Samsung Galaxy S7 review
Introduction
The Galaxy S6 was Samsung's plunge into premium materials for its
flagship line, which had long since suffered ridicule for its extensive
use of plastic. The Galaxy S7 is the evolutionary upgrade that follows,
building upon the S6's foundations.
Key specifications
-
5.1"1440x2560 pixels
-
12MP
2160p
-
2.3GHz
Exynos 8890 Octa
-
4GB RAM
32/64GB memory
-
3000mAhLi-Po
Design has been refined, with clues taken from the Note5 which split
in half the year between the two S-models' releases. Under the hood, the
latest silicon churns higher numbers, but the headlines are in other
areas - a brand new dual-pixel 12MP camera, the return of environmental
sealing and microSD expansion, plus an extra-large battery. In other
words - the Galaxy S6, only better.
Design and build quality
Galaxies were all made of plastic, Samsung S-series flagships, that
is. Then came the Galaxy S6, Samsung's response to plastic-hating users
and reviewers, and it brought materials, look and feel up to the
standard required in the segment. Samsung committed to the dual-glass
design and on the S7 we see it taken a step up.
The Galaxy Note5 has generously loaned its curved back to the S7,
alongside with its outer aluminum frame. This has made the S7 feel quite
a lot slimmer than it actually is - measuring 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9mm, the
new model is 1.1mm thicker than the outgoing S6.
The "huge" difference, however, brings more good than it does harm.
An extra millimeter means extra juice (3,000mAh battery vs. the S6's
2,550mAh), and it also helps make the camera hump less of an eye-sore -
it only sticks out by 0.46mm now. There's no hiding the added heft - at
152g the S7 is precisely 10% heaver than the S6, and it shows in
side-by-side comparisons. Not really an issue in daily use, though.
There's also no escaping the fact that glass collects fingerprints,
and the S7 is a pain to keep clean. That's less of an issue with white
paint jobs, but in all other cases, it's likely to be covered in smudges
most of the time.
While the rear comes from the Note5, the front is entirely S7's. The
side edges of the glass fade out nicely towards the frame at a more
gradual angle than the top and bottom - a different take on the 2.5D
glass concept, and one that detail freaks will rave about. It's not the
S7 edge's curves, no, but the S7's face does indeed have a character of
its own.
Those minute differences aside, the Galaxy S7 shares a lot of the
hallmark properties of the range. Controls are where they're supposed to
be, there's a fingerprint sensor inside the Home button, which requires
a press to wake up, ports are where they were last time.
Well, the IR blaster is nowhere to be found, but then the card tray
will now accept a microSD card beside the nanoSIM - yes, Samsung
reintroduces expandable storage, which it mercilessly took away last
generation.
Oh, and in case the rain drops on the photos weren't enough of a hint
- the Galaxy S7 is IP68 certified for water resistance up to 1.5m deep
for up to half an hour, and it's also dust tight.
Design and build quality score
4.5
Display
Quite expectedly, the Galaxy S7 comes with a 5.1-inch QHD display of the Samsung signature Super AMOLED variety.
AMOLED has come to mean infinite contrast, stellar viewing angles,
and vivid colors, but color accuracy is no longer out of the question if
you pick the right display mode. Maximum brightness doesn't suffer
either, but Auto needs to be checked in order to get the best in
brightly-lit conditions. And the S7 does indeed excel in direct
sunlight, posting one of the highest scores in our dedicated test.
Allways On is the display feature of the season, and on AMOLED it
gets the most straightforward implementation - only the required pixels
need to be lit up. The S7 lets you have a clock, a calendar, an image,
or a combination of those, displayed during standby. Basic notifications
will also show up, like missed calls and texts, but nothing more.
All that will eat up roughly a percent of your battery life every
hour, which Samsung argues is still better than waking up the phone and
lighting the entire display just to check the time on a few dozen
occasions a day. It's your call whether the trade-off is worth it, and
if it isn't, you can just pull the plug on it.
Battery life
One of the best received changes over the previous generation is the
S7's increased battery capacity, at 3,000mAh. The power pack is again
not user-replaceable, but Samsung hopes that the more juice on board,
coupled with the existing fast wired and wireless charging, will make
that less of a pain point.
In our battery tests, the Galaxy S7 performed rather well with
excellent longevity in both video playback (close to 15 hours) and 3G
voice calls (23h). Surfing the web was less impressive, but still just
short of the 10-hour mark.
All that worked out to a combined endurance rating of 80 hours -
about 10% more than the S6. Turn the Always On display feature on
though, and that number plummets by some 30 hours, an effect of
increased standby battery draw.
The endurance rating is an estimation of how long the phone would
last if you use it for an hour each of calling, browsing and video
playback a day. Such usage pattern may not be relevant to your own usage
scenario, but we've established it so our battery results are
comparable across devices. You can adjust the formula to better match
your own usage pattern, by visiting our dedicated
battery test results page.
Audio
Loudspeaker volume on the Galaxy S7 isn't impressive, the phone
ranked in the Below Average category in our test. It uses a single
driver too, so it doesn't score points for stereo speakers, but it does
produce quality output with no distortions, so at least there's that.
Examining the Galaxy S7's sound output through the 3.5mm jack, we
found the smartphone to deliver excellently clean output with above
average volume when connected to an external amp. Headphones introduced a
bit more stereo crosstalk than the S6, but the readings still remained
better than the competition, and volume didn't take a hit.
