back to article Phabba-dabba-do: Samsung hypes up Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

The grandeur of today's Samsung S6 phabgasm in Barcelona reminded your correspondent of the scene in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when the day dawned for the announcement of the Answer (to life the universe and everything). Think pop concert, complete with glowing wristbands, dramatic music with drums and a stage the …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

    That thundering sound you hear is the sound of millions of Samsung fanboys backtracking on their arguments why the iPhone sucks.

    1. King Jack
      FAIL

      Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

      It just means that this phone sucks too. The only benefit is profit for Samsung as they sting customers for inflated storage costs. Looks Like I won't be buying an S6 any time in this lifetime.

    2. ratfox

      Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

      It's the Sony phones that all have waterproofing, not the Samsung.

      That said, I agree that removable batteries and SD slots are not important for the vast majority of users.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

        No SD slot ?

        No thanks !

        1. Madge

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          Agree, having used a 16gb iPhone would not go back. Sony Xperia phones are great. Expandable memory which suits me as I travel a lot, can add as many photos as I want and more. It's waterproof and the camera is very good.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          Given a choice between 32GB storage or 16GB and SD I'd go for 32gb myself.

          I never could get my HTC M8 to run certain apps like Droidsound properly due to the KitKat update.

      2. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

        >It's the Sony phones that all have waterproofing, not the Samsung.

        Samsung do make 'Active' versions of the S4 and S5 that are waterproof, but they have been given a rugged style in addition.

        But yeah, waterproofing is Sony's way to distinguish themselves from other high-end Android phones. Samsung's has always been, until now, to be throw all the latest technology together along with removable batteries and SD storage. Now, it seems Samsung are going all in for style and thinness - and I suspect they do have to shed their reputation for plastic.

        Perhaps Samsung will release a variant of the S6 with a removable battery, or simply a fatter model with a bigger battery.

        1. Monty Burns

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          What are you guys on? My S5 is waterproof and IP rated and it's a normal version!

      3. robmobz
        FAIL

        Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

        well, the standard one sitting on my colleges desk in front of me is rated IP67.

    3. MrXavia

      Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

      Nope its the thundering sound of Samsung owners moving to other brands.. I need a new phone this year and now Samsung have just likely lost my custom, built in Battery I can deal with, no MircoSD though, that is a deal breaker for me....

    4. LarsG

      Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

      So it has become an iPhone in all but name? Ok it has a curved edge but once it sits in a case, advantage lost.

      1. ratfox

        Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

        I'm curious, what do people need SD cards for? The lowest of the low phones comes with 16GB nowadays, and I only use 10. Are you keeping all your holidays videos from the past ten years on your phone?

        1. getHandle

          > what do people need SD cards for?

          Music for me. My 32GB sd card is more than half-full of music and copying that when I get a new phone, rather than just moving the card, is a real pain!

        2. james 68

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          Those of us who travel a lot tend to fill up that kind of space in no time at all. Think books and movies to keep entertained on long flights, also photos and videos from the destinations, it adds up very quickly and SD cards are the only real solution.

        3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          /I'm curious, what do people need SD cards for? The lowest of the low phones comes with 16GB nowadays, and I only use 10.

          For me it's mainly pictures, audio books and offline maps. I've got quite a few apps with their own beefy storage requirements meaning that the phone's own storage can start to look a little small. And it also makes a lot of sense to put certain kinds of data on separate media.

          1. Rampant Spaniel

            Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

            Quite a few things. I have a few games that are 2-3 GB each. Offline terrain maps run about 10 GB for the Island. Music, videos etc. Books is a huge one, I have loads for work which take up about 23 GB.

            I'm probably highly abnormal (what's new) but I can see others using far more than me just with music and videos.

        4. Peter 48

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          music for all those times you have no access to a usable data stream, full HD video (3-4GB each), photos and 4K video recording. Add a couple of top end games at 4 GB each and a full backup on the memory card and you could easily fill 128GB or more

        5. Madge

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          I'm heading into my last 10 days of a five week holiday in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Both incredibly beautiful places, photos as my Xperia has a great camera and is waterproof for high humidity, and not done yet, dropping into water

        6. Justin Pasher

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          "I'm curious, what do people need SD cards for?"

          Personally, I don't use it for the extra capacity that much. I use it because it is REMOVABLE storage. It's an easy way to get large amounts of data on or off the phone. I can also perform periodic backups with Titanium Backup, which means if the phone conks out, I can still have a copy of my data that doesn't require some on-line cloud-esque sync solution. Granted, ad SD card can die too, but a phone dying takes a lot more down with it.

