<div>For years people have whined about the design of the Galaxy smartphones. The unchanging contours, the inescapable cheap plastic and the Apple-wannabe styling minus the build, have been major annoyances. By the time the Galaxy S5 came along, potential buyers had had it and turned to other options. And then Samsung decided it had better listen to the world after all and created the Galaxy S6 and the Edge. Gone is the plastic, replaced by the more loved metal and glass especially on the back of the phone in its Platinum Gold variant. Gone also is the Apple-wannabe look: now, from the front, it looks exactly like the iPhone! And has the build to carry off the look.<br /><br />While practically everyone who sees it has something to say on the resemblance to the iPhone, they do think the S6 is the best-looking phone Samsung ever made. <br /><br />The S6 is really thin and light and although that’s a delight, it means we sacrifice the ability to open up the back panel and get at the battery and a slot for the memory card.<br /><br />The S6 looks even better the moment you turn on its razor-sharp screen. It’s a 5.1-inch 1440x2560 pixels resolution QHD Super AMOLED display with a whopping 577ppi density. I didn’t think the colours overdone, nor was there any question of compromise on the viewing angles. It’s also more sunlight-friendly than Samsung’s previous phones, including the Note 4 I use.<br /><br />The screen is the perfect canvas for what is turning out to be the best camera on a smartphone. Camera reviewers are reporting impressive test results for the S6, beating the iPhone 6 on the camera front. Samsung has worked hard on the camera. The home button on the device, when pressed twice quickly, opens up the camera and it does so fast, even from the locked screen. The camera app is minimalistic and neat and offers a Pro mode from where you can set exposure, white balance, ISO, focus, and make your own presets. The cameras are a 16MP on the rear and a 5MP on the front, and both have an f1.9 aperture. There’s an LED Flash optical image stabilisation, and real-time HDR. It takes excellent fast shots in daylight and good ones in indoor low light. It shoots 4K video. If you’re looking for a powerful camera phone, the Galaxy S6 is the one to go for right now. Upgraders from high-end phones like the Note 4, you have a pretty good camera to begin with.<br /><br />You have all the power you need on the S6 with its own Exynos 64-bit Octa Core (Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57) processor. There’s 3GB of RAM and variants with 32, 64 and 128GB storage. It’s 4G capable. All the power does mean it heats up a little though, even if you just use the camera for a while. The battery, a 2,550mAh, is barely adequate, but then you do have fast charging.<br /><br />The S6 is terribly important to Samsung at this point when it’s draining profits despite being the No 1 smartphone vendor, beating Apple. The world is not the same as it was when the Galaxy S3 took the world by storm and cheaper smartphones today offer superb design and top-notch specs, except the camera, at shockingly low prices. The S6 starts at Rs 49,900 for the 32GB model. The beautiful S6 Edge, is Rs 56,300. The S6 faces great competition and even though it’s been given an Editor’s Choice status by several publications, it’s anyone’s guess how the device will eventually fare in the market. <br /> </div><table width="600" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5" border="2"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Honor 6 Plus</strong></td></tr><tr><td><img width="200" height="397" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=a9d730b5-ed23-42e0-ab5d-7725a4c1f036&groupId=222861&t=1431350347655" alt="" />Elegant and flagship-like, the Honor 6-Plus is nicely understated. Not something you’d hesitate to carry around, for Rs 26,499. A 5.5-inch Android smartphone, it would have been difficult to tell apart from so many others if it weren’t for some tricks in the camera department. Parent company Huawei claims it can take better pictures than a DSLR. If only life were that easy….<br /><br />The Honor 6-Plus has three 8-megapixel cameras on board. The focus, so to speak, is on getting that depth of field look where you have the things in the distance all blurred, and whatever you’re focusing on, nice and sharp. In outdoor light, the two back cameras do this quite well, though it’s still a bit of a gimmick. If you hold very still and are good at framing photos that will result in this contrast between focused and unfocused, you can get some impressive 13MP pictures. The bokeh in the background can look quite good, though ultimately it looks good for a phone and it isn’t anywhere near what you see with a “proper” camera. The camera’s software has a wide exposure mode but this is mostly software-led. You can also focus the photo after taking the shot. That’s a trick that started out on Nokia phones and is also part of the Google camera app. The two 8MP cameras are auto focus. The 8MP front camera is a fixed focus shooter. In darker conditions, the image gets light-filled, but is definitely a bit warm toned.<br /><br />The Honor 6-Plus is otherwise quite a power-packed device. A powerful home-grown processor, 3GB RAM, a 1080x1920 screen, 32GB onboard storage and a 3,600mAh battery. It works with Huawei’s Emotion UI skin which is light and unintrusive, other than being quite simple. </td></tr></tbody></table><div><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 18-05-2015)</div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
