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“With the all new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung is presenting what’s next in mobility, along with a new industry standard to drive the global mobile agenda. By listening to our customers, we’ve been able to create two devices that offer the best of the Galaxy experience, taking attributes such as design and functionality to a higher level than ever before. For Samsung, it is exceedingly important to place the newest Galaxy line in the hands of our local consumers to offer users the ultimate experience in smartphone options, combining premium design with the latest technology.” 

Key Accounts Manager at Samsung Electronics, Kenneth Moore at the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge on the 17th Floor of the Jamaica Pegasus

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Kenneth Moore at the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in Jamaica

Samsung has launched yet another pair of smartphones in Jamaica, this time the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge as I’d described in Samsung Galaxy S6 and Edge at MWC 2015 coming to Mash up Jamaica.

A quick question posed to the Concierge on the Ground Floor had me heading to the 17th Floor to check out the launch! And what a Launch it was, as this time Samsung decided to go with a Matrix Night Club theme with black, blue and white as the main colours…..and lots of strobe lights.

Made sense, as this Launch Event took place on the 17th Floor of the Pegasus. 17 is not only a Prime Number, but to Sudoku fanatics like myself, it’s the maximum number of clues that any game can start with.

This isn’t just a Sudoku fanatic’s hunch; it’s a fact that was proven by research done by Gary McGuire and his fellow researchers at University College Dublin back in 2012.

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There were so many Strobing lights inside of Club Samsung Galaxy S6, Matrix Style,  that after having been signed in by the pretty chica with the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, I was thoroughly blinded by these pulsing strobing things to the point I began to worry I’d get a headache.

I soon got a Press Kit and I was on my merry way and yes, I finally got to touch the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge with these two (2) hands.

So dear Reader, Follow the White Rabbit as I get Up in da Club Samsung Galaxy S6.

Samsung on Pegasus 17th Floor – The Future is a Blue, Black and White Night Club

On stepping out of the elevator onto the 17th Floor, I was greeted by what looked like the same couch straight out of the Movie Matrix.

Except this one was all white with white pillows and Black “Samsung” writing. The most striking motif was a gigantic white vase with extremely large blue and white carnations, much large than those on a boutonniere, only gigantically large.

Several of them were also inside of the venue, which was a darkened room that had a tunnel ways built out of white plastic and silver circles. On the inside, even more strobing lights, wishing I’d at least donned my dark glasses to block them out, were it not for the fact that Club Samsung Galaxy S6 was really dark and I was bumping into people as the DJ played pulsing house music.

Flitting about the place and dodging Cameramen who seem intent on putting me in their video light along and waiters who were light on their feet, I spotted an oasis of brilliant white in a field of strangers; leggy six (6) foot tall model Females in blindingly immaculate White off-shoulder mini-skirts and peep-toe stilettos.

The Samsung Girls apparently; they were busy helping some of the guests take photos and even selfies against one of three (3) backgrounds that dotted opposite sides of the room. One was all white made of some loosely fitting drapes, which appeared to be hiding something, but the others were composed of the black and white tiles of the words “Samsung Galaxy S6”.

Eighteen tables, or Seventeen Plus one tables for Sudoku fans, with no chairs covered with white cloth and tied at the stem with black ribbon complete the Floor space. The black cloth draped stage was packed with three (3) gigantic projector screens with a Plexiglas podium looping pictures similar to those in my article Samsung Galaxy S6 and Edge at MWC 2015 coming to Mash up Jamaica.

I was a bit let down on seeing this, as it means that the ONLY product that was going to be launched today was the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge; there would be no surprise product such as the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR, which I’d written about as per my article Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition expands your Galaxy.

Still, I was going to see and touch the Samsung Galaxy S6 for the first time. So I held my peace until the time was right to make a beeline to the back where one of selfie stages was located. For some strange reason, I had a feeling that the white background made up of loosely fitting drapes was hiding something.

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I would soon find out.  I’ll soon Follow the White Rabbit and see what’s behind the white curtain while I’m up in Club Samsung Galaxy S6.

