Android website publishes European prices for entire S6 range
With the expected Samsung Galaxy S6 launch around a month away, European price leaks for the entire range of smartphones to be released by the Korean manufacturer has seemingly appeared online. According to AndroidPit, the 32 GB version of the Galaxy S6 will retail at €749, the equivalent of around $860.
With the 16 GB version of the Galaxy smartphone apparently having been scrapped for this generation, the other two models retail at more expensive rates. The 64 GB version of the Galaxy S6 will retail at €849 ($975), while the premium 128 GB version will be €100 more at €949 ($1090).
Galaxy S6 curved screen confirmed?
The site which claims to have this privileged information also allegedly has inside sources related to the Galaxy S Edge. This rumored device, based around the curved screen technology which has become a trademark for Samsung, will reportedly retail at over €1,000. This state-of-the-art and premium device will also have 128 GB worth of memory, and will hit the stores in Europe at a price point of €1,049 ($1,200).
While previous reports have suggested that the Galaxy S6 range might begin with a 64 GB model, the leaked information would seem to make a mockery of this notion. It always seemed likely that a 32 GB budget model would be made available, and this data now seems to confirm this.
Samsung has now distributed the media invites for its press conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which will take place on Sunday, March 1. Certainly the invitations for the conference imply that the handset will be based around curved display technology, as the silhouetted handset which is the centrepiece of the invitations hints at this design around later.
With the unveiling of the Galaxy S6 just weeks away, speculation regarding what we can expect from this premium smartphone is intensifying. It has already been asserted that Samsung may dispense with a 5.1-inch panel in order to produce a slightly smaller display with quad HD resolution. Reports over the last 24 hours suggest that the screen size will be merely 0.1 inches smaller, but this would still represent something of a surprise given the penchant of Samsung for large screen sizes.
Possible specs
Aside from the display size of the device, the Indian shipping service Zauba has also obtained information which gives clues to other possible specifications of the Galaxy S6. According to a supposed test device which Zauba has got its hands on, we can expect the Galaxy S6 to feature an Exynos 7420 octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM and a 20-megapixel camera.
These specs are similar to what analysts have been predicting for sometime, but it is probably worth pointing out that the Exynos setup may be specific to the East Asian marketplace. Samsung has previously produced models for its native continent which feature a different processor to the Westernmarket place, and the smart money would still be on the Galaxy S6 model which launches in the United States being based around Qualcomm technology.
Other unlikely features of the Galaxy S6 include micro-SD support and a battery capacity which is likely to top 3,000mAh. There are also murmurings that the Korean Corporation is currently beavering away in order to produce add-on back panels. These are said to offer extra functionality to the Galaxy S6, and include a device which is able to transform the rear casing of the smartphone into an e-book reader. Other potential functionality related to this innovative panelling will enable S Health features to be transmuted to the back of the device.
Gear 3 launch
Another major source of gossip in recent weeks related to the Galaxy S6 has been the notion that the Galaxy Gear 3 smartwatch may launch alongside it. This would make the Mobile World Congress an extremely busy event for Samsung, as it attempts to attract people both to its flagship smartphone and an Apple Watch rival.
It is difficult to assess the likelihood of this prediction, but in many senses it would seem to make commercial sense, as launching a smartwatch after the release of the Apple Watch – which is mooted for a late Q1 / early Q2 release – would seem to be extremely difficult. On the other hand, there has been little indication from Samsung that this will occur, and this is certainly a very recent rumor.
Indications are that the Galaxy Gear 3 will significantly depart from the design of previous models in the series, apparently featuring a round face as opposed to the oblong approach utilized previously. This definitely would not be a surprise, as round faces are seemingly fashionable in the smartwatch niche at present.
Another interesting leak which has emerged recently from nowhereelse.fr suggests that the Galaxy S6 will have a metal unibody design. The French website has posted images online which it purports to be from the forthcoming Galaxy S6, and these display a chassis component which is apparently constructed from a single sheet of brushed aluminium.
Previous leaks from the site have been concurrent with these new images, as earlier posts from nowhereelse.fr show the components during an earlier stage of construction. Based on the photographs published by this French source, the all-metal design which has long since been expected for the Galaxy S6 would seem to be extremely likely.
Critical device launch
What is a certainty is that this is an extremely important smartphone release for Samsung. The haughtiness of the company has been demolished by Apple in the last year or so, as the consumer electronics giant which leads the mobile marketplace has seemingly marched relentlessly from one triumph to another. With Apple recently recording the largest single quarter profit in business history and becoming the first company to reach a $700 billion market capitalization, it is clear that Samsung must respond with something outstanding if it is to make serious inroads into Apple’s market lead in 2015.
All in all, this should make this year’s Mobile World Congress one worth waiting for.
