Another Samsung smartphone, another opportunity for Samsung to, well, take over the world.
This is the new Galaxy S7.
And it's already got the full weight of Samsung's marketing team behind it, from an over-the-top
launch event to an Oscars takeover — who knows what's next.
But here's the question: Is it the best Galaxy yet?
I'm Phil Nickinson with Andoird Central, and this is our Galaxy S7 review.
Let's start with the basics.
The Galaxy S7 isn't a huge departure over 2015's Galaxy S6.
Samsung's mainly kept what worked last time, and it made it better.
And along the way they've worked on some of our concerns.
The Galaxy S7 itself is just about the same size as the Galaxy S6, and the iPhone 6s,
while we're comparing things.
It's a tad heavier than both, but not so much that you'd notice.
The biggest difference this year is that the backside has picked up the same sort of curves
that we enjoyed on the much larger Galaxy Note 5.
So it's a lot more comfortable to hold.
It also feels a lot less plasticky — using more metal will do that.
All in all, it's a really good feeling in the hand.
"Premium," even.
Samsung kept with a 5.1-inch AMOLED display this year as well.
It's still excellent, at a quad-HD resolution with crisp colors and deep blacks.
And it's still impressive to see a screen that's so much bigger — and at a much higher
resolution — than what Apple's kept in the iPhone.
And remember, this is in a body roughly the same size.
Samsung has kept its "Adaptive Display" feature, too, which adjusts the color and sharpness
depending on what kind of lighting you're in.
It's subtle, but it can be noticeable.
New for the display is an "Always-on" mode.
It's a feature we've seen on other phones, but this is the first time Samsung's going
for it.
When the phone's just laying around it'll float a little bit of information around on
the screen.
By default you get the day and date, time, battery level, and basic notifications from
a few select apps, like Samsung's email client and missed phone calls.
The problem is that it's not much useful beyond quickly checking the time.
Oh, you've got seven styles of clock from which to choose — or you can go with a monthly
calendar view, or a cute little image.
But none of that comes close to the usefulness of other always-on implementations that let
you actually *do* something with the notifications.
But, yes, you'll save battery life by not waking the entire screen when you just need
to check the time.
More useful is Samsung's fingerprint sensor that's tucked inside the home button.
On it's own it's as good as ever.
But now that it's on a phone with Android 6.0 Marshmallow — and supports all of the
fingerprint features that come baked into Android — it's excellent.
Buying things is easier than ever.
Password managers are secure but quick to open.
And, of course, you can unlock your phone more easily.
Oh, and a double-press of the home button is still the fastest way to launch the camera.
No other phone comes close.
One major feature Samsung's brought back with the Galaxy S7 is expandable storage.
That is, it's got a micro SD card tucked into the SIM card tray.
Using that on top of the 32 gigabytes of on board storage — and only about 16 gigabytes
or so of that is actually available to you — that means you can have up to 200 gigabytes
of storage in total.
And Samsung has decided to NOT use the Adoptable Storage that's in Marshmallow, so you can
still use the card to transfer pics and videos and music and movies from one device to another.
That's a questionable decision for some, who would prefer Samsung use the updated Android
feature.
But Samsung's being very conservative in this case.
Another area in which Samsung isn't yet moving to future tech is found on the bottom of the
phone.
The Galaxy S7 continues to use a microUSB plug and not the newer, reversible USB-C.
That means a couple things.
One is that your existing accessories should still work and you won't have to buy new chargers
and cables.
Another is that the Galaxy S7 will work in the existing Samsung Gear VR virtual reality
visor.
(And, in fact, Samsung is giving a bunch of them away when you buy a Galaxy S7.)
Sticking with microUSB will be another strike against the Galaxy S7 for some people, but
Samsung has a good argument for not changing things just yet.
Moving on to the software.
Again, we're looking at Android 6.0.1, which is the newest version of Android available
at the time the GS7 is released.
It's also got the February 2016 Android security patches.
Now Another couple points on security.
Samsung's KNOX service is on board, of course, useful for allowing you to keep your personal
information completely siloed off from your work data.
And Samsung's made it even easier with its My Knox app.
And the Galaxy S7 is encrypted, which is increasingly important these days.
But one thing you'll want to check is whether a password or PIN is required to boot and
decrypt the phone.
The setup process might not have presented that option, and it's a good one to take advantage
of.
Beyond that, Samsung is really the only other manufacturer (especially for those of us in
North America) that you'll run into that has its own app ecosystem.
We recommend biting the bullet and signing up for a Samsung account, and then signing
into your phone.
There are some little things that Samsung will want to update through its own services,
and that's the price of admission.
Or if you simply don't want to use Google's services but still get new apps, it's an option
here.
And you might well need to go hunting for a few new apps, as some surprisingly ones
might not pre-loaded.
That includes the excellent Samsung Pay, which lets you use your phone for purchases even
when a store doesn't use contactless payments.
Other apps — like Google's productivity apps, or Microsoft's, even — will need to
be downloaded later as well.
It'll depend on what carrier you get your Galaxy S7 from.
