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The Galaxy S6 dumped the plastic found on the S5 and, like the iPhone 4 or Xiaomi Mi Note, went with an all-glass design. The result is a phone that outclasses every plastic Galaxy that came before it, making the S6 feel like a worthy upgrade. To get there, Samsung had to drop long-running features that earned it a few fans, like the removable battery and a MicroSD slot. We think the tradeoff is worth it.

While the materials have seen a significant change, the design hasn't—the Galaxy S6 uses the same basic design language that Samsung has been using since the Galaxy S2.

The curved version is the more eye-catching of the two devices, but it does distort things slightly. In particular, the curved screen distorts the sides of apps, bending parts of the interface that are supposed to be horizontally straight.

The metal sides of the S6 are now curved, which makes it look and feel a lot like an iPhone 6. It's a big upgrade from the straight, plastic sides of the S5 and it feels more comfortable than the metal chamfer on the Note 4.

Video edited by Jennifer Hahn.

So why is the screen curved? After playing with the S6 Edge, we really have no idea. The only feature Samsung demoed was a color-coded phone ringer that would pump light out the sides of the display while the S6 was face down. The Note Edge curve displayed (questionably-useful) vertical ticker apps, but the S6 curve isn't big enough to put anything in. Like the LG G Flex, the screen curve seems to be entirely for marketing purposes. Theoretically, this feature was implemented so the S6 will stand out in a showroom or commercial.

The camera has been totally revamped, but the camera bulge is now huge. We weren't able to get any pictures off the demo S6, but hopefully the resulting pictures are worth it.

While demo units aren't much to go on, it looks like the rumors were true. Samsung has tried to reduce the amount crapware on this device. There are only two Samsung apps and three bundled Microsoft apps. The app drawer was shockingly short at only 1.2 pages.

Samsung has been having a rough few quarters thanks to Apple and the rising Chinese companies, and Samsung had two options to respond: it could have either significantly cut costs and tried to sell $350 flagships like Xiaomi, or it could go premium and try to take on Apple. Samsung didn't announce pricing, but it clearly picked the Apple approach. While the glass and aluminum materials are certainly competitive, we aren't sure how the market will react to the price. Xiaomi's Mi Note Pro is also glass and aluminum with a Snapdragon 810, but with a 5.7-inch, 2K screen, and an extra GB of RAM, all for $530—can Samsung compete with that? Consumers are willing to pay a premium for Apple products, but we aren't sure the same can be said of Samsung.

For the most part though, we didn't notice a difference between the two devices. The curve isn't a big deal. Samsung has definitely made a leap into the premium materials though, and thanks to that this feels like a solid update.