by:
Nirave Gondhia
From
plastic in 2014 to glass and metal in 2015, last year saw the biggest
revolution in Samsung’s mobile portfolio since the launch of the first Galaxy S
itself. The Galaxy S6 family was certainly a looker and sought to address many
concerns users had over what had previously been, a stagnating product line-up.
Rather
than introduce one new smartphone, Samsung delivered two – the Galaxy S6 and
the Galaxy S6 Edge – with the latter proving to be the culmination of years of
experimentation with flexible and curved displays. Both smartphones stood out
from the crowd, but the Galaxy S6 was overshadowed by the S6 Edge as the latter
saw significantly more interest from consumers and media alike.
One
year on and Samsung has arguably learnt from last year and has sought to
differentiate the two smartphones in size as well as stature. The Galaxy S6 and
S6 Edge were definitely some of the best smartphones of 2015, but the question
facing Samsung this year was how to make an already-very-good smartphone, even
better.
From
further perfecting the design to improving features under the hood, and
addressing consumer concerns over last year’s line up, Samsung had a few areas
that it could improve on to truly make the Galaxy S7 a show-stopping device.
Does it deliver, or is the Galaxy S7 a case of “style over substance”? This is
what we aim to find out – and more – in this full review of the Samsung Galaxy
S7.
Design
While
this year saw Samsung increase the screen size of the Galaxy S7 Edge, the
Korean manufacturer has largely kept the same design in the Galaxy S7. With no
change to the screen size or materials, the Galaxy S7 merely aims to refine the
Galaxy S6 design, as opposed to revolutionise it like we saw last year.
Which
is definitely not a bad thing; the Galaxy S6 was certainly a striking
smartphone – albeit it was overshadowed by the Galaxy S6 Edge – and by changing
the screen size on the Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has further ensured that sales
of one of its new smartphones won’t cannibalize sales of the other. Out of the
shadow of its bigger brother, what refinements have been made to the Galaxy S7,
or is it a case of more of the same?
At
first glance, the Galaxy S7 certainly looks very similar to its predecessor,
but Samsung has managed to sneak in a few improvements to the design. First,
the camera bump has been noticeably reduced so it barely protrudes from the
rear; with the Galaxy S6, there was always a concern over laying it flat on its
back, but with the Galaxy S7, this is no longer really a problem.
Secondly,
the Galaxy S7 is noticeably thicker and heavier than the Galaxy S6 at 7.9mm and
152 grams (versus 6.8mm and 138 grams). The added girth definitely helps with
gripping the smartphone, and the extra thickness means Samsung has been able to
cram in a larger battery, which we’ll talk about later in this review.
By
far, the biggest improvement to the user experience is the dual curved rear,
which was initially found on last year’s Galaxy Note 5. Designed to make the
smartphone more ergonomically friendly, the rear plate is similar to the curved
front of the Galaxy S7 Edge (which also gains a dual curved rear) and, combined
with a metal frame sandwiching two planes of glass, the Galaxy S7 is even nicer
in the hand that the Galaxy S6 was.
The
Galaxy S6 was certainly a striking smartphone and the tweaks in the Galaxy S7
have made it even nicer to use and hold. Talking with Josh, we both agree that:
The Galaxy S7 is the most perfectly
designed and perfectly sized Samsung phone ever created.
Josh
went on to say that once you begin to grip and use the Galaxy S7, the handset
feels smaller than it actually is, and I have to agree with this. As a user
who’s accustomed to larger displays – like the ones found in the Galaxy Note
range for example – the Galaxy S7 does at times feel too small for me, but
that’s a personal preference. Josh tends to disagree with me by saying that the
smaller size makes the handset perfect for those who touch type, but we both
agree that the Galaxy S7 is definitely the most comfortable in-hand experience
you’re going to get. If you’re someone who’s accustomed to smaller displays or
are moving over from the iPhone, you’ll likely find the Galaxy S7 is actually
the perfect size for you.
One
of the biggest issues I found with last year’s Galaxy S6 family was the glass
back, as it was prone to attracting fingerprints, and although the company has
introduced a new coating to reduce this, the Galaxy S7 is still rather prone to
this. The glass finish also means the Galaxy S7 can be quite slippery –
although I’ve not yet felt like it is going to slip out of my hand – but most
people will keep their phone in a case rendering this, and the fingerprint
nature of the handset, a relatively moot point.
Moving
on to the rest of the Galaxy S7 and not a lot has changed over last year. On
the front you’ll find Samsung’s home button – which houses the fingerprint
sensor – flanked by the recent apps and back keys. On the left you’ll find the
volume keys, while on the right is the power button. Up top is the microSD and
SIM card tray (more on that later) while at the bottom, is the microUSB port.
