Do you have butter fingers? Can’t let go of the phone, even in the shower or while eating a messy meal? Constantly on the move? Then you’re going to love the Samsung S6 Active. After using the phone for about a month now, I’ve come to wonder why certain features on this device aren’t standard on all phones.
The S6 Active is the third generation of the Active series from Samsung and its come a long way since. At first glance you might think the S6 Active bulky or ugly, but it actually isn’t. The smartphone is bulked up with plastic and rubber, which is definitely tougher than its delicate darling sister models, the S6 and S6 Edge. It’s got IP68 grading as well as the MIL-STD-810G “Military grading”, which means it’s not only waterproof but also dust, wind, moisture and humidity proof.
In terms of internal specs, you’d think that screen resolution, processing power and other basics might be compromised, but they aren’t. Samsung has kept the Exynos 7420 and its two quad-core processors. The QHD screen remains the same with its spectacular sunlight legibility. The 16MP front camera and the 5MP selfie snapper also remain intact.
The differences in the devices come up in two places. First, there is no memory card slot and you are restricted to only 32GB, which is more than enough according to me. Second is the battery. Now this is the most defining change in the device. The S6 Active gets a massive bump in battery life with its 3,500mAh spec impressive compared to the highly disappointing 2,550mAh in the S6. Without bothering with battery saving modes, I was getting almost a day and half from the device on a single charge. This is while using all social media, two e-mails accounts, a heavy battery-draining game and constant phone calls. A light user could easily pull out two days.
But it’s the freedom not to worry about wear and tear that is the absolute perk of this phone.
Here’s a small example of the S6 Active giving more than promised. The aforementioned military grading says that the phone can survive repeated drops of up to four feet. So here I am, opening a window on the first floor at home with the phone in my hand (you can already see where this is going) and whoops! There goes the phone, right out the window, slamming down onto the interlocking bricks below. Now, this is a height of at least 15-18 feet, at least 12 feet higher than the drop protection it’s built with. While doing the slow walk downstairs to pick up the Active filled with that feeling of despair we all have when we drop our phones, I was sure that even this beast would not survive the fall. But to my surprise, there it was lying on the floor with nothing but a scratch at the point of impact.
When something seems so attractive and an absolute must-have, there has to be a but somewhere. And in the case of this spectacular device, it is the fact that getting your hands one of these bad boys is quite difficult since it is only made for AT&T in the US. I was lucky to find one on a local website, so if you really want one, get Googling. And if you do manage to stumble across the S6 Active, my suggestion would be: Go. For. It.
