<p><em>The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ is a beautiful phone and it charges as fast as advertised. But the dual wrap-around edges also make it a slippery customer<br><br><strong>By Mala Bhargava</strong></em><br><br>Not long ago, Samsung was being bitterly criticised for the unchanging plasticky design of its smartphones. Today, many are saying the Galaxy S6 Edge+ is possibly the best-looking smartphone on earth. Truly, if you see the Gold Platinum or Silver Titanium versions, they’re dazzling, all glass and gloss. It’ll be a crying shame to have to put it away into a case, which you may well have to do because the beautiful wrap-around screen flowing off both edges makes the device as slippery as an eel. You have to be a very careful person to live with this slippery stunner.<br><br>The dual edges and overall smoothness on the sides is so pronounced it makes the expensive piece of gadgetry feel like it’s going to slip away from your hands. One reviewer went so far as to call it a “usability nightmare” because you couldn’t rest easy at any point while holding it. Taking it out of a bag or pocket quickly is just not recommended. I wouldn’t dare drop-test it but have seen demonstrations of how tough it actually is compared with the iPhone 6, though in real life, people have reported cracks.<br><br>What the Edge does is very little, sadly. One would have thought that there would be dozens of new functions added to the spill-over screen after it first appeared on the Note 4 Edge, but it still shows the time in its night clock mode, lets you swipe a news ticker, acts as a little app drawer for apps you use often, and lights up in colours selected to go with your favourite contacts. It adds hugely to the overall aesthetics, giving the phone a tapered sleek look found nowhere else, and it somehow makes watching video a more pleasurable experience — but that’s about it. But what it doesn’t do, it makes up for in looks.<br><br>The front and back of the S6 Edge+ is glass but on the back and on two strips in front it looks like shiny glass-metal. It’s not easy to play with gold and silver and keep the cheesiness out, but Samsung manages it here. There will be finger smudges though and you’ll want to wipe them off immediately to get the phone back to its pristine beauty. The phone actually looks like a bigger version of the S6 Edge, and yet it doesn’t. Perhaps it’s just that there’s more of it. This time around, the back isn’t removable. That annoys some power users who want more storage and the freedom to swap batteries… for instance, I have three whole batteries for my Note 4. On the other hand, you have special fast charging, a fact that Samsung has been advertising heavily in its ads. And it works as advertised. The battery is smaller than the phone deserves, but I was able to get 12 hours of heavy use, much of it watching video, and 24 hours of lighter use, doing a smattering of things that included some video watching too. It charges so fast I found myself getting a kick out of powering it down and checking the battery indicator for progress. Its wireless charger is optional at Rs 1,700.<br> </p><table style="width: 200px;" align="right" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Model-with-Phone_RS_ANKITA-SINGH-mdm.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; float: right;"><em>16MP and 5MP cameras with F1.9 lens, OIS and 4K recording with direct broadcast to YouTube<br><em>(Photograph: Ritesh Sharma, Model: Ankita Singh)</em></em></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The Home button doubles as a fingerprint sensor and this is a job it does very well. I didn’t get a single rejection. The button triples up to open the camera, when pressed twice, and this too is extremely fast.<br><br>The S6 Edge+’ screen is the best there is. They say the human eye can’t really tell the difference beyond a point but I beg to disagree as one can tell immediately that one is looking at a crystal clear display with great colours, no sign of distortion when tilting angles and legibility even in sunlight. Photos, videos and games look fantastic on this screen and the wrapping edges give a feeling of seamlessness. This time around, the speaker is not under the phone where it’ll get muffled but on the bottom and it’s much better than previous models.<br><br>This phone has all the power it needs to make using its lovely display a sheer pleasure. It doesn’t have a whole lot of storage space and no expansion with a card so you’ll have to use cloud storage more than you ever did. This omission is a big grouse with power users especially since you need space for photos and videos more than ever on this phone.