It looks like the new Galaxy S6 smartphone might live up to the high expectations placed on it as Samsung reports a record number of pre-orders.

Samsung's Chief of Mobile, Shin Jong-Kyun, recently confirmed that the pre-order numbers for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge were "really huge." A report by The Korea Times puts "really huge" into more concrete terms

"Samsung received some 20 million pre-orders for the S6 and S6 Edge. 15 million of S6 and five million of the S6 Edge from mobile carriers, worldwide. This is the record," a top executive at a leading mobile carrier in Europe told The Korea Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

It's important to note that the 20 million pre-orders are not individual customers, but include shipment invoices from major retailers and mobile carriers. What it does indicate, more than anything, is it seems that retailers and carriers seem to have a lot of confidence in Samsung's latest flagship smartphone that is meant to go head-to-head with similar offerings from rival Android manufacturers like HTC and, of course, the Apple iPhone.

Although Samsung still remains the largest manufacturer and seller of Android smartphones worldwide, the brand's popularity in recent years has waned. What was once hip and popular became stale and rehashed. Many criticized Samsung for not making new iterations of the Galaxy S series different enough.

There was also the fact that Samsung chose to manufacture the Galaxy S series in a plastic casing, making the handsets seem cheap when compared to the metal-encased iPhone or HTC One. Samsung's TouchWiz interface also began to feel gimmicky, with many of the new features clumsy and memory-intensive.

Given the mounting complaints, Samsung faced an enormous amount of pressure developing the Galaxy S6. Many do-or-die pundits declared the Galaxy S6 the last straw on the camel's back -- would it break it? From the large volume of pre-orders, it looks like Samsung exhaustive testing of new designs paid off.

"When we launch on April 10, it will be better than the previous year," Shin told CNET (translated by ZDNet Korea).

The Samsung Galaxy S6 comes equipped with a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a 2560x1440 resolution that translates to an impressive 577 pixels per inch. The smartphone also sports 3GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The Galaxy S6 will ship with Android 5.0.2 onboard.

Most U.S. carriers have not yet announced when they will begin taking pre-orders, although Verizon has said it will begin April 1.

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