          1. Danny 14

            Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

            The only thing that has kept my s2 useful and in service is the 2 removable sd cards and replacement batteries. I thought about an s4 but can't see rhe point until the s2 dies.

            As for space, sat nav takes a few gig, music about 10, photos another 5. Or so. Video maybe 5,games and stuff another 3 plus a backyp for when im playing wirh roms.

        7. Occams_Cat

          Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

          I recently worked down in Patagonia for a month and was away from WiFi, the Internet and this thing called 'the cloud' for long time. After 3 weeks of taking personal photos and videos on my Nexus 5 of all the amazing places we passed through, my phone was snapped into two pieces during a particularly eventful day. Needless to say, I lost everything.

          If the phone supported a micro SD card I could have popped out out and saved the lot. This is why I'll not buy another phone without removable storage.

        8. N13L5

          Re: "The lowest of the low phones comes with 16GB nowadays, and I only use 10"

          Don't draw conclusions about others from your own lack of using the full potential of your tiny, pocket-able computer.

          I have 20 GB of music, 32GB of about 7,200 books ranging in subject matter from technical, engineering to medical and also a few novels. Then a few movies, concert videos and downloaded Harvard lectures from Youtube and other tutorials for another 30GB. Beyond that, I take a lot of pictures and video with the phone, which also tends to grab space, so there isn't that much room left on my current 128GB MicroSD.

          I can access all this without an internet connection, whenever I need it, as its always in my pocket.

    5. Peter 48

      Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

      actually that thundering noise you hear are the millions of Samsung fanboys ditching Samsung and heading off to other manufacturers

    6. N13L5

      Re: Built in battery, no SD slot, no waterproofing?

      Certainly was never a Samsung "fan", but bought their phones because they offered the features I wanted, which included removable, swappable batteries, a MicroSD card slot (would have preferred two of them), and a high quality plastic that could take a lot of abuse without passing all the pressure on to the glass, like metal does, in case of a drop.

      AND, I really can't wait until people find out that the curved part of the phone's display takes on scratches like no tomorrow and looks awful after a few months.

  2. j800rob

    And their USP is...?

    According to an article on the beeb about this new S6, from a little distance it looks awfully similar to the iPhone 6. Moreover, they've ditched the micro SD card slot, a user-replaceable battery, and the waterproofing. Oh yes... and added "Samsung Pay" (USA and Korea only).

    By my reckoning Samsung have dropped many of the USPs they and their followers have touted all this time, and have just come up with an iPhone 6 look-a-like with flashing disco lights. Nice.

    1. Rampant Spaniel

      Re: And their USP is...?

      Honest question, who does a phone these days with a removable battery, SD card slot, decent hardware, and good build quality?

      1. Guido Brunetti
        Go

        Re: And their USP is...?

        Nokia/Microsoft 730. It costs just a third of the top models and is also available with dual SIM. Now if Microsoft would just start paying a few percent of its marketing budget to get more important apps ported to Windows Phone ...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: And their USP is...?

          @ Guido Brunetti

          I'd rather wait for the Moto G 4G (2015)

          1. Rampant Spaniel

            Re: And their USP is...?

            Thanks for the suggestion, I was thinking of something like that for my works phone. For my personal phone I was looking for something with higher specs than that, or at least I will be in a couple of years when its time to replace my note. There's no reason the note shouldn't last 3-4 years with a couple of battery changes. Screen burn is likely to be its biggest issue. Additional band support is likely to be the only real incentive to upgrade before then. Project ARA (or whatever its called) could make this even less wasteful in the future.

            1. Dave 126 Silver badge

              Re: And their USP is...?

              >Honest question, who does a phone these days with a removable battery, SD card slot, decent hardware, and good build quality?

              Samsung still do make the S5, k'know! They also make the S5 Active, a waterproof variant with a rugged mae-over.

              What do you mean by 'build quality'? Materials, tolerances, proven durability, stiffness?

              1. Rampant Spaniel

                Re: And their USP is...?

                Thats true, although I am keeping in mind support for tmo's newer band 12 lte. I'm not really after the s series, more worried about them screwing with the note series as that is what I had planned to replace my current note with :( I could just about forgive the loss of the replaceable battery and sd card slot if they did something stunning like made it fold out into a tablet.

                As for build quality, just basic better than some chinese bodge job of a reference design with whatever rom kind of makes it start. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, etc all make phones that are well built both hardware and software. Some not so top tier manufacturers seem to be including some headline features like gorilla glass but with second rate quality control (as demonstrated by my niece's never ending saga of how her latest random name brand phone has died yet her ipod thing has survived forever).