In
an era where more smartphones are moving towards USB Type-C and all the
benefits (and problems) that it brings, Samsung has opted to stick to the older
but tried-and-tested USB type. There’s a couple of reasons behind this, not
least the Gear VR, which the company has included free for most people who
pre-ordered its new smartphones. As the Gear VR hit the shelves last year and
comes with a microUSB connection, it makes sense that Samsung wouldn’t want to
change connection standard so quickly. The company could have taken the
connector approach, but by sticking with microUSB, it has ensured that the Gear
VR continues to work with its new smartphones without further confusing its
consumers.
Furthermore,
USB Type-C hasn’t quite hit the mainstream as yet and the majority of
accessories still rock the older connection standard. As someone who has a few
devices with the new USB standard but a large collection of older microUSB
cables, I can safely say that Samsung’s decision to stick with microUSB is
certainly not a problem for me, and many people will likely agree with that.
Easily one of the best designed smartphones in the mobile world
Overall,
the Galaxy S7 may look very similar to the Galaxy S6, but the company has made
a few tweaks to further refine its Galaxy S experience. From improving the
dyeing of the glass – so that the Black version is now actually Black and not
blue – to perfecting the in-hand experience, Samsung has created what is easily
one of the best designed smartphones in the mobile world.
Display
One
of the principal reasons behind Samsung’s meteoric rise to the top of the
smartphone food chain is the company’s vertical integration with other
companies that form the Samsung Group. In Samsung Display, the Korean OEM has
access to the world’s largest display company and – as we’ve seen with previous
smartphones – Samsung definitely knows how to use this to its advantage.
When
it comes to displays, Samsung has shown over the years that its Super AMOLED
displays deliver some of the finest viewing experiences possible on a smartphone.
Year on year, there’s very little – if any – difference between the Galaxy S6
and the Galaxy S7 as both screens measure 5.1-inches with QHD (2560 x 1440
pixels) resolution.
The
Galaxy S6 display was certainly impressive and the Super AMOLED display on the
Galaxy S7 continues this trend, by offering vibrant and heavily saturated
colours, dark inky blacks and brightness that makes the screen legible in even
the brightest conditions. As someone who’s become accustomed to Samsung’s
displays on smartphones, I can say that the Galaxy S7 is a joy to use, even if
it does appear to be very similar to the Galaxy S6. As the adage goes: if it
isn’t broken, why try to fix it?
One
change found in the Galaxy S7 is the new “Always On Display”, which seems to be
a buzz word we’ll hear a lot more of in 2016. Arguably a software feature as
opposed to hardware related, the feature is still related to the AMOLED
technology, which allows Samsung to light up the individual pixels required for
this feature. This is in contrast to LCD displays, which would require an OEM
to turn on the entire screen, and this means the Always On Display has very
little impact on the battery life.
The
Always On Display may appear to be quite useful but once you dig into it, there
isn’t a lot of substance to the feature. At the moment, it’s limited to
displaying information from Samsung’s own apps at a glance, but once Samsung
opens the feature up to more developers, you should hopefully be able to see
information from apps such as Hangouts or WhatsApp (and hopefully, any
application that chooses to support the feature).
At
the moment, the Always On display is mostly useful for seeing the time at a
glance or seeing your calendar – there is an option to display an image but
this is mostly pointless in my opinion – but whether the feature grows in
usefulness with use, does depend on Samsung. The good news is, if you have no
need for the always on display, Samsung makes it simple to disable it in the
settings menu.
One
area of the display that has been quite drastically changed from previous years
is how the Galaxy S7 manages brightness. Josh and I both agree that – unlike
previous devices – the brightness slider is very sensitive and indicative of
the brightness. To this effect, moving the slider to the far left turns the
brightness down too low to make the display legible (even in dark conditions)
so you have to micro manage the brightness a lot more than you did in previous
years.
I’ve
personally also noticed that the auto brightness can occasionally take a little
longer than expected to adjust to changes in ambient lighting. While other
smartphones do seem to provide a minimum nits brightness the display can be
turned down to, Samsung allow you to right down to almost nothing and on
average, you have to leave your brightness at around 35-40% indoors in order
for the screen to be legible.
Overall,
the Galaxy S7 display is certainly on par with previous Samsung devices, and
while the tweaks in the responsiveness of the brightness and the addition of an
Always On display do change the experience slightly, it’s still one of the
finest smartphone screens on the market.
Performance & Hardware
One
of the rather more contentious parts of the Galaxy S7 is Samsung’s choice to
offer two different versions with rather different processors. Last year, the
company chose to only power all versions of the Galaxy S6 with its own Exynos
7420 chipset – like due to the negative stigma associated with the Snapdragon
810 – but this year, the company has returned to its previous convention of
offering different chipsets.
A Tale Of Two Chipsets
Most
users who buy the Galaxy S7 will be purchasing one powered by an Exynos 8 Octa
(8890) – consisting of a quad-core 2.6GHz Mongoose and a quad-core 1.6GHz
Cortex-A53 – paired with a Mali-T880 GPU and 4GB RAM. However, if you’re in the
US or China, you’ll be getting a Snapdragon 820 – which consists of a dual-core
2.15GHz Kryo and dual-core 1.6GHz Kryo – along with an Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB
RAM.
