The Galaxy S6 release date is almost set for a Spring launch in March or April, but Samsung hasn’t told us much about its upcoming flagship. The company is currently struggling with dropping Galaxy smartphone sales, which points out that the OEM hasn’t been doing something right. The Galaxy S6 should be the turning point for the Galaxy smartphone line, making it or breaking it.
Many users have been disappointed by the latest flagship in the Galaxy S line, the Galaxy S5, mostly because it had a sub-par design, a lot of bloat and features many users didn’t even ask for, ever. The Galaxy S6 aka Project Zero aims to change that. Even though Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed the Galaxy S6 release date, it’s pretty clear that the company will keep its traditional release schedule. Nonetheless, Samsung did say that Project Zero would be built from scratch and end up being a completely redesigned smartphone, which might delay the Galaxy S6 release date.
Samsung’s naming of the device development as Project Zero suggests that this phone will be a lot more different than what we’ve seen from the company. Consequently, rumors say that the Galaxy S6 design will be similar to that of the Galaxy A5 and A3, meaning we will be holding a full metal unibody phone in our hands next summer. At the same time, if we’re to believe rumors, the Galaxy S6 price will stay where it was with the Galaxy S5, namely around $700, which would be acceptable for a 2015 flagship. If it rises above that and Samsung motivates that as it did with the expensive, yet mid-range Galaxy Alpha, users I think will not be glad at all and Samsung might have to say goodbye to its impressive flagship sales altogether.
The Galaxy S6 display will probably end up putting the smartphone into the phablet category, since that’s the trend lately. Consequently, the Galaxy S6 display should be around 5.5 inches, so that it can compete with the LG G4, iPhone 6 Plus and other 2015 flagships, including the OnePlus Two. When it comes to resolution, we’re fairly sure we’ll either see a QHD display (1440 x 2560) or a 4K display (2160 x 3840) at which Samsung has repeatedly hinted. While we don’t have a lot of apps exploiting such a high resolution, 2015 is still in the future, so we’ll have to see what the company decides to do with its upcoming flagship.
Software-wise, the Galaxy S6 will surely run on Android 5.0 Lollipop “enhanced” with TouchWiz, but there exists the possibility of Project Zero getting Tizen, Samsung’s own mobile OS. Tizen has little support at the moment, so we think it’s unlikely the company would put it on their latest flagship. Nonetheless, it is a possibility and would be a pretty good marketing strategy – if Tizen is made perfect and receives a lot of support, which is unlikely. Alas, Android 5.0 Lollipop will be the most likely OS Samsung will slap onto the Galaxy S6.
While the Galaxy S5 performance is pretty good and can stay up to date with the new Android 5.0 Lollipop update that has just begun its rollout to the flagship, we think Galaxy S6 specs will be pumped up a notch or two. Consequently, the Galaxy S6 CPU will probably be a Snapdragon 808 or 810 64 bit architecture one, which would go wonderfully with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The choice in CPU will probably depend on the display resolution Samsung chooses to put on the Galaxy S6, too, since the 808 can support up to QHD, while the 810 can handle 4K as well. RAM-wise, we’re probably looking at at least 3 gigs of it. At the same time, a new flagship means more storage, which in turn means Samsung might adopt the 128 GB internal storage configuration.
Rumors say that the Galaxy S6 camera will remain at 16 MP with optical image stabilization, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see a 20 MP sensor slapped on the back of the phone. A pretty good 5 MP front shooter could also be put on there, since the selfie phone has become just as much of a trend as the QHD phablet. Features that might reappear on the Galaxy S6 are the heart rate sensor and fingerprint sensor, but I honestly hope Samsung doesn’t put them in Project Zero. If Samsung can learn, it should realize that those who use Galaxy phones are not Apple fans – they don’t want TouchID.
Samsung might also switch to its own LTE modem with the Galaxy S6, and use its own Exynos 64 bit processor, too, but most likely only in a certain Galaxy S6 variant. When it comes to battery, we’ve been pretty satisfied with what the company did on the Galaxy Note 4 and we expect nothing less on the Galaxy S6. If the upcoming 2015 Samsung flagship manages to hit the 2 day battery life with mixed use, it will be a hit for sure. But alas, we don’t know how the company will manage to do that, especially with a 4K display. Nonetheless, these are the most prevalent rumors so far, collected from various sources and through analysis of “flagship history”, so to speak. Take them with a grain of salt, because more than not, these will change by the time we hear from Samsung about the Galaxy S6 aka Project Zero.