Verizon Wireless announced earlier this month that they are offering the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Edge as a pre-order starting on April 1, 2015 with official launch day coming on April 10th.
"Preorders for the Samsung #GalaxyS6 & S6 edge w/ Verizon 4G LTE & 5.1" Quad HD Super AMOLED display will begin on 4/1," the tweet from Verizon said.
While Verizon is surprisingly the first the make the pre-order announcement for both Galaxy models, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular have all placed "pre-register" pages on their websites. These pre-registrations are set to alert you when news comes out and they're not for pre-orders. Verizon is currently the only carrier allowing for pre-orders.
But with the April 10th release date right around the corner, we certainly expect the remaining carriers to make their own announcements regarding pre-order availability for their networks.
Color options on the Verizon model are expected to be White Pearl and Black Sapphire with other colors possible later. The price of the Galaxy S6, while not officially announced, was inadvertently leaked on a contest page for T-Mobile. According to the giveaway's fine print, one of the prizes listed was a "Samsung Galaxy S6 Device ARV: $699." This is believed to be the price of the 32 GB version without a contract. The information was quickly taken down from T-Mobile's site, but not before several publications caught on.
As for AT&T's model, some deep digging revealed a possible model number for the carrier's "Active" version of the Galaxy S6. Phandroid is reporting that model number SM-G890A was found to be the possible new waterproof version of the S6, which would be fairly close to last year's model number SM-G870A for AT&T.
But even with pre-orders only available through Verizon in the United States, the worldwide pre-order count for the Galaxy S6 has already hit impressive figures. The Korea Times is reporting that a "top executive in the company" has revealed that the Samsung Galaxy S6 has already hit 15 million pre-orders with an additional five million for the Galaxy Edge.
"To be honest, pre-orders for our two Galaxy variants from our major clients are really huge," said Shin Jong-kyun, Samsung Electronics' mobile chief.
The Netherlands was the first country to kick off pre-orders with the 32 GB model going for 700 euros and the Sg Edge going for 850 euros without contracts.
"We think the components side of the S6 is more positive for Samsung's earnings direction, with the processor moving internally (saving potentially $28 a phone), significantly more memory (DRAM and particularly NAND) and the display showing off their technology lead in flexible OLED," said Mark C. Newman of Hong Kong's Berstein Research.
Another brokerage in Korea, Hi Investment, remarked that the competition is fierce with the recent market strength of Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. "It's no surprise to see that Samsung received historically high pre-orders of the recent phone," Hi Investment's Lee Min-ah said. "But the key point is how the firm set a competitive price for the entry-level model."
The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge both come with a 5.1-inch OLED QHD display running at 2560 x 1440 resolution and Samsung's own Exynos 7420 processor. Starting at a base 32 GB model, the storage choices go up to 64 GB and 128 GB with 3 GB of RAM and a 16-megapixel main camera in the back.
