other features

There are a few things that we can be pretty confident that the Galaxy S6 will include. Samsung has been putting its fingerprint scanner on a number of phones and tablets so we’re sure the S6 will get it too.

Likewise it will probably retain the heart rate monitor from the Galaxy S5, since that’s also been included on the Galaxy Alpha and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

We fully expect a microSD card slot too, since the Galaxy S range has always included one and we’d be very surprised if it wasn’t water and dust resistant, since the Galaxy S5 is and removing a useful feature like that seems unlikely.

Though neither the Note 4 nor the Galaxy Alpha is, so it’s possible that the Galaxy S6 won’t be either.

We may also see the Samsung Galaxy S6 inherit some of the new features which have been added to the Galaxy Note 4, such as fast charging, a UV sensor and multi-directional microphones.

Something that is unlikely but has nonetheless been rumored is a retina scanner, as Samsung has claimed to be looking at iris detection. Of course such technology may still be quite a way off yet and we’re not all that convinced we’ll see one in the Galaxy S6.