Samsung’s flagship lineup rebooted: the Galaxy S6

The latest flagship smartphone from the Korean electronics giant is a polarizing proposition. For one thing, the latest Galaxy S6 eschews a lot of features that Samsung fans love. These features have been touted by Android fans to their iOS-loving friends for many years as definite benefits of using a Google-powered smartphone. Features include: removable and expandable storage in the form of an SD, SDHC or SDXC card and a removable battery. In fact, with previous generations of Galaxy phones, Samsung even touted the ability to easily swap out its phone’s batteries, in ads that made fun of iPhones.

So it’s a huge loss for die-hard Samsung fans who also liked the idea of ​​being able to swap out a dying battery for a fully charged one in under a minute. Also gone is the ability to buy replacement cases for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and swap them out with the ugly cases that came with Galaxy phones. In the past, this was the only way to cover up the hideous faux-leather-effect backs on Galaxy phones like the Note. On some models, Samsung really got carried away and even added fake seams that were just molded plastic.

But all of that is gone with the new S6. You can still buy Samsung Galaxy S6 cases if you want to add a little style and protection to your phone, but you no longer have to just to hide the ugly plastic back or tacky metal accents on your phone. That’s because every shiny metal accent on the latest S is actually metal and not just plastic with a thin layer of silver paint on top. While the Galaxy has lost a removable battery and expandable memory, what it has gained is an attractive metal chassis that makes it stronger and slimmer on the inside and much better on the outside.

The metal chassis also means that with wear and tear, there’s no paint to fade from the S6 like it did on previous-gen Galaxy phones, so the latest version should keep looking like new for much longer. Samsung may have drawn the ire of many of its longtime fans, but most other smartphone manufacturers are also moving in the same direction. The trend now is for manufacturers to make slimmer phones that lose removable memory card slots and removable batteries in order to make phones slimmer and stronger. Apple has been wildly successful with its iPhone lineup despite never having either of these two features and now Android phone makers are realizing they can get away with it as well, as long as the phones make up for the lost. of characteristics, with other advantages.