Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge hands-on impressions
Samsung finally earns its Edge with the waterproof, always-on Galaxy S7
Every spring brings with it Samsung’s newest flagship, and this year, we’re getting two. Samsung has officially taken the wraps off the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, the phones that will serve as a model for all its Android devices in 2016. In this article, we’ve documented more than 35 separate Galaxy S7 rumors since September 2015, and if you’ve followed our coverage, the phone you read about here will contain few big surprises.
Regardless, the stars have met the Galaxy. We’ve seen Samsung’s newest phones in person and finally have some concrete info and opinions to share about the latest and greatest Galaxy devices.
Two Galaxy S7 phones, perfecting the design
If you’re at all familiar with the Samsung’s 2015 Galaxy S6, Galaxy Edge phones, or Galaxy Note 5, you know precisely what to expect from the Galaxy S7. This year’s Galaxy phones are more about refinement than revolution. Like last year’s models, they have a smooth, brushed metal bumper and are covered in glass on the front and back. Both phones also have at least some curved glass as well. The standard Galaxy S7 has a 5.1-inch flat AMOLED screen but a gentle curve to its back, upping its comfort while in your palm. From a size standpoint, it’s almost identical to last year’s Galaxy S6 (and the Galaxy S5, for that matter). It’s a comfortable, standard phone that most people should be able to hold (unless you prefer very small phones like the old iPhone 5S).
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The same goes for the S7 Edge.
It’s larger than the standard S7, with a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen that flows down over its two side edges on both the front and back like a shimmering waterfall. But unless you hold them next to one another, you’ll hardly notice that this device has a larger, phablet-sized screen. Samsung has curved the bezel down to near non-existence, making it feel like the screen falls right off the edge of the phone. Somehow, it has also curved the glass on the back and fixed the biggest problem with last year’s Edge phones: comfort. Because the glass now curves up so flush with the metal, the buttons have been smoothed out, and the back is also curved, it’s remarkably comfortable to hold the new S7 Edge. It’s all the more impressive when you consider how large the screen is.
This incredible refinement in design extends to the camera on the back of both phones, which still protrudes, but only about half as much as last year’s models.
The return of water resistance
We were shocked and pleasantly surprised that Samsung has water- and dust-proofed the Galaxy S7. Both phones have an IP68 rating, meaning dust should not penetrate them, and you can submerge both devices in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes with no damage to their precious electric innards.
This should be an absolute relief for anyone who’s ever used their phone in the rain or near the water, and a return to form for the Galaxy brand. The Galaxy S5 was waterproof in 2014, but the piece-of-mind feature was missing from the Galaxy S6 devices and Note 5.
Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
That doesn’t mean you won’t want to invest in a durable case. Because glass covers its front and back, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge could very well be the most fragile phones available this year. And because they both feature proprietary, beautiful curved glass on the back and sometimes front, it may also cost hundreds of dollars to replace broken or cracked screens, should the slippery phone fall from your grasp.
The other major caveat to the glass design this year is how easy it is to cover in fingerprints. Over the course of an hour, we had to clean off the front and backs of our demo units several times, and still ended up with many photographs where the devices wear a lot of our oily hand prints. If this sort of thing bothers you, consider a competing phone, or buying a nice case. Seriously, you’ll want a case. We can’t stress that enough. Luckily, Samsung has some new options.
A battery case, Gear 360 cam, and more
Though it has already increased the battery capacity of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge from last year’s models, you may not have to reach for a Mophie or portable battery if you need some extra juice. Samsung is making its own battery case for the S7, which should extend your battery life by about 3,100mAh or roughly 2× the battery life of the phones themselves.
The standard S7 has a 3,000mAh battery and the S7 Edge has a 3,500mAh battery, both of which are several hundred mAh larger than last year’s models. We’re hoping this means better battery life all around — even if you don’t buy the power-extending case — but there are several factors we don’t yet know, including how much power the new processor in the phone will swallow, and how much juice the new Always-On screen will eat up (more on that below).
The Gear 360 is a dual-camera 360-degree action cam that looks like a robot out of Portal or Wall-E.
