New Galaxy S6 goes heavy on metal as Samsung struggles to battle cheaper rivals

Samsung’s new flagship phone, the Galaxy S6 (pictured above), is here. Launched at MWC 2015 in Barcelona, the important new phone for the struggling Korean giant arrives with a curvy cousin called the Galaxy S6 Edge (pictured below) that has a screen contoured at both lateral sides. Both feature glass and metal rather than the plastics seen on previous versions.

The new Galaxy S6 is critical for Samsung as it needs to reverse declining sales and slipping market share in numerous countries. Cheap but well-made and strongly-specced phones from the likes of Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Oppo are devastating the demand for Samsung’s top-end phones because they’re undercutting Samsung’s price by half. That’s why Xiaomi was China’s top smartphone brand in 2014, and why Samsung is losing ground to homegrown brands like Micromax in India.

Last year’s Galaxy S5 was the point at which consumers started turning their back on Samsung’s mobiles. The S5 sold less well than the S4. Samsung’s optimism in the S5 saw it increase production by 20 percent from the previous year, but it actually sold 40 percent fewer than anticipated.

Samsung hasn’t revealed prices for the new S6 siblings, which both get a global launch on April 10.

See: Mi Note is the giant Xiaomi phone you can’t have (REVIEW)

Is the new design enough?

Aside from losing out on price, Samsung has been losing out in terms of design and desirability. The shift to a metal and glass body for the Galaxy S6 shows that Samsung is trying to fix that problem.

Samsung’s official blog, SamsungTomorrow, breathlessly describes the Galaxy S6’s new glass and metal body in detail and says the company has “completely reimagined the design of its new Galaxy.” However, the phone retains the exact same shape and lines of the unpopular S5 – and virtually all the hundreds of Galaxy phone variants over the years. Rather than a reimagining, it looks more like a material swap job.

While the new Galaxy S6 looks good in well-lit photos that allow the metal to sparkle, out on the street it’s not going to stand out so well from the increasingly unloved, cookie-cutter Samsung phones – or from phones like the large-screen Mi Note (also made from metal and glass) that cost half the price.

Do you think the design is enough to reverse the tide against Samsung’s biggest-selling phone? Please vote in the poll and let us know why in the comments.