Android Lollipop might only be on 3.3% of devices, but that number should be increasing every day. Earlier today we told you about Lollipop rolling out to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in India. Now we’re seeing some more Samsung + Lollipop love here in the U.S. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for Sprint and Note 3 for T-Mobile are receiving Lollipop right now.
This information comes straight from Samsung and Sprint themselves. Over on the FAQ for the Tmo Note 3 on Samsung’s site you can see “Android 5.0″ started rolling out on March 4th. On Sprint’s website you can see the same update started rolling out on March 5th.
Samsung also lists “Wi-Fi calling experience, Resolved Wi-Fi calling one way audi, and Resolved IPv6 email setup” in the changelog. The update should be rolling out now, but don’t expect every device to get it today. Check out what TouchWiz looks like on Android 5.0 in our hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S6. Welcome to Lollipop Land!
Wondering why everyone goes so crazy over CyanogenMod / Cyanogen OS but not willing to flash it for yourself? Perhaps the company’s latest video series is what you need. They’re calling it Cyanogen Bites, a series of short video highlights showing you the best features of the custom Android-based OS.
The first one is all about the app themer which lets you customize how individual app looks instead of having to use the same theme for the entire OS. Cool stuff, that, and you can really only get it if you use CyanogenMod. We’ll be on the lookout for more of these as time rolls on, for sure.
In January Motorola kicked off a program that allowed Motorola employees to gives discounts to their friends and family. You could get off a Moto X, or a Moto G for just 9. Today Motorola has announced some new and improved deals for the program. Here’s what you can get:
Moto 360 – 20% off Leather bands (including new cognac) – 9.99 Metal bands (including new mono-link) – 9.99 Champagne gold finish (including slim band) – 3.99
Nexus 6 – up to 26% off Choose midnight blue or cloud white 32gb – 9 64gb – 9
Moto X – up to 28% off Design your own – starting at 9.99 (0 off any configuration)
Moto G 3G – 16% off Black or white – 0
In order to grab these deals you’ll need to head on over to this link and fill out the form. You’ll need the name of a Motorola employee to fully fill out the form and be eligible for a coupon. It’s cool that Motorola is allowing employees to offer discounts to their friends and family members. Programs like this are what build loyalty among consumers. Will you be trying to get in on this deal?
Sprint’s giving folks a very good reason to consider switching to their network with their latest offer. They’re willing to pay any and every expense associated with leaving your carrier before fulfilling your commitments, whether that’s paying the ETF on a two-year contract or paying for the rest of your payment plan on a financed phone.
Here’s how it works:
Bring your number from any other carrier with an early termination fee or phone installment plan balance.
Activate a device on Sprint Easy Pay, iPhone for Life Plan, Sprint Lease or pay full retail price with a new line of service.
Complete an online registration www.sprint.com/joinsprint and upload a bill that shows applicable charges for reimbursement within 60 days of activation.
Customers are required to turn in competitor phones (in good working condition) tied to the bill they submitted. Sprint will provide a pre-paid kit to make this easy.
And that’s it. Sprint says they’ll hook you up no matter how much you owe, so if you’re only two payments into that Samsung Galaxy Note 4 they’ll pay it off for you no problem.
That’s a hard offer to turn down if you’re looking for a new wireless home, but you’ll have to evaluate Sprint’s network in your area, their service plans and other factors to see if the carrier is a good long-term solution for you. Be sure to do the proper research before you jump to make any big moves.
Concerns about monopolies, net neutrality and competition be damned: Time Warner and Comcast will no longer attempt to close a deal that would merge the two cable giants under Comcast’s banner. The internal desire — according to the two companies, anyway — was to bring more of their “great” product to more people in more cities. Says Comcast CEO and Chairman Brian L. Roberts:
Today, we move on. Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn’t agree, we could walk away.
Comcast NBCUniversal is a unique company with strong momentum. Throughout this entire process, our employees have kept their eye on the ball and we have had fantastic operating results. I want to thank them and the employees of Time Warner Cable for their tireless efforts.
But it didn’t take long for red flags to pop up all over the place. The department of justice was the biggest opponent from the get-go, and much like AT&T’s proposed buyout of T-Mobile it was hard for them to believe that this merger could do anything good for the state of the US cable and broadband market.
The landscape of competition in said market is already severely flawed, with many areas only able to choose between just one or two services. Yours truly literally had no choice other than Time Warner Cable up until a few years ago when AT&T finally rolled out DSL. You’ll find similar situations in many areas of the country where Time Warner, Cox and Comcast enjoy the fruits of being the only cable provider in town for miles on end.