        2. Kirk Northrop

          Re: And their USP is...?

          But Microsoft do. There are several reported cases of them writing apps for people and saying "have this, please support us".

          And the companies still say no.

      2. Deltics

        Re: And their USP is...?

        Samsung. The issue is that they appear intent on not continuing to do so in future days.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And their USP is...?

      Just shows their success was just a fluke. They didn't build up the brand loyalty like other brands.

    3. Only me!

      Re: And their USP is...?

      Disco lights?

      Ok Nexus 4,5 and 6(?) have one led on the front. Download lightflow and every notification can have it flashing in what ever colour you like and at different speeds......I often have 6 different colours on the go....some I look at others mean look at it when ever,

      Simple, it works :-)

  3. Andy Hards

    So, what was the big deal with the ad a few weeks back?

    Was that because of the edge? And if so in what way?

  4. Rampant Spaniel

    Meh

    If this is a sign of what's to come with the next Note then there's no chance of me upgrading. Fast charging won't mitigate the loss of a replaceable battery. The real reason behind a fixed battery is it forces you to junk a working phone once the battery won't hold a respectable charge. I needed a new battery after about 14 months with my note. Easy and cheap enough to replace it With the note 3 but what about this model? A couple of hundred bucks to replace it? I bet their helpful answer is buy an s7.

    Phones are already stupidly thin, well beyond it conferring any advantage beyond poser value.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      >I needed a new battery after about 14 months with my note.

      The lifetime of batteries is a factor of how many recharge cycles they have gone through, not months. If a phone goes two days between charges instead of one day, it will take far longer for the battery to degrade.

      1. Rampant Spaniel

        Re: Meh

        Yes, that along with the climate and also the chemistry of the battery and many other factors. The point being if the battery is non removable then if its 9 months or 14 (and age does play a part as well), it's still a brick at that point whereas if it is replaceable then it is down to whatever else goes terminally wrong first which can take some time. There's no reason not to expect a phone to last 3-4 years, but the battery is not likely to be all that useful at that point, it's already going to be suffering half way through that time. Perhaps it's the yorkshire in me but I don't see the point in trashing a $6-700 phone after a year to 18 months because a $30 part that could be replaceable isn't. Especially when the trade off is just making an already thin phone 1 mm thinner.

        1. Havin_it

          Re: Meh

          I must be part-Yorkie myself ;) I do expect 4 years out of a phone I paid prestige money for, and it'd annoy me too if the battery was a cause for premature replacement.

          Another big plus with a removable battery is you can hastily yank it if your (non-waterproofed) phone goes pint-diving or takes a spill, and if you're quick enough you may just save it (managed that with an accidentally inundated laptop recently).

          1. Rafael Illan

            Re: Meh

            Indeed. it happened to my s4 last year. i was able to save it by removing the battery

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh

        While you are technically correct, the best kind of correct, the degradation time is still 14 months for this guy. Your answer doesn't change anything!

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh

        Heat is the killer. Causes oxidisation and reduced battery capacity.

      4. Vector

        Re: Meh

        "The lifetime of batteries is a factor of how many recharge cycles they have gone through, not months. If a phone goes two days between charges instead of one day, it will take far longer for the battery to degrade."

        Well, there's an issue too.

        This is my use case, and I think it's not uncommon: I come home from work, I put my phone in the charge cradle, and if I not going out that night, it stays there until the next morning!

        Now, I know this is not the best thing for my battery (and Lord knows, newer versions of Android want to chirp about it every ten minutes when the phone's fully charged [grrr!]), but I'd much rather have a charged phone throughout my workday than to risk a low battery because I forgot to plug the damn thing in at the optimal time. If the battery is removable, I'll just pop a new one in (in 20 seconds, in the comfort of my own home) when the old one starts showing it's age.

        The other thing is, it doesn't matter how fast the thing can charge if there's no charger (or mains to power it) around when the battery poops out.

        I will gladly bear the burden of an extra millimeter in thickness to be able to change out the battery when I need to!

        1. Danny 14

          Re: Meh

          Yup, a Chinese no name 2500 battery cost 6 quid on ebay. Holds charge and lasts 25pct longer 1 year on for my s2. The third battery in coming up to 4 years. S6 is useless to my long term needs.

    2. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      It should be no different to iPhone, where if the battery starts to show its age then you just get a £20 replacement which takes less than 5 minutes to install. Or just do it yourself,for a fiver. It's really no big deal.

