Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus Review

Smartphone manufacturers are desperately trying to find new ways to differentiate their products in a market that’s becoming increasingly crowded. As smartphones become more complex by the day, it’s no longer enough to simply make a “good” phone. Your phone has to have something extra, a certain je ne sais quoi that separates it from the pack. Samsung took this belief several steps into the future when they unveiled the Galaxy S6 Edge along with the S6 earlier this year. Identical to the S6 in every way but screen, Samsung produced the S6 Edge for those fashion minded individuals who wouldn’t mind dropping a few hundred more bucks for a curved display. Now with the emphasis being on larger displays, Samsung doubled down on both. They introduced the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, as an alternative to the Note 5, which is their current big screen flagship. I spent a week with the S6 Edge Plus, and put it through my normal ringer of tests. Does it stand up to the abuse? Or is it just another pretty face in the crowd? Read on to find out:

One thing that is immediately clear about this phone is it’s absolutely stunning. The review unit I received was gold, and it looked amazing. The 5.7 inch display was a perfect pitch black when turned off, but when powered on, it was extremely bright and vibrant. Oddly enough, because of the larger screen, the S6 Edge Plus has a lower ppi count than the standard S6 Edge(518 ppi vs 577), but I could hardly tell a difference between the two.  Pictures and videos looked great on this Quad HD panel, and color reproduction was spot on. One of my least favorite things about the S6 Edge has transferred to the Edge Plus, and that happens to be how the phone feels in your hand. Samsung did their best to round out the sides and edges of the phone, and for the most part they did a solid job. The unfortunate part, is because of the curved edge, the sides of the phone are super straight and it ends up feeling really sharp. In addition to that, thanks to the high polish, high gloss finish, the phone is super slippery and tends to be a giant fingerprint magnet.

There’s a considerable amount of tech stuffed into the S6 Edge Plus, but Samsung didn’t really stray too far from their other releases. This phone packs both wireless and Samsung’s Adaptive Fast Charging capabilities, a super fast 2.1GHz Octa-core Exynos processor, 4GB of RAM, and is available in either 32 or 64GB storage options. I felt like most of these specs were a bit of overkill, but then I used the phone and immediately fell in love with how lightning quick it was. There was ZERO lag, no slow downs, no stutters, essentially no matter what I tossed at the Edge Plus, it just powered through it. I will say it’s a good thing that this phone has adaptive fast charging though, because as much as it powered through everything I threw at it, I totally sacrificed precious battery life. In fact, battery life was another one of my least favorite things about this phone as for some reason Samsung felt it necessary to drop a 3,000 mAh battery in here. Not that that’s a terrible decision, but considering both the Nexus 6 and the Note 4 has a 3,220 mAh battery, I think there should’ve been a sacrifice made to get a bigger battery in there.

My favorite thing about this phone was hands down the camera. Samsung used a 16MP main camera, with auto-focus and 8X digital optical zoom, and the results taken were simply amazing. Daylight photos looked great, letting almost the perfect amount of light into the sensor with each photo I took. Normally, I’d have to hop into the camera settings to mess with the ISO and white balance to get pictures to turn out good, but Auto mode took pictures that wound up just as good. If you happen to be one that likes to dabble in adjusting the settings in your camera to get the perfect shot, you’ll be pleased to know that Samsung has you covered. Inside the camera app, there’s a new “Pro” mode that lets you adjust everything from exposure, to shutter speed, manual or auto focus, or lighting settings to give your photos a built-in filter effect. There’s also the ability to save up to three custom presets for photography pros in training. The front facing camera is a 5MP lens, and it definitely gets the job done. Since selfies are all the rage now, users will be pleased to know that Samsung also included their wide angle lens in the Edge Plus. That means less effort to get you and your entire squad in one solid shot. Shooting video in 4k is an option here also, but I’d be careful with actually using it. While the results were pretty stellar, it drained my battery like nobody’s business and took up a tremendous amount of storage.

We got a Verizon review unit so the data speeds and phone call quality were well above average in our network area. I live in Michigan and there was no issue browsing the web, taking phone calls, or streaming video. Everything worked as expected.

The Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is a pretty solid step forward for Samsung, but at the end of the day I don’t think it really needs to exist. I wouldn’t be surprised if by next year, the Edge and Edge Plus get molded into one device that somehow meets in the middle with specs and hardware. If you want a gorgeous phone with solid camera and ultra fast performance, the Edge plus is the way to go.