On
paper, the two processors are very different, with one being an octa-core and
the other, a quad-core, but what about in actual usage? Does a particular
chipset offer a significant advantage over the other, and what about the
differences in the GPU? To illustrate any differences adn establish which
version has the upper hand, we’ve run a series of benchmark tests on both
versions of the Galaxy S7, including AnTuTu, 3DMark and GeekBench 3.
Kicking
our tests off with GeekBench 3, you can see that the Exynos version achieved a
single-core score of 2063 and a multi-core score of 6267, while the Snapdragon
version scored 2269 and 5156 respectively. It’s unsurprising that the Exynos
version has the upper hand for the multi-core score, considering that it’s an
octa-core chipset versus a quad-core setup in the Snapdragon version. As for
single-core, the Snapdragon version does have the upper hand – even if it isn’t
by an awful lot – but the overall results do show that performance should
mostly be comparable between the two versions of the Galaxy S7.
That’s
just one benchmark so, moving on to AnTuTu, let’s check if the CPU performance
is really that close between the two versions. As you can see, the Exynos
version scored 128429 while the Snapdragon version scored slightly higher at
129375. It’s worth noting that the other main processor from this year’s Battle
of the chipsets – the Kirin 950 that powers the Mate 8 – scored 92746.
Between
AnTuTu and GeekBench, we get a pretty good understanding that both, the Exynos
and the Snapdragon, versions of the Galaxy S7 certainly have similar CPU performance.
What about the GPU, we hear you ask?
3DMark
shows that while the CPU performance is certainly very similar, there is a much
larger discrepancy in the performance of the Graphical Processing Unit. The
Mali-T880 GPU inside the Exynos version scored a respectable 2168, but the
Adreno 530 GPU in the Snapdragon performed noticeably better with a score of
2528. While it may be disheartening to see the Mali-T880 GPU struggle against
the Snapdragon, it’s worth remembering that these scores are still vastly
superior to the flagships of last year. As points of reference, the Nexus 6P
scores 1577, the Note 5 achieves 1220 and the Galaxy S6 scores 1215, so the
performance this year is still vastly superior to the most recent flagships
offered to the market.
Overall, the Snapdragon version of the handset is technically
superior to the Exynos version but in actual day-to-day usage, you’re highly
unlikely to spot any noticeable differences.
Overall,
the Snapdragon version of the handset is technically superior to the Exynos
version but in actual day-to-day usage, you’re highly unlikely to spot any
noticeable differences. Both versions are exceptionally snappy at all
day-to-day tasks and the Exynos version of the Galaxy S7 is able to power a
Gear VR with no graphics issues whatsoever. Both models are fast, fluid and
offer everything you’d want from a flagship phone, with the only slight lag
coming in the TouchWiz launcher (although we’ll touch on this later).
If
you’re wondering about whether these handsets overheat – which was somewhat of
a small issue last year – we can say that neither version of the handset has a
problem here. Samsung says it has included a liquid cooling pipe that draws
heat away from the crucial internals in order to keep it cool. While we’re
unable to test this thoroughly, we can safely say that, while the phone may get
warm under heavy gaming, it doesn’t reach a point where you need to worry.
From
processor differences to the other changes, and the Galaxy S7 sees the return
of two features that were ominously left out of Samsung’s flagships last year.
The Return Of Microsd
Without
doubt, one of the biggest disappointments in the Galaxy S6 lineup was Samsung’s
decision not to offer expandable storage. Long seen as a company that would
continue to offer microSD expansion and removable batteries in its smartphones
at a time its rivals were moving away from doing so, the Galaxy S6 thus
disappointed many users.
In
the Galaxy S7 however, Samsung has sought to correct one of the biggest user
concerns from last year and microSD card expansion now makes a return. Last
year, Samsung offered its smartphones in three storage flavours, but this year
most markets will only offer the 32GB version. Samsung isn’t making a 128GB
version of the Galaxy S7 – probably as the 128GB Galaxy S6 barely sold thanks
to its extremely high price tag – and even the 64GB version is a rarity, so
allowing you to expand the base 32GB storage almost became a necessity.
The
Galaxy S7 runs on Android Marshmallow, which brings with the new Adoptable
Storage option, but before you get too excited, it’s worth noting that Samsung
has left this feature out of the Galaxy S7. As Andrew Grush puts it in our
Galaxy S7 Edge review:
For the uninitiated, adoptable storage basically takes your microSD card
and your internal storage and combines them into one pool, automatically
installing apps and other files wherever the OS sees fit. With this adoptable
storage, your memory card is basically ‘locked’ to that device and this is one
of the reasons Samsung officially states for leaving out the feature.
