AT&T Galaxy S6 Release: 11 Things to Expect

In the buildup to the Samsung Galaxy S6 launch date, we’ve been taking a look at some of the device’s finer details including the specs, price and the all-important Galaxy S6 release date. Today, we want to dig a little deeper and take a look at what we expect from the highly anticipated AT&T Galaxy S6 release and release date.

As we inch closer and closer to the Samsung Galaxy S6 launch date on March 1st, we’re beginning to see many Galaxy S6 rumors start to firm up. Galaxy S6 specs have been rumored left and right and many of them are confirmed ahead of Samsung’s announcement. We’ve also seen the Galaxy S6 design and the Galaxy S6 price rumored ahead of its big day on Sunday. Finally, we’ve seen Galaxy S6 release date rumors start to hone in on specific timing for the device’s arrival.

In the U.S., the Samsung Galaxy S6 release is confirmed. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have all confirmed the device, albeit vaguely, ahead of the device’s March 1st arrival at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Two other carriers are rumored to have the Galaxy S6 on tap though U.S. Cellular and Verizon remain silent about their plans.

In the buildup to the Samsung Galaxy S6 launch date, we’ve been taking a look at its most important details and making some predictions of our own. Today, we want to take a look at what we expect from the AT&T Galaxy S6 release and the Verizon Galaxy S6 release date. Our goal is to set your expectations ahead of Unpacked 2015 on Sunday and ahead of AT&T’s inevitable announcement. Here’s what we expect.

AT&T Galaxy S6 Release Among the Others

AT&T’s historically been on the ball with its Galaxy S release dates. Translation: It rarely pulls the same kind of shenanigans that Verizon often pulls with major smartphone releases. Ma Bell is typically very straight forward with its release information and it typically doesn’t lag when it comes to Galaxy S release dates. We don’t expect anything different this time around.

We’ve already seen the carrier start teasing the arrival of the Galaxy S6 and given the device’s prominence, we can’t see AT&T leaving much wiggle room for its rivals. We wouldn’t expect U.S. carrier release dates to be separated by weeks, we’d expect them to be separated by days and we’d expect AT&T to be among the first to offer the Galaxy S6.

The Galaxy S6 has the potential to be one of the biggest smartphone releases of the year and we can’t see AT&T fouling this one up. AT&T customers should expect the carrier to do what it always does: Keep its customers in the loop and get the device out within a reasonable amount of time.

AT&T Galaxy S6 Release Date by May

AT&T’s Galaxy S6 teaser suggests that the Galaxy S6, or the Galaxy S6 Edge at the very least, will arrive in Spring 2015. Spring kicks off on March 20th which means that we don’t expect to see anything arrive before then. Sprint’s Galaxy S6 contest is rumored to end on March 26th so that further cements our feelings about the U.S. Galaxy S6 release.

Galaxy S6 release date rumors center around a release in March or April and the U.S. is typically among the first to offer flagship smartphones like the Galaxy S. We don’t expect it to be at the tail end of Samsung’s release window.

We’d be a little bit surprised if it arrived in March and we wouldn’t be shocked at all if it landed sometime in April. Samsung’s done an excellent job closing the gap between launch and release and with Galaxy S6 release date rumors all hinting at a fast release, we should see the AT&T Galaxy S6 emerge just weeks after Sunday’s launch date.

AT&T Galaxy S6 Edge Release

The AT&T Galaxy S6 teaser features the curved variant of the Galaxy S6. That’s all the confirmation that we really need ahead of Samsung’s Unpacked event on March 1st.

If the teaser wasn’t enough, we’ve also seen the supposed model number for the AT&T model leak out. We’ve even seen the Galaxy S6 Edge name show up on AT&T’s website in the source code. I its bitter rivals are carrying it, you’d better believe that the nation’s second largest carrier is going to buy-in.

Focus on Galaxy S6 Edge

A recent report from ArsTechnica outlines Samsung’s marketing plans, plans that apparently will extend to U.S. carriers. Samsung will reportedly focus its marketing efforts on the Galaxy S6 Edge and not the regular Galaxy S6. That explains why the U.S. release teasers were all for the curved variant and not the regular model.

One-third of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 stock is supposedly made up of Galaxy S6 Edge models so we expect it, and its carrier partners, to really push this device to consumers though we expect AT&T to have a tough task on its hands.

First of all, yield is supposedly going to be extremely low which means that we could see stock shortages. We saw Samsung go through something similar with the Galaxy Note Edge. Two, its price is expected to be pretty steep, something that might turn people away. And three, the Galaxy S6 Edge display may not be as useful as the Galaxy Note Edge’s display.

