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What the Samsung Galaxy S6 means for gamers

Will Samsung's new flagship be good for games?

What the Samsung Galaxy S6 means for gamers
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Samsung recently announced its new Galaxy S6 flagship, as well as the Galaxy S6 Edge variant.

Both handsets see Samsung belatedly embracing the kind of premium design elements that the likes of Apple and HTC have been demonstrating for years.

And, as our hands-on report stated, these two new phones are the best-looking and most exciting things to come out of the company for years.

But how is the Samsung Galaxy S6 shaping up as a gaming device? Let's take a closer look.

QHD display

One of the most important elements in any mobile gaming device is the display. It is, after all, how we view and interact with our games.

On this front, the Samsung Galaxy S6 is shaping up to be fantastic. Its got a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display, which is the same size and panel technology as we saw in the Samsung Galaxy S5.

That's fine by us. The 5-inch mark seems to have become the universally accepted sweet spot for smartphone design, and no-one can make AMOLED technology sing as well as Samsung.

AMOLED, in case you weren't aware, is a different way of displaying pixels to old-fashioned LCD. It involved organic compounds that can see pixels individually lit, making for a more vibrant and contrast-rich picture.

The main advance with the Galaxy S6's display, however, is its resolution. That's been bumped up from the S5's Full HD to Quad HD, which is so called because it offers four times the number of pixels of a 720p display (roughly that of the iPhone 6).

Some (such as Apple and HTC) would argue that such a resolution isn't necessary in a sub-6-inch screen, but the simple fact for gamers is that games have the potential to look significantly sharper on the Galaxy S6 than on any other existing smartphone, with a staggering pixel density of 577 ppi.

Of course, developers will need to actually supply the assets to make the most of that resolution bump, but those should come.

Google's Nexus 6, the LG G3, and Samsung's own Galaxy Note 4 are already on the market with QHD displays, so there's a market for such optimisation. Not a massive one as yet, admittedly, but if the Galaxy S6 sells well, there soon will be.

Of course, that QHD resolution also offers a potentially significant downside when it comes to games, as we'll discuss in the next section.

Exynos CPU

Samsung has taken the unusual step of packing the Galaxy S6 with its own custom Exynos 7420 SoC processor when every other major Android manufacturer seems poised to go with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810.

This is obviously a good thing for Samsung's bottom line, as well as the overall smoothness of its devices - just ask Apple what a self-made chip can do on both counts.

But it might not be the best thing for gamers.

It's too early to say for sure, but preliminary benchmarks that have cropped up online appear to show that the Exynos 7420 is a very fast processor, up there with the aforementioned Snapdragon 810 for general tasks - and possibly even faster.

However, it seems as if the GPU in the Exynos 7420 might be the same Mali-T760 that was found in the Galaxy Note 4 towards the end of last year. It's a perfectly capable chip, but it doesn't seem to be as potent as the Adreno 430 that accompanies the Snapdragon 810.

Put in plain language, there's a chance that the Galaxy S6 will be lagging behind its direct rivals when it comes to gaming performance.

In practice, we don't expect the difference to be particularly notable. The truth is that modern smartphone processor technology has far outstripped the demands most mobile games place on them.

What is of more concern is that QHD resolution we mentioned in the last section. Pushing more pixels around requires more GPU power.

We're not saying that the Galaxy S6 will struggle with gaming performance, but we're expecting the HTC One M9 (announced on the same day) with its Snapdragon 810 and 1080p display to be more capable.

Samsung Gear VR

Samsung's Galaxy S6 launch event actually had an explicitly game-related element to it.

Specifically, the company used it to announce new versions of its Gear VR virtual reality headset. The project is a collaboration with Oculus VR, but unlike that headset, the Samsung Gear VR doesn't require a separate computer to work. It's hardly mobile, but it's certainly MORE mobile.

At MWC 2015 is was revealed that both the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge will get their own customised Gear VR headsets, into which the devices will plug to form a VR experience.

This is where that QHD resolution will really do something positive for gaming on the Galaxy S6, as a crisper, clearer picture will improve the experience and lessen the likelihood of sickness. Which is always good. The last thing you want on your £700 smartphone is vomit.

The new model is similar to the one that was made for the Galaxy Note 4, but it's 15 percent smaller and a fair bit lighter, and it's said to be generally more comfortable to wear for long periods.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.