As Samsung begins taking orders on Thursday for its new high-end phones, it’s only a slight exaggeration to say that this could be the South Korean electronics giant’s last best shot in the smartphone business.
The phones, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge, will start shipping in the United States on April 10 and represent Samsung’s latest effort to claw back lost ground in the industry in which it was once a highflying leader.
Until last year, according to the research firm IDC, Samsung led all other smartphone makers in market share. But then it put out the Galaxy S5, which was criticized by reviewers and users for its cheap, plasticky hardware and overly complex software. Samsung also faced stiffer competition from Apple, which released a set of popular large-screen phones last fall, and a slew of new Chinese phone makers, including the fast-growing Xiaomi. As a result, Samsung’s market share and profit began to crater last year. With the S6 and the S6 Edge, Samsung is hoping to reverse that slide.
I got my hands on Samsung’s new phones only Wednesday, so I haven’t had nearly enough time with them to render any definitive assessment. But my first impression was positive. Everything about the phones seems designed to convey a simple message: Samsung has changed.
That message is obvious in the physical design. Rather than the chintzy, faux-leather and faux-metal of Samsung’s recent phones, the S6s are made of glass and aluminum, like the iPhone from Apple and most high-end Android phones. Although there’s something generic about the S6 — it looks like the iPhone 6, but slightly less polished — the glass on the front of the Galaxy S6 Edge features a distinctive, gentle curve alongside the left and right side of the screen. Those sloping edges are supposed to make the phone easier to hold, and they offer a few possibly useful features. For instance, at night, the phone displays the time on the edge of the screen, making it look a bit like an alarm clock.
If that sounds gimmicky, it could be because it is. Samsung has never been above stuffing its phones with unnecessary options. But it’s worth noting that Samsung says it has reduced a large number of features and user menus throughout the phone’s software. I noticed this, too, in my short time with the Samsung phones: Over all, the software feels cleaner and easier to use.
Is that enough to revive Samsung’s phone business? I plan to use the new phones more deeply over the next week, so I’ll let you know soon.