Galaxy S6 review: Samsung at its best with solid build quality, great specs, useful fingerprint sensor, and gorgeous 5.1 inch display; Edge not worth extra $100
Context & Ripple Effects
The Verge's [[a:|Galaxy S6 verdict]] lands mid-cycle in Samsung's flagship arc: the base model is called the company at its best, while the curved-screen Edge is judged not worth the extra $100 — making the standard S6 the value pick and the Edge a paid experiment in shape rather than function.
Ars Technica's parallel review of the same phone reaches the split verdict that defines this generation — spectacular camera and an Exynos chip that beats Qualcomm's troubled Snapdragon 810, undercut by TouchWiz clashing with Android's Material Design. The template holds a year later: the Galaxy S7 review again praises build and cameras while flagging software bloat.
First-order effects
- Buyers deciding between variants get a direct answer: pay for the 5.1-inch S6's build, display, and useful fingerprint sensor, keep the $100, and treat the Edge's curve as cosmetic — Samsung's own upsell path is undercut by its reviewer base.
- Samsung's chip strategy gets external validation, since the Exynos inside the reviewed unit outperforms the Snapdragon 810 plaguing rival flagships that quarter.
Second-order effects
- A weak verdict on the Edge as pure design puts pressure on Samsung to make the curved line earn its premium through features — a thread that runs into the S7 Edge's clumsy settings and the S8's repositioned fingerprint scanner as the curve reshapes the whole device.
- Qualcomm's 810 troubles hand Samsung a spec-sheet talking point over competitors stuck on Snapdragon, sharpening the Exynos-vs-Snapdragon split reviewers now track every cycle.
Third-order effects
- Across the S6, S7, and S8 reviews the pattern is stable — best-in-class hardware paired with self-inflicted software friction (TouchWiz, bloat, Bixby) — pointing to a structural tension where Samsung's own add-ons, not its manufacturing, cap each generation's score.
- If the Edge-to-S8 trajectory holds, curved screens stop being an upsell experiment and become the default flagship geometry, folding the premium tier into the standard one.
The trend: Samsung's flagship cycle is converging on hardware leadership while its proprietary software layer remains the consistent drag on each generation's review scores.