Thankfully the powers that be which blocked this deal realized that this monopoly would hurt an already lopsided industry. If not for the likes of Google Fiber and Verizon FiOS, we might not have seen these companies scrambling to upgrade their customers to Gigabit speeds.
Take Time Warner Cable, for instance. They kept their Charlotte, North Carolina customers on 50 megabit packages for years at what most of them would consider “fair” prices, but it only took them weeks to upgrade those customers to 300 megabit packages after they heard Google Fiber was on the way. Comcast did the same in Atlanta, Georgia when Google confirmed plans to expand to that particular market.
It’s clear these companies weren’t (and likely still aren’t) willing to do anything to improve service and value for their customers unless they had true competition. Allowing them to merge would have done nothing to change that (and would most likely have worsened the situation beyond repair). Good on everyone to see fit to block the deal and nip it in the bud in this instance just as they did to protect the spirit of competition in the wireless industry.
Samsung, HTC and the carriers likely won’t be ready to announce pricing details for their latest smartphones until they’re nearly ready to be sold, but a couple of early contests have given us an idea of their suggested retail costs ahead of time.
HTC’s contest rules for the HTC One M9 reveals that the device’s estimated retail value is 9.99. This is less than what Best Buy was listing the device for ahead of its official unveiling, but Best Buy has been known to mark prices up in order to promote customers to buy on-contract or financing instead.
It’s important to remember that estimated retail values and minimum suggested retail prices are only baseline figures, and that actual price tags will most certainly vary from carrier to carrier and retailer to retailer. Still, it’s nice to get an accurate idea of how much you’ll need to save ahead of time in case you’re planning to buy one of these things at full cost. Do these prices look fair to you?
T-Mobile was in New York today to announce some exciting new changes for those who choose to use their service. The eye-opener most of you will care for: the un-contract. It’s what John Legere called his company’s commitment to never raise the price of the rate plan you happen to be on (though you shouldn’t rule out the possibility for them to lower it).
But even that isn’t the most exciting thing about this “contract.” The company also promised to make all promotional plans permanent, meaning if you happened to switch to T-Mobile for an unbelievable deal that wouldn’t last forever, that is now reversed. It does last forever (or as long as you want it to, anyway).
This means that awesome 4 lines for 0 plan that gave each line 2.5GB of data won’t be downgraded to 1GB of data after a couple of years — you’ll always have 2.5GB per line, and it’ll always be 0 as long as you don’t switch plans.
Another big piece of news: T-Mobile is taking Sprint’s cue by not only promising to pay your way out of a contract should you decide to leave, but also to pay for any device payment plans you may still have to take care of as a result. They’ll pay up to 0 per line for up to 10 lines, which should be more than enough wiggle room for you to migrate to Magenta’s network without having to pay your old carriers a dime.
Legere also touched on unlimited data, and while he didn’t have some earth shattering announcement to make in that regard, he did promise that they wouldn’t change their stance, prices or availability of it for at least the next two years. It’s not all that comforting to know that T-Mobile isn’t committed to unlimited data forever, but at least they’re committed long enough to keep sweat off our foreheads. Let us know if any of this will convince you to switch on over (or if this makes you happy that you’re with T-Mobile if you already have).
It’s been a while since we last heard rumors of Microsoft’s Cortana coming to Android. Way back in June of 2014 a manager from the Windows Phone team talked about the possibility of Cortana coming to other platforms. Now we’re hearing from Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research, that they are planning a bigger roll-out for Cortana later this year.
Microsoft is currently planning to bring Cortana to the desktop in Windows 10, which could be the perfectly opportunity to launch on Android and iOS as well. You might be thinking “why would Microsoft bring one of the best features of Windows Phone to competing platforms?” The new Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella is focused on getting more people using Microsoft services. Just look at all the apps they already have in the Play Store.
The big question for most Android users will be “why should I use Cortana?” Microsoft will have a tough job convincing users to switch away from the tightly integrated and powerful Google Now. When Cortana originally launched in beta 0n Windows Phone 8.1 we put it up against Google Now. A lot has changed since then, but it’s still a good look at the two services side-by-side.
Will you give Cortana a shot when it comes to Android?
