THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 is finally official, after almost 12 months of rumour and speculation about the handset.by Carly Page

The latest in Samsung's flagship Galaxy series sees the company upping its game in a bid to compete with the likes of the iPhone 6 and HTC One M9, cladding the Galaxy S6 in a top-end metal and glass casing, and stuffing it with a bunch of innovative, new features that it hopes will help it turn its fortunes around.

We've rounded up everything we know about the Galaxy S6 so far, including release date, price and specifications. Be sure to keep this page bookmarked as we'll be updating it as soon as we hear more.

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Release dateSamsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S6 will be available in 20 countries around the world, including the UK and the US, from 10 April 2015. 

Price
There's no word yet regarding how much the Galaxy S6 will cost at launch. However, we'll assume that it will be priced similarly to last year's model, which Samsung offered from £579 SIM-free.  

In terms of contract pricing, UK networks have been quick to announce that they will be stocking the handset.

EE tells us that it will be offering the Galaxy S6 in black, white and blue models, adding that it will ship with support for its 4G+ network.

O2 has said that it will offer the Galaxy S6 on its O2 Refresh tariffs in the 'coming weeks.' While no pricing details have been announced, it said it will offer £171 to those looking to trade in a Galaxy S5.

Three has said it will sell the Galaxy S6, but has not yet offered any additional information.

Vodafone, too, will be selling the smartphone, although has also kept quiet on further details. 

SpecsIn a bid to challenge the likes of the iPhone 6 and newly-announced HTC One M9, Samsung has redesigned the Galaxy S6 from the ground up.

The smartphone arrives, much like its competitors, boasting a metal body, which comes clad in Gorilla Glass 4 much like the Sony Xperia Z3.

According to Samsung, this metal body is 50 percent tougher than that use in other smartphones on the market, with the firm taking a dig at Apple with the claim that the S6 "will not bend". In terms of size, the Galaxy S6 measures in at just 6.8mm thick

This metal and glass casing houses the Galaxy S6's 5.1in 2560x1440 Super AMOLED display, which comes coated in Gorilla Glass 4 making it, according to the firm, the toughest smartphone screen on the market. With a pixel density of 577ppi, the firm also boasts that this is the highest resolution display available on the smartphone market today.

Under the hood, the Galaxy S6 features an octa-core Samsung-branded processor, made up of four 2.1GHz cores and four cores clocked at 1.5GHz, which comes paired with 3GB RAM.

Of course, the Galaxy S6 will ship running Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system, and ss rumours had suggested, comes with a stripped-back version of Samsung's TouchWiz user interface. The firm has reworked its interface from the ground up - equipping with a simpler, flatter design and less bloatware, with the smartphone shipping with just two Samsung apps pre-loaded.

Samsung's software does debut Samsung Pay, however, a mobile payments service that looks to challenge Apple Pay. Set to launch in the US in the second half of 2015, the NFC-based payments service - much like Apple's - allows users to make payments by scanning their fingerprint. 

An upgraded version of Samsung's Knox security suite is also included on the Galaxy S6 with the firm looking to tackle iOS and Windows Phone in the enterprise. This upgraded security software takes advantage of the handsets' upgraded touch-based fingerprint scanner, and comes with a new remotely-controlled 'Reactivation Lock' feature.

For those not looking to use the smartphone at work, the Galaxy S6 features a 16MP sensor on its rear, similar to that found on last year's Galaxy S5, complete with optical image stablisation, 4K video recording and a new feature called object-tracking audofocus.

There's also a 5MP camera on the front of the smartphone, improving on last year's 2MP offering.

When it comes to battery life, the Galaxy S6 ships with a 2,550mAh battery, although Samsung is yet to cough on how long this will last. Support for wireless charging is also included, with Samsung boasting that the devices can charge fully in "half the time of the iPhone 6," and to 40 percent in just ten minutes.

The Galaxy S6 will be made available in a number colour options - gold, black, white, blue and green - and will ship with either 32GB, 64GB or 128GB internal storage. Unlike the Galaxy S5, there is no microSD slot included on the Galaxy S6 handset.