The much awaited Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are finally out. The devices were launched yesterday at the MWC in Barcelona and it goes without saying that they were definitely the show stealers. We already knew more or less everything about the device. Or did we?
I won’t say that the new Samsung Galaxy S7 swept me off my feet, but indeed, it had some surprises in store for us. The latest flagship of the Korean giant is set to come with a hefty price-tag. So, the question still looms whether you should go for it or not. Let us see.
The look and design of the new flagship are almost identical to it predecessor but with some cool changes. The front is almost identical but the rear edges have been given a rounded finish just like the Note5 to give a better grip and hold. With an all metal and glass body, the phone really feels great in the hand.
The best thing which has made a reappearance in the galaxy series is the water-resistant IP68 rating. It means that you can dip your phone in 1.5m of water for about 30 minutes without getting it impaired. The phone also has sealed ports which mean no more fussy covers for headphone jack or USB port.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 has a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display, the display is identical to that of Galaxy S6, but we can hardly complain since it is still one of the best in the market. Wireless charging is obviously there, but there is no USB-type C as expected earlier.
Another cool new feature is the ‘Always on display’. As the name suggests, it will show a clock or calendar or any other thing of your choice even when the phone is on standby. We were sceptical about battery drainage due to this feature, but Samsung has assured that this will consume only about 1% of the battery and will even save battery which is often lost due to frequent switching ON the display to check time.
We have got the much-loved microSD card slot back which supports up to 200 GB of storage, but sadly, this isn’t adoptable which means that you won’t be able to use it as an internal storage. The phone will be available in the 32 GB internal memory variant in most of the territories.
At the camera-front, though the pixels have seen a downgrade, but the camera has seen an overall upgrade. The pixel size has been increased to about 56% allowing 25% more light. The downgrade from 16 MP to 12 MP will also mean lesser image sizes which mean faster and snappier processing.
The battery has also seen a boost from 2550mAh in the S6 to 3000mAh in the Galaxy S7. Though this makes the phone a lit bulkier, but that is a sacrifice most users would like to make.
As expected, we have Android Marshmallow, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, and 4 GB of RAM. The Exynos version will also be made available in few of the territories. We’re yet to see the thermal performance of the Snapdragon 820, but we hope that this processor will not be plagued with the same issue as its predecessor. This is a lot of horsepower behind any device and you shouldn’t expect any glitches whatsoever.
The S7 Edge, on the other hand, has a 5.5-inch display having the same QHD Super-AMOLED display. The battery here has seen a large boost from 2,600mAh in S6 Edge to 3,600mAh in the S7 Edge. The rest of the features including camera, storage, and processing is same as that of the Samsung Galaxy S7.
As for the pricing and release date, the UK and US pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet. Samsung Galaxy S7 has been announced at AU$1,149 (approx. £574/US$820) in Australia. The phone is set for a March 11 release but the pre-orders have already begun.
The S7 will come in black and gold colour variants while the S7 Edge will come in black, gold and silver options. Samsung has also offered a lucrative deal of a free Gear VR for early buyers who purchase either of S7 between February 23rd to March 18th.