There
is good news however, as Paul O’Brien of MoDaCo, revealed that it is actually
possible to enable this feature on the Galaxy S7. Rather than disable it
entirely, Samsung hid the option in the settings and with a little tinkering of
ADB, you can re-enable the option.
Of
course, not everyone wants to power up ADB so we can also confirm that you’re
also able to transfer many of the apps on the Galaxy S7 over to the microSD
card. It’s certainly not the same as being able to bond the two together to
have even more storage, but it is a welcome alternative who don’t feel
comfortable about tinkering with their smartphone.
Like
other Samsung smartphones, you can still hot-swap the microSD cards by simply
pulling out the tray (after ejecting the memory card of course) and then
reinserting the new one. What about the SIM card we hear you ask? Well, the
Galaxy S7 is also the first Samsung smartphone that allows you to hot-swap the
SIM card, meaning you can change SIMs and pick up coverage again without
needing to restart your phone. This won’t affect most users, but for someone
who changes SIM cards quite often, this is definitely a welcome feature to
have.
Protection Against
Accidental Spills
Probably
every smartphone owner’s worst nightmare is accidentally dropping the phone in
a toilet, in a puddle, in the swimming pool or somewhere else that liquid gets
inside and causes havoc. After all, liquids and electronics don’t mix, right?
Alongside
microSD, Samsung opted to remove water resistance from its Galaxy S6 line up,
well sort of. Although the main Galaxy S6 family didn’t have this feature, the
company did make a Galaxy S6 Active that offered the substance of the Galaxy S6
in a redesigned body. This year however, the company has managed to include
water resistance in both the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge.
The
Galaxy S7 is IP68 rated, meaning it should able to handle being submerged in
water up to 1 metre for up to 30 minutes. Before you jump off the deep end
however, we wouldn’t recommend you take this swimming or attempt to throw it in
the sea, but rather the feature will provide protection if the worst should
happen. For example, you should be covered if you spill a drink on your phone,
it ends up in sink or you drop it in the toilet.
It’s
worth noting however that, while the water resistance is all internal, the
Galaxy S7 does use a gasket on the inside of the phone and the gasket’s seal is
broken when you remove the microSD/SIM card tray. As such, if the SIM tray
isn’t firmly inserted into your phone, you may find that you end up with a
water damaged phone, and it’s highly unlikely that the manufacturer’s warranty
will cover you should this happen.
Fingerprint Scanner
One
of the major improvements in last year’s handsets saw Samsung move away from
the swipe-based fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S5 to a more traditional
touch-type sensor that’s much more accurate and faster.
The
Galaxy Note 5 bought even more improvements to the speed and reliability of the
sensor and while the sensor does seem to be the same one as found in last
year’s handsets, it does seem a lot more refined to me. I’ve found the
fingerprint sensor to be faster to recognise a fingerprint and unlock the
handset and, unlike both, the Note 5 and the Galaxy S6, I’ve not had an issue
with it not reading my fingerprint on the first attempt.
Speakers, Connectivity,
And The Rest
These
changes and improvements aside, there’s very little else that’s different under
the hood of the Galaxy S7 as, just like the display, Samsung has opted to
merely tweak the performance.
A
particular complaint with past Samsung devices is the company’s approach to RAM
management, which many have said is rather aggressive, but with the Galaxy S7,
there have been no particular issues to note. Of the 4GB RAM included in the
handset, 515MB is reserved by the system (and doesn’t show up in any RAM
tests), while average available RAM is between 750MB and 1.5GB depending on the
apps that are running.
Like
last year, the Galaxy S7 also has a bottom mounted speaker and although many
found it to be mediocre in the Galaxy S6, Samsung hasn’t really been able to
make any improvements in this department this year. The poor speaker
performance may be a by-product of the waterproofing, but equally, the speaker
is a typical Samsung speaker that doesn’t compare to most smartphones on the
market. As with previous years, the speaker is something you’ll have to
compromise on, for sake of all the other features that the Galaxy S7 has to
offer.
One
particular feature that we do like is Samsung is raising awareness that the
Galaxy S7 supports USB On-The-Go, right out of the box. Included in the retail
packaging is an adapter that lets you connect the Galaxy S7 to another microUSB
Android smartphone in order to transfer your media over easily, but this same
adapter allows you to connect a hard drive to your smartphone. Together with
microSD, there really is a multitude of ways that you can expand the on-board
storage.
Also
under the hood is LTE Cat 9 support, meaning you can download on the go at
speeds of up to 450Mbps. Given that the majority of mobile networks currently
only support speeds of up to 300Mbps, this means the Galaxy S7 is future
proofed against the next generation of mobile network rollout. In some testing,
I managed to reach peak speeds of 150Mbps, which is the theoretical maximum of
the network SIM card I’m using in my Galaxy S7. One for the geeks sure, but if
this is important to you, it’s certainly good to know.
