Tech Review: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+

When the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge launched, it was a bit of surprise hit. The curved screen made it stand out from the smartphone crowd, and its camera was more than a little impressive. But these days a 5.1-inch screen isn't enough for some people; a look at the steadily expanding smartphone sizes is enough evidence of that.

Samsung would usually cover that market with the Note, but this time around, it decided not to launch the Note 5 in Europe. So if you want a larger device – a 5.7-inch screen in this case – the Edge+ is the latest Samsung option, for now at least.

How does it compare to the S6 Edge? Designwise, the S6 Edge+ is more of the same, just in a bigger size. In fact, you might have a little difficulty telling the two apart unless they’re side by side and you can see the bigger screen for yourself.

That screen is just as stunning as the smaller S6 Edge, and the curved sides, while attractive, aren’t just for show; you can save your favourite apps and contacts there for quick access.

While a lot of thought has gone into the design of the S6 Edge range, one thing hasn’t changed for the S6 Edge+: it’s an utter fingerprint magnet. But the good news is that it will show more on the rear of the phone than the front, where the Gorilla Glass screen seems to resist it slightly. You’ll find yourself polishing it off a lot to keep it as shiny as possible.

But there are things to celebrate too. For such a large screen, and given the complaints about the S6 Edge battery life, the Edge+ does well. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say it was a lot better than the S6 Edge. The new handset packs a larger battery at 300mAh, and it shows.

The fingerprint scanner has also been improved, with only one rejection of my registered print in the entire time I was using the handset. That makes it a lot more likely that I’ll use it regularly.

The 16 megapixel camera, meanwhile, offers up photographs that are crisp and clean, with good video footage too. There’s very little to complain about here.

The good

Despite the bump in size, the S6 Edge+ doesn’t feel like it’s unmanageable, although if you have smaller hands this will be one you’re tackling two handed. The camera, meanwhile, performs really well, with a noticeable improvement in image quality on other similarly specced handsets.

Special mention has to go to the battery life here; I wasn’t expecting much, but even on heavy use and with Bluetooth connected to a smartwatch all day, the battery never let me down.

The not so good

The eye catching design of the S6 Edge+ is spoiled a little by its ability to pick up every fingerprint going. It’s a particular problem on the rear of the phone, which, like its smaller sibling, isn’t as nicely designed as the rest of the handset.

Speaking of flaws with the original handset, the S6 Edge+ also fails to include the ability to pop a MicroSD card in to expand memory, so choose your handset carefully and make sure you’ll have enough space for apps, images and videos.

The rest

While the 16 megapixel camera is impressive, the front facing camera deserves a mention too. At 5 megapixels, it’s more than good enough for video conferencing and selfies, with the latter made even easier by the ability to use the heart rate sensor (yes, that’s still there) to trigger the camera.

The verdict

More beautiful than the Note but just as useful; it’s not perfect though.