In addition to the battery case, Samsung is making a case with a camera lens enhancer built into it (like an Olloclip) and an updated wireless charging pad that sets the phone at an angle and can charge at high speed. The new pad doesn’t appear to have the issues that we encountered on the Galaxy S6 wireless charger; our phone would continually slide off of horizontal base and either stop charging or fall (not fun). You may need that wireless charging, too, since Samsung is not adopting USB Type C like most other Android phone makers. It’s sticking with tried and true Micro USB.
Finally, 360 cameras are the hot new item this year, along with virtual reality, and Samsung is never one to let a trend pass it by. To capitalize, it will release the Gear 360, a dual-camera 360-degree action gadget that looks like a tiny robot out of Portal or Wall-E. By stitching photos together from two 15-megapixel fish-eye cameras, it can create a VR-ready spherical image or video. We tried taking a couple videos and stills on it, and though they won’t win any awards, for home movies and viewing they do get the job done. If you own a Gear VR (our favorite mobile VR headset), you can almost instantly view your 360 videos in actual virtual reality.
One other cool note about the Gear 360 (read our full Gear 360 writeup), is that its handle splits out into a quirky little tripod. Unscrew that tripod and it can connect to any other camera stand.
Solid specs, as you’d expect
If numbers help you sleep at night, get ready for pleasant dreams. Samsung told us that both S7 phones will run on a new quad-core 2.15GHz + 1.6GHz processor, but the maker of that processor will vary by region. In the United States, it will be a new Qualcomm Snapdragon processor — likely the flagship Snapdragon 820 — but in the rest of the world, Samsung will use an Exynos chip of its own design. The new processors are supposedly about 30 percent faster than the Galaxy S6 and the integrated graphics processor is about 64 percent faster.
Both phones will come with 4GB RAM, 32GB of storage, and the Nano SIM tray also has a MicroSD card slot that can hold any cards available today (up to 200GB). We haven’t been able to benchmark test the new Galaxies, but they should perform well in gaming scenarios. Samsung has even struck a deal so the GS7s are the first phones compatible with the Vulkan API, which should aid high-end game development.
All in all, none of these numbers are surprising. They’re all in line with the usual improvements we see year to year. The notable exception is the battery size, which has improved by a good 13 to 15 percent. However, the new Always On screen may suck most of those battery savings up all by itself. LG estimated that the G5’s Always On LCD screen will eat up 0.3 to 0.8 percent of its battery each hour. Samsung’s AMOLED screen may get better efficiency but it will eat up a portion of your battery each day as well.
Always On and Edge apps
Following in the footsteps of innovations Motorola made two or three years ago, both Samsung and LG are adding Always On screens to their flagship phones this year. The GS7 and GS7 Edge will both indefinitely show a clock, notifications, or things like a calendar for quick viewing even when the phone is asleep. This feature should disable once you put the phone in your pocket.
There aren’t a ton of other software innovations. Samsung has loaded the phones with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but it has kept most of the colorful, old-school menus and styles it had in the Galaxy S6 and before. The interface is easy enough to use, but a little resistant toward change. Even Samsung’s fingerprint sensor in the Home button feels oddly placed next to competitors like the Xperia Z5, LG G5, and Nexus 6P, which have experimented with placing their biometric authentication buttons in more natural places, like the side of the phone or in back.
If you choose to buy the Edge, you’ll get some extra built-in features if you swipe over from the curved edge of the phone (by default, the right side). Samsung isn’t really using the edge much, but swipe over and you’ll open a 550 pixel thin menu that runs from the top to bottom of the phone, on the side. On the Galaxy S6 Edge, this feature was called “People Edge,” but now Samsung has extended it. A swipe will show you contacts, but swipe again from the right and you can get two rows of apps you like most, and swipe yet again to scroll through the Tasks Edge and other app widgets. Our unit was full of Yahoo widgets as well that let you scroll through stories in select Yahoo verticals. You can customize all these Edge features through a special settings menu.
Gamers also get a couple other small, but fun features. The Galaxy S7 can record gameplay, has a gaming Do Not Disturb mode, and lets you throttle your framerate to save battery life through a special game launcher.