Good luck, Samsung. Good luck, AT&T.

Early Shipments

If AT&T offers Galaxy S6 pre-orders, and we expect that it will, we should see the carrier push out early shipments ahead of its official Galaxy S6 release date or release dates.

The carrier has a habit of rewarding those who order early with early access to flagship Android smartphones (it also gives it free publicity) and we wouldn’t expect anything different this time around.

Multiple Color Options

The Samsung Galaxy S6 is supposedly coming in four colors: black, gold, green, and white and gold. A recent leak showing off colors and storage seems to confirm those details ahead of time.

We’re fairly certain that AT&T will carry at least the black Galaxy S6 model, black is a common and popular smartphone color, and we’d be surprised if if didn’t have at least one other color option at launch.

Samsung and its U.S. carrier partners rarely have more than two available on release day but that could certainly change here with the Galaxy S6. Samsung needs to improve its mobile business and it may use all of the tricks in the book to accomplish that.

Multiple Storage Options

Recent Samsung Galaxy S6 photos point to the lack of a microSD card slot for expanded storage. If that’s true, and it might be, we’d expect Samsung to offer multiple Galaxy S6 storage options.

In years past, carriers have been able to get away with selling the base 16GB model and the 16GB model alone. Without a microSD card slot, there’s more incentive to offer more than just the base model. Not everyone wants to pay monthly fees for cloud storage and not everyone can deal with 32GB of internal storage space.

Galaxy S6 rumors point to 32GB, 64GB and 128GB variants and we’d expect AT&T and its fellow U.S. carriers to offer at least two of these if Samsung opts not to include a microSD card slot on the design. If it does, and the door is still open until its announced on stage, we’d expect AT&T to offer just one storage variant, probably the base 32GB model.

Deals

When Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 arrived back in October, Samsung made sure to highlight a trade-in offer to those thinking about buying the Galaxy Note 4. Those who bought the Galaxy Note 4 in the U.S. we able to take advantage of trade-in deals to knock the device’s steep $299.99 price down a bit. We are expecting something similar from Samsung and perhaps AT&T this time around as well.

We’d also expect AT&T Galaxy S6 deals to emerge a few days or weeks after the device’s initial release date. We saw a Galaxy Note 4 deal emerge at Walmart just a few days after its release and we saw a number of Galaxy S5 deals emerge after its release in April. Either at Walmart or Amazon or another retailer trying to make a sale and we expect AT&T Galaxy S6 buyers to benefit from that.

Tons of Retailers

Best Buy’s already confirmed plans to release the Samsung Galaxy S6 and we expect it to stock the AT&T’s version of the Galaxy S6. It always carries high-end AT&T, Sprint and Verizon smartphones and the Galaxy S6 will be one of the biggest releases of the year. No doubt that it will have it in store when the Galaxy S6 release arrives. We expect it to take pre-orders as well.

We’d also expect the Samsung Galaxy S6 to arrive at other retailers like Amazon, Walmart and other carrier-affiliated locations giving consumers a wide variety of options in and around the Galaxy S6 release date. You should be able to easily find this phone on day one is what we’re saying.

Some Accessories on Release Day

AT&T typically has a solid stash of accessories on day one. Better than most U.S. carriers actually. We don’t expect it to have every single awesome Galaxy S6 accessory on sale on the release date but we expect it to have a decent amount of quality wares set up for those that are looking to buy on day one.

We expect many top Galaxy S6 accessories to arrive weeks and perhaps even months after its release. Samsung’s always slow to get its official accessories to market and we’d expect companies like Mophie to take their time. Mophie’s Juice Pack for the Galaxy S5 didn’t start shipping out until September 8th, months after the device’s release in April. Something to keep in mind as we inch closer.

AT&T Galaxy S5 Price Cut

AT&T’s Galaxy S5 is $199.99 on-contract but don’t expect it to stay at $199.99 on-contract for much longer. We expect AT&T to cut the price of the Galaxy S5 soon after the Galaxy S6 arrives on stage.

If we had to guess, we’d say that we’ll probably see a $100 price cut or so. The Galaxy S5 is already sold at sub-$100 prices at some retailers though we can’t see AT&T dipping much lower than $99 on-contract. After all, it’s still at $200 a year after its release.

Maybe we’ll see a deal or two arrive in the weeks after the Galaxy S6 release but we’d expect the standard AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5 price dip to no more than $99 on-contract.