Quick deal alert for folks wanting to add some funky stuff to their digital photography kit. The HTC RE Camera is on sale for at Best Buy, which is a full 0 off its normal retail price. HTC RE is meant to be a sporty camera that challenges products like the GoPro. Strap it to a helmet, a bike or something else and take unique photos and videos of the world — what’s not to like?
You can even live stream your musings in real-time and automatically sync clips to use for highlights with HTC’s Zoe app in Google Play (available to anyone with an Android phone, not just HTC users). Unfortunately it looks like Best Buy no longer has any orange units in stock, but the Blue and White are just as readily available as anything else.
Wondering how well this thing works? Here are just a few quick samples to give you a good idea before you run over to your local Best Buy:
There was another side of T-Mobile’s Uncarrier announcements today that business owners might want to be made aware of. The first is an all new simple choice of plans that get cheaper with the more employees you have.
It starts off at per line from 1-20 lines, goes to per line for lines 21-1,000, and per line for anything above that. All plans feature unlimited talk and text, and come with at least 1GB of data for your employees to use should they need it. Doesn’t sound too bad. T-Mobile says this effectively makes their business plans up to 40% cheaper than the other wireless carriers.
To continue on the front of simplicity and choice, the company gives you the freedom to add more data on a per-line basis, so if the CEO needs 10GB and his underlings only need 5GB, that’s totally possible. You could even opt for a “data pool” where you pay only what you and your employees use, from 100GB (.75 per GB) up to 1TB (.25 per GB). T-Mobile says it solves the problem of businesses paying for far more data than they’ll ever need, something other carriers purportedly design their plans around.
There were a few other perks sprinkled throughout the announcement, including a free .com domain name and website through GoDaddy, free .com email address and service through Microsoft Office 365, and discounts of up to 50% for family members of business customers. Not too shabby at all. Be sure to run these new features by your boss if you want them to consider giving it a go.
Google wants their search engine to become a resource for nearly everything, from health information to song lyrics. And now they’re adding another element we didn’t think we’d need (but probably will appreciate): cocktail recipes.
So the next time you decide on the perfect drink you want to feature at a social gathering you can simply search “how to make a dark and stormy” on Google, and the quick recipe will be smack dab at the top of the page for you to take a look at.
We should note it’s a very barebones implementation for a recipe, so specific measurements for different serving sizes, mixing instructions and more are absent. That still gives you plenty of reason to explore the other dozens of recipe sites that will show up in your search results. Have at it, and try not to have too many before you have to go back to work today!
It’s safe to say Google’s next Nexus smartphone won’t launch until summer at the earliest (and more likely fall, if we go off of previous year’s releases), but the rumors are already starting to swirl. The latest says not only will Google release two new Nexus handsets this year, but one will be produced by a Chinese manufacturer.
Google’s plan seems to include updating both Nexus models currently available. It’s too early whether or not to say they will retain the 5-inch and 6-inch form factors, but at the very least we should get a premium model (these early rumors say it will be produced by LG) and a more affordable option. The latter would be the device produced by a Chinese OEM, and the thinking is that OEM will be Huawei.
While we can’t put too much stock in the rumors as they sit, they make at least some sense. China continues to grow as a market for Google and Android, and it would do Google well to show some love to one of the biggest manufacturer of mobile devices in that country (and the biggest overall manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in the world). As for hardware specs? We won’t take any guesses at what those will look like just yet.
We take user manuals for granted these days. Most devices come with small tutorials to show you the basics, and then leave you off to explore your new toy with glee.
But if you’re the type who likes the informative literature that’ll show you the ins and outs of your device before using it, then you’ll be happy to know that the manual accompanying some of 2015’s most anticipated phones — the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge — is already available for your viewing pleasure.
With what seems like half the United States buried in a thick blanket of snow, it’s easy to forget that in the lands of grapefruits and oranges the 2015 MLB season is well underway. Spring Training began in earnest this week, and as players prepare for the grind of another year in the big leagues fans are being given the opportunity to spruce up their app game with a new update to MLB.com At Bat.
The big takeaway is a shift toward Google’s Material Design standards, bringing a truly native look to the app which provides fans with a way to stream live video and audio of MLB games direct from their smartphones and tablets (you’ll need to pony up for a subscription to enjoy the full benefits). The new UI stretches across team color-specific designs for all 30 designs plus an overhauled scoreboard view. Also included is support for Spanish language for the béisbol fans out there. You will still need to manually adjust your device’s language settings, however.