Finally, innovations like Samsung Pay, which lets you pay via NFC or even tap on a standard magnetic card reader, are still present. You can swipe your credit card up from the home screen anytime. And a new app called Samsung Plus gives loyal Samsung fans access to perks and deals, but more importantly has customer service information and always-available 24/7 video support. We look forward to trying this feature out. Previously, Amazon’s Fire HD tablets were the only real devices with instant video support.
Camera improvements
Samsung took pains to point out how much better its new camera is than the iPhone. The new S7 phones each have a 12-megapixel rear cameras that is supposed to operate faster thanks to an F1.7 lens (up from F1.9 in last year’s), and focus faster thanks to its “dual-pixel” design. Samsung claims that every pixel in the lens also acts as a focus pixel, and that this is a first for smartphones.
- Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
- Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
- Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
- Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
In a head on, real-time demo set up by Samsung, its new camera performed very well to the iPhone 6S Plus. Reps had a scene set up in a black box where they were able to raise and lower the brightness and adjust the distance of the scene being photoed. As you’d expect, the Galaxy S7 seems to focus at a fraction of the speed it takes the iPhone, and illuminate low-light scenes far better. We haven’t been able to test these claims in the real world, but it does seem clear that, like most major phones this year, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will have a fairly kickass camera.
Unpacked event streamed in virtual reality
In a first, Samsung is streaming its February 21 Unpacked event in 360-degree virtual reality at this year’s Mobile World Congress show (MWC). If you want to watch, you have a choice of using the Gear VR, other VR headsets, a standalone mobile device, or a PC. Click here for the full instructions on how to watch the Galaxy S7 get unveiled as if you were right here in Barcelona.
Release date and pricing
We don’t yet have a firm price (as of this writing), but the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will hit all major carriers in the U.S. — AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and even U.S. Cellular. It will be available for pre-order starting at 8:00 a.m. ET on February 23 and hit store shelves on March 11.
Stores like BestBuy.com, Car Toys, Sam’s Club, Staples, Target, and Walmart will have the phone for purchase on March 11, and starting February 26, you can go to decently-sized carrier stores to try out the phones. Any Best Buy with a Samsung zone will have the phones to try starting February 24, according to Samsung.
The Galaxy S7 will come in black and gold to start, and the S7 Edge will come in black, gold, and silver. Check out a full list of locations here.
More exciting, if you order the Edge before March 18, you will get a free Gear VR with 6 free games.
We believe the price will be somewhere around the normal $700, but some rumors have pointed to a lower price more toward $600. We’ll update as soon as we know more.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge look almost identical to Samsung’s phones last year, but they do pack a few surprises. We’re very impressed with Samsung’s new camera, increased battery capacity, new cases/accessories, and waterproof designs. That all comes on top of a very good screen and internal processing power. There isn’t a lot to complain about, unless you dislike the way Android looks on Samsung devices.
Samsung’s biggest accomplishment this year may be the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Our biggest worry is, again, breakability. With more curved glass than ever, these phones may be expensive to fix if dropped. We’ve reached out to Samsung for details on the price and ease of fixing screens, but have not yet heard back. In the meantime, we highly recommend a case of some sort.
Samsung’s biggest accomplishment this year may be the Galaxy S7 Edge, though. Last year’s Edge phones were gimmicky, but uncomfortable to hold. This year, that isn’t the case. Samsung has added a few new edge apps, but more importantly, made the Edge just as comfortable and possibly a better option than the standard Galaxy S7. It even has a larger screen.
Finally, the free Gear VR with early orders is amazing. Gear VR was our favorite product of 2015 here at Digital Trends and we recommend you try it out if you get the chance. It’s fun.
Highs
- Waterproof, gorgeous design
- Larger battery
- Camera shoots better in low light, focuses faster
- S7 Edge is actually comfortable to hold
- MicroSD card slot
Lows
- All glass design is fingerprint magnet
- Prone to glass cracking, expensive to repair
- Doesn’t have USB Type C
Read more: Tech Crunch
