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Camera
- 16MP rear camera can make some beautiful shots in auto mode
- Same setup as the Samsung Galaxy S6 from 2015
- 5MP selfie camera will be good enough for social media uploads
The camera on the Galaxy S6 Edge+ is the same 16MP offering found in the normal S6 range, and that's a simply brilliant thing. It's by far my favorite camera to use at the moment, with crystal clear images, a boatload of modes to play with and some great snaps coming from all corners of the day.
The first thing I love is the speed with which the camera will open up. A double press of the home button will open up the camera, which is ace and gets you ready to take a picture wherever you are.
The good thing about this is you'll consistently know how to fire the camera – other phones require a swipe on the screen, you need to have an element of orienting yourself before the camera is ready.
This is a double-edged sword though, as you'll find that the camera can activate in your pocket, or if the fingerprint scanner is being a bit dodgy you can accidentally fire up the snapper instead.
It's rather annoying given the whole point of the exercise is keeping everything slick and simply in one place, but it's not the end of the world. I'd rather have a fast and reliable camera over everything else.
In terms of actual use, the S6 Edge+ is very simple to use. The main auto mode has the usual Samsung tweaks, meaning real time HDR (where the screen will show the image with high dynamic resolution, mixing together multiple exposures to get the best pic, as you swing the phone around) and simple notifications to help you decide how best to take your pictures.
If you want to get a little bit more creative there are multiple modes to play around with too. My favorite is the most boring: Pro Mode. It's perfect for those like me, those that like to take a slightly more 'arty' and considered photo but have zero idea what they're doing when messing around with the settings.
Trying to do the same thing on a DSLR will always result in over-exposed and blurry photos, but the simple sliders on offer here make it a snap to get a good image just by messing around with different options.
For instance, the white balance helps really enrich the snaps, while being able to manually adjust the focus to such a fine level will let you aim properly at the subject. It's worth playing around with some of the effects and then saving them as a custom mode, to make your own filters.
Speaking of which, the S6 Edge+'s camera does come with some effects... but none that you'd really consider to be really useful. There's no basic black and white mode, for instance, so it seems that the effects are all aimed at the social media-loving users. You can set the levels of each filter, and improve the vignette too.
I can't stand the vignette thing that is getting more and more prevalent. Anything that seeks to alter a photo in such a way isn't really helping make people become better photographers - and that's what all smartphones should be aiming for.
Helping us to understand better what composition is, how the light levels can affect your snaps etc is what we need.
It's probably a bit snobbish to think that, but there's more Samsung could do here. Being able to alter the exposure by sliding the finger up and down the screen when focusing does help a lot, but it's something that's been around for a while (and we won't get into the similarities with Apple's camera UI).
The front facing camera is strong again from Samsung, with the 5MP sensor bringing bright and clear pictures to play with - and being able to tap the heart rate monitor on the back to take said self portrait is probably the easiest way of doing things I've seen yet.
I'm not a fan of the trend you see on other phones of using a gesture to take the picture, no matter how fun it is, as it can disrupt the scene you've taken. The other option is to never take selfies... but that's too much of a wonderful dream.
To summarise: the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ has a brilliant camera, taking the best from the S6 range and adding in a large screen to help see what you're snapping. It's fast, accurate and captures color superbly... definitely one of my favorites to use.
