I’ve been a part of the Samsung Galaxy S6 clan since Christmas, and since that’s just a little bit over a month ago now, I thought it was more than enough time for collecting my thoughts on the device to share with you, so here we are.

Bear in mind, my previous handset was the Galaxy S3mini, so I’m no stranger to Samsung phones and the need for multiple battery packs, or patience with the android system. I did get the S3mini in 2013 though, and was soldiering on despite a cracked / peeling screen, the inability to move past JellyBean, and calls randomly cutting out at the 2 minute mark. We had a good run.

So with my little galaxy history out of the way, how does the Galaxy S6 compare?

First up, the gold makes a nice change from the pebble blue of the last body. Not that pebble blue was bad, just… gold is prettier? It spends 90% of its life in its case so it isn’t a major factor, really. I just like the shiny gold back.

MY THUMB IS ON THE PRINT SENSOR WHY IS IT NOT A MATCH. – this technology is pretty neat, though. It’s an added level of security which I do, really like. I just don’t appreciate it telling me I didn’t place my thumb on at the exact angle I did when it read the print??!?!

I got this for the camera, let’s face it. I’m very happy on that front, my instagram now looks fab. – with a 16 megapixel main camera, taking decent, clear snaps even in low lighting is no longer a challenge that requires more acrobatics than I am capable of.

Fast charging confuses me. The time difference between using the lightning charger vs a regular charger is basically a day. what? – ok so not a whole day, but the difference between plugging your phone in with a fast charger vs a normal lead is quite something. Fast charging is really nice though – I don’t have to have to make sure I have sufficient time to wait for full charge before going out!

I’ll  be endlessly amused by the fact that the home screen MOVES WHEN YOU MOVE THE PHONE. THAT’S SO CUTE. MOLANG’S FACE MOVES. – my phone’s wallpaper is the Korean bunny cartoon Molang, to clear up confusion there. I think it’s very snazzy that if you tick the ‘wallpaper motion effect’ to on, then when you rotate the phone in your hand the screen moves. It’s a really nice feature.

You can download themes for your handset. not having to install weird apps to do that is brilliant. I can change themes when I want (seasonally) and don’t have to download apps I can’t remove!  –  a pitfall of the S3mini was it’s lack of customisability, at least for me. I’m usually not a fan of the default theme, especially as I tend to favour pastel home screens and change wallpapers seasonally. Having a built in system for themes rather than installing apps that require multiple other downloads is much better, seeing as it was almost impossibly to remove one of the widgets I had on my S3mini. Max frustration.

Getting used to the size of it from a samsung s3mini was actually not that bad. but then again the phone cases I had for my s3mini made it a similar size.  – I knew the s6 wouldn’t be a problem for me size wise, as I tend to have the super huge silicon phone cases (teddies etc) that made my s3mini pretty much the same size as the s6. I haven’t invested in a thoroughly massive case for this one yet, but I can’t see it being an issue when I do…

The large screen is ace.

Downloading fonts is pretty swish. actually the customisability of the handset is brilliant. – not having to stick with the same 4 font options is nice! I’ve already covered the ability to customise already, but you really can do a lot with the handset that I couldn’t before!

My mum finds easy mode (for those who are getting used to their first smartphone) really useful. it has everything she needs and has helped her adjust very well (she also has the s6) – great feature for those who haven’t had a smartphone but wanted to upgrade. Means she doesn’t have a lot of the jargon that I have on mine, but she doesn’t lose any of the quality of the phone.

It was wonderfully easy to import all of the data from my old phone to the new one. – I was really concerned I’d lose contacts, important messages or photos. I backed everything up, but was surprised at how easy it was to swap the content over from my old phone to the S6. I used the suggested app, smartswitch, and it was all pretty quick!

App optimisation = winner. – I like being able to control which apps are ‘always power saving’, or on compatibility mode. It means that I’m not draining excess power when I don’t need to be and the background apps that run aren’t taking up my processing speed… or something.

Having the ‘view all programs/windows’ button to the left of the ‘home’ button was a bit odd – but useful. – on the s3mini you have to hold the home button down to close apps fully, which was a little bit of a nuisance sometimes. I like that the s6 has it’s own allocated button, and you can scroll through the windows rather than slide closure.

Battery life – It lasts for a full day or more, depending on how much I’ve used it. As I said, I’m well versed in shit samsung batteries, so it’s not really something I minded coming into the S6. I do think that the inability to change battery is annoying – for me that’s what set samsung phones apart from apple products. But with portable chargers being so cheap these days it’s not as much of an issue.

Screen options – I like the smart screen ideas, and the ability to change the screen mode – and that there are so many accessibility options.

Security – other than fingerprints, you can choose to lock your phone with patterns and passcodes – which are all other fab things that I was able to do on the S3mini, but it’s nice to see tried and tested tech be carried over.

Sim card Switch – the smooth sides are brilliant and nice in the palm, but when it comes to switching sim cards, having to scour the whole house for that one tiny little key thing… ehhh. Surely a push mechanism would’ve been just a-ok too? I mean it’s great on a security front because no one can just switch out the sim if the phone gets stolen, which would help with recovery I guess, but frustration.

Right. Those are my thoughts a month and a bit in – I’m sure I’ll have some more further down the line. If you have the s6, what do you think of it? Let me know 🙂

♥

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