Photo camera
On the Galaxy S7 Samsung introduces a brand new camera with a lower
pixel count, but that's about all that's been downgraded. The 12MP
shooter has dual-pixel technology -there's a phase-detection agent at
every pixel, while competitors only have one at about 5% of photosites.
What that means to you is insanely fast autofocusing, both in daylight
and in the dark.
The lens has also gotten brighter, actually the brightest on a
smartphone at f/1.7. Add to that the larger individual pixels (1.4
micron vs. 1.12 on the S6), plus OIS, and the S7 is very well equipped
for shooting in less than ideal lighting. And in pitch black you have
the flash to save the day (night), though it still uses a single LED.
Double-press on the Home button to launch the camera works here too,
and once you're in the app, it's the familiar simple interface with
shortcuts to basic functions. If you want more control, you can launch
the Pro mode, which gives you access to manual exposure settings. RAW
capture is available too.
Photos are packed with detail, dynamic range is good with highlight
preservation is on top of the S7's priority list. Color rendition is
similar to the S6 - consumer grade accuracy with a touch of warmth.
Night shots are very good (within the laws of phisics), detail is
abundant, noise is kept to a reasonable amount.
The selfie snapper remains at 5MP, only this time it has the f/1.7
aperture to match the primary camera. Samsung has also added a screen
fill flash to assists when there's practically no other light source. It
has somewhat limited dynamic range, and tends to clip highlights, but
produces pleasing skin tones
Video camera
The Galaxy S7 has a feature-rich camcorder, capable of high-res
4k/30fps video, high frame rate 1080p/60fps, and slow motion at
720p/240fps, among others.
Ultra HD videos are nice and detailed, and exhibit largely the same
excellent properties as still images. The fast autofocus sure hepls, but
on occasion, and particularly in 60fps FullHD video, the S7 hunts for
focus for no apparent reason.
Software
Marshmallow works side by side with TouchWiz on the Galaxy S7. It's
the latest installment in Samsung's strife for a lighter Android build
than the widely criticized company overlays of old.
Samsung shot for ease of use this time, and made the default grid
size 4x4, making for large easily tappable icons, but 4x5 and 5x5
options are also available. Additionally, an experimental mode is also
available as part of Galaxy Labs, which lacks an app drawer and all your
apps are located on the homescreens, iOS-style. Themes aren't news
anymore, but just so you know, they are present on the S7.
Samsung's take on split-screen multitasking is probably the best
there is. The two windows can be resized and swapped and plenty of apps
are supported. Alternatively, you can shrink just about any app to a
smaller windowed view by swiping diagonally from one of the top corners.
Admittedly, that all makes more sense on a larger screen, but it's nice
to have on the 5.1-inch S7 as well.
The truly new feature this year is Game Launcher. Targeted at,
well... gamers, the app lets you disable the capacitive keys to avoid
unwanted taps mid-game, cuts off notifications and has screenshot and
screen record features. A couple of power-saving modes cap frame rate at
30fps, and set two levels of progressively lower resolution.
Benchmark performance
The Galaxy S7 is powered by either the in-house Exynos 8890, or the
Snapdragon 820, depending on region. Each of them comes with the
respective
Single-core CPU tests put the Snapdragon variant slightly ahead,
while the Exynos pulls ahead in multi-core thanks to more and
higher-clocked cores. In graphics benchmarks the S820 generally has a
marginal advantage. In the end, both are top-tier chipsets and no matter
which one you get, you can expect exemplary performance.
Benchmark performance score
5.0
Wrap-up
It may be an iterative upgrade on the outside, the Galaxy S7, but
if you remotely liked the S6, chances are you're gonna love the S7.
Design has gotten an extra polish and S6's sharp edges have been
replaced with more fluid shapes. The water resistance returns with a
splash, as does the microSD expansion, and the increase in battery
capacity does actually translate into longer battery life.
Then there's the new dual-pixel camera with unrivaled autofocus
speed, bright lens and OIS. High-quality output across the board from
12MP stills to 4K video position it up there with the best smartphones
money can buy. And, naturally, the S7 also churns out top numbers in the
benchmarks no matter how hard you stress it, but that's nothing new.
| Samsung Galaxy S7
|
| Pros |
Cons |
- Premium design and build quality
- Superb 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED display
- Powerful chipset, great performance
- Impressive camera output both stills and video
- Very good battery life, fast charging, both wired and wireless
|
- Glass accumulates fingerprints, fragile
- Non-removable battery, no IR blaster
|
Also consider
-
Prettier, with larger dual-edge display, longer battery life, but also more expensive.
-
Modular design with a host of accessories available, removable battery, dual rear cameras, one with extra wide angle FOV.
The rest of this season's top-shelf models will have a hard time
competing with the Galaxy S7. It's another exceptional all-round
performance from a Samsung flagship, which takes the best from the
company's recent high-end phones and puts it all in a single device.
Samsung Galaxy S7
Total GSMArena score
4.5 / 5
| Design and build quality |
|
4.5 |
| Display |
|
5.0 |
| Battery life |
|
4.5 |
| Audio |
|
3.5 |
| Photo camera |
|
4.5 |
| Video camera |
|
4.5 |
| Software |
|
5.0 |
| Benchmark performance |
|
5.0 |
| Coolness |
|
4.5 |
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