While the new Samsung Galaxy S6 is being largely hailed for its new design and updated features, some Galaxy fans aren't so happy about the new smartphone.
The reason is that Samsung ditched two features that many Samsung-lovers revered: a replaceable battery and expandable storage.
The focus on design was certainly a necessary change for Samsung. Many suggested the Galaxy S5 was a little below par in terms of design, featuring a plastic backing and an outdated look. The Galaxy S6 brings the design of the Galaxy series to the next level, featuring a glass backing rather than a plastic one. This backing cannot be removed to access things like the battery.
The anger many feel over the changes is perhaps a little overblown. A removable battery is something a small percentage of users make use of, as is expandable storage. In fact, as cloud storage starts to become more accessible and easy to use, there is little case to make for microSD cards in phones. In fact, the purchase of the Samsung Galaxy S6 comes with a two-year subscription to Microsoft's OneDrive storage for free, which comes with a whopping 115GB of storage. That's both more in storage than microSD cards generally are, and more flexible because of the fact that it's cloud based storage.
Still, many feel those features were ones that set Samsung apart from other smartphone makers. The flexibility was nice for the few that used it.
Samsung had to make a change at some point. Sales of its smartphone have steadily been decreasing for a while now, making a radical change important. This especially rings true for the design, which puts it in competition with the likes of the Apple iPhone 6, a smartphone viewed by many to have the best design of any smartphone ever.
The change for Samsung signals an end of an era. While the company once tailored to those who wanted the flexibility of removable batteries and microSD card slots, it now is trying to appeal to a much larger market of users who don't necessarily need these features and would prefer a phone that is well designed. Owning a smartphone has become somewhat of a fashion statement, for better or for worse, making it important that phones look great in order to compete in the smartphone market.
