Samsung India launches Galaxy S6, S6 edge starting at Rs 49,900

Samsung Mobile today unveiled its latest smartphones Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge in India, bringing its new rivals to Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to the fast-growing market in the first wave of launch. The company has also aggressively priced its newest flagships with Galaxy S6 edge, which has curved screen on two sides, priced at Rs 58,900 (32GB), Rs 64,900 (64GB) and Rs 70,900 (128 GB); while Galaxy S6 costs Rs 49,900 (32GB), Rs 55,900 (64GB) and Rs 60,900 (128GB).

The pre-booking for both the smartphones starts today. The two models will hit the stores in India on April 10.

With Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung continues its experiment with the curved screen on the side, which it started last year with Galaxy Note edge. While the new model has curved edged screens on two sides, the slant is noticeably smaller than that of Galaxy Note edge.

The biggest upgrade in the company's mobile portfolio yet, Galaxy S6 and S6 edge have glass backs and metal frames on the side. Samsung claims that the metal it has used is 50% stronger than the materials that rivals employ.

The new smartphones sport 5.1-inch SuperAMOLED screen (1440x2560p resolution), making it the smartphone with the highest pixel density in the world. Also, the company will use the 64-bit 2.1GHz octa-core Exynos 7 processor based on 14nm process, which makes Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge 35% faster than its predecessor. This is also the first time Samsung has not used a Qualcomm processor in its flagship smartphone.

The company also announced that it is moving away from the industry-standard DDR3 RAM to DDR4 RAM with the new Galaxy S models, which will help boost running memory by up to 80%. It also said that Galaxy S6 and S6 edge will come with faster flash storage that reduces lag between actions significantly; the company is offering the two smartphones in 32, 64 and 128GB storage variants, with no microSD storage option.

The South Korean titan also gave a glimpse of the leaner TouchWiz UI, which has taken away much of the cluttered interface options and only kept the elements that are needed, it claims.

The rear camera's resolution remains constant at 16MP, but gets f1.9 aperture and optical image stabilization. This means that the camera will be able to take photos and videos that are shake-free and brighter. The camera app also gets a huge boost, which will takes shots in less than a second.

Samsung has given the front camera a much bigger upgrade, placing a 5MP f1.9 lens, which lets in 60% more light and thus producing much brighter and clearer photos. It also comes with a real-time HDR and mode that combines multiple images to create better images.

Galaxy S6 and S6 edge's battery will last 4 hours when charged for just 10 minutes, and also take half as long as iPhone 6 to charge from naught to 100%. Marking a first for the Galaxy S range, the two phones' battery will not be removable.