Samsung's greatest challenge to the iPhone's domination of the premium device market came this April with the completely redesigned Samsung Galaxy S6 and its cousin, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

While both look great and pack powerful hardware, undoubtedly catching the eyes of many consumers, the Galaxy S6 Edge has received more notice, because its two curved display edges give it a form-factor unlike any other device in the market right now.

But is it worth the extra cost to get a Galaxy S6 Edge? Here, we take a look at the difference between hype and practicality.

Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge had wide release dates of April 10, meaning both variants are on the market and there's no immediate benefit to buying one or the other, as far as availability goes.

While the Galaxy S6 base model (32 GB of storage) costs a total of $600 without subsidies, the Galaxy S6 Edge with the same storage costs a whole $100 more without a contract, at $700. Are the edges worth $50 each?

The rest of the hardware is pretty identical. Samsung got rid of the plastic materials for this year's Galaxy S range -- appropriate dubbed by Samsung, during the company's 'back to the drawing board' redesign process as "Project Zero" -- finally putting to rest the complaints from customers that the flagship Samsung smartphone just felt too cheap.

Now, made of a unibody aluminum chassis and Gorilla Glass 4 covering the front and back, the Galaxy S6 and Edge feel as premium as they should, and pose a challenge in the looks department to the Apple iPhone and handsets like the HTC One line.

On the inside, things have gotten appropriately next-generation. They both run the 64-bit Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM, making sure the LTE connectivity and 16-megapixel camera operate at blazing fast speeds, without a hint of lag. In the redesign, both variants lost microSD support and the ability to remove the battery, which will irk some long-time Samsung fans, but makes sense in the company's calculated turn towards a premium build.

And both feature the same 2K native-resolution 5.1-inch display with a pixel density of around 577 pixels per inch, ensuring bright, full resolution gaming and video replay, run on the Exynos's Mali-T760MP8 GPU.

The Galaxy S6 Edge's display, however, is a little different than its cousin. While the Galaxy S6's display comes to an end at a right angle, as nearly every smartphone does, the S6 Edge's screen curves down to an incredibly thin bezel on both left and right sides of the device.

The handsets run Android 5.0.2 Lollipop right out of the box, with a faster Samsung TouchWiz UI layer than users have had for a long time. But the "Edge" in software given to the S6 Edge by Samsung leads to a few unique uses that other devices, the Galaxy S6 included, don't have: specifically UI elements called People Edge, Edge Lightning, and Information Stream.

People Edge keeps up to five different frequent contacts on the right edge of the phone, each given a custom color. When a notification from one of those contacts arrives, it'll jut out from the edge into the center of the phone in its given color, giving you more details and options to respond. It also lends itself to quick calls or texts to those five.

However, although it keeps your "People" tucked out of the way on the curve, People Edge isn't much more than a quick-access panel on the home screen, which is, overall, hardly revolutionary.

Edge Lightning is an added function for Edge People, which lights up the edges of the screen in the custom color assigned to your "People" when receiving a call or message. To dismiss the call, you touch the heart rate sensor on the back.

Clearly, this limited feature was meant for a single use case: users who keep their phones face-down, which doesn't seem like a great idea when you're paying $100 more for a display -- even if it's made of Gorilla Glass 4.

Then there's Information Stream, which is a ported UI application from the first handset with a curved side, the Galaxy Note Edge. It's a little more full-featured than People Edge, providing custom feeds (RSS, social and news updates, notifications, etc.) along the side of the phone.

Finally, another carryover from the Galaxy Note Edge is the night clock -- which also works best if you (inexplicably) keep your phones face down on countertops. Along the edge of the phone, you'll see a bedside clock that keeps the brightness low, along with the date and current charge level of the phone.

The only other difference between the two variants is that the Galaxy S6 Edge has an ever-so-slightly larger battery (we're talking a 50 mAh difference, total).

Of course, there's one difference that doesn't come down to features, hardware, and other practical concerns: The Galaxy S6 Edge just looks really cool! (Then again, so does the Galaxy S6).

Have you, or are you planning on purchasing the Galaxy S6 or Edge? Do any of the extra features make it worthwhile, or are you going for looks alone? Let us know in the comments!