Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

Hot on LG’s heels, Samsung announced the Galaxy S7 on the same day LG announced the G5. Although Samsung didn’t really bring any game-changing feature to the table like LG’s modular-like design, the S7 does include many much needed upgrades from the S6 that fans will welcome and like. This time around, Samsung has decided to launch two phones at once, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Do note that this these phones do have almost identical specs and unless otherwise stated, I will be referring to the Galaxy S7. Let’s take a look at look at Samsung’s 2016 flagship.

Specs

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will be no stranger to those who are familiar with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge+. They come in either a 5.1 inch or 5.5 inch screen with QuadHD 2650 x 1440 display, and are powered with a 3000 mAh battery for the S7 and 3600 mAh battery for the S7 Edge. Both will be powered by either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890 processor depending on region, have 4GB RAM, 32GB storage options with microSD expansion, and have a 12MP/5MP camera combination.

From the appearance, there isn’t much difference from last year’s flagships, instead of an additional microSD card slot at the top and the lack of a camera hump at the back. There is a ring around the camera to protect the lens, but Samsung has managed to include a camera to be flush with the body of the phone. The body of the phone still consists of a black back with a metal chassis on the side, and Samsung has opted for a micro-USB port instead of a USB Type-C connection.

There are changes on the inside, however. Samsung claims to have engineered a phone that is water resistant from the inside. They have done this by sealing the slots with a rubberized coating to prevent water from entering the device. In turn, water resistance is back onto the Samsung’s flagships and the S7 and S7 Edge are IP68 certified, which allows the device to be submerge under 1.5m of water for 30 minutes.

During the Unpacked event, Samsung mentioned that the processor was 30% faster than the one on the S6, but did not say whether it was the Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890. Perhaps both chips do have similar power, but we don’t know for sure. the GPU on the S7 is also said to be 63% more efficient than before.

Battery life is getting a significant upgrade, as battery is jumping from 2550 mAh to 3000 mAh on the regular variant, and 3000 mAh to 3600 mAh on the Edge variant (S6 Edge+ to S7 Edge to be exact). A higher capacity battery paired with a more efficient processor and software will definitely give the boost this phone needs, since battery life was one of the weak points in the S6 variants.

One fancy addition to the phone is some kind of liquid cooling system. I might be wrong, but Samsung did explain how the cooling system would vapourize and turn into liquid depending on how hot the device becomes.

Camera

The Camera on the S7 is probably the most exciting upgrade. Samsung dropped the 16MP on the S6 and went to a 12MP on the S7. We all know that a drop in pixels doesn’t mean much, and it’s true here. The camera now boasts pixels 30% larger than last year’s camera, and also has a F/1.7 aperture, which is also larger. Despite a drop in pixel count, a larger sensor, lens, aperture, and pixels all signal better resolution pictures both in bright daylight and especially in low-light situations. Each pixel on the camera also has Samsung’s “dual pixel” technology, where each pixel mimics the human eye to use two pixels at slightly different angles to focus on an object. The result is a faster autofocus system. Samsung demonstrated this by comparing the autofocus on the S7 to the autofocus on the iPhone 6s. First both cameras were pointing into blank space, and all of a sudden someone puts a basketball very close to the camera. The S7 focused almost immediately, while the iPhone 6s took a bit longer to focus. Of course, this is Samsung promotional material, so only real world tests can show us such camera capabilities.

Software

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will both ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Touchwiz 5.0 on top. Some S6, S6 Edge, and Note 5 users are already upgrading to Marshmallow so we already have a basic idea of what the S7 experience will be like. One feature that will be exclusive to S7 devices is the “always on” display, just like on the LG G5. Time, weather, and notifications for some apps will be shown on the screen, even with the screen turned off. this is convenient because users simply need to glance at their phones, instead of having to turn on the whole screen, which may be a battery drain. With the AMOLED screen on the S7, only the pixels that show the information are turned on, but with them being constantly on, it may be hard on the battery. Samsung claims to have added a battery saving algorithm to save this issue. Only real world usage can accurately test these claims.

On the edge front, there are also additions to the software. The main use of the edge was the edge panel, where users can swipe from the edge to retrieve information, like contact info, weather, and sports stats. However, the types of information available was limited. For the S7 Edge, Samsung has added app shortcuts, so users can choose which apps they can always access just by a single swipe from the edge. The edge panel SDK is also now open for developers, for them to create third party apps so users have more choices for what they want to see on the edge.

Wrap Up

Although we pretty much knew what Samsung was going to present on stage at their Unpacked event, it’s great to confirm that almost all of the rumours were true. They were mainly upgrades from the S6 to give a better overall user experience. Features like water resistance and microSD slot were simply re-additions to the Galaxy S line, and a larger battery was what should have been in the S6. Nonetheless, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are both still excellent phones, and it would be interesting to see how they stack up against other competitors, like the LG G5 and still unannounced flagships from HTC, Motorola, Apple, and much more.

The phones are available for pre-order, and Samsung is throwing in a Gear VR headset for anyone who pre-orders a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge.

-R