Let’s be real for a second. In 2015, Samsung was kind of in a panic. The previous year’s Galaxy S5 had been panned for looking like a Band-Aid, and Apple was eating their lunch with the iPhone 6. Then came the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Edge Plus. They weren't just phones; they were an expensive, glass-clad gamble that basically forced the entire industry to rethink what a smartphone should look like.
I remember holding the original S6 Edge at a launch event. It felt sharp. Not "sharp" like cool, but literally sharp in the palm because the screen curved so aggressively into the metal frame. It was weird. It was futuristic. It was also incredibly polarizing.
Why the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Was a Massive Risk
Samsung ditched everything fans loved. No removable battery. No microSD slot. No water resistance. People were furious. But the trade-off was a chassis made of Gorilla Glass 4 and 7000-series aluminum that looked like jewelry.
The manufacturing process was a nightmare. Samsung had to use a process called "3D Thermoforming." They heated the glass to 800 degrees Celsius before pressing it into that curved shape. If the temperature was off by a fraction, the glass would shatter or warp. This is why, for the first few months, you couldn't actually find a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge in stores. They couldn't make them fast enough. Demand outpaced supply by nearly three to one, catching Samsung’s mobile chief at the time, J.K. Shin, completely off guard.
The "Edge" Features: Pure Gimmick or Genius?
Honestly? Mostly gimmick.
You had "People Edge," which let you swipe in from the side to see five favorite contacts. Then there was "Edge Lighting," where the sides of the screen would glow a specific color when the phone was face down. If your mom called, maybe it glowed blue. If your boss called, red. It looked cool in a dark bar, but in practice, who puts their $700 glass phone face down on a table?
The "Information Stream" was another oddity. You could rub the edge of the screen like a magic lamp while the display was off to see the time or news tickers. It was finicky. It felt like Samsung had built this incredible piece of hardware and was then scrambling to find a software reason for it to exist.
Moving to the Big Leagues with the Edge Plus
A few months later, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus arrived. This was the "Pro Max" before that was even a thing. It bumped the screen size up to 5.7 inches and threw in 4GB of RAM instead of 3GB.
The S6 Edge Plus was essentially a Note 5 without the stylus. It was meant for people who wanted the "wow factor" of the curves but didn't want to carry around a tiny (by today's standards) 5.1-inch screen. It also introduced Live Broadcast via YouTube integrated directly into the camera app. This was huge back then. Before TikTok, before Instagram Reels, Samsung was trying to make mobile livestreaming a native feature.
The Exynos 7420: A Rare Moment of Dominance
Under the hood of both the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Edge Plus sat the Exynos 7420. This is a technical detail that actually matters. That year, Qualcomm—the company that makes chips for almost every other Android phone—messed up. Their Snapdragon 810 chip was notorious for overheating.
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Samsung saw the disaster coming and decided to use their own in-house chips globally. The 14nm FinFET process used in the S6 series made it the fastest phone on the planet for a good six months. It could handle 4K video recording and heavy gaming without breaking a sweat, while HTC and LG users were literally putting their phones in the fridge to cool them down.
What it’s Like to Use One Today
If you pick up a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge in 2026, the first thing you’ll notice is how incredibly light it is. It weighs just 132 grams. For context, a modern flagship is usually north of 200 grams. It feels like a toy, but a very premium one.
The display is still a highlight. It’s a Quad HD Super AMOLED panel. Samsung’s color science back then was "vivid," which is a polite way of saying the greens and reds were punched up to eye-searing levels. But the blacks are perfectly deep, and the pixel density (577 ppi) is actually higher than most phones you can buy today.
However, the battery life is atrocious.
The standard S6 Edge had a 2,600mAh battery. That was small even in 2015. Today, with modern apps and background processes, you’d be lucky to get three hours of screen-on time. It’s the Achilles' heel of an otherwise legendary device.
Real-World Issues Most People Forgot
- The Pink Line: A decent number of S6 Edge units developed a vertical pink line down the screen due to a hardware failure in the display connector.
- Micro-USB: This was the last flagship generation before USB-C took over. Fumbling with the cable in the dark feels like a relic of the Stone Age now.
- Heat: While the processor was efficient, the thin glass body didn't dissipate heat well during fast charging. It got hot. Fast.
The Legacy of the Curve
Look at the S24 Ultra or the latest Pixel. The screens are mostly flat now. We’ve come full circle. The industry eventually realized that while curved glass looks stunning in advertisements, it causes glare, makes screen protectors impossible to apply, and leads to accidental palm touches.
But the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Edge Plus were necessary. They proved that Android phones could be beautiful, not just functional. They pushed the limits of glass manufacturing and forced Apple to eventually move toward OLED and slimmer bezels. Without the S6 Edge, we wouldn't have the design language that defined the last decade of mobile tech.
Actionable Insights for Collectors and Tech Enthusiasts
If you’re looking to buy one of these for a collection or as a secondary "dumb phone" experiment, here is what you actually need to know:
- Check the Battery Health: These batteries are over a decade old. They swell. If the back glass is lifting even a millimeter, do not buy it. It's a fire hazard.
- The "Plus" is Better: If you actually intend to use the device, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is the only one with enough RAM (4GB) to run modern versions of apps like Spotify or WhatsApp without crashing constantly.
- Screen Burn-in: Always check the screen on a white background. Older AMOLEDs are notorious for "burn-in," where icons from the status bar or keyboard leave permanent ghost images on the display.
- Software Limits: These phones are stuck on Android 7.0 Nougat officially. Many banking apps and high-security tools will no longer run on them. It’s a media player or a camera at this point, not a primary daily driver.
- Camera Quality: Surprisingly, the 16MP sensor with an f/1.9 aperture still takes decent daylight photos. It has Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which many mid-range phones today still skip to save money.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge was a flawed masterpiece. It was Samsung's "Icarus" moment—flying too close to the sun with a design that was almost too futuristic for its own good. It traded utility for beauty, and for a lot of people, that was exactly what they wanted.
Next Steps for the Reader
- Check your drawers: If you still own an S6 Edge, back up your photos now. These internal storage chips (UFS 2.0) can fail after long periods of inactivity.
- Compare the specs: If you are choosing between an S6 and S7 for a retro project, go with the S7. It brought back the SD card and water resistance that the S6 so famously ditched.
- Safety First: If the battery has died completely, do not leave it plugged into a high-wattage modern charger for hours. Use an old 5W "slow" charger to see if it will take a charge safely without overheating.