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Kenneth Moore and the Samsung Galaxy S6 – What’s not to love about a Glass and Metal smartphone

Nobody was dancing and most conversations were being had mixed in with twittering and semi-risque conversations around the eighteen (18) white table, with a few sitting on even more Matrix-esque couches or imbibing at the Bar at the back to the right beside the DJ.

Soon the event got under way at 7:28 pm, by which time I’d paced about the Floor about ten (10) times, taking notes of the guests as well as taking notes for my article. I counted at least one hundred and fifty (150) people crammed in inside Club Samsung Galaxy S6.

A lady, apparently the emcee, came onstage and spoke about the Samsung Galaxy S6, singing praises about features, performance and the fact that it has a Metal and Glass design, representative of “The Future is Now” Theme of the event. I really and truly was impressed …..and then Key Account Manager, Kenneth Moore, came onto the stage after some serious Michael Bay styled Theatrics that was a riot of sound and colour splashed against the dark interior of the Club Samsung Galaxy S6.

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He too, came, delivering a scripted speech that was laden with enough tech to ease my fears that’s was another wine-and-cheese shindig for the well-to-do and ritzy Campion-ish Crowd. This was a Tech-themed launch, down to the club, which again, bore a striking desemblance to the one in the Movie the Matrix.

I was half expecting Trinity to call to me and say “Follow the White Rabbit” when his speech ended and he indicated that the Samsung Galaxy S6 and its doppelganger the S6 Edge was at the back, hidden behind the white drapes that made up the selfie wall.

I knew I was on the money, as those drapes looked too loose and uneven to even make a proper selfie wall in the first place.

At this point everybody began to follow the White Rabbit to the back of the room up in the Club Samsung Galaxy S6. But I was already holding on to the White Rabbit’s Tail.

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge – First impressions suggest they’re Channeling Apple

I literally ran over a fat white woman and somehow managed to beat the throng to the back where the white drapes were now pulled back to reveal a well-lit mini showroom with actual Samsung Experience Store Staff waiting to evangelize about Samsung’s latest product.

Thank you White Rabbit! Now time to choose either the Blue Pill (Samsung Galaxy S6 ) or the Red Pill (Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge).

When I got to touch the Samsung Galaxy S6, I was quick to notice that its cousin the S6 Edge was the SAME exact phone. The sole difference was that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge had the edge-to-edge screen on BOTH sides, not just on side like the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge launched back in November 2014. It was surprisingly light and according to Kenneth Moore in his tech-laden speech, was forged from the same aluminium used to make aircraft.

The screen was surprisingly clean and simple, with no shadows on the Apps at all, completely unlike the large cluttered Apps typical of the TouchWiz UI, even though it was Google Android 5.0 Lollipop. I asked Andrew Williams, the Samsung Representative on hand and he told me that this was indeed the case and I wasn’t having an epileptic fit or suffering blindness from the pulsing strobe lights

I notice this when I decided to interact with the phone, the 64-bit Octa-Core Processor, was surprisingly swift and fast. The colours were brilliant, most likely thanks to the Mali-T760 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The Processor is supported by a 3 GB LPDDR4 RAM and spoils the users with choice of three (3) Storage options of UFS 2.0 Internal Memory:

  • 32 GB
  • 64 GB
  • 128 GB

Can you say channeling Apple iPhone 6, as this matches the Cupertino Kids toe-to-toe. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge comes in the following colours, which were on display in the mini-booth:

  • Black Sapphire
  • Blue Topaz
  • Gold Platinum
  • Green Emerald
  • White Pearl

And yes, not only were the Apps flatter with less drop shadows, but I noticed less of the typical bloatware that usually comes crammed onto Samsung Smartphones. This suggests that Samsung had a serious rethink about their Samsung Galaxy App Store as described in Samsung Electronics Launches Samsung GALAXY Apps and decided to let the used choose if they wanted certain Apps.

