Samsung Galaxy S7 (Verizon wireless) - laptop magazine

by means of Sascha Segan

believe of it because the Galaxy S6...S. The Samsung Galaxy S7 ($672; 32GB) looks so a good deal like the Galaxy S6 that you simply'd be excused for thinking or not it's no longer a massive improve. in preference to reinvent the design like it did remaining year, Samsung has concentrated on efficiency advancements in the S7, restoring crowd-attractive facets that had been lacking from the S6 (like a microSD slot) and boosting battery existence. it be the premiere Android cell attainable in a very one-exceeded kind ingredient. That talked about, we're giving our Editors' option to the very similar Galaxy S7 part, which has more performance and more desirable battery existence in a kit this is not lots greater.

size and DesignThere's been a lot of speak over the ultimate yr about how smartphones are getting boring—essentially, how they've plateaued when it comes to altering our lives. I believe the business is just taking a breath earlier than it goes crazy with virtual and augmented truth, which we have now all started to see with Samsung's apparatus VR.

but smartphones are still our most personal computer systems. they're our always-able cameras with which we record our lives. they may be our cloud-primarily based brains that Waze us around city or Google the solutions to pressing questions. they are our connections to our pals and household, by way of facebook, or text message, or historical-usual mobilephone calls. they're basic, used a whole lot of times a day, and even an incremental development in how they work continues to be an development in our lives.

right here's an incremental growth, for example. As somebody who makes use of my mobilephone on the subway a lot, i have been raging for years about mobile size bloat—how smartphones are becoming wider and wider, making them tougher to use with one hand. i am chuffed to assert that the 2.74-inch S7 is in fact narrower than the S6 (2.78 inches), making it the equal width because the HTC One M9, and narrower than some other excessive-conclusion Android phone i will be able to believe of. a good way to make the S7 the go-to device for anyone who thinks that excessive-conclusion telephones are just too massive.

The Galaxy S7's AMOLED monitor is a similar dimension (5.1 inches) and resolution (2,560 by using 1440) because the S6's reveal, but as Dr. Ray Soneira of DisplayMate Labs elements out in a distinctive record, Samsung amped up the brightness rather plenty. The S6 already had an excellent, particularly seen screen; the S7 is even stronger. both phones put the iPhone 6s to disgrace.

Samsung has back water-resistance to the Galaxy S7, devoid of the want for the stressful port cowl from the Galaxy S5. This time, or not it's using a water-repellent coating inside the machine. I washed and dried the cellphone, and even spilled hot coffee on it, and not using a issues. The telephone is rated IP68, which ability it's thoroughly water-resistant and dustproof.

From left to correct: Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S7, Apple iPhone 6s

but yes, otherwise, the S7 looks lots like the S6, despite the fact its a bit of greater rounded again is only a splash thicker, to allow for an even bigger battery. The larger battery, in flip, offers the mobilephone much less of a protruding digicam bump on the rear. At 5.36 ounces, it be heavier, too (the S6 is four.87 oz.). nonetheless it's still a steel-and-glass unibody design, coming in black or gold, with a physical domestic button that services as a fingerprint sensor under the monitor. The sensor is an identical because the one in the S6; very good, nonetheless it'll miss an off-core touch. The cellphone additionally nevertheless uses natural micro USB, not USB-C, for charging and add-ons.

while the mobile is concerning the equal dimension as the Galaxy S6, many latest Galaxy S6 circumstances simply barely might not work on the Galaxy S7. it be a real pity. when I slotted the S7 into an S6 case, I discovered the headphone jack became moved a bit to the correct, so the hole for the jack on the case turned into in the incorrect vicinity.

mobile and community PerformanceQualcomm is back. ultimate yr become a foul one for the main chip manufacuter, during which it put out some good processors and one actual disappointment, the Snapdragon 810. neatly, the Snapdragon 820 is not any 810. It has the superior modem in the business, and what's searching like incredibly aggressive app performance.

The Snapdragon 820's X12 modem helps LTE download hurries up to 600Mbps and uploads as much as 150Mbps, the use of some technologies which are extra essential on different carriers than Verizon. 4x4 MIMO will make for sooner speeds on T-cell, whereas 3x20 carrier aggregation turns into important on sprint. Verizon doesn't use those applied sciences, but the X12 appears to have some advantages here, too.

I could not perform any checks that pushed the limits of LTE performance, but I could determine Wi-Fi and susceptible signal circumstances. The mobilephone had no concern with a 150Mbps symmetrical Wi-Fi connection. On Verizon's network, the S7 did a stronger job maintaining onto LTE in negative sign situations than the iPhone 6s, pulling out stronger statistics prices. My first day with the cellphone, I noticed some ordinary conduct involving the telephone no longer recuperating or trading as much as 4G LTE from useless zones, however that appeared to style itself out after a couple of days.

