Tech 2/04/2015 @ 5:13PM 5,910 views

New Samsung Galaxy S6 Design Will Anger Apple

You’ve heard the rumours. The Galaxy S6 will mark the beginning of a new era for Samsung and a bold new direction. The problem is it looks a lot like the direction already taken by Apple.

Coming up trumps again is French site Nowhereelse.fr which has already leaked the Galaxy S6 dimensions and last year revealed both the iPhone 6’s design and its schematics. That particular leak not only impressed me, but seemingly Samsung’s design team as well.

Consequently the six chassis images Nowhereelse has obtained look lawyer-inducingly similar to the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They match the (seemingly aluminium) unibody chassis of both iPhones, their bottom edge speaker grill and even the headphone port position – all major changes from the Galaxy S5.

Read more – iPhone 6 vs Galaxy S5 Review: Apple Gatecrashes Samsung

Galaxy S6 chassis leak – image credit Nowhereelse.fr

Interestingly Nowhereelse claims the battery in the Galaxy S6 will not be removable – something that may be tied to a new memory breakthrough. Then again the Galaxy S6 battery capacity is also expected to be smaller due to efficiencies in Samsung’s Exynos chipset that it will use to replace the allegedly hotter running Qualcomm Snapdragon 810.

What the Nowhereelse leaks don’t shed light on though is the mysterious and all but confirmed Galaxy S Edge. This S6 variant is expected to copy the additional side display seen on the larger Galaxy Note Edge which Samsung released last year, but these chassis images show no side gap to accommodate that.

The iPhone 6 influence in the Galaxy S6 is strong – image credit Nowhereelse.fr

Read more – Galaxy S5 Vs Galaxy Note 4: Which To Buy?

Innovation Not Duplication

Still looking back at what Nowhereelse has shown off, I can’t help but feel disappointed if this is the extent of Samsung’s grand Galaxy S6 reinvention. Yes adding other elements like the screen, buttons and a possible and much improved fingerprint sensor may add visual differentiators, but it remains dangerously close to Apple territory.

Furthermore, while many have long wished Samsung would move to more premium build materials, this step now appears to be taken at the price of features that Galaxy owners have long loved – like a removable battery.

Galaxy S6 chassis leak – image credit Nowhereelse.fr

Apple’s way is not the only way. HTC’s gorgeous One range and LG’s brilliant G3 both look superb while taking completely different design paths to Apple. So I hope Samsung still has some Galaxy S6 surprises up its sleeve when it launches the phone next month. It will need to, given the high pricing.