Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge when released earlier this year, changed the landscape of mobile devices. Smartphone lovers all over the world went haywire with what the S7 had to offer. It had the best display, latest SoC, and bigger battery. However, the most impressive part was its 12MP camera with f/1.7 aperture which outperformed the top-dog camera phone, the iPhone 6s. But that was 6months ago, and in between, we witnessed releases of many great smartphones. So how does the Galaxy S7 hold up to its competitors even after 6 months? Let’s find out:
Design:
For me, Galaxy S7 has the most comfortable form factor, being only 5.2-inches, I could easily maneuver it around my hand, and the curved glass on the back nicely aids to the single handed usage. The glass and metal body felt quite good on the hand, giving premium feel wherever you touch. I think the S7’s design is still relevant to this day, as the latest Galaxy Note 7 has inherited some of the design aspects from S7.
Display:
Samsung has the vogue to put the best display on its every flagship phone, and the S7 is no exception. The Super AMOLED display on the S7 is one of the brightest and sharpest display compared to any flagship phones today. It is a complete joy to use this display, I often found most of the displays on smartphones dull having used the S7. Even if you’re not a fan of bright, sharp colors, you can tweak the color balance of the display to make it feel cool and natural. Other great addition to the display, is the Always ON Display which at first seemed gimmicky, but worked out quite well and I got used to it. If you want to check, time or date, you don’t have to bother opening the lock to view it, that information are just there whenever you want it. But I wished the customization options were more extensive.
Performance:
Galaxy S7 that’s available in Nepal comes with Samsung’s in-house chipset Exynos 8890. Although most of the flagships today carry the Snapdragon 820 Chipset , the Exynos 8890 is equally powerful and even power efficient shows some of the tests. Even the latest Note 7 sports the same SoC. To this date, I hardly had any glitch, everything runs smoothly. It has been handling everything I throw at it quite well. It can still handle new high-end graphic intensive games and phone does heats up to some extent but its nothing too serious. But I have to admit it’s not that optimized when it comes to handling multitasking. Although it sports 4GB of RAM, it holds comparatively few apps in the memory compared to other phones.
Camera:
The 12MP camera with f/1.7 aperture was a revolutionary step towards mobile photography. It had the best camera compared to any smartphones 6months earlier, and even till this date, it is the most qualified camera compared to any other smartphone. The more you use the camera, the more you’ll love it. The joy of mobile photography is immense with this one, you don’t even have to think twice before shooting, everything comes out fine even if you just point and shoot. The images that it results are crisp and highly detailed. You get different camera modes to get creative with and a manual mode with which you can get the desired shots. S7 can shoot videos upto 4K and like the photos, it does a pretty great job on creating high-quality videos. The video output is so impressive that we even used it to shoot some of the footages in our reviews. For the camera, it doesn’t get any better than the S7, it is still unarguably the best camera on a smartphone. Check out the sample images here.
Software:
Hate it or Love it, the Galaxy S7 is rocking the TouchWiz UI on top of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. TouchWiz UI has become way less cluttered and is light now. The software seems pretty clean and smooth, I didn’t found any bug during my usage. The phone also has been getting regular updates, making the device more secure and smooth. It has become more customizable in terms of appearance now that we have the theme store. You can put on any look you want for your phone.
Battery:
Talking about the battery life, the 3,000mAh battery gives pretty decent screen on time of about 4hours. The standby time is great even with the Always ON Display. Having used the OnePlus Three, the S7’s quick charge seemed rather slow, but nonetheless, it charges up completely within 1.5 to 2hours.
Water Resistance:
For me, it has been one of the most logical features on the S7. I have been caught off guard by rain couple of times this monsoon and I’ve had zero worries thinking my phone will get water damaged. It withstood pretty well against the rain and has been working strong without any issues.
Verdict:
S7 for me has clearly been the most beloved phone this year and is still going pretty well. I hardly had any issues with the device mostly related to software. One thing most of my friends pointed out: although glass construction on a phone feels classy and premium, they’re really fragile, if you fail to take good care of your phone, it is going to be costly so make sure you have a pretty good tempered glass and back cover on your phone. That’ll hide the beauty of the phone but at least it’ll be safe. S7 is a complete package however you want to look at it, either if you’re looking for the best display, best camera, high performance or any other kinds of stuff, S7 has got it all. Although it’s been 6 months since the release of S7, I think it is still the best phone you can buy today and most of the high-end phones released during the period of 6 months still don’t come equivalent to what S7 has to offer.
