Last updated on June 18, 2015

I recently got my new Samsung Galaxy S6 and having spent some time with it, wanted to share my initial impressions and a brief review of it for people who’ve been waiting to see if it’s worth considering.

To start, I want to say that the device is very solid, it feels like a lightweight tank in your hand. I was also glad to see that there are no flaps covering the ports on the S6 Active (they broke easily on the S5 Active, so it’s good that Samsung omitted them in the S6).

Since the S6 Active is a rugged phone with two certifications (IP68 and MIL-STD-810G) covering dust, water, humidity, rain, vibration, solar radiation, salt and shock protection, putting it to test in the shower was actually going easy on it.

Needless to say, it worked flawlessly, but while the touchscreen was fairly responsive, it could have been better. However, cleaning it up after the phone is wet is considerably easier.

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As for the performance, the S6 Active did well (as expected) and since my last phone was an HTC One M8, I would say it was a tad better in terms of multi-tasking and holding its own when pushed to its limits.

The most noticeable difference however was in terms of battery life. The S6 Active’s 3500 mAh battery (compared to only 2550 mAh on the original S6) made sure that it lasted me well over a day with moderate to heavy use. While I used to go to bed with my HTC One M8 at only 15% at the end of the day, the S6 Active sits at 50% charge by the same time.

Another small feature of the S6 Active which I appreciated was the presence of an Action button, located on the top left-side, above the volume bar. By default this button takes you to the Activity Center, but it can be customized to run any application, which is another useful option to have.

To conclude, I would highly recommend the S6 Active to anyone who is looking to upgrade. Personally I am not too concerned about a removable battery or expandable storage, and the S6 Active offers a great set of physical upgrades over the original Galaxy S6, not to mention the considerably larger battery.

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What do you think about the Galaxy S6 Active? Do you prefer the rugged physical upgrades of the active or the sleekness of the original Galaxy S6? If you have any questions you’d like me to answer about the S6 Active, please comment below and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.