Review: Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, evolution rather than revolution

By Ajith Ram April 25, 2016

THERE is an adage in the advertising industry that when the consumer buys a product, he is not just buying the product but also the satisfaction of buying the product. Nowhere is this more true than the world of premium smartphones currently dominated by Samsung and Apple.

Both companies have done a remarkable job of propelling their flagship products into the highly profitable premium segment. The 'satisfaction' element of their premium smartphones is so high that both manufacturers can charge a hefty price compared with other manufacturers.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge launched recently is Samsung's 2016 flagship, at least until the next Note iteration comes along later this year.

Design

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge seems almost identical to last year's Galaxy S6. With the same glass and metal construction, it seems like version 2.0 of the Galaxy S6.

Closer inspection reveals a few tweaks to the exterior design. Breaking with usual industry tradition, the new phone is slightly heavier than the S6 edge. The camera hump is also smaller, letting the device lie almost perfectly flat on a table.

Like its predecessor, the phone's edges are curved slightly. It is debatable whether this feature is really useful or just a gimmick to help marketing. It does make finding a good screen protector slightly more challenging. There is also the increased danger of accidently 'chipping' the edges.

The power button is on the right side and the volume buttons are on the other side. The bottom of the phone houses the 3.5mm jack, micro-USB port, and a speaker. The IR port in the previous generation has been removed.

Display matters

Reinforcing its version 2.0 appearance, the Galaxy S7 Edge has the same 5.5-inch 1440p Super AMOLED display as the Galaxy S6 edge. This screen resolution has not changed in Samsung flagship phones since it was first introduced in the Galaxy Note 4.

I personally feel that the AMOLED displays still hold an edge over the more prevalent TFT-LCD screens. The blacks are a bit more intense and the colours are just a few notches more vibrant. So overall, although it does not set any new industry benchmarks, the display on the Galaxy S7 edge is among the best in the market.

One small gripe is the lack of true 4K display support for UHD videos. Sony had introduced this feature last year in the Xperia Z5 series and I was hoping that Samsung would also follow suit this year by having an adaptive 4K display. But it is not a major missing feature.

Hardware

In Asia, Samsung is shipping the Galaxy S7 edge with its in-house Exynos 8890 Octa SoC (system-on-a-chip). European and US versions of the phone uses Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 820 SoC.

Manufactured on a 14nm FinFET process, the 8890 features a quad-core array of 64-bit ARMv8 cores for demanding applications, while less CPU-intensive tasks will be handled by another four Cortex-A53 cores.

It also includes an integrated modem, which supports Cat. 12/13 LTE with carrier aggregation for download speeds up to 600Mbps. The GPU is the Mali-T880 MP12 design, also from ARM. The device also has 4GB of RAM and the basic version has 32GB of storage.

Samsung is keen to highlight the device's IP68 rating. Many people had assumed this meant it is waterproof. It is not. It is dust proof and water 'resistant'. So you should not try plunging into any raging torrents with this phone.

The device has a dual use tray into which you can insert a microSD card and a SIM card. Or it can hold two SIM cards. There is no need to switch off the phone while doing so.

Camera

For this generation at least, it appears as if Samsung has given up on the camera megapixel wars currently raging in the market. Instead of boosting the megapixel count, Samsung has decided to focus on the quality of each pixel.

The S7 edge has a dual-pixel 12-megapixel rear camera. Each pixel on the image sensor has two photodiodes instead of one. This means faster auto focus.

Samsung makes the rather tall claim that the camera can focus on action as fast as the human eye. It was obvious during our testing that this is not quite true. While the focussing is certainly faster than previous Samsung devices, it is still not perfect for fast action shots like rollerblading.

It is at night that the camera really comes into its own. The night time images taken by the S7 edge are a class apart from the other smartphones in the market. Evening conditions also highlight the differences. The S7 edge camera produces much more realistic colours and greater detail in the shadow areas.

See the image below taken with the Galaxy S7 Edge.

To compare image quality across two generations of Samsung phones, see this image below taken with the Galaxy Note 4, originally launched in 2014.

The camera app is also equally versatile. In addition to the default auto focus mode, the app also provides a manual mode with some very good control over the aperture, ISO and shutter settings. It also includes preset modes such as HDR, motion panorama, slow motion and motion photo. There are also a number of filters which you can download from the Samsung Store.

Battery and performance

Considering the size of the phone, the S7 edge packs an impressive 3600mAh battery, a considerable step up from the previous generation's 2600mAh power pack. While it is still not as large as the 4050mAh battery in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, it should be enough for a regular day's work for most people.

This was confirmed by our PCMark for Android battery benchmark during which the S7 edge lasted seven and a half hours. The other performance benchmarks were even more impressive. Compared with last year's best performing smartphones like the Huawei Nexus 6P, the S7 edge is around 40% to 50% faster. A truly impressive performance leap across a single generation.

Software

The S7 edge ships with Android M (Marshmallow). On booting up, our device, it immediately downloaded and installed an update.

Other than the camera app, the best app included with the S7 edge has to be the one for the company's Gear VR virtual reality headset. While first time users are certain to be impressed, those who have already used it with previous Samsung phones are unlikely to see any image quality differences. You also need to shell out extra for the headset.

Conclusion

It is fair to say that Samsung has done it again. The Galaxy S7 edge is more of an evolution than a great leap for the smartphone industry. Even so, if your phone is already more than two years old, it is worth considering for an upgrade. On the other hand, considering its steep price, if you already have last year's model, you might want to hold off.

There are whispers in the wind of interesting devices from other smartphone manufacturers. But until they arrive, the Galaxy S7 edge is definitely the premium performance champion.

Rating: 4 out of 5