The phone helps voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling. It has LTE bands 2/3/four/5/7/eight/13/18/19/20/38/39/40/forty one. Verizon regrettably removed key LTE bands for the other main US carriers—12 for T-cellular, 17 for AT&T, and 25 for dash—to make it complicated to use this model in different places. here is a Verizon choice, no longer a Samsung one; the mobilephone can assist all of these bands, they're simply disabled here. this is irritating, and bad kind on Verizon's part, principally in case you accept as true with that it allows for carrier-common devices from Apple, Google, and Motorola on its network.

call exceptional is first-class, but I hope it changed into a bit more desirable. The earpiece is plenty loud, and there is no distortion; it really is not the issue. And noise cancellation is astonishing. i believe the concern is barely Verizon's voice codecs. With usual calling, voices sound a bit harsh with a trebly punch. On VoLTE, you get a extra balanced sound without the harshness, nonetheless it's no longer HD-level specific except you are calling another Verizon mobilephone.

Battery life on the sealed-in 3,000mAh mobile is relatively stronger than on the S6. I did more battery tests than average on this cell, because the Galaxy S6 had an disturbing addiction of draining its battery in reality at once in standby mode. unluckily, this conduct tended to seem simplest after a month or two, and i haven't had the S7 for a month or two. but early signs are promising. The S7 got 9 hours in our video streaming rundown, as in comparison with 7 hours, 13 minutes for the S6. In standby mode devoid of heavy CPU utilization, the S7 drained 11 p.c of its battery in eight hours. not dangerous. intense utilization killed it in about 6.5 hours, which isn't too unhealthy either.

The telephone supports each quickly charging and dual-standard instant charging. using the protected quick charger, we received the phone from zero to completely charged in around 90 minutes.

Android PerformanceThe Galaxy S7 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Samsung's skin over it, on a 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. it's the primary of several Snapdragon 820 phones we'll see this yr, most primarily, the LG G5 will be a part of it very soon.

The Snapdragon 820 benchmarks quicker than every other chip we've got seen in an Android cell. With Geekbench ratings of two,333 single-core and 5,330 multi-core, it beats the Galaxy S6 (1,440 single/4,811 multi) and the Galaxy note 5 (1,472 single/5,020 multi) handily. GPU efficiency is also enhanced, taking the GFXBench manhattan examine from 15 frames per second (fps) on the old era, to 25fps here.

Now, even if it be quicker than the iPhone is one more query. The iPhone 6s nonetheless benchmarks sooner in single-core mode than the Snapdragon 820 does, with a Geekbench ranking of 2,475, and it does a whole lot more advantageous with on-display images frame rates on account of its much lessen decision monitor. The query of even if single-core efficiency or multi-core performance concerns more is still intensely debated in programming circles.

What in fact concerns is how the mobile performs in practice. i admire to use the controls of Asphalt 8 to investigate for responsiveness, and the S7 is as smooth as butter—as you would expect. Apps launch at once and there is no lag. The S7, just like the past two generations of Galaxy telephones, additionally has dual-window or pop-up multitasking.

Samsung has, as soon as once again, tried to lighten the burden of its Android epidermis. whereas the icons are still all restyled, Samsung ditched its Briefing reveal to the left of the main home reveal. It has also resisted the current, horrid vogue to put off the app drawer in favor of a more iPhone-like interface.

One likeable customization is the all the time-on reveal, which floats the time, date, battery popularity, and basic notification advice on the reveal consistently; that you would be able to swap it out for a calendar or one in every of a few preset pictures. The always-on screen counsel is effortless, and does not appear to devour plenty battery. and also you can always turn it off if it's no longer for you.

however there are a ton of bloatware functions, drinking a complete of 9.17GB on our machine. As Verizon most effective sells a 32GB model, this is fairly tough. And bloatware apps can not be deleted or moved to SD cards. Our Verizon model came with three Amazon apps and 9 Verizon apps, together with Verizon's Go90 video service.

The bloatware load is at the least somewhat alleviated by means of the cell's microSD card assist. The microSD card pops into the SIM card slot, above the SIM card, and the cellphone helps playing cards up to the present highest 200GB card SanDisk offers. Samsung disabled Google's Adoptable Storage feature, which makes the reminiscence card look like inner reminiscence to the equipment, so you nevertheless need to flow apps backward and forward from the software Settings monitor. which you can move downloaded apps to the SD card, but not built-in apps.

