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Samsung is done fooling around. The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are its most serious and compelling handsets yet. They swap Samsung's cheap plastics for high-quality metal and glass. There are certainly trades-offs here, but if you're looking for a premium handset, Samsung finally has one to call its own.

It would appear that Samsung finally caved to years' worth of complaints about the low-cost materials used in its flagship devices. Apple, HTC, Sony, and others have long since moved away from cheap-feeling skins for their most important phones. Samsung's switch from plastic to metal and glass is long overdue. The difference in the look and feel of the phones is night and day. The Galaxy S5 feels like a toy next to the Galaxy S6.

Samsung decided to use two glass panels to form the front and back surfaces. The glass is Gorilla Glass 4, which Samsung says is 50% stronger than Gorilla Glass 3. It tested this relentlessly to assure people the phone won't break when dropped. The glass panels are joined by a metal band that wraps around the outside of the phone. The metal band not only looks good, but it feels good, too. It's sturdy and strong. The band has a flat edge on the GS6, but is rather thin one the GS6 Edge thanks to the curved glass.

Galaxy S6  

While the materials are new, I think the design still bears some resemblance to its older handsets. The family lines are clear enough that people should recognize the GS6 as a Samsung device. It has Samsung's distinct button array on the front, rimed in chrome, for example. The camera module on the back closely resembles the one seen on Samsung's Galaxy Note 4, and so on. It's these little touches that let you know you're holding a Samsung.

The phone has an excellent feel to it. It's light, but not too light; it's big, but not too big; and it's thin, but not bendable. The build quality of the preproduction models on hand was superb. Seams were tight, though the device isn't waterproof like last year's GS5 Active. I think most people will like it. It should fit in hands and pockets without trouble.

The front face is mostly display. The bezels on the GS6 are super thin and are, of course, non-existent on the GS6 Edge. The speaker grill and sensors/user-facing camera are above the screen. Below it, you'll see the oblong home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. It is flanked by capacitive back and multitasking buttons. These all worked well. I was pleased with the volume buttons and screen lock button, which are on the left and right edges, respectively. They have a great profile and excellent travel and feedback.

Galaxy S6 Edge  

Samsung made one serious concession in order to get this design to work: the battery is sealed inside. You cannot remove the glass rear cover. That may be a deal breaker for many people. Samsung made up for it a little bit by adding Quick Charge technology to the battery and by building in wireless charging (both WPC and PMA specs). That means you can charge it fast. Samsung's Ultra Power Savings mode is also on board to help manage the power consumption.

The display measures 5.1 inches across the diagonal on both phones, and each has the same quad HD resolution. They look amazing. Samsung's Super AMOLED technology has improved dramatically over the years and the resolution on these phones is stunning. The GS6 Edge does not have quite the same set of cool features found on the Galaxy Note Edge. There are, however, a couple of features reserved only for the GS6 Edge. For example, a quick swipe from the upper right corner will reveal your top five contacts, lined up in a column along the side of the screen. Even better, these contacts are color-coded. When one calls, the side edges will light up with the corresponding color so you know who's calling from across the room. Neat-o.

Samsung has moved up to Android 5.0 Lollipop for the GS6 and GS6 Edge, but covered over most of it with TouchWiz. Though Samsung was sure to adopt some of Lollipop's Material Design elements, the bull of TouchWiz looks practically identical to last year's GS5. The one app Samsung spent any time discussing during the event was the camera, which has been streamlined a bit. More of the controls are front and center and don't require users to scroll all over the place.

UI  

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With Samsung's own processor under the hood, the preproduction units on hand were blazing fast. The processor is an eight-core job with four at 2.1GHz and four at 1.5GHz in what the industry likes to call a big.LITTLE configuration. The GS6 has faster RAM and faster embedded storage so it does everything in a hurry.

There's no doubt in my mind the GS6 and GS6 Edge will outsell their predecessor, the GS5. They are significantly better devices, at least as far as the design and overall aesthetic is concerned. The phones will hit US carriers on April 10. Pricing has yet to be discussed.

Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.

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