Cameras

Samsung promised a great camera during the announcement of the Galaxy S6 devices. The results are supposed to be very good in low-light situations in particular. But we start at the front, because there were some changes as well. The webcam cannot really be called that anymore with a 5 MP sensor and it works really well for selfies. It is handy that the heart rate monitor at the back of the smartphone can be used as a trigger. The pictures are pretty good in well-lit environments, but the quality quickly decreases when the lighting is weaker and edges appear very blurred, but the sensor still captures comparatively much light.

The main focus, however, is on the rear camera. Besides an autofocus and an LED flash, it has an aperture of f/1.9 that captures a lot of light. It is supposed to ensure that the sensor gets enough picture information, even in darker environments. This works pretty well with the Galaxy S6 Edge in practice, but the Lumia 930 is still a bit better in a comparison. The sharpness of the Microsoft smartphone is particularly convincing. The pictures of the Edge are brighter in return, even though the edges are more frayed out. The Lumia does, however, support the DNG format, so the dark picture can be adjusted without losses afterwards.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is really great in daylight. The pictures are razor sharp and the colors are very good. There are no big drawbacks at the edges of the pictures, either. The camera shoots extremely quickly and there is subjectively no delay. This does change if it is very bright. It can take up to one or two seconds before the smartphone takes the picture on a very sunny day if the sensor captures a lot of light. Still, the Edge has no problems with overexposed shots.

The review unit can take videos in many different resolutions, all the way up to Ultra HD with usable 30 fps. The frame rates can unfortunately not be adjusted, unlike the Lumia 930 (2160p @ 24, 25 or 30 fps). If you prefer Full HD, you can do this in HFR (60 fps). Additional features like HDR, video effects, stabilization or the tracing autofocus, however, are only available for common 1080p recordings. A slow-motion effect is integrated as well, which works with 120 fps and unfortunately only up to 1280 x 720 pixels. The iPhone 6 is much better in this regard (up to 240 fps @ 720p).

All in all, Samsung offers an extremely good smartphone camera, which is behind the rivals in some sections, but the overall package is still great. The software in particular can improve the results and you can quickly launch it with a double tap on the home button.