After being out of the android game for 2 years, I wanted to give it another go. I have a nexus 5 but I don't use it much. I've got a S6 Edge+ on the way through verizon. I'm also using this opportunity to test verizon's network versus AT&T. I will be going to LA next weekend for a few days and am looking forward to testing the networks and phones out there for navigation and such.
Impressions after a few days.
Screen – The first thing you notice is the screen. It is gorgeous. The edge really makes it look neat. This is definitely one of the best displays on the market. I use the clock on the edge screen as a clock next to my bed since I don’t have one and it’s actually pretty nice, although I noticed sometimes it’ll get hung up and lag a few minutes behind before it catches up.
Battery – This one hasn’t been so great for me. I cannot figure out why, even after doing a full reset in the bootloader, why cell standby is killing my battery. I get good reception both at home and at work (-93dbm at work and -78dbm at home) but the cell standby has been the number one battery drain every day so far. Yesterday I got 2:45 of screen on time when it died.
Build quality – Phenomenal. Samsung has really stepped their game up in this department, the build quality on my S3 was horrible, but this is much, much better. The buttons are super solid, something that cannot be said for my old 5s. The back (obviously) doesn’t creak or feel hollow either, which is nice.
Software – This is a big one for me. In my opinion, software is really what makes or breaks a phone. Forget all the hardware ‘specs’ like the OEMs advertise; they’re all top of the line today.
To start, Samsung has really slimmed down the experience of touchwiz from the S3-S5. All of those had too many useless features that made the experience worse. But now, with the omission of many of those, the experience is undoubtedly better, but there is still much room to improve. I own a nexus 5 as well, and I really don’t have many complaints about stock android. However, I always have enjoyed stock android. Back on my S3, I had a custom rom of stock android for much of my time since touchwiz was so bloated.
I tried the touchwiz launcher for a day, but couldn’t do it. Google now launcher is great, I’m actually using it over Nova prime. Google now has improved a lot since I used it last, the parking feature is so cool and has been deadly accurate thus far. However, that being said, I have never lost my car and it’s much more of a novelty than a useful feature, that’s sort of the story with a lot of the features though.
An annoyance that I have is samsung’s icons. They used to be better IMO, the S3 touchwiz icons were more square instead of oval like they currently are, and they matched the rest of the icons better. I know this can be easily changed by installing an icon pack, but it’s just an extra step that some won’t know how to do.
Camera – I was really looking forward to this, I’ve read great things about it and didn’t see much of an improvement over my 6s from my 5s, I was excited how the S6 compares. It certainly didn’t disappoint, the camera is outstanding. You can definitely tell the image processing is more aggressive, but that’s not a bad thing if it improves the picture. One thing I don’t like is how the front camera softens the image to make your face look better. It looks like I’m wearing makeup.
Misc. – Quick charging is soooo nice! It’s crazy fast just like everyone says. The fingerprint scanner is good too, miles better than the S5’s and Note 4’s, but no match for the 6p and 6s scanners. I’m sure it’ll be improved in the S7. I wish there was a unified email inbox where I could put my pop account, work exchange, and gmail account. Using 2 email clients is annoying and the built in Samsung one isn’t great.
Impressions after a few days.
Screen – The first thing you notice is the screen. It is gorgeous. The edge really makes it look neat. This is definitely one of the best displays on the market. I use the clock on the edge screen as a clock next to my bed since I don’t have one and it’s actually pretty nice, although I noticed sometimes it’ll get hung up and lag a few minutes behind before it catches up.
Battery – This one hasn’t been so great for me. I cannot figure out why, even after doing a full reset in the bootloader, why cell standby is killing my battery. I get good reception both at home and at work (-93dbm at work and -78dbm at home) but the cell standby has been the number one battery drain every day so far. Yesterday I got 2:45 of screen on time when it died.
Build quality – Phenomenal. Samsung has really stepped their game up in this department, the build quality on my S3 was horrible, but this is much, much better. The buttons are super solid, something that cannot be said for my old 5s. The back (obviously) doesn’t creak or feel hollow either, which is nice.
Software – This is a big one for me. In my opinion, software is really what makes or breaks a phone. Forget all the hardware ‘specs’ like the OEMs advertise; they’re all top of the line today.
To start, Samsung has really slimmed down the experience of touchwiz from the S3-S5. All of those had too many useless features that made the experience worse. But now, with the omission of many of those, the experience is undoubtedly better, but there is still much room to improve. I own a nexus 5 as well, and I really don’t have many complaints about stock android. However, I always have enjoyed stock android. Back on my S3, I had a custom rom of stock android for much of my time since touchwiz was so bloated.
I tried the touchwiz launcher for a day, but couldn’t do it. Google now launcher is great, I’m actually using it over Nova prime. Google now has improved a lot since I used it last, the parking feature is so cool and has been deadly accurate thus far. However, that being said, I have never lost my car and it’s much more of a novelty than a useful feature, that’s sort of the story with a lot of the features though.
An annoyance that I have is samsung’s icons. They used to be better IMO, the S3 touchwiz icons were more square instead of oval like they currently are, and they matched the rest of the icons better. I know this can be easily changed by installing an icon pack, but it’s just an extra step that some won’t know how to do.
Camera – I was really looking forward to this, I’ve read great things about it and didn’t see much of an improvement over my 6s from my 5s, I was excited how the S6 compares. It certainly didn’t disappoint, the camera is outstanding. You can definitely tell the image processing is more aggressive, but that’s not a bad thing if it improves the picture. One thing I don’t like is how the front camera softens the image to make your face look better. It looks like I’m wearing makeup.
Misc. – Quick charging is soooo nice! It’s crazy fast just like everyone says. The fingerprint scanner is good too, miles better than the S5’s and Note 4’s, but no match for the 6p and 6s scanners. I’m sure it’ll be improved in the S7. I wish there was a unified email inbox where I could put my pop account, work exchange, and gmail account. Using 2 email clients is annoying and the built in Samsung one isn’t great.
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