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Definitely, this looks set to be the Year that the Samsung Galaxy will give the Apple iPhone 6 a run for its Apple Pay Money! The White Rabbit’s got mad skills up in da Samsung Galaxy S6 Club.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Hands on – Wireless Q Charging, Samsung Pay and an amazing Camera

One quick visit to the Gallery, the first place any selfie-aficionado usually visits first, confirmed that this push towards minimalism wasn’t just skin deep, but a thorough design all the way through. It was easy to navigate the Gallery, which surprisingly had tools built in to make Instagram-ready snaps for uploading.

Double click the home button and the Rear-Facing 16 Megapixel Camera is launched. This 16 Megapixel Camera with its dual-flash is complemented by a 5 Megapixel Front-Facing Camera that’s selfie-ready.

You don’t have to use the Front-facing camera to take selfies; the camera has a rear-camera selfie mode, with HDR (High Dynamic Range) making sure that every picture taken with the Samsung Galaxy S6 is a Prize winning photo, no matter how bad the lighting conditions.

Pictures truly pop, snap and sizzle on this ginormous 5.1’’ Quad HD Super AMOLED Screen with a resolution of 2560×1440 with 577ppi (pixels per inch). Corning Gorilla Glass 4 covers so much of the Smartphone that at one point during my hands on review, I almost blinded myself from the reflection from the bright lights above.

I spoke to the Samsung Representative Andrew Williams a little more about the Q Standard Wireless Charging pad, as I found it hard to believe that this Octa-Core Processor beast was coming to Jamaica, Barack Obama Style. No, there would not be a retrofit of older Samsung Smartphone to work with the Q Standard Wireless Chargers, he pointedly told me.

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You had to purchase the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in order to be a part of Samsung’s push to make 2015 the Year of Wireless Charging as predicted in my article Samsung declares 2015 Year of Wireless Smartphone Charging becoming an Industry Standard. I quizzed him on the price and he was cagey, so I’ll let him stay in that Cagey Cone of Silence, Get Smart Style, hoping to scope out the price at the Samsung Experience Store at a later date.

I soon realized that the Fingerprint reader was also more responsive and in fact was now programmed to use your fingerprint as the key to access Samsung Pay. This is Samsung’s answer to Apple Pay that works with NFC (Near Field Communication) and MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) as explained in “Samsung Pay supports NFC, MST with KNOX Security for Merchants and Banks”.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge is packing the Blackberry-style security of Samsung KNOX as described in AnyConnect for Samsung Knox is a Cisco Systems partnership for Secure VPN Communications., making sure that every transaction on this work-friend smartphone is secure enough to launch a Nuclear Missile Strike, should it come to that!

Thus retailers need not upgrade their POS (Point of Sale)  gear to accept Samsung Pay Transactions, as with MST, it ensure that it’s compatible with older POS devices white being NFC capable as noted in Samsung Galaxy S6 and Edge at MWC 2015 coming to Mash up Jamaica.

At this point Samsung Pay really look like the White Rabbit everybody in Jamaica who is anybody will follow once Club Samsung Galaxy S6 hits the Samsung Galaxy Experience Store!

Interview with Kenneth Moore – Samsung Pay a strong possibility but no Tizen 

According to Key Account Manager, Kenneth Moore when I later interviewed him outside in the impromptu Pres Area, Samsung Pay might be coming to the Caribbean and Latin American, as it was slated for rollout in the Summer of 2015 for our friends up North. I’d love to do a demo transaction with Samsung Pay once it starts being accepted in Jamaica.

He also told me that Tizen isn’t coming to Jamaica anytime soon and neither is the Samsung Galaxy Gear, so dear readers and Tizen Developer wannabee’s in Jamaica, sideways sad smiley, teary face.

Still I was impressed enough with this phone and his words to leave the Club Samsung Galaxy S6 on a Jaeger bomb high. Hopefully Samsung will eventually come packing the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR and give us more than seventeen (17) initial clues so as to make this Game of Smartphone Sudoku a bit more like Following the White Rabbit, Matrix Style.

Samsung has ridden in on the  Jamaica Pegasus in fine style. If the White Rabbit colored Winged Horse is packin’ Samsung Pay, coupled with the other features, the dynamic duo of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge will “Mash up Jamaica” for sure!

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