Samsung Galaxy S7 Review(2017)
KEY FEATURES
WHAT IS THE GALAXY S7?
To use a tired cliche, Samsung has had a year of two halves. After the release of both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Edg,things were looking strong. It had a phone that was better than the HTC 10,better than the hUEWI p9,and it’s still better than the iPHONE 7
But then the exploding Galaxy Note 7 landed and Samsung took a bit of a hit. Is it enough to make you think twice about buying a Samsung device?
In a word, no. The Galaxy S7 is still the best phone we’ve reviewed this year. Maybe the Google Pixel phone will have something to say about that though?
Software Perpormance
There was a time when stock Android, the way Google intended it to be, was ugly. It was basic, lacked sheen and it paled in comparison to Apple’s iOS. Also, phone makers wanted to stamp their own identity on their handsets, rather than have them all appear alike, so they decided to spruce Android up a bit by adding their own ‘skins’. These are layers that sit over the operating system and change how it looks, along with adding some extra features.
The thing is, Android is no longer ugly. In fact, Android Marshmallow is the sleekest, most polished mobile operating system out there. But these skins are still commonplace.
Samsung’s version is called TouchWiz, and while it’s far less overbearing than Huawei’s EMUI or the skin used by LG, it still alters a lot of Android. Icons are different, there are multiple apps that do the same thing – there are two browsers, for example, and two music players – and Samsung’s exclusive features are pushed front and centre. It’s far from the mess it was a few years ago, but it can still look a bit childish and overly colourful.
After ditching Qualcomm and its Snapdragon line of CPUs for last year’s Galaxy S6, Samsung has decided to change its mind this time around. Well, sort of.
Snapdragon’s 2015 flagship chip, the 810, had a tough time with overheating, while the Exynos 7420, the Samsung-made silicon that powers the S6, soared to the top of our performance tables.
There are two versions of the Galaxy S7. In Europe, including the UK, it’s again powered by a Samsung Exynos chip. This time it’s the 8890, which consists of eight cores, with four running at 2.6GHz and the other four at 1.59GHz. It’s paired with a Mali T880 GPU.
In the US and a few other territories, it comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820. Both are seriously powerful chips, so don’t be concerned about which one you’re getting.
Battery
With high daily use the S7 tends to leave me with around 10-15% battery life at the end of the day. Like the S7 Edge, though, it drops suddenly during intensive tasks. Around 30 minutes of Hitman Sniper takes it down by 20%, and an hour of Spotify streaming over a 4G connection uses up 8%.
It has fantastic standby time, though, most likely down to the Doze feature built into Android Marshmallow, so leaving it unplugged overnight will only lose you 3-4%.
There are a few power-saving modes to choose from if you want to try and get more from the battery. The regular ‘Power saving mode’ adds an extra hour (give or take), while the ‘Ultra power saving mode’ doubles the time you can keep on going for. It does turn everything monochrome, though.
I’m impressed that Samsung has kept Qi/PMA wireless charging around here. It’s not a vital feature, but not a lot of phones have it and it’s still a cool talking point to drop your phone onto a wireless pad and see it charge up. There’s fast charging too, and the phone will fully juice up in just over an hour.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 – THE COMPETITION
There’s no doubt about it, the biggest competition facing the Samsung Galaxy S7 is Apple’s iPhone 6S. Both are around the same price, are compact, have stunning cameras and look great.
For me, the Galaxy S7 is a slightly more tempting product, unless you just can’t live without iOS and its tight ecosystem, but both are really great phones. Want Android and bags of power in a sleek form? The Galaxy S7 is for you.
Then there’s the LG G5, which matches a lot of the specs from the Galaxy S7 series and adds a nifty modular system for switching out components. It’s doesn’t have that slick finish of the Galaxy S7, but its camera has some clever tricks and it might just undercut the Samsung flagship when it comes to price.
Plus there’s the iPhone 7 hopefully landing in a few months. The HTC One M10 (or simply HTC 10) could also be a strong competitor, but there’s still little confirmed about it yet and the Taiwanese brand has struggled a lot recently
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