Samsung Seals Out Galaxy S6 Users to Satisfy Critics

[kaefers]

You guys should start checking out the Xperia phones...
I own an xperia Z2 and I get 2-3 days of battery life under normal use (browsing, occasional netflix, etc.). No need to swap out the battery!
Not to mention it has MicroSD port, is water proof and it looks and FEELS premium. What more can I ask?
I owened a Galaxy S1, Galaxy s2, Galaxy s3, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and none of them come even close to what my xperia Z2 is actually worth.

Really.

Yeah, I think many who don't like the S6 and are looking to upgrade will exactly do that (or LG maybe). My update really is overdue but the S6 is not an option for me. So that leaves Sony and LG and the Note 4.
HTC's M9 is too much the same as M8 and M7. Iphone is a no. OnePlus will probably struggle now that Cyanogenmod is gone.
I was really ready to already preorder the S6.
But without the removeable battery and microSD I would have to spend too much more to get from 32GB to 128GB, they are ripping people off with the price of the larger flash storage model. I really hate that attitude towards customers, it reminds me of Apple. For me it does not matter how many petabyte cloud storage I get for free either - cloud storage is something I just plainly would not use for any pictures or documents.

 

[cknobman]

Samsung software is the biggest reason to avoid their phones.
Security Policy Updates (Samsung specific software) is the #2 battery drain software on an Android phone. http/bgr.com/2015/02/27/android-battery-drain-apps-study/

 

[Cons29]

i won't say yet which one i prefer (plastic with removable things or glass/metal) but, people wanted a better (more premium looking) phone, and here's their answer. if they stayed with plastic people will bash samsung, now we have this and people still complain. Maybe next time it will be all metal (a-la htc) and we can have expandable storage back. give them time, at least they are trying out different things.
and to the author, yes you are correct, but most of these are similar to iphone, so iphones have bad design decisions too?

 

[emike09]

I rarely comment on anything online, but this is absurd. Removable media, battery, and IP67 are essential for me. I'd always dreamed of a waterproof phone, and the S5 has proven to be excellent when wet. I believe the S5 is a good looking phone. It may not be the most exotic and fashionable jewel-encrusted phone on the market, but who cares besides critics?

"SIX APPEAL" - You've got to be kidding me. Disgusting, nobody is going to fall for it.

Bring back IP67/68 and removable storage at a minimum. I could live without a removable battery, but bring that back too. I take a secondary battery backpacking every weekend and love that I don't have to lug around a heavier extended external battery pack.

 

[Orleans Joe]

I was considering a Samsung phone and when I heard of the launch for the new S6 I was very excited especially after all the pre-hipe but what a let down. Sorry Samsung you appear to have shot yourself in the foot or is it in the head, who dreamt up the idea for the phone not to carry a micro sd slot major mistake and one I fear will cost you serious lost sales, well at least mine. It's simple, look at what sells and listen to what the customer wants, not what you think they need.

 

[Cash091]

I kinda feel bad for Samsung. The only reason they made these changes was due to critics killing the "cheap" feeling of the S5... I wonder if the majority of smartphone users felt the same way. They should have went with a design similar to the Note 4, which is perfect(albeit large) IMO. Metal bezel with a plastic, removable back plate. Aesthetically pleasing, and feels like a premier device.

 

[fran1967]

I for one, will never buy a phone that doesn't allow me to remove the battery and/or add memory via an SD card. That is one of the reasons my entire family of four has Samsung phones and not Iphones. I also bought the Samsung tablet over the IPad because I was able to add memory...I grudgingly gave in on the battery, but only beause I don't use my pad all the time and therefore don't have the need to reset it the way I do with a phone that I use constantly. Having the ability to remove the battery and force the phone to reset is one of the best features about Samsung. And being able to add 64gb of memory to my Note was wonderful. I would definately think twice about purchasing anything that takes that choice away from me. Samsung needs to listen to the people that buy its phones and not the freakin journalists.

 

[Kunari]

I'm very happy with my S5, I got it for three reasons: Water resistance, removable battery, and microSD. I also sprung for the wireless charging back. I'll be keeping my S5 for as long as possible now until a better replacement comes out. The S6 to me is a total let down but I've got 2 to 3 years of my S5 to wait and see.

 

[imkvn]

Stupid move, removable battery was a huge selling point for me. The battery only last about a year with good to average charge. I've had my S4 and don't bother to upgrade because it does everything I need it to do. Need a new battery easy to change, no room on your phone get a bigger microsd, don't like touch wiz change the rom.

