Samsung Galaxy S6 is cucumber-cool and built to covet
Samsung Galaxy S6 is cucumber-cool and built to covet
2:15

Samsung Galaxy S6 is cucumber-cool and built to covet

Phones
It's metal. It's glass. Its shiny backing will temporarily blind you. The lean, mean aluminum machine in question is none other than the Samsung Galaxy S6. I'm Jessica Dolcourt for CNET checking out this leap forward in the Galaxy S line. Samsung phones aren't usually the stuff of design envy, but this overhaul gives us a genuinely slim, sleek and pretty phone with an undeniably upscale feel. Checking the removable battery and micro SC card slot shaves off a millimeter, so will also tick off long-time fans of both. Here's another surprising move. The Galaxy S six uses Samsung's house-made Exynos octacore processor, which shares features with headliner phones. Built on Android 5.0, the TouchWiz layer cuts way back on bloatware. This leaves you with a fresh, more streamlined look. Take the native camera and gallery app. Samsung has made it easier to navigate around. So that also includes extras like promo and a tool for making in store frame worthy collages. A new cool camera feature launches the app any time you double click the home button, which is really neat. On the back you're looking at a 16 megapixel lens with optical image stabilization. There's a wide-angle five megapixel shooter up front too. Tools like auto HDR and the rear camera selfie mode kick it all up a notch. Back to its face, the GS6 has a 5.1 inch screen with an enormous 1440 pixel resolution. That's impressive but borders on overkill for most photos and videos. A more helpful boost is the battery, which tops up extra fast and comes with T-wireless charging built right in. The S6 emulates the iPhone with an improved fingerprint scanner that doubles as your key to Samsung Pay, an electronic system that will more often let you leave your wallet at home. That one rolls out to select countries in summer 2015. The Galaxy X6 will sell in four colors and three different storage capacities that start at 32 gigabytes. Although you probably won't be able to find every combination everywhere in the world. Anyway you slice it, Samsung has made another powerhouse smartphone that successfully amps up its shelf appeal while still keeping hardware specs slinging. If you're into more of a statement phone, check out my phone forward view of the Samsung Galaxy X6 Edge, which has curved screen. In the meantime, be sure to check out all the pros, cons and the in between of the S6 here, over at CNET.com. [MUSIC]

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