The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge duo of flagship smartphones had kept the rumor mills busy for more than six months, and now Samsung has finally ended the speculation by announcing the devices at Mobile World Congress 2016 alongside the Gear 360, a 360 degree camera.
Samsung's 7th generation Galaxy S smartphones are finally here and the company used its own VR headsets to give attendees a glimpse of the devices. The company has improved upon the Galaxy S6's design with the latest version. Under the hood these devices are once again very powerful, as you would expect from Samsung's flagships. The hardware specs are as follows:
The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are like to siblings: they look pretty much the same, but they have some important differences.
What are
those? Let's find out.
Design and Display
If the
Galaxy S7 Edge did not have that screen curving towards both edges, we'd say
that Samsung just took a magic wand and enlarged the 5.1" Galaxy S7 to
make the 5.5" S7 Edge. Yes, they really are that similar (as a matter of
fact, both look akin last year's Galaxy S6 as well).
The size
contrast is the key difference here: the S7 Edge is noticeably taller (150.9mm
vs 142.4mm) and slightly wider (72.6mm vs 69.6mm) than the S7, but curiously
enough it's a hair thinner (7.7mm vs 7.9mm).
The screens?
They are gorgeous: both the 5.1" S7 and 5.5" S7 Edge are Super AMOLED
with Quad HD (1440 x 2560) resolution.
Android 6 and new TouchWiz
With Android 6 Marshmallow comes a new edition of TouchWiz and... mostly, the interface retains the same in terms of looks.
Speaking of major features, both the S7 and S7 Edge have the
same: Android 6 brings Doze for further battery improvements, new notifications
interface and individual app permissions management.
Then, there are the details: both phones have always-on
display that can be customized to look truly awesome and since this is an
AMOLED display, only individual pixels light up to show it, so it's light on
battery use.
The big feature the S7 Edge has that the S7 lacks is the
Edge interface, of course. With two rows of icons and - most importantly - open
access to it to third-party apps, it's become a much more useful space.
Performance and memory: Snapdragon 820 all the way
Since both the S7 and S7 Edge run on the Snapdragon 820 in
the United States (there is an international version features the similarly
powerful Eynos 8890 system chip), there are no differences between them in
terms of performance.
Both are at a perfectly equal playing field: the Snapdragon
820 with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 32GB of internal storage. MicroSD cards are
back on both and you can use the hybrid SIM card slot to augment the 32 gigs
allowance. Keep in mind that in the US only the 32GB version for both will be
on sale, while in other markets, a 64GB version will also be offered. Samsung
has also moved to the much faster UFS 2.0 storage from the NAND chips it used
in the Galaxy S6.
Camera
This was a major part of the hype around the S7 and S7 Edge.
Both feature the same new, 12-megapixel camera with larger individual pixels
and the widest ever lens on a Samsung phone at f/1.7. This together results in
huge improvements in the amount of light that you get in pictures, and images
do indeed turn out lighter in dim conditions for both phones. The two both
support optical image stabilization (OIS) as well.
Of course, with absolutely identical cameras, image quality
on the S7 and S7 Edge is identical.
The cool features that are worth mentioning are a new motion
panorama that animates your static panoramas with movement, then there is
motion picture, similar to Apple's live photo, and a cool new hyperlapse video
recording mode built in the camera app. Video can be recorded at up to 4K
resolution at 30fps on both.
Battery
Given that the two are different in screen size, the
batteries included are also different: a 3,000mAh one on the S7 and a 3,600mAh
on the S7 Edge.
Both phones have larger than typical batteries, and Samsung
has really gone all out here. Yes, at close to 8mm both are a hair thicker than
iPhones, but we would definitely not say they look thick.
Quick Charging is naturally on board and so is wireless
charging, but the cool new reversible USB Type-C (in LG G5) has not made it to
the S7 and S7 Edge, and instead the pair features a microUSB port. Finally, we
should also say that the batteries are not user-removable.
Other features: water protection
Samsung has really pulled some clever engineering on both
the S7 and S7 Edge with IP68 water protection that guarantees your phone won't
get damaged even if you put it in up to 3 feet deep fresh water for as long as
an hour. Not that Samsung recommends you do it - it says the phone is protected
against accidental spills.
In order to pull this off, the company has managed to
isolate the microUSB port so that it is water-protected, but without the
annoying protective flaps that were used in the Galaxy S5.
Expectations
All in all, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are two nearly
identical siblings: the main difference between the two is the different
battery size, Edge functionality and screen size. If you like the cool new Edge
features and prefer a larger phone, the S7 Edge would be the way to go, for
lovers of more compact phones, the Galaxy S7 will be a great fit.
Gear 360
Alongside the Galaxy S7 smartphones, Samsung has also announced the Gear 360. The camera employs two fisheye lenses with 15-megapixel sensors, which can capture videos as well as still images with resolutions up to 30 megapixels. This camera is also dust and water resistant. It comes with microSD card support but no onboard storage.
For using the device, a compatible Samsung smartphone is required. Supported devices include Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S6 edge+, Note 5, S6 edge, and S6.
Gear 360 will be made available in select countries in the second quarter of 2016.
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