Galaxy S7 review

 

At first glance, the S7's screen appears to be the same as the 5.1-inch, QHD Super AMOLED offering on the Galaxy S6. The resolution is still 2,560 x 1,440, giving you a pin-sharp 577ppi pixel density.That's no bad thing, as the screen on the S6 was excellent – but Samsung's made things even better on the Galaxy S7.The folks over at DisplayMate have run independent, objective scientific analysis on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge displays, and the results show performance improvements across all tests versus their S6 predecessors. It fact, DisplayMate has said the screen on the Galaxy S7 is the best of any smartphone.What does this all mean? The main point is the screen on the Galaxy S7 is 24% brighter than its predecessor, with improved contrast ratios to boot.

Held side by side with the Galaxy S6 I could see the Galaxy S7 screen had whiter whites, and colors appeared to be a little more natural compared to the slight over-saturation on the S6.
In short, the Samsung Galaxy S7 has a fantastic display. You're unlikely to notice much of a difference coming from a Galaxy S6, but for those looking to upgrade from a handset that's two years old your eyes are in for a treat.

Never off

That's not all the screen on the S7 has to offer – it also boasts always-on functionality, a feature that both Samsung and LG (on the G5) have employed on their flagship handsets in 2016.

Samsung's implementation sees the screen on the Galaxy S7 show a few different things when the handset is lying idle. The default option shows the clock, date and battery level, plus counters for new text messages and missed calls will also display (if you have any).
That's useful, but I was disappointed that the notifications icons were limited to just these two things. I do most of my messaging via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and not having notifications for those on the display was a little frustrating.

Samsung has opened up the API to app developers, so in the future we should see these notifications come to the always-on display, but it's something Samsung could have done itself, and it's annoying that it hasn't.
Aside from the default display, the other two options you can have are a calendar view or a full-screen pattern, neither of which are particularly useful. I expected at least calendar entries to be shown in some basic form with the former, but alas you just get a view of the days in the month, and that's it.

Meanwhile the pattern, instead of using a portion of the screen, takes up the whole screen. Furthermore, there are only three patterns to choose from, and you can't customize them in any way. The hope is more will appear in time, but for now it's useless.
With the screen never turning off (although you can disable the always-on feature in the settings), there is an additional drain on the battery. Samsung claims it consumes less than 1% every hour, though, and during my time with the Galaxy S7 I didn't find it was killing the power.

It may seem like a relatively tame addition, and at first I dismissed the always-on functionality as nothing more than a gimmick.
However, as I spent more time with the S7 I became accustomed to glancing at my phone for the time and date, as well as to see if I needed to stick in the charger. Simple, yet affective.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is a flagship smartphone, so it comes as no surprise that it's packing a punch under all that metal and glass.
Things aren't straightforward specs-wise though, as Samsung has deemed it necessary to produce two variants of the S7, with the difference being the processor inside them.
The majority of the world, including Europe, will find a Samsung-made Exynos 8890 octa-core processor inside their Galaxy S7 (model SM-G930F), providing a huge amount of power.
Those in North America get something a little different: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core chip in model SM-G930. The reason for this is that the 820 supports some vital LTE bands required for Verizon and Sprint customers, and the Exynos doesn't offer this.
Now both processors are powerful, and with 4GB of RAM backing each of them up you'll have enough going on under the hood to not slow you down.
However, I had access to both variants during my review, and running Geekbench 3 on them yielded some rather different results, with the Exynos-toting Galaxy S7 coming out comfortably on top.

The Exynos variant scored an average of 6542 on the multi-core test, while the Snapdragon 820 handset averaged 5398 on the same test.
It's fair to say, then, that customers in North America have a right to feel a little aggrieved, although in reality you're not going to notice the difference in day to day use.
The bigger news here is that both variants absolutely smash their competitors. The Galaxy S6 managed to clock an impressive 4850, but it pales in comparison to its successor.As for the competition, the iPhone 6S recorded an about-average score of 4417, the Sony Xperia Z5 came in at 4015 and the HTC One M9 only managed a lowly 3803.It'll be interesting to see what the Snapdragon 820-toting LG G5 records when it gets put through its paces in our in-depth review, and we'll wait and see what HTC sticks inside the One M10.Navigation is smooth on the S7, apps load promptly and Samsung's cleaner, fresher TouchWiz feels more lightweight and easier to manage this time around.Android purists will still kick up a stink at Samsung's insistence on playing with app icons – which are an improvement over the S6's designs – and on bundling in bloatware and generally adding more fuss to the system.I'd rather have pure Android on the S7, with the addition of the always-on display and a couple of other settings – but that's in an ideal world, and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow runs very well here.