The new app is available now to download for free. While certain features can be enjoyed without a subscription, to get the full experience you will need to pay a .99 yearly fee or .99 monthly fee.
Android is on a lot of different types of devices these days, and it might be confusing for even an experience developer to efficiently target all of them with a single app. Thankfully Google has come up with a great new code example to show you exactly how it’s done.
This example uses a standard music player app that has a full-fledged user interface on your phone or tablet, but simple pause, play, and skip features for those using the app through Android Auto, Android TV or on their Android Wear smart watch. The app itself is very basic, but the point isn’t to show you how to make the holy grail of music players.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is one of the coolest looking Android devices in recent years. The curved edges make it look like a phone you might see in a sci-fi movie. However, the curved display is for more than just looks. Samsung has made use of the “Edge Screen” with some nifty features. Let’s taker a closer look at what you can do with the Edge Screen.
People Edge & Notifications
Since the Galaxy S6 Edge has curved displays you can actually see part of the display even when the phone is lying on its face. Samsung uses this area as a notification indicator. When certain notifications come in, such as a phone call, the Edge Screen lights up. If you’re getting a call and your phone is lying on its face you can even use the heart-rate sensor on the back to reject the call.
(click to enlarge)
When the phone is not lying on its face you can use a feature called “People Edge.” By swiping from the side of the Edge Screen you can bring up a list of five favorite contacts. You can use these as shortcuts to make calls and send SMS messages. If one of the five contacts has sent you some type of notification it will show a colored line that you can drag over to view.
Information Streams
Another thing you can do with the extra screen real estate on the edges is display information. Samsung calls this feature “Information streams,” and it allows you to display information from several different sources only on the edge. When the display is off you can slide your finger along the edge of the screen to bring up the stream, and then you can swipe through the sources.
(click to enlarge)
Some of the Information streams include Twitter, Facebook, and a few from Yahoo including news, sports, and finance. It’s a handy little feature for quickly getting some information without having to unlock the phone and dive into apps.
Night Clock
The Galaxy S6 Edge also has a Night Clock built in. When this feature is enabled it will show the current time and date only on the curved edge of the display. Since the clock is only on the edge display you can easily see it from your bed. The AMOLED display means the Night Clock doesn’t emit much light, and it can stay on all night with minimal battery drain.
What do you think about the Edge Screen features on the Galaxy S6 Edge? Are they useful or just gimmicky? Would you buy the Edge for these features, or do you just think it looks cool?
Claims that T-Mobile discontinued the Sony Xperia Z3 a few weeks ago seem to have been a bit premature. Although the device was reportedly no longer for sale earlier this month, it seems it may have simply been out of stock. The Xperia Z3 has returned to T-Mobile, sporting a new, lower price tag than before.
Marked down from 0 to 0 (full price), the phone can be put on a T-Mobile payment plan for just .83 a month for 2 years. Not a bad deal for a fully capable Android handset, one of the best even. After Sony quietly announced the Sony Xperia Z4 in Japan to little fanfare, our fingers are crossed Sony has something better planned for later this year.
Name any price to unlock 0 worth of courses covering web design basics and the ins and outs of responsive design. Pay higher than the average price (which sits at .61 as of writing) and gain access to 6 additional lessons and tutorials focusing on Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, user experience, and more.
All told, it’s an 0 value that can be yours for less than . Even better, 10% of all sales will be donated to Creative Commons. Better still, pay enough to rank on the leaderboard or hit the top spot and earn entries to an exclusive giveaway to be held in the future. You can’t get much more of an incentive than that. Head on over to AndroidArea.com now to name your price.
The talk of Samsung using premium materials in their devices has been going on for a long time. People have been begging Samsung to ditch the faux materials and go with metal and glass. With the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge they finally built a device that looks premium, and they’re not looking back.
At an annual shareholder’s meeting Co-CEO Shin Jong Kyun reiterated Samsung’s commitment to premium materials. They plan to offer more devices with metal casing, slim designs, and high-definition displays. This new focus on quality is important for Samsung to bounce back after being down the last few quarters. It already rose Samsung shares by 1.9% when the new Galaxy S6 devices were announced.
We’re happy to hear that Samsung is taking build-quality more seriously. Manufacturers like HTC and Sony have long out-classed Samsung in terms of premium devices. Samsung has been able to create huge market share with massively successful marketing campaigns and offering tons of different devices. The designs were starting to feel bland, but the new S6 devices have breathed some life into Samsung.