The good news is that Samsung's user interface customizations are about as good as they've
ever been.
You're going to want to move some things around, but the UI as fast and fluid, and still has
plenty of options.
You can move apps off the home screen and add folders as you see fit.
You can rearrange the app drawer alphabetically, or just search for your installed apps.
A chosen few apps also have support for notifications badges, so you can know just how much you're
missing out on.
Samsung still has a one-handed mode, support for multi-window with two apps at once, and
about a bazillion other tweaks and features.
For the gamers, The Galaxy S7 has a dedicated Game Launcher that gives quick access to all
the fun stuff.
But more than that the Game Tools can shut down notifications so you're not distracted
by something more important.
Or you can take in-game screenshots or record video.
And it's all easily accessible through pop-up style buttons.
Plus, the Galaxy S7 can take advantage of the new Vulkan gaming APIs, which should future-proof
it for a while.
So there's still a LOT going on here in the software, but it's smartly done, better designed
and fast as anything.
And you can always download and use a different launcher if you want.
Onto the camera, and what may be the best part of a Samsung phone experience these days.
There aren't really any gimmicks here.
On the back there's a 12-megapixel sensor.
If you've been paying attention you'll notice that's actually a lower resolution than what
Samsung's used the past few years, and it's also lower than other Android phones.
But the sensor on the Galaxy S7 has larger individual pixels — 1.4 microns, up from
1.12 microns on the GS6.
That means each little pixel can take in more light.
And that — combined with optical image stabilization and f/1.7 aperture — means you should get
better pictures overall, and better shots in low light.
In reality?
Results have been mixed.
A number of shots have taken on decidedly yellow tinge, in varying lighting conditions.
Details maybe aren't quite as crisp as we're used to.
Samsung's set high standard for itself.
And we've set a high one for samsung.
This camera isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination.
But it's also not quite as stellar out of the box as we were led to expect.
But the camera doesn't stick out from the back of the phone as far anymore, so I guess
there's that.
The front-facing camera weighs in at 5 megapixels.
So you can selfie as much as you want.
Samsung's camera app remains excellent however.
You've got options for all kinds of modes, including a manual mode that lets you save
images in the RAW format, like professional photographers do.
Or there's selective focus, panorama, a video collage, live video broadcasting through YouTube,
slow motion shots, a Matrix-style virtual shot, dedicated food mode, and hyperlapse.
And you can download more modes from the Samsung app store.
One cool new feature is that when you're shooting a still panorama, objects that are moving
inside it will actually *move* in the panorama instead of being chopped in half.
But the problem is you can't really share those beyond the phone.
Really, the camera app is as easy to use as it is rich in features.
There simply isn't a better camera available on Android today.
Now it's time for a little fun.
The Galaxy S7 is waterproof.
Not quite "take it swimming because you can" waterproof, but it's good for a half-hour
in about five feet of water.
A quick trip in the shallow end shouldn't kill it.
Neither should a spilled drink.
Or a dip in a fountain.
Whatever.
It's a cool feature to have, even if it's not really one you should actively use.
So how is the Galaxy S7 to use as a daily driver?
In a word, excellent.
It's big, but not in the HUGE category.
That's maybe my favorite thing about it.
It'll comfortably fit in your pants pocket, and easily slip into a purse.
You'll be able to put a case on it without making the phone into something bigger.
Of course, the carriers in the U.S. are going to do their thing.
Verizon bloats it up pretty good with at least eight apps that mostly duplicate what either
Samsung or Google already brought to the table.
Other carriers will do their thing.
To that end, we REALLY want to see Samsung sell unlocked, unadulterated phones on its
own in the U.S.
And things occasionally kind of break in these early phones, Android auto has yet to work
for me and that was also temporarily the case with the Galaxy S6.
while TouchWiz is as good as it's ever been, I'll still be using a different launcher on
my Galaxy S7 — if only to quickly start fresh from all the things Samsung and Verizon
wrongly think I'll use.
Battery life has been decent.
I'd say acceptable.
Jumping from 2,550 milli-amp-hours in the Galaxy S6 to 3,000 in the GS7 isn't a huge
change — about a 17 percent increase.
But that combined with the Snapdragon 820 processor and its power usage improvements,
and we're not scrambling for a charger nearly as fast as we were with the GS6.
Between 12 and 15 hours of moderate use isn't out of the question, and that's without employing
any of Samsung's battery-saving features.
And while the GS7 uses Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 and not the newer (and faster) 3.0, you
can still get about 45 percent of a full charge in 30 minutes.
It's pretty quick.
Call quality has been fine, and I didn't have any issues with Bluetooth or GPS.
It's a phone, and it does normal phone things.
There's a reason Samsung's going to sell tens of millions of these things.
One is that the Samsung marketing machine is in full effect.
You're going to hear a whole lot about the Galaxy S7, just about anywhere you turn.
The other is that the Galaxy S7 is just one hell of a phone.
Alright, so the Galaxy S7 is obviously the better of the two phones but if you want to
know a little more about that other one Andrew's got more on it, just click up there click
up there.