Apart from the slightly smarter app icons, another obvious area where TouchWiz has been tweaked is the notification bar, which is now a more pleasing blue-on-white affair.
You get the usual array of quick settings here, along with a brightness slider, while swiping left to right on the home screen opens the upday (or Flipboard if you're in the US) news aggregator.
This is okay for a general splash of the latest news centered around a few topics you define as favorites, but I didn't find myself visiting it all that often. The good news is that you can turn it off, so you never have to look at it.
Those of you who like to cram your home screens full of apps may find the default 4 x 4 layout of the Galaxy S7 a little restricting. That can be addressed, though: just hold down on a home screen and you can change the grid layout to either 4 x 5 or 5 x 5.
The latter option can feel tight on the 5.1-inch display – but just think of all those extra apps you can squeeze in.
Samsung's split-screen view is also still in full force on the Galaxy S7 – hit the multi-tasking button to the left of the home key and apps which can perform the half-screen view trick will have an icon next to the cross button.
The annoying thing about this feature is that only a select few apps can actually go split-screen. Core apps such as Chrome, Gmail, Gallery and so on are supported, along with a handful of third-party options including Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft's Office suite.
While split-screen view may be mildly useful for business types on the move, in reality I found very little use for it on the Galaxy S7.
Something else I found frustrating was the ability to reduce apps to a floating window on screen.
It's potentially useful on the very odd occasion, but because the swiping motion to trigger this is very similar to the action to pull down the notification bar I found myself repeatedly shrinking apps when all I wanted to do was see my quick settings. #rage.
There have been some improvements in the keyboard department too, with slightly better spacing and next word prediction on offer, but the Samsung board still frustrates.
Simple actions such as employing a comma are not particularly easy, and I'd still recommend downloading a third-party offering such as SwiftKey if you do a lot of typing on your phone.

Less is more. We've all heard the saying, but is it really true? Samsung certainly thinks so when it comes to the camera on the Galaxy S7.The Samsung Galaxy S6 had a brilliant camera – we branded it the best on the market in 2015 – but the South Korean giant has messed with its winning formula.The 16MP snapper which adorned the rear of the S6 is out, with a 12MP offering tagging in for the Samsung Galaxy S7.The camera does at least sit a lot flusher to the body, but alarm bells may be ringing as that drop in pixels sinks in. Don't panic just yet, though.

Low light performance is one of the big selling points for all smartphone manufacturers, with everyone boasting about how well their cameras can perform when the lights go down.
To that end, Samsung has kept the sensor size the same, but by reducing the number of pixels it means each one is now larger – that allows more light in, thus improving performance in low light and generating sharper, brighter shots.
It's also made the lens wider, enabling you to get more into shot – perfect for picturesque landscapes and towering skyscrapers when you don't want the hassle of shooting a panorama.
That's only half the battle though, as the Galaxy S7 still needs to take great shots when the light is favorable – and thankfully it's good news all round.

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are the first smartphones to feature a dual-pixel sensor, a technology initially built for DSLR cameras. This gives the S7 faster autofocus, again improving the brightness and overall quality of your shots.
The difference is clear to see when you fire up the camera app and hold it up to your subject. Staring at the viewfinder on the screen, your subject appears brighter, lighter and clearer – it's a surprisingly impressive feat, and automatically puts you at ease.
Double-clicking the home button triggers the camera app quick launch, swiftly getting you to the snapper without you having to close another app first. Once the app has loaded you can use the volume keys, as well as the on-screen shutter key, to snap a pic.
The volume keys can also be programmed to zoom or to start video recording if you prefer easy access to either of those instead.

There are plenty of modes and effects to play with on the Galaxy S7, but Samsung's auto mode is excellent for those just wanting a good quality point-and-shoot.
Keep HDR on auto too, and the S7 will take some cracking shots. What really stood out for me was the low light performance. There has been clear improvement in this department, and the camera does an excellent job of sucking in as much light as possible for blur-free, detailed photos. It's genuinely impressive.
For those looking for more control, the Galaxy S7's Pro Mode offers up a whole range of controls including shutter speed, white balance, contrast, brightness and ISO. You can also choose to save images as uncompressed RAW files alongside the standard JPEGs.
There's a wide range of other modes too, with Samsung stalwarts such as panorama, selective focus and slow motion video joined by new additions including Food and Hyperlapse.

