Samsung Galaxy S6 edge review: Double down

Performance

With the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge utilizes the same chipset as the standard S6 model - the in-house Exynos 7420. It's the first mobile chipset to be built on a 14nm fabrication process (Snapdragon 810 is on 20nm), which should reduce power usage. That in turn reduces the dreaded thermal throttling that was a major issue in the Exynos vs. Snapdragon debate recently.

The Exynos 7420 and Snapdragon 810 are not that different in terms of processor, both use a big.LITTLE setup with four Cortex-A57 cores at 2.1GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.5GHz. The GPU is a Mali-T760 from ARM and it shares 3GB of RAM with the processor.

With the Galaxy S6 edge we also got a retail unit of the Galaxy S6, so the benchmark scores in the charts below are taken all from the retail units of both devices.

The Galaxy S6 edge runs a 64-bit version of Android 5.0.2 and all eight of its cores are 64-bit capable. This is good for the future, but for now 32-bit apps run just fine - in fact, AnTuTu 5 offered both options. Both S6 phones returned equal scores in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes, crushing the Snapdragon opposition (805 for the Nexus 6 and Galaxy Note 4, 810 for the LG G Flex2).

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  70053
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  69396
• HTC One M9
  51427
• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  49273
• LG G Flex2
  47680
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  45660
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  45348
• LG G3
  42038

The next compound test - BaseMark II 2.0, which gauges CPU, GPU, memory, system and browser performance, puts the Galaxy S6 duo at the top of the chart, on par with the LG G Flex 2, but way ahead of the competition, including the S810-powered HTC One M9.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  1750
• LG G Flex2
  1726
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  1674
• HTC One M9
  1365
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  1267
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1267
• LG G3
  1189
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  1176
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  1160

Looking at just the CPU performance at GeekBench 3, we see a massive advantage in multicore performance. The Snapdragon 810 runs its CPU cores a little slower (0.1GHz), but that's far too little to account for the difference. Basemark OS 2.0 confirms the multi-core difference, however, it puts individual core performance as similar to the Krait 450 cores in the Snapdragon 805.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  5215
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  5095
• HTC One M9
  3761
• LG G Flex2
  3604
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  3394
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3120
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  2970
• LG G3
  2370

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  6306
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  6173
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  6165
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  5977
• Motorola Nexus 6
  5624
• LG G Flex2
  5597
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5557
• LG G3
  5396
• HTC One M9
  4688

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27703
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  26799
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  21841
• Motorola Nexus 6
  21026
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  19237
• LG G Flex2
  18856
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  18386
• HTC One M9
  18047
• LG G3
  16485

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge the same screen as the S6 model, it just puts two curves around the edges. It's a QHD Super AMOLED screen - 1,440 x 2,560px - which is around 80% more pixels than a 1080p screen (like the LG G Flex2 and Moto X have). Offscreen tests normalize resolution at 1080p so you can compare raw performance, while on-screen tests predict real-world gaming performance.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  59
• LG G Flex2
  49
• HTC One M9
  49
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  40
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  27
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  27
• LG G3
  26

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  26
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  24
• HTC One M9
  23
• LG G Flex2
  22
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  18
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  12
• LG G3
  11

The Mali-T760MP8 (eight-core) is slightly faster in general than the Adreno 430 found in the curved LG phone and even the beefy PowerVR GX6450 in the Apple iPhone 6. Playable framerates at full resolution, however, are no-go for complicated 3D games so we're guessing game makers will stick to 1080p for now.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One M9
  50
• LG G Flex2
  48
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  39
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  38
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  29
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  28
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  26
• LG G3
  20

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One M9
  24
• LG G Flex2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  14
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  13
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  12
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  11
• LG G3
  7.7

Basemark X considers only off-screen results and quite expectedly puts Galaxy S6 and S6 edge way ahead of the competition.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  27169
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  27046
• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  20043
• HTC One M9
  19848
• LG G Flex2
  19360
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  12190
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  11798
• LG G3
  10580

For web browsing performance we used the Internet app (stock web browser) as Samsung sprinkles proprietary optimization magic that's not available in Chrome or the vanilla Android browser. The Galaxy S6 edge wins the JavaScript race in Kraken 1.1 with a slim margin, less than we expected from the large lead in CPU performance.

For general web browsing BrowserMark 2.1 puts the Samsung flagship lineup second best, topped only by Apple's iPhone 6 Plus (and far ahead of the rest) despite having to render pages at QHD while the iPhone screen is just 1080p.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3989
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  4154
• LG G Flex2
  4621
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  5181
• HTC One M9
  5500
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  5968
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  6260
• LG G3
  7632

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3389
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  2718
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  2702
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Lollipop
  2232
• LG G Flex2
  2086
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  2066
• HTC One M9
  1681
• Motorola Moto X (2014) Lollipop
  1562
• LG G3
  1453
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1447

We also ran AndroBench - a popular storage benchmark, which gauges the read and write performance of sequential and random operations. Samsung promised the new UFC 2.0 storage in Galaxy S6 and S6 edge is 2.7x faster in random read than the one used on the Galaxy S5. We found it to be even better - the Galaxy S6 did 20000+ IOPS (input-output operations per second) at random read compared to 4800 IOPS of the Galaxy S5 on the same test. That's 3.25x times better.

And before you ask, all tested devices were on Android Lollipop. Also all tests were ran with h/w encryption turned off - which is the default setting under Android Lollipop.

Sequential Read, MB/s

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  321.44
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  311.05
• LG G3
  239.68
• HTC One M9
  239.19
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  212.45
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  206.85

Sequential Write, MB/s

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  145.19
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  139.20
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  126.69
• HTC One M9
  123.97
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  56.31
• LG G3
  39.53

Random Read, MB/s

MB/s, Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  77.58
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  76.79
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  22.10
• LG G3
  21.81
• HTC One M9
  20.27
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  18.79

Random Write, MB/s

MB/s, Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  20.20
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  19.76
• HTC One M9
  13.93
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  10.71
• LG G3
  9.42
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  6.91

The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (and S6 for that matter) is the fastest mobile phone you can have at the moment and with 64-bit support in place this should remain the case for some time to come. The flagship offers top notch performance for any use case and may not be surpassed in 2015, looking at just the 5" size (obviously the Note 5 is coming and should be a bit faster).