      The real problem with the Edge is that it uses Android, which is abominable to begin with. Then Samsung make it even worse by soaking it with bloat.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Meh

        >It should be no different to iPhone, where if the battery starts to show its age then you just get a £20 replacement which takes less than 5 minutes to install.

        Let's wait for the iFixit teardown and 'repairability score' before we pass judgement!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh

        Samsung might as well make the bootloader locked and not able to be unlocked, just to put the final nail in the coffin.

      3. Champ

        Re: Meh

        >The real problem with the Edge is that it uses Android, which is abominable to begin with.

        Really?

        I've had to suffer an iPhone as my work issued phone for the last 5 months. I hate it. Can't believe people spend their own money when Android is just so much more usable.

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: Meh

          >Another big plus with a removable battery is you can hastily yank it if your (non-waterproofed) phone goes pint-diving or takes a spill, and if you're quick enough you may just save it (managed that with an accidentally inundated laptop recently).

          That's one solution, I guess - though not necessary for some Samsung and Sony phones. I'd rather waterproofing was a standard feature across all phone vendors (as it is on wristwatches, more or less).

        2. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Meh

          "I've had to suffer an iPhone as my work issued phone for the last 5 months. I hate it. Can't believe people spend their own money when Android is just so much more usable."

          Subjective I suppose, down to the individual. With Android I find myself asking "why do I need to do this?" and seeing a cluttered up spaghetti of an OS that continually wants attention. Whereas the iPhone just disappears, almost isn't there. I suppose if you are interested in phones then you might prefer something that requires you to do something with it. I'm not interested in phones and I want the phone to get the hell out of my way so I can just use the apps on it.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Apple brought you U2

    Samsung only gives you The Edge.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      No Bono

      is a bonus!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Code named project zero

    "Code named project zero"

    Because that is how much originality they showed in the design

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Headphone jack

    The headphone jack is now at the bottom. How cute...

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Headphone jack

      Headphone jack? What is this, the '90s?

      GJC

      1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

        Re: Headphone jack

        Headphone jack? What is this, the '90s?

        You mean the '60s, right?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NSA and GCHQ will be very happy

    They don't want you to be able to remove your battery. It is too hard for them to activate the backdoors when the battery is removed :)

    We will see more and more phones with fixed batteries. Especially from those players who wish to sell their products in the USA and UK...

    1. Joe 48

      Re: NSA and GCHQ will be very happy

      Who removes there phone battery because they are 'that' worried about being spied on? If they are that sort of person I'd suggest a foil hat and a bunker, rather than a Galaxy S6.... Or a padded room with a white coat.

      1. Joe 48

        Re: NSA and GCHQ will be very happy

        Missed the edit for there/their.... I'll get my own white coat....

      2. DavCrav

        Re: NSA and GCHQ will be very happy

        "Who removes there phone battery because they are 'that' worried about being spied on?"

        Spies?

      3. Jedit Silver badge

        "Who removes the phone battery because they are 'that' worried about being spied on?"

        In the case of Samsung phones, the person who stole it. Otherwise it can be tracked with Dive.

        A fixed battery is only really bad from the point of view of replacing faulty ones. I could live with that. It's the lack of microSD slot that means I, like so many others present, will be moving to a different manufacturer when the time comes to replace my S4.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: NSA and GCHQ will be very happy

        The first thing a thief who steals your phone will do is pull the battery and SIM card.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: NSA and GCHQ will be very happy

      Don't forget to shake your head when you're outside so the cameras only get blurry images of you.

  9. IHateWearingATie

    no s6 for me

    While i appreciate I'm in a minority, the reason i bought a s4 was the sd card slot and removable battery. As a work phone, it's so much easier to swap the battery when it is running low than plug in and carry around one of those external packs while I'm trying to speak on the phone and there isn't a handy socket nearby. Similarly, work will only buy me the base storage version as any additional storage costs more and isn't really for work purposes (i have a 64 gb card with music, podcasts, games etc on it).

    Quite sad as i don't think there is a flagship Android with a removable battery now.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: no s6 for me

      Note 3 will. Wife has one and it is a great bit of kit.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pedant mode on: 10,000 years was the time to calculate the ultimate question. The earlier wait for the ultimate answer wasa mere 7,000 years.

    1. thx1138v2

      I forget. Was it 7 X 6 or 6 X 7?