The former provides a meal-friendly filter to help you document your culinary adventures, and the latter improves the stability and visibility of timelapse video, while minimizing the file size for easy social sharing.
Samsung's also added Motion picture and Motion panorama to the Galaxy S7's camera arsenal. Motion picture is the South Korean firm's answer to Live Photos, which Apple introduced on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

Trouble is, Apple's implementation is far better. On the Galaxy S7 the split second of video capture is often blurred, and playback requires a tap on an icon in the gallery – there's no intuitive hold down for motion like on the iPhones.
General picture quality from the S7 is superb, though. Colors are bright and vibrant, detail is surprisingly good considering the drop in megapixels, and lighting is top notch thanks to the improved low light capabilities.

Samsung has somehow managed to top the camera it put on the S6 with the Galaxy S7's snapper – it's fantastic.
Round the front, Samsung has resisted the urge that has seen rivals slap 8MP cameras (and in some cases even higher) on their handsets, keeping things at 5MP. The overly oppressive beauty mode is here again, ready and waiting to make you look like an alien – it's best turned off, or at least dialled down.
A genuinely useful feature, though, is the front-facing flash – although you'll note there's no LED mounted on the front of the Galaxy S7. Instead it uses the display to flash a white light at you, for an illuminated selfie in low light surroundings.
Images from the front snapper are good, but lack the detail of rival offerings. It's serviceable, but you'll want to keep your serious snaps for the excellent rear camera.

 

Every year, with every new flagship smartphone I hope – no, I pray – that someone's finally found the battery elixir we've all been craving. So, has Samsung found the holy grail of smartphone technology in 2016 with the Samsung Galaxy S7?
No. But don't let that put you off.
The elixir is still very much elusive, but the Samsung Galaxy S7 does take steps to try and improve battery performance.
First up, Samsung's given us a bigger battery – huzzah! – cranking things up from the measly 2550mAh offering in the Galaxy S6 to a far more agreeable 3000mAh power pack in the S7.Charging times have also been given a boost – both wired and wirelessly – with the fastest charge achieved via the wired connection, using the fast charge adapter which you'll find in the box.I ran the Exynos 8890-powered Galaxy S7 completely flat and then plugged it in. After just 15 minutes it had already refuelled to 25%, and around 30 minutes in I was at the 50% mark.

Things slowed down slightly after that, but I had a fully charged Galaxy S7 an hour and a quarter after it completely ran out of juice. That's a decent performance – and 25% in 15 minutes is perfect for a quick blast before you head out for the night.
Meanwhile the North American, Snapdragon 820-powered handset also managed to regain 25% in 15 minutes; 50% took around 35 minutes, and it was full in under an hour and a half.
The big question, though, is: does the Galaxy S7 last a full day on a single charge? I can happily say: absolutely. It won't go two days – it's unlikely to do more than a day and a half at a push – but it's an improvement over the Galaxy S6, and you can be safe in the knowledge it'll make it to bedtime.
With heavy usage, and running some rather intensive benchmarking tests as well as a slug of gaming, music streaming and other activities, the S7 managed to make it from 7am to midnight with around 15% still left in the tank.
More moderate usage, with a bit less gaming but still a fair amount of music streaming, emails and social networking, saw me getting into bed with around 30% still in reserve. Plus, the always-on screen was, well, always on. That makes the S7's effort all the more impressive, as it still performed better than its predecessor.

If you really push the S7 the battery will start to slide, mainly thanks to the luscious Super AMOLED display. My Real Racing 3 addiction is one example of such pushing, with around 10% of the battery falling away during a 45-minute blast – I did absolutely nail the new Nascar circuits though.
I ran the techradar 90-minute full HD video test on the Galaxy S7, with screen brightness on full and the handset connected to Wi-Fi, with accounts syncing in the background. Starting at 100%, the Exynos 8890-powered S7 dropped just 13% during the video. That left it with 87% in the tank, which is a very impressive result. Meanwhile our US variant, running the Snapdragon 820 chip, lost 16% in the same test.
Both comfortably beat the iPhone 6S (which lost 30%), Sony Xperia Z5 (25%) and HTC One M9 (31%).
The Galaxy S6 produced a similarly impressive result, losing 16% in the same test, but its downfall, battery performance-wise, was in standby rather than during intense activity.