Overall,
Samsung has certainly made some interesting changes to the hardware under the
hood of the Galaxy S7 this year. The decision to switch back to the more
familiar two-processor strategy is certainly not without its critics, but the
addition of microSD expansion, USB On-the-go support and IP68 resistance makes
the Galaxy S7 one of the most feature-packed smartphones on the market.
Battery Life
Arguably
one of the biggest disappointments with last year’s Galaxy S6 line up was the
battery, as Samsung ditched the removable battery and gave users a stringent
battery capacity as well. At 2550mAh, the Galaxy S6 battery struggled to make
it anywhere near a full day’s usage, and although the Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy
S6 Edge Plus had larger batteries – 2600mAh and 3000mAh respectively – the
situation was far from ideal.
This
year however, Samsung has increased the battery capacity but does it get it
right, and does the Galaxy S7 have enough juice in the tank to power you
through a whole day or more? Simply put, it definitely does. At 3000mAh, the
battery in the Galaxy S7 is 17.64% larger than the Galaxy S6 and, coupled with
optimisations in the power efficiency of the new processor, this means it can
deliver anywhere from 3.5 to 5 hours Screen on Time (SoT) from a single charge
depending upon your usage.
Digging
further into the battery life, Josh and I did notice some discrepancies
although this is likely due to differences in our usage. Josh regularly achieved
4 to 5 hours SoT while my usage – which involved a fair amount of phone calls –
saw me usually fall between 3.5 hour and 4.5 hours SoT. In order to get a
slightly more technical understanding of the battery life – and also measure if
there was any difference between the Snapdragon and Exynos versions – we
powered up the PCMark “work battery” test. This test recommends that users
calibrate brightness to 200 cd/m², in order to provide a fair comparison
against other results, but we decided to turn off auto brightness and crank up
the brightness to full. Our reasoning was that this would hopefully give you a
“worst case” scenario of what to expect from the Galaxy S7 battery.
Our
results for the Exynos version suggest a “work battery life” of 6 hours and 22
minutes, while the Snapdragon version scores an even higher, 7 hours and 2
minutes. By way of comparison, the Galaxy S7 Edge scores 6 hours and 49 minutes
for the Exynos variant and 6 hours and 40 minutes for the Snapdragon version.
Although the Snapdragon Galaxy S7 does seem to have the edge, the results
suggest that battery life is still more than satisfactory on either model.
Interestingly, our “worst case” battery life testing is on par with the optimal
average testing for the Galaxy S6, showing just how far the battery life has
come; although the battery is larger, the gains are much bigger than the 18%
extra capacity would suggest.
For
those wondering how the Galaxy S7 would fare at an optimal brightness level,
PCMark’s average scores reveal better average battery life for the Exynos
version, which comes in at 8 hours and 8 minutes, while the Snapdragon version
comes in at an equally respectable 7 hours and 22 minutes. This suggests that
the efficiencies of the octa-core processor do make a difference over a day’s
average usage, but whichever version you opt for, you can be assured that bad
battery life is most definitely not a concern.
The Exynos model average 8 hours and 8 minutes, while the
Snapdragon averages 7 hours and 22 minutes.
If
you do need to reach for a charger as you’ve used the phone heavily, you can
rest assured that Samsung has included Quick Charge 2.0 on both variants of the
Galaxy S7. Yes, it is 2.0 and 3.0 but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as there
is very little difference in the charging speeds between the two.
Samsung
claims the Exynos model can charge to 50% in under 30 minutes and in my
testing, I would say this is accurate, with an average charge of 40 to 48% in
the allotted time. Testing this further, the battery can take up to 2 hours to
charge to full but generally, it will charge in approximately 1 hour and 30
minutes. There’s very little difference in the charging speed between using
Samsung’s proprietary Adaptive Fast Charger (that’s included in the box) or a
generic Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 charger, although the former does appear to
be ever so slightly faster.
Like
the Galaxy S6 family, both variants of the Galaxy S7 also support fast wireless
charging, but this is where I’ve felt somewhat disappointed. From the Galaxy S6
to the Galaxy Note 5, Samsung certainly improved the wireless charging times,
but with the Galaxy S7, the company doesn’t seem to have made any gains.
Overall, fully charging the battery from empty using a Samsung wireless
charging pad (that was designed for the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus mind you) takes
between 3 and 4 half hours, although the wireless charging pad designed for the
Galaxy S7 may improve this speed.
Camera
Prior
to the Galaxy Note 4’s launch at the end of 2014, Samsung’s smartphone cameras
were average at best, but then came a new era of smartphone cameras for the
Korean OEM. Arguably one of the best smartphones that Samsung has ever
released, the Note 4 bought with it the first Android camera that was
universally recognised as being best-in-class in the smartphone market.
Last
year saw Samsung build on this, with exceptional cameras built into both, the
Galaxy S6 line up and the Galaxy Note 5, and in the latter, we had a smartphone
camera that – albeit with some faults – could be relied on to always capture a
scene. Yet, while other manufacturers – such as HTC and even Apple – had
focused on providing larger pixels with lower megapixel counts, Samsung stuck
to its guns and delivered quality through a larger amount of pixels, until now
that is.