    2. Neoc

      Nope

      Nope. Nope nope nope. It takes Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check The Answer (42). When asked about The Question, Deep Thought comes up with the Earth and tells the programmers it will take 10 million years to run the program. Unfortunately, things went bad and the Question calculated was "whatdoyougetifyoumultiplysixbynine".

      Which works out correct in base13.

  11. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Slimmer?

    Slimness seems to be where the current battle for consumer USP is at the moment.

    So how many minutes of battery life do we lose for each 0.1mm of extra slimness?

    1. Joe 48

      Re: Slimmer?

      Might be a tad worse than the S5. Hence I think Samsung are pushing the quick charging piece and wireless charging, they already know users are going to need those features!!!

  12. frank ly

    O'Really?

    "For years UI designers have said that icons are something which are equally meaningless in any language, and have always known that text is better."

    So where do all the icons come from and why are they still there?

    (My PC desktop and phone screens have lots of icons with no text, I've removed it, because they look better and are easier to 'read'.)

    1. P. Lee
      Megaphone

      Re: O'Really?

      >UI designers have said that icons are something which are equally meaningless in any language

      Though I must admit Apple have taken that to new heights.

      An icon is supposed to be a clear, easily identifiable symbol.

      Remember UI people:

      "Flat" means, "I can't distinguish it easily from the background."

      "Detailed" means "it takes too long for my brain to recognise which icon I'm looking at."

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: O'Really?

        You can get good icons and you can get bad icons. I've never got on with the icons on washing machines, for example.

        For some reason, a large number of my desktop applications all have circular launch icons... so I can't distinguish them by shape; Open Office, Chrome, Picasa, Keyshot, Google Earth...

  13. Emmeran

    Meh

    I need a new cell phone like I need a new computer. This race has been run and I care about the outcome just about as much as I care about the outcome of a marathon. Their all the same in the end and Apple won by an iTunes mile. Blackberry dropped the baton and MSFT kept doing their industrial stuff and were the only ones left around to actually finish the race.

    Oh and Apple thought it might be a good idea to make a watch or maybe a car but Jobs couldn't do the Lazarus thing so it was basically over.

    Boring...

  14. amigadude
    WTF?

    Oh well maybe S7 will be better when it's time to upgrade from my S5

    Bought S5 for water proofing.... watching TV shows while I have a soak without the fear :)

    Got no idea what everyone is complaining about the S5 for, most problem free phone I've had, been spot on apart from a little wobble during the lollipop upgrade.

  15. Monty Burns

    So, guess there are no 5" phones left running Android with removable battery and SD slot?

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Holmes

      Hundreds

      Check on eBay. The Chinese are coming...

      GJC

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is this the iPhone 6 killer then?

    A previous article here suggested that the S6 was going to wipe the floor with the iPhone 6 and reign supreme.

    Now that is it here (or shortly will be) it is getting close to the time when this question can be asked and more importantly answered.

    Judging from the almost collective gnashing of teeth from the posts so far (no removable battery and no SD card) then it could be more of a Samesung than an iPhone crusher.

    Apple really needs a lot of strong competition in the middle to upper price bracket. It could be that this device isn't going to give them the run for their money that they need to keep them on the ball.

    {complacency and all that...}

  17. eJ2095

    Why

    To be fair i am still using my s3 thanks to guys at XDA

    It does everything i need it to do... Sometimes i even make phone calls on it,,,,,

    Unless there’s a massive leap in phone technology i don’t see a reason as yet to upgrade (Unless my s3 goes the way of the dodo).

    1. Christopher Reeve's Horse

      Re: Why

      Correct. I'm also still using my S3, thanks to the folk at Cyanogenmod. It's on it's third battery, and still does everything I need it to. In fact it's better than ever, I now have Permission Blocking, AdBlock, Greenify, and absolutely no Samsung bloatware. I have a nice big SD card full of lots of music, it's great.

      I rarely go anywhere where there's a 4G signal anyway, so that just isn't important. It could maybe do with more RAM, but I can manage. I'm not planning on upgrading until this one has reached end of life. Sweat the asset!

      I guess that Samsung (and the others) have realised that removable batteries (and people like me) were a problem to their sales expectations. But as long as I continue to have a functional phone with a removable battery I'm happy for it to remain their problem, and not mine.

      1. DavCrav

        Re: Why

        "I guess that Samsung (and the others) have realised that removable batteries (and people like me) were a problem to their sales expectations. But as long as I continue to have a functional phone with a removable battery I'm happy for it to remain their problem, and not mine."