Virtual reality is ready to explode in popularity. Every manufacturer under the sun has a VR headset these days, including Samsung, HTC, and even Google. If anything is holding virtual reality back it’s the lack of content. In January Google promised 360-degree videos would be coming to YouTube. Today the feature finally went live, and there are some cool videos to show it off.
The playlist below has 6 videos that can be viewed in 360-degrees. If you view them in a browser you’ll see a d-pad in the upper left corner to control your view, but the real magic happens when you watch on your Android device. Load up one of the videos in the YouTube app and just move your device to look around the scene. It’s really cool. The experience gets even better if you have a Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard lying around.
The Nexus 7 2013 LTE has finally gotten its shot at receiving Android 5.1 Lollipop, folks. The OTA is rolling out, but if it hasn’t hit your device yet you can get going a couple of different ways. The first is by downloading the OTA file here, renaming it “update.zip”, dropping it onto the root of your device’s storage and jumping into recovery to flash.
You can also grab the factory image right here, which can be flashed through ADB (you’ll also find instructions for doing so if you aren’t already familiar with the process).
Android 5.1 doesn’t add much to Lollipop on the surface, though it does address many lingering bugs and adds a few tweaks to tighten up the blissful Lollipop experience. Go ahead and get it loaded onto your LTE Nexus 7 2013 as soon as possible!
We know, you’ve no doubt heard the claims that the iPhone 6 is the “best smartphone” in the market. At least, according to some. Now that the Samsung Galaxy S6 has finally launched, you’ve probably been curious to see how the 2 heavy weights match up. Wonder no more, friends. This is our Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6 face-off.
Design/Build quality (Winner: Galaxy S6 Edge)
Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, but there’s no denying Samsung did a bang up job updating the Samsung Galaxy S6 for 2015. We’ll admit, the Samsung obviously took some design cues from the iPhone 6. The familiar billet drilled speaker holes, headphone jack placement. Sure, the rest of the phone is all Galaxy, but the bottom of the S6 looks nearly identical to the iPhone’s.
And where someone might make the argument the rest of the phone is similar too, the Galaxy S6 Edge smashes previous conventions with an all new double-sided curved display. It’s not really functional so much as it is just damn cool to look at.
We still love the 2.5D glass on the iPhone 6, but it’s clear the Galaxy S6 Edge is a double threat — rock solid build quality, coupled with futuristic design. The Edge most certainly has the edge in this category.
Display (Winner: Galaxy S6)
The iPhone 6 was released nearly a year ago, a time where every Android flagship was boasting a 1080p display. While there is no excuse for Apple to release yet another iteration of the iPhone with a 1334×750 display, the iPhone 6 made up for it with Apple’s new multiple-domain LCD panel or “dual-domain pixels” that allowed for exceptional viewing angles. Color reproduction is top notch as well, even if things can occasionally look a tad washed out.
Samsung on the other hand has built a thriving business around their display panels, with Super AMOLED being their crown jewel. AMOLED offers the deepest blacks, the most saturated colors, and fantastic refresh rates. Arguments of over saturation are quickly laid to rest thanks to Samsung’s TouchWiz software which allows you to tone it down to your liking. And while 2K display sounds a bit like overkill, it’s hard to go back to anything else after your eyes have been spoiled by it for a few weeks.
The Galaxy S6 Edge also uses a flexible version of Samsung’s AMOLED panels, one that is curved around both sides of the device. It sounds great in theory, but when viewing the device head-on, images become warped and colors can look off at an angle. The Edge panel might win in sex appeal, but it’s clearly the loser here.
Hardware (Winner: Galaxy S6)
There’s no denying the iPhone 6 is built well enough, but mobile technology has been advancing at a lightning quick pace. Quicker than even Apple can keep up. The iPhone 6 added NFC capabilities, but they’re tied down to Apple’s payment method and not open to anything else.
Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy S6 features technology that supports both wireless charging standards, has adaptive fast charging that brings the battery to 50% in only 30 minutes, heart rate monitor for health nuts, a much louder speaker, and a fingerprint scanner that performs as flawlessly as the iPhone’s. Users can also use NFC right now to transfer data, sync with Bluetooth devices, or yes, make mobile payments using Google Wallet. Once Samsung Pay is officially ready, you’ll be able to use the phone as payment anywhere regular credit cards are swiped via Magnetic Secure Transmission.
With a doubt, the Samsung Galaxy S6 takes the hardware win on this one, leaving the iPhone 6 back in 2012 where it belongs.