Following
the lead of the Nexus 6P – which trades a higher megapixel count for larger
pixel size and hence, much better lowlight performance – the Galaxy S7 drops
the megapixel count from 16MP (in the Galaxy S6) to 12MP, but brings with other
improvements. These include an f/1.7 aperture lens (versus f/1.9 last year),
Optical Image Stabilisation, Phase Detection autofocus, LED flash and dual
pixel technology. On paper, the drop in pixels may lead you to believe the
camera is actually worse, but as we all know, there’s more to cameras than just
the pixel count.
Is
the new camera better than last year though? Simply put – yes and no; it very
much depends on what you expect from your smartphone’s camera. I’ve personally
found the camera is more than satisfactory on the Galaxy S7 in good lighting,
but at the same time, it’s not quite as sharp as last year’s smartphones. The
drop in number of pixels has also seen Samsung increase the amount of noise
reduction, which further results in slightly less sharp images than you might
be used to from Samsung cameras.
HDR
on Samsung smartphones has previously been quite forceful, but the company has
made it subtler in the Galaxy S7, resulting in a less profound effect on
overall images. That being said, it does still work well to bring back detail
from the shadows and soften blown out areas of the image so it’s still a very
effective mode to have in your arsenal.
While
the daylight images have potentially taken a slight drop, the Galaxy S7 truly
shines in low light mode. Thanks to the larger pixel size – the Galaxy S7 now
sports pixels with 1.4µm size versus 1.12µm in its predecessor – the lightening
fast autofocus and the dual pixel technology, Samsung has been able to deliver
excellent low light quality in the Galaxy S7 camera. In most low light
conditions, you’ll definitely be happy with the Galaxy S7’s camera but in
extreme low light, there does seem to be a yellow hue cast across the images,
along with overexposed highlights and a lot of noise reduction. Optical Image
Stabilisation does a good job of helping to improve overall low light images
and, in all but the most extreme conditions, you’ll find the Galaxy S7 camera
to be pretty reliable.
On
the video side, there rear camera comes equipped with 4K Ultra HD video
recording and OIS helps to keep videos relatively stable. The audio captured is
mostly crisp and clear and overall, there’s nothing worthy to note about the
video capture performance.
The
front camera is the same 5MP camera found in last year’s Galaxy S6 but, just
like the rear camera, it has been treated to a wider aperture – again, it’s now
f/1.7 from f/1.9 last year. Selfie images are relatively good quality and
Samsung’s skin tone feature – which is similar to the Beauty mode found in
other handsets – does well to soften skin texture and make you look younger.
There’s
also a wide selfie mode, which is nothing more than a glorified panorama for
the front facing camera, and this lets you capture more of the scene or fit
more people into your image. Before you try and take a selfie on stage at the
Oscars however, it’s worth noting that there’s some very obvious stitching in
the selfie panorama so images aren’t quite as sharp as they maybe could have
been. One particular nice feature in the front camera – as Josh points out – is
that you can shoot QHD video using the front facing camera, rather than Full HD
on past devices (even if they were technically capable of shooting QHD).
Overall,
the Galaxy S7 camera is probably one of the biggest changes compared to last
year’s handsets and it brings with it both, positives and negatives. Daylight
pictures have arguably taken a slight drop, but the low light performance has
been treated to considerable gains. All things considered, I’d have to say that
the Galaxy S7 has a very reliable camera that’s definitely on par with, if not
better, than the camera on past Galaxy smartphones.
Software
While
the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge were recognised for bringing about a stark
change in Samsung’s design philosophy, last year’s flagships were less
recognised for their software. Yet, in the few months since the Galaxy Note 4
was released, Samsung had sought to revolutionise not just its hardware but
also its software, and the Galaxy S6 family was a sign of Samsung’s new
approach to software.
For
many years, TouchWiz has had a particularly bad stigma attached to it, and
rightly so, as the interface was clunky, slow and lacking in anything that
remotely resembled optimisation. Yet, the Galaxy S6 family was the entire
opposite of this and ushered in a new era where TouchWiz was, well, nothing
like TouchWiz before it. In 2015, Samsung trimmed large amounts of the preloaded
apps and features (i.e. the bloatware) that made its smartphones slow, toned
down the amount of annoying tutorials and delivered an out of box experience
that was surprisingly pleasant to use.
the overall experience feels like someone other than Samsung
actually created it.