        Second battery and second screen for my S3, and this new screen is cracked as well. And less than two years old. I won't be sweating this asset, I'll be ditching it for a different provider at the end of my contract.

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      You can have my S3 when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

      I have absolutely no need for a slimmer phone, nor do I want the latest fad. I don't spend my time on it, I spend my time developing on PC.

      When 4G is actually available in places I go and worth it, I'll mull over the question of replacing this one. Until then, no battery replacement is a deal breaker as far as I'm concerned.

      1. RegKees

        You worry too much, nobody's going to take your beloved S3, least of all Samsung.

        In fact, Samsung has no interest whatsoever in your opinion, you are not the target audience.

    3. ScottME

      Re: Why

      Also, the S3 was the last Samsung flagship phone with an FM radio. Mock if you like, but for me that's a feature I use every day.

  18. 20legend

    Built in battery is a deal breaker for me.

    Samsung batteries are utter, utter shite which barely last 12 months before starting to go west - not being user replaceable makes swapping it a costly job...

  19. chipxtreme

    Having owned every Galaxy S device released I can honestly say the only thing I miss from going to S6 from S5 is the waterproof feature. I've never once had to replace a battery in a phone so the removable battery has never been a selling point for me and after having a memory card die on me a couple of days after returning from holiday I will not use another one. Currently having to rely on internal memory on my phone which means I have very limited space and use TuneInRadio for music.

    The new features more than make up for battery/sd card and i'll be getting a 128GB one next month

    1. Danny 14

      For the rest if us who don't want to spend close to 2500 on telephones we would prefer an upgrade storage path and possibility a replacement battery.

  20. Nigel Steward

    No removable battery, No Memory Card = No Sale

    I have had every version of the Galaxy Note to date + various other Samsung 'phones (inc S3) & tablets.

    I rate the Note 4 very highly; I had thought of trying an S6 pending availability of the Note 5, but in the light of the above I will wait for the Note 5. However if the Note 5 doesn't have an SD card slot & removable battery then I won't be buying it.

    With all my Notes I have bought a spare battery & charger/case, and rotated two batteries as I am often in situations where one is travelling light, and cannot access a recharging facility for a day or two.

    Likewise I want data stored on a removable card which can be backed up, not on a 'phone which can be lost or damaged.

    Does Samsung listen to it customers - it seems not.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I think this satirical article pretty much sums it up for me: http://morninggerald.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/apple-demand-galaxy-s6-be-as-shit-as.html

  22. MacGyver

    Samsung are you listening?

    I have wanted to replace my aging phone for some time now, here are the things keeping me from buying an S6 phone from you:

    1) Knox. Void my warranty if you want, but not allowing me to run the OS that came with my phone because I wanted root access is going too far.

    2) No SD card, sorry but whatever size storage you may find it in your heart to bestow upon us is never going to be enough, so leave it up to us to choose.

    3) No removable battery. Fail, not just because I can't swap it for a new one in a year when the current one is only charging to 85%, but because now I'll have to wait until my battery dies if my phone locks up to be able to use it again. Did you know some people use 2 physical batteries and swap them out when charging is not an option. I guess not.

    4) Glass back. Are you freaking kidding me? What's the bezel made out of? Egg shells? How about you make the back out of a material that would let the device survive an accidental drop better and not the stuff they made Cinderella's slippers out of.

    5) Curved screen? Who cares. Talk about a solution to a made up problem.

    6) Not waterproof? Are you from the past? Because in the past phones weren't waterproof. I thought we were moving forward. Especially since you cannot take out the battery now if it does get wet. Fail.

    7) Not giving me a choice of launchers. Fail. Especially since you'll break my phone if I try to change it myself.

    8) Root. I want root, would you buy a computer if you didn't know the administrator password? No. Either would I. Just make it part of the EULA "I realize that if I press Root that I can't cry to anyone about anything. Yes/No" I mean is it my phone, or your phone Samsung? If it's your phone then why am I paying for it?

    /rant

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Samsung are you listening?

      "4) Glass back. Are you freaking kidding me? What's the bezel made out of? Egg shells? How about you make the back out of a material that would let the device survive an accidental drop better and not the stuff they made Cinderella's slippers out of."

      Good idea. Why have such a hard material? Surely it would be better to use something soft that'd be comfortable and cushion the drop. I suggest squirrel fur.

  23. Bunker_Monkey

    RE: Meh

    Nothing to see here, nothings gotten better and its still missing a Pico-projector..... No SD Card Slot, No removable battery and camera has only improved a little..

    Won't be buying one of these.....

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