The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are Samsung’s latest flagship phones and the biggest news to come out of this year’s Mobile World Congress. But are they good enough to compete against the iPhone 6?

The new Galaxy is easier to use thanks to a lot of user interface changes and is faster and more powerful than its predecessors. It also looks great and if you buy the S6 Edge, it looks even better and has some neat tricks up its sleeve too.

The design of these two devices is something new. Gone is the hard plastic and careful waterproofing. The phone now rocks a sleek metal case with large Gorilla Glass screen. It’s nice to hold, easy to use and is a giant leap forward from the Galaxy S5. These changes come at the cost of the microSD slot and removable battery, but with up to 128Gb of on board storage, this shouldn’t be an issue.

The S6 Edge is something else. The screen with the curved edges on the left and right hand side of the device seems to be a small design change, but in reality it makes such a difference. With a similar steel case, slightly protruding camera lens and a distinctly premium feel, this is the phone to get in my opinion. It will make heads turn and surprise many when they realise that the curved screen sides are actually usable touch screen. These curved screen sides allow you to see the phone notifications while the phone is on your desk or bedside table. It also has nightstand features to allow you to have the date and time always on to easily see them in the dark. The sides of the screen also glow when calls are incoming and you can pick a colour for a few of your top contacts. This allows you to see who is calling based on the colour chosen without having to pick up your phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 runs a 5.1-inch Super Amoled QHD screen capable of 1440 x 2560 pixels at 577ppi. That is currently the sharpest and most capable screen available and as you can expect, it looks gorgeous. The S6 Edge runs the same quality screen but has curved edges on the vertical sides.

The S6 devices are powered by Samsung’s own 64-bit Exynos octacore processor, 3Gb of RAM and between 32Gb and 128Gb of internal storage.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are remarkable phones that show how far the manufacturer has come in the last year. While the Galaxy S6 is the nominated flagship, I would have the S6 Edge over the standard phone any day.

Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.

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