The Galaxy S7 is much better at holding onto charge when it's idle. Overnight it lost no more than 10%, and that was with the always-on display enabled. That's partly thanks to Google's new Doze mode, which is built into Marshmallow, but I suspect Samsung's also made some efficiencies of its own.
If you know you're going to be away from a charger for an extended period, the Galaxy S7 has two options to help you make the battery last longer.
First up is the standard power-saving mode, which limits performance, vibrations and background data without cutting off any functionality. This can give you a few precious extra hours as your stumble home from a heavy night.
If you're really up against it, then Samsung's ultra-power-saving mode takes battery conservation to the extreme. This strips out all the fancy features of the Galaxy S7 and gives you a stripped down, black and white interface with access to only a handful of functions including calls, texts and a web browser.
Just how much extra time these modes give you will depend on individual usage, but with just 5% left in the tank the S7 was telling me that the standard power saver would only give me an additional two minutes over the 45 minutes it predicted the phone to last.
The ultra mode, however, claimed it could keep my phone going for 1 hour 45 minutes, which could be a real life-saver. Obviously, the more you have left in the tank when you enable these modes, the longer they'll be able to keep you going.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S7 has taken a positive step forward when it comes to battery life. It's not the best performer out there, and you'll want to plug in every night to be sure of a full day's use when you wake – but you won't find yourself dashing for the charger come mid-afternoon.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is a flagship device, so it comes as no surprise to find that it takes movies, TV shows, music and gaming in its stride.
While the S7 doesn't offer the 64GB or 128GB internal storage options that were available with the S6, you do get a microSD slot to compliment the 32GB of built-in storage.
That slot supports cards up to 200GB in size, which is handy seeing as 7.51GB of the internal space in the S7 is taken up by the system memory and pre-installed applications.

Gaming

With a vibrant 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display and a whole heap of power under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy S7 is an excellent gaming-on-the-go device.
Games load quickly, run smoothly and look great, with no hint of slowdown. The Galaxy S7 has no trouble running the graphically-intensive Real Racing 3, and the new curved design means the phone is easier to hold for extended periods.
The big talking point here though is Game Launcher, a brand new feature from Samsung which is debuting on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.

This puts more power in the hands of gamers, and whenever you download a game the S7 will automatically add it to the Game Launcher folder on the home screen; and it will add any game – even fantasy football apps, which aren't necessarily traditional games.
You can remove any app from the folder that you don't deem fit, plus you can add games which the S7 may have missed.
So what does the Game Launcher actually do? Well, when you fire up a game you'll notice a small red dot to the side of the screen – tap this at any point during your game and you'll bring up the menu.

From here you can take a screenshot, record live footage of your gameplay, and minimize gameplay so that you can quickly jump into another app before getting straight back to the action.
The two most useful functions, though, are the ones which probably sound the least interesting.
First up, you can disable notifications during gameplay, so you're not disturbed by panels dropping down in front of the action. It's something I found really handy, and it keeps you engaged with your game for longer – which for some parents may not be a good thing.

Second, the launcher gives you the ability to lock the navigation keys (back, home and multi-tasking), which prevents you from accidently exiting the app during a crucial showdown.
I can't tell you how many times I've done that in the past, so I was delighted to have this function available on the Galaxy S7. It's simple yet effective.

Movies and TV

There's no dedicated video player app on the Samsung Galaxy S7, so you'll have to make do with the Gallery app to access any movie files you put on the handset, or Google's Play Movies & TV if you want to access your purchased content, or rent or buy something new.
Playback looks great on the Samsung Galaxy S7, and its brighter display makes watching the latest movie or TV show an enjoyable experience.

Samsung's handy Pop-up feature lets you minimise your video to a small floating window, enabling you to use other applications on the Galaxy S7 without missing any of the action.
The 5.1-inch screen can get a little cramped in this mode – it works better on the larger S7 Edge – but it's useful if you need to fire off a quick email, or ping an emoji to a WhatsApp group.

The only negative point here is the placement of the speaker at the base of the handset. When held in landscape mode I found my hand muffled audio on several occasions, obliging me to adjust my grip to something less comfortable.
This can be overcome by plugging in a pair of headphones (or connecting to a pair via Bluetooth), but it's a niggling issue when you want to share a video with friends and family.

Music

The only music player on the Samsung Galaxy S7 is Google's Play Music app, and that's really all you need.
Google offers its own subscription music-streaming service through the app, as well as enabling you to buy and download tracks from its store, and control your own music loaded onto the phone separately.

Audio quality is also impressive when using headphones, although playback falls down in the same way as video when it comes to the placement of the internal speaker.
I'd have loved to have seen Samsung adopt HTC's and Sony's use of dual front-facing speakers, but alas I'm stuck with a single, downwards-firing solution again.

Like the look of the Galaxy S7 but fancy a bigger, curved display? Then you'll want the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Apart from the size and shape of their screens, these two handsets are identical.The S7 Edge will set you back a bit more, but you get more screen real estate to play with, slightly better battery life, a futuristic look and Samsung's Edge screen interface, which now has more going for it than the S6 Edge's slightly lackluster implementation.It's worth bearing in mind, though, that as well as being cheaper, the Galaxy S7 is also easier to use one handed.The decision really comes down to personal preference, and whichever handset you pick you won't be disappointed.