As
someone who has used Galaxy smartphones for several years, the transformation
last year was certainly impressive, and in the Galaxy S7, Samsung has continued
to optimise its software. Unsurprisingly, the Galaxy S7 runs on Android 6.0.1
Marshmallow out of the box, and brings an experience that’s rather akin to the
Marshmallow update for the Galaxy S6 family. Design-wise, TouchWiz on the
Galaxy S7 sees Samsung drop the bright colours and blue and green tones of
TouchWiz of old, and replaces them with blue and gray tones that are more
pleasing to the eye, and infinitely less likely to alienate users who disliked
the company’s colour scheme. Samsung has also improved the animations in the UI
to make them snappy and more responsive and the overall experience feels like
someone other than Samsung actually created it.
With
both, the Galaxy S6 family and the Galaxy Note 5, there were reports that
Samsung was aggressively managing RAM by shutting down applications, but with
the Galaxy S7, this seems to be a thing of the past. Yes, there are certainly
areas of the launcher that suffer from slight stutters that have become
synonymous with TouchWiz, and there is a slight delay when swiping into Upday
(international) or Flipboard (USA), but overall, TouchWiz is fast, responsive
and a pleasure to use.
Rather
than focus on every individual feature that TouchWiz has to offer (and make
this review thousands of words longer than it already is), we plan to explore
the software in more detail – and its evolution over the past few years – in an
in-depth feature focus that will be coming to you in the weeks to come.
That
being said, there are a few features that we wanted to focus on, and most of
these are returning from last year’s handsets, albeit with a few (welcome)
tweaks and improvements.
Theming Just Got Much Much
Better
With
the launch of the Galaxy S6 family, Samsung introduced a new Theme engine that
allowed you to customise the look and feel of your smartphone without too much
fuss or bother. However, as we covered back then, the number of themes
available was certainly very sparse and the theme engine was more of promise
for the future than a feature you would use heavily in the present.
Fast
forward a year and the theme store is a very different place now with hundreds
of different themes to choose from. If you’re a stock Android fan, there’s
themes that will turn your handset into an experience more akin to something
out of Silicon Valley than Korea. Lifestyle lover, obsessed with travel,
interested in landmarks or just want some funny animals on your screen? There’s
tons of them and more – although it’s certainly not perfect, the theme engine
has grown leaps and bounds since last year, and there’s no reason to believe
this won’t continue for the foreseeable future.
Smart Dialer
The
dialer included in TouchWiz is, by far, my favourite dialer across any Android
OEM skin. The dialler lets you set speed dials, displays suggested contacts as
you type numbers (or the letters they represent) and can automatically scan
unknown numbers to inform you whether they are known marketing or spam calls.
If you don’t want to answer a call, it’s easy enough to reject them and send a
predefined message, or even shoot them a custom message. All in all, if you
like to make phone calls (like I do), then the dialer is certainly an
experience you’re going to enjoy.
Multi-Tasking
Mutli-tasking
has recently become an area that every OEM has attempted to improve – including
Google most recently with the Android N developer preview – but Samsung’s
implementation is by far the most polished on Android. Through a couple of
buttons in the recent apps menu, you can split two windows side by side, but my
favourite feature is the ability to quickly turn almost all apps into a
floating window that overlays whatever else you’re doing in the OS.
Unlike
other OEMs, Samsung’s multi-window feature is supported by a ton of third party
apps and, while there are some that don’t support the floating window or split
screen (in particular games), the majority of apps you use on your phone should
have support for this feature. In the Galaxy S7, the floating window seems to
be more responsive and dragging content between windows in split-screen mode
has certainly had some welcome improvements under the hood as well. Overall,
Samsung definitely does multi-tasking well and in the Galaxy S7, the experience
has been refined further yet.
Samsung Pay
Mobile
payments is certainly not a new feature but the past twelve months has seen
this growing market gain even further attention from OEMs. Apple introduced
Apple Pay and bought mobile payments to mainstream consumers, and then both
Samsung, and Google, have followed up with Samsung Pay and Android Pay
respectively. As Lanh explains in the video below however, Samsung Pay has a
key advantage over the competition, but it’s not perfect, yet.
Smart Manager
Prior
to the overhaul of TouchWiz last year, Samsung’s UI had several smart features
that allowed you to control elements such as RAM and battery, but these were
spread out throughout the OS. In the Galaxy S6 (and onwards, including the
Galaxy S7), these features have been combined into the new Smart Manager app,
which makes it easier to see pertinent information about several features on
your smartphone.
From
killing different apps in the RAM manager to removing unnecessary data to free
up space in the storage manager, there’s a lot you can do with the Smart
Manager app. Furthermore, an entire section dedicated to battery lets you
customise your power usage, turn on power saving or ultra power saving modes,
and access battery usage information. You probably won’t use Smart Manager that
often, but it’s a powerful tool to have on your phone and for the power user,
it’s likely to be used quite frequently.
GAMING
TOOLS
While
the above features have been bought over from previous Galaxy smartphones, the
Galaxy S7 does introduce a few new features; TouchWiz on the Galaxy S7 brings
with it a new “Game Launcher” and the “gaming tools” that accompanies it.