<br><br>Performance is just smooth all the way. Samsung’s famous interface, TouchWiz, has seen some tweaking and is much lighter and there was no lag I could detect at this initial point. The jewel in the crown of the S6 Edge+ is its camera. For the most part it shares the same camera as the S6 and S6 Edge, but with this size of screen (also on the Note 5) the results of your camera work look spectacular. The camera is fast and gives great images (which you can even save as RAW files if you’re a photo geek) with lots of detail, sharpness and brightness. In low light, it keeps the noise down while maintaining sharpness and images don’t look horribly artificially boosted. It takes stunning 4k videos with its optical image stabilisation helping the quality greatly. The camera app is one of the best and there are lots of modes to work with, including a Pro mode that gives you full control over settings. With this device and the Note 5, you can broadcast video straight to YouTube, bypassing the need for Periscope. But beware that the camera lens does jut out on the back and so that’s another thing you need to be careful about.<br><br>If there were five things I would buy this device for, it would be the camera, the beauty, the screen, the fingerprint sensor (which enables the use of Samsung Pay) and the power. Make that six as there’s also its flagship feature, fast wireless charging. If there were one reason I wouldn’t buy it, it’s the sheer vulnerability of the device, though there are fancy cases that will help counter that. It’s also an expensive phone, but so is everything else in the flagship category.<br><br><strong>Bose Sound True ultra In-ear headphones</strong><br>For such a feather-light piece of kit, Bose SoundTrue Ultra In-Ear Headphones is a mouthful and almost longer than the gadget itself. But it gives you something not easy to find at a low price. Or should I say relatively low price, for these phones cost Rs 11,139. And what they give you is noise reduction. On the face of it, the SoundTrue Ultra looks like some of Bose’s other in-ear headphones such as those from the Quiet Comfort range.<br> </p><table style="width: 500px;" align="center" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/BOSE-Soundtrue-ultra-in-ear-headphone-lrg.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 384px;"></td></tr><tr><td><strong>BOSE SOUND TRUE ULTRA IN-EAR HEADPHONES</strong><br><br>For such a feather-light piece of kit, Bose SoundTrue Ultra In-Ear Headphones is a mouthful and almost longer than the gadget itself. But it gives you something not easy to find at a low price. Or should I say relatively low price, for these phones cost Rs 11,139. And what they give you is noise reduction. On the face of it, the SoundTrue Ultra looks like some of Bose’s other in-ear headphones such as those from the Quiet Comfort range.<br><br>But this pair doesn’t have a little box attached to it with buttons for levels of noise cancellation. Instead, the noise isolation is built-in and it’s passive. You can’t control and adjust it. It’s just there and although it isn’t as effective as active noise cancellation, it’s pretty good.<br><br>The earbuds have the signature Bose translucent rubbery hooked piece on them: they stabilise the earbuds and help them not to fall out. In fact, although they didn’t feel as if they were a great fit for my ear canals, they stayed firmly in once in place and wouldn’t budge even when I gave my head a big shake. They’re very comfortable and you can use them easily for many hours, should you want to.<br><br>To clarify, this isn’t a Bluetooth set of headphones, so you do have to connect in the regular way. The wires are long enough and come with a little clip so you can stick them on your shirt. On the right is a small thin controller for volume and on or off. Other than that, it’s all very minimalistic and comes with a small case.<br><br>The earphones sound pretty good but are on the flat or balanced side. It’s the kind of sound that doesn’t necessarily make your eyes widen in amazement but nonetheless feels like good quality. You have to really want noise reduction though, if you want to pay the asking price. If it’s just fantastic sound you’re after, there are other options.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br><br>But this pair doesn’t have a little box attached to it with buttons for levels of noise cancellation. Instead, the noise isolation is built-in and it’s passive. You can’t control and adjust it. It’s just there and although it isn’t as effective as active noise cancellation, it’s pretty good.<br><br>The earbuds have the signature Bose translucent rubbery hooked piece on them: they stabilise the earbuds and help them not to fall out. In fact, although they didn’t feel as if they were a great fit for my ear canals, they stayed firmly in once in place and wouldn’t budge even when I gave my head a big shake. They’re very comfortable and you can use them easily for many hours, should you want to.<br><br>To clarify, this isn’t a Bluetooth set of headphones, so you do have to connect in the regular way. The wires are long enough and come with a little clip so you can stick them on your shirt. On the right is a small thin controller for volume and on or off. Other than that, it’s all very minimalistic and comes with a small case.<br><br>The earphones sound pretty good but are on the flat or balanced side. It’s the kind of sound that doesn’t necessarily make your eyes widen in amazement but nonetheless feels like good quality. You have to really want noise reduction though, if you want to pay the asking price. If it’s just fantastic sound you’re after, there are other options.<br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-11-2015)</p>