Samsung equipment VRMany americans who order the Galaxy S7 will get a free apparatus VR headset with it as a merchandising, so I took a spin with the S7 inside of one to peer how it went.

My colleague Will Greenwald truly liked the gear VR when he reviewed it with the Galaxy S6, and i spent a while with VR porn in a apparatus VR at CES previous this yr. Spending some time with the S7 gazing tune, movie, gaming, and, sure, adult content, I found that it did not overheat (in contrast to in Will's event, so it truly is a plus), but also that I've become spoiled by means of more potent computer-based VR experiences like on the HTC Vive. The Snapdragon 820 processor makes for perfectly easy action with out a lag, but the content material in Samsung's MilkVR app is disappointing when it comes to decision: as I watched videos and music movies, I may see the pixels in a distracting approach.

For americans that wear glasses like me, the equipment VR has an additional annoying flaw: you cannot trade the focus of both lenses independently, so I get loads of double vision. i am involved to peer if I get a stronger experience from LG's upcoming 360 VR headset.

That mentioned, there is doubtless more content material for the apparatus VR than there's for any other headset, and its means to can help you watch your non-VR videos in a virtual big-display layout may also be price the price of admission by myself—peculiarly if it's free.

photographs and VideoThe Galaxy S7's digicam is rarely a good deal superior than the S6's, however this is first-rate. The S6 has an amazing digital camera, and the S7 has a faster focus lock. Samsung's new promises in the main should do with low easy.

Samsung replaced the Galaxy S6's 16-megapixel digicam with a 12-megapixel shooter with greater pixels, to improve low-light performance. It additionally improved the number of focus pixels, to speed up focus in low mild. The latter part works: there is not one of the pulsing you see on the S6 because the camera struggles to discover focal point. The S7 is additionally more desirable at white stability than the S6, making my epidermis appear orange much less commonly.

The low-easy advancements are minor at most effective. in one of my a number of low-mild tests, the S7 took a an awful lot brighter photograph than the S6 did. but I did not locate that in other assessments, and no matter if my hand changed into shaky mattered far more than anything. each the S6 and the S7 cameras outperform the iPhone 6s, notwithstanding, with sharper and fewer noisy photographs.

The 5-megapixel entrance digital camera is additionally very decent, but a minor improvement over the S6. frequently photos are rather less noisy. The greater development for selfies is available in the addition of a Selfie Flash mode, which lights up the reveal should you're taking a shot in the dead of night.

Video now records at up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per 2nd on the leading camera, and 1080p on the entrance camera. Video recording is amazing, and maintained 30 frames per second even in very dim conditions.

when it comes to audio and video playback, the Snapdragon 820 can deal with any content that you could throw at it. there is no cabled option to connect the S7 to a big monitor any longer, even though; you should use instant screencasting.

ConclusionsThe Samsung Galaxy S7 is a no-compromise luxury telephone, and the accurate of the Android lineup. it be also fairly commonplace. there's nothing crazy here just like the LG G5's twin cameras or modular build, just a great-looking, effective smartphone that refines the performance of final year's mannequin. The S7 is also the smallest flagship Android mobilephone out there. It destroys each other Android machine in its size classification.

however's challenging to argue for the S7 as a $672 upgrade from remaining 12 months's $650 S6, quite simply since the adjustments are fairly incremental. possibly if you are paranoid about spills it's value the peace of intellect. in case you've been preserving onto an earlier Samsung Android telephone on Verizon, even though, and also you're hunting for a small but potent gadget, now will be the time to upgrade.

The S7's hardware is stronger in pretty much each means than the iPhone's. And yet I cannot unequivocally advocate it as a substitute of an iPhone, as a result of the apps and features which are exclusive to Apple telephones. if you're a big mobile gamer, wish to put your mobilephone on an expert digital camera mount, or want to use FaceTime, neatly, no S7 for you. you are locked into Apple's world.

The S7 units the bar for this yr's smartphones, a lot like the S6 did closing yr. LG plans to satisfy that bar and add resourceful facets, at the charge of a somewhat wider design, and one which i suspect may have a little shorter battery life. HTC will seemingly try to outdo Samsung with an all-metallic design and greater tasteful icons. there'll also be a great deal of aggressive higher phones, starting with the Galaxy S7 facet, which takes our Editors' alternative honors because of its longer battery existence and innovative edge functionality. but when you're trying to find a spill-proof, single-hand-operation 4G smartphone with a great camera, the Samsung Galaxy S7 fits the bill stronger than anything else available on the market. 

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