Camera (Winner: Galaxy S6)
You know the story. The iPhone has long been the standard of mobile photography. Mixing a stupid simple interface with consistently great output, there hasn’t been an Android device that could really compete with the iPhone — until now.
For the Galaxy S6, Samsung has added a 16MP sensor that produces crystal clear visuals. This is thanks in part to a new f/1.9 aperture lens that allows more light to hit the sensor, and Optical Image Stabilization to compensate for shaky hands. The result are photos that look great no matter the lighting conditions. Oh, and there’s also a high resolution 5MP front facing shooter for selfie addicts.
The iPhone 6 on the other hand is using an 8MP camera with f/2.2 lens, along with a 1.2MP from facing camera. We’re not going to sit here and tell you photos taken with the iPhone 6 look bad by any means. It’s just the iPhone has finally been trumped by the Samsung Galaxy S6 which offers sharper images, more shooting modes, superior imaging hardware, and better control of the camera with a new Pro mode.
Battery life (Winner: iPhone 6)
Battery life is always one of the hardest specs to talk about in mobile devices, mainly because it’s never the same between 2 people. Having spent months with the iPhone 6 and a few weeks with the Galaxy 6, I think I have a good idea of how far the battery will take me on each. For the most part, they’re evenly matched despite their huge battery size differences: the iPhone 6 is equipped with a meager 1,810mAh, while the Galaxy S6 packs a much larger 2,550mAh battery.
I found that both will take my about 15 or so hours depending on use. Battery life on both seems to deplete evenly the more you use them. But it’s only on the iPhone 6 that when left alone, the battery barely drops at all when in standby. Keep in mind, that’s with all the same social apps, and constant notifications coming through the entire day waking up the display.
The battery on Galaxy S6 on the other hand seemed to drop no matter what I did. We have seen reports of battery life issues across various carrier versions of the device, so that’s definitely something to consider (although my devices didn’t show any of the symptoms). A buddy of mine sends me screenshots on the daily of his great battery life, meanwhile both my regular S6 and S6 Edge are barely pushing 12 hours if I’m lucky. Not sure what gives, but until Samsung can get their house in order, the iPhone 6 takes the win on this one.
Software (Winner: Galaxy S6)
We’ll admit, Apple’s been doing some great things with iOS as of late. Notification widgets are interesting and background app refresh are all nice additions Android users have been enjoying for years. Oh, and who can forget those cute new emoji.
But when you leave software features to the big boys, Samsung always comes out ahead. We mentioned this in our review, but despite Samsung removing much of their bloat from TouchWiz, the OS itself is still chock full of features. There’s too much to list here, but our favorites are Multi-view window for displaying 2 apps at the same time, quick gestures, and emergency features. The best part is these software features no longer bog down the OS. TouchWiz is finally as fast as stock Android, making it a joy to use.
If you’re an iOS user, don’t worry. We’re sure you’ll see a few of these features in a few more years. Maybe with iOS 10.
Price (Winner: Tie)
The base model Samsung Galaxy S6 starts at 0 on contract for 32GB model, or 0 full price (there’s also the 0 unlocked international model). From there it jumps 0 for every storage increase — 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB. The Galaxy S6 Edge also sees another 0 bump simply for its gorgeous curved AMOLED display.
The iPhone 6 on the other hand, starts at 200 for the 16GB model (0 unlocked), then jumps an extra 0 to the 64GB version, and another for hundred bucks for the 128GB option. For whatever reason, there is no 32GB model, a clever move by Apple to nudge consumers into grabbing the 64GB iPhone 6.
While pricing is for the most part the same across the board, the regular Galaxy S6 offers more internal storage at the base configuration. It’s the next 2 tiers — 64GB and 128GB — that things even out, with the S6 Edge being the most expensive out of the bunch.
Verdict
If you’ve made it this far, we think it’s pretty obvious the Samsung Galaxy S6 is the clear winner in this race. The phone offers more hardware for your money, a superior camera, and all around better software experience. From here, the real question is whether you’ll be opting for the S6 Edge, and in what color.
The Galaxy S6 scores almost a clean sweep in our comparison, tidily defeating the iPhone 6 in just about each of the categories we examined. For those keeping score at home, here is the final tally:
It’s pretty obvious which phone we would want to have in our pocket, though the decision might not be so close for others. There is no denying the iPhone 6’s place among the smartphone elite, but does Samsung win this round? Let us know which phone you are going with in the below poll.
