While the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is the first phone with a dual-edge screen, both the S6 and the S6 Edge mark significant improvements and departures from previous Samsung flagships.
1. Now Samsung's S6 phones will have a metal frame - like the iPhone. The casing is made from light-weight metal used in airplanes, a step up from the plastic that disappointed many critics of the Galaxy S5. The phones also have a Corning Gorilla Glass protected glass back, which Apple abandoned in favour of metal in recent iPhones.
2. Samsung is promoting the new phones' ability to charge quickly - in 30 minutes they can reach 50 per cent.
3. The screen remains 5.1 inches, but the display resolution increases to 577 pixels per inch, up from 432 in last year's Galaxy S5. By comparison, Apple's 4.7-inch iPhone 6 has 326.
4. Although the resolution of the phones' rear camera remains at 16 megapixels, cameras on both sides will have wider openings to let in more light and make for sharper photos. The phones also promise better focus and colour accuracy - achieved in part by using the infrared capabilities on the phones' heart-rate sensor to detect lighting conditions.
5. In addition to camera and screen upgrades, Samsung stripped out many of its unpopular in-house apps that infuriated users by gobbling up memory. The software will also be simplified. Many of the icons, for instance, will be replaced with text to reduce guesswork.
6. The fingerprint sensor is also improved. Instead of swiping down on the home button, you simply touch it, much the way you already do on iPhones.
7. Previous Samsung phones had removable plastic backs, so the battery could be swapped with a spare. Samsung now joins Apple, HTC and others in favouring a better design over that replacement capability.
8. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge will be powered by Samsung's own 64-bit, 14-nanometer Exynos processors, a departure from its previous reliance on Qualcomm's chips.
9. Samsung's new phones will incorporate technology from LoopPay, a startup that Samsung is buying. LoopPay's technology reproduces the signals from a credit card's magnetic swipe, so it can work with existing retail equipment. Most rivals, including Apple Pay, require newer equipment.
10. Both the S6 and the S6 Edge are slightly lighter, thinner and narrower than the S5, though they are a tad taller.
(With inputs from agencies)
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