The direction to unibody is a waste, it's heavier, and most people put a cover on the phone anyways. No SD sucks because you can't move your apps to it, or store what you want or transfer files as freely. This phone is basically a HTC M8 with touch wiz, or an crap version of the iphone. Next phone will probably be the nexus, moto, or Note if they don't mess that up.

 

[Caffeinecarl]

Samsung just made themselves irrelevant to me. No removable battery, no expandable memory? Taking away water resistance?

If i wanted an iPhone, i would have bought an iPhone.

I'm not having this.

 

[nniillaa]

I've been waiting eagerly for the S6 as my next planned phone for the last 6+ months. Now that it's out they have literally removed ALL the REAL features I wanted to 'make it shiny'.
I have a Sony Xperia Z and its waterproof and also has an SD slot. It's been driving me crazy because I cant switch out the battery so I've been dying to get to the S6.
Now the S6 no longer has that feature, but more than that, it also now doesn't have either of the other features that this has. They have basically made the Sony Xperia Z3 be a more feature rich phone than their latest release.
Well done - they've gone backwards.
They have no 'real' features that the other companies dont have and in fact now have less.
The G3 has everything (except waterproof)
The HTC One has SD Card and amazing sounds
The Xperia Z has SD Card and is waterproof
The Samsung 'looks pretty' - oh yeah, or it CAN have a side screen for me to 'play my games on'? uh no. If they wanted an actually useful feature why not give us a damn eInk screen on the back or side so that it could happily sit there showing me notifications without draining my battery.

They are just plain 'stupid'. "We aren't making as much profit as we used to when everyone had under powered, old phones. Now everyone has a reasonably powerful phone they just aren't rushing to replace it as fast" - WOW. Go Sherlock!These companies seem to think they are entitled to us just giving them our money every year because they release a new product. Why cant they realise that upgrades aren't needed these days and are 'nice to have' options. As such - you need to be the best phone available on the market when I decide to upgrade if you want my cash. Right now that is NOT Samsung.

 

[Ninjawithagun]

...I think I just foresaw Apple's stock soar...along with a roar of laughter from Tim Cook...

 

[Ninjawithagun]

One huge mistake for Samsung, one enormous loss of Samsung's future customer base...

 

[Goodspike]

This seems like a monumental fail. Samsung apparently doesn't understand why I has done so well against its Android competitors. With hardware it's better to have features you don't want than to wish you didn't have features you don't have. Being full featured there was no reason to not buy an S4 or S5, unless maybe you didn't like Samsung. Now there are at least three reasons someone might not buy a S6--not waterproof, no removable battery and no microSD. That means it is very likely people will buy other Android products instead of Samsung, unless they want to opt for the larger Samsung devices.

Also, from the other article here, I don't understand why they didn't add wifi calling.

 

[zodiacfml]

I love the materials on my Nexus5. It's bit too flat/thin though and could use a bigger battery.

 

[Paul Cayman]

My feeling is samsung with the s6 are forcing s3/s4 users to upgrade to an s5 - this way they win charging with an apple model on the s6 and also on the increased s5 sales.... very smart of samsung... except may backfire on them if more peope vote for their wallets and move to the other competitors of course.

 

[Inky_Enston]

What good is a Swiss Army knife if it only consists of a knife, that's pretty!

 

[Dr M7]

What a stupid article.
Since KitKat, external storage has become nearly superfelous. Now it is all about bigger internal storage, which gives more security, and faster processig.
And who really needs access to the phone guts? No one.
Samsung picked the right path.

 

[Lamar Battle]

I Note so battery is no issue but extra storage is always an issue.

 

[Inky_Enston]

@Dr M7, it may well be slightly faster using internal storage (rapid fire uses internal by default and Samsung Pro are fast) depending on your card, but when the internal cluttered it'll surely make the phone lag. Lollipop utilises external storage just as well as kit kat. security, taking your card out of your phone and putting it away safe or dropping the phone in the water where you'd be buggered if you had no sd card as most are fully water and weather proof over £20. Changing or having a modified battery is something nearly everyone I know has or does that has Samsung or similar.

Face it, it's a major step backwards for Samsung regular customers who bought their phones for sheer brut power and the ability the change/uupgrade batteries and sD cards, and have waterproof, whom couldn't give half a sod what it looked like.