Samsung unveils sleek new Galaxy S6 smartphones to take on Apple

BARCELONA: Korean handset major Samsung showcased two new mobile phones, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, at a launch event ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, setting the stage for yet another face-off with its old rival Apple, as it introduced mobile payment capability, longer battery life, and more compelling applications for its curvy Edge feature. Both models will be available from April 10 in 20 countries, including India.

Samsung CEO JK Shin, who heads the firm’s IT and mobile communications business, took several swipes at the Cupertino-headquartered company and its love for design as did other top executives, as they highlighted features of the S6 that scored over iPhone 6 such as the enhanced acceptability of its mobile payments solution and the faster charging battery.

"Some companies have set themselves on a path of design, but people want more. They want the best-in-class phone and best-in-class design. That’s what we have set out to do," he said as the smartphone maker’s partners cheered loudly.

The slim phone uses metal and glass and comes with a built-in battery for the first time. "The special metal we use is 50% stronger than the metal in other high smartphones. My first language may not be engineering, but I know this phone will not bend," said Younghee Lee, global marketing head, taking a dig at the iPhone 6.

The S6 battery will charge faster and run for 4 hours after being charged for 10 minutes, according to the company’s executives. It takes 80 minutes to get charged fully, which is 1.5 times faster than its earlier Galaxy S5 phone and two times faster than the iPhone 6, they said. The new features in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge recognise several trends that may emerge as mainstream in handsets over the next few years such as payments and messaging, which are becoming killer apps on most phones.

Samsung Pay works with point-ofsale machines that use magentic stripe technology as well as near field communication (NFC), which Apple Pay uses, and bar code technologies. Company executives said the payment system, which uses fingerprint authentication along with secure transmission to work with magneticswipe POS machines, addresses 90% of the potential payments market compared to less than 10% of the market addressed by competition.

The handset vendor also upped the cool quotient on its Edge feature with more compelling uses. The Galaxy S6 Edge has the ability to assign a colour to any five contacts, so when they call, the curved edge gives off the colour allowing the user to recognise who is calling even if the phone is face down. If they can’t answer the call, touching the fingerprint sensor will send off an auto reply to the contact.

The curvy edge also displays the time, weather and other notifications without the display having to be switched on. The user has to just swipe the edge to view them. The curvy edge also displays the time, weather and other notifications without the display having to be switched on. The user has to just swipe the edge to view them.

An executive at the Korean company’s headquarters said it opened the code to third party developers and has been working with major messaging app companies to make more available on the curvy surface.

"We’ve struck an eloquent balance between design and technology," said David Kang, vice-president of marketing at Samsung’s headquarters in Korea. A faster camera, also featuring capability to track moving objects, and higher level of security to woo enterprise users are some of the other capabilities, the handset maker is betting on to bring more users into the fold and challenge old rival, Apple, as well as homegrown rivals in local markets and upstarts such as Chinese vendor Xiaomi.