The
first of these puts all of your games into a special folder and allows you to
launch games quickly, turn off notifications and turn on power saving mode
while gaming. The Gaming Tools is likely to be much more useful however, as it
enables a tiny icon that overlays your game in the corner of your screen (in a
rather unobtrusive way it must be said), and expanding it lets you turn off
alerts, lock the recent apps and back keys, minimise the game, take a
screenshot, or even screen record your gameplay.
The
actual usefulness of these features depends on how much of a gamer you are (and
whether you’ve been afflicted by any of the “issues” it aims to solve), but for
me, I’ve found them quite useful. Specifically, I always tend to hit the recent
apps or back keys during a game so being able to lock them is certainly
welcome, as is not being disturbed by notifications. If you’re someone who
likes to show off your gaming skills, the screen record feature makes it
incredibly simple to share your greatest in-game achievements.
GALAXY
LABS – CUSTOMISATION RUNS DEEP
You
know the old adage about how companies should learn from their customers? Well,
with its Galaxy Labs, Samsung is aiming to do just this, by allowing Galaxy
users to experiment with features and ideas it has, and vote on whether they
like or dislike them. By far the most interesting of these (and probably the
most controversial) is the ability to turn off the app drawer on your Galaxy
S7. When enabled, this removes the app drawer and reverts the TouchWiz launcher
to one more akin to the iPhone, or even LG’s new LG G5.
There’s
been a lot of chatter recently about whether Google’s upcoming Android N update
will see the app drawer being removed from Android, and while this is as yet
unconfirmed (given the app drawer is present in the new Developer Preview),
there’s no denying that Samsung is testing the waters here.
Most
users probably won’t use this feature but it’s there if you want to try it out.
Worth mentioning however, is that the Galaxy Labs option has been removed from
Verizon and T-Mobile branded handsets, and has likely been removed from all
carrier branded models in the US, although international users should find the
feature in-tact.
Touchwiz – The Verdict
As
a long time Galaxy user, the transformation of TouchWiz over the past few years
has certainly been stark, and with the Galaxy S7, Samsung has merely sought to
refine the experience further. Although there is ever so slight lag in the
launcher when loading up the home screen news service, the rest of the
experience is fast, snappy and very responsive.
Personally,
I have to say that this iteration of TouchWiz is probably the best that Samsung
has ever offered, and while it’s certainly not perfect – which UI is after all
– there’s a lot to like about TouchWiz. For many users, the thought of TouchWiz
brings with it many bad memories of previous generations, but I can say with a
large degree of certainty, that Samsung has reworked its software entirely
since the Galaxy S5 and many of the concerns that users had, should no longer
be present.
Conclusion
While
the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge were very much about revolutionising
Samsung’s smartphone portfolio, the company has instead set about refining the
experience this year. Did it achieve this? Most definitely.
On
the face of it, the Galaxy S7 may not seem like a major upgrade to the Galaxy
S6, but the few tweaks that Samsung has made have all been in the right place
and the contrast between the two handsets couldn’t be starker. Although I
really enjoyed the Galaxy S6 last year, I did feel the handset’s shortcomings
were enough to be a deal breaker, but thes Galaxy S7 is almost perfect in so
many ways.
The
Galaxy S7 very much epitomises the perfect smartphone
Considering
the overall package, there’s very little that you could complain about. In
fact, the only thing users might not be too happy about is the lack of a
removable battery but the improvements in power efficiency, coupled with the
extra capacity in the battery, really render this a moot point. In fact, I
would go as far to say that there is nothing I would change as – display size
aside, which is most definitely a personal thing – the Galaxy S7 very much
epitomises the perfect smartphone.
Josh
and I both agree, that Samsung’s small modest changes have shown us what could
be the perfect smartphone. Josh takes it further saying:
In
the era of micro USB, Samsung might just have shown us what the perfect
smartphone could look like and in doing so, they’ve been able to show us, what
might just be the final evolution of this era of smartphones.
However,
as good as the Galaxy S7 is, the question remains as to where Samsung goes from
here. While the Galaxy S7 appears to be the perfect handset for the market as
it stands, we’re seeing a new era of smartphones ushered in, with USB Type-C
and modular designs firmly on the radar of most companies. Until then however,
Josh puts it best when he says:
You
just might have one of the best smartphones available right here in the Galaxy
S7.
And
that’s the bottom line; following up a good smartphone is certainly no easy
feat but Samsung has certainly shown us that it is more than capable of doing
so. For me personally, the Galaxy S7 does offer what is, by far, the best
smartphone experience on the market to date, but with a lot of the year – and
plenty more flagships – still to come, we’ll see whether it still tops the
smartphone pile come the end of the year.
What
do you think of the Galaxy S7 and do you plan to buy one? Is the Galaxy S7 Edge
more your cup of tea, or maybe even the LG G5? Check out our hands on with LG’s
latest flagship, and our full review of the Galaxy S7 Edge and let us know your
views in the comments below!
Source : http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s7-review-679482/
