Is the S7 Edge flagship of the year or V20?

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

The S7 edge is my personal pick for the best phone of 2016. It's the first Samsung in a while for it and I personally think it deserves it since it offers a large featureset that for the first time in a long-time, don't really feel like tacked-on gimmicks. Add in a nice design, very solid battery life and a terrific camera, it's a damn good phone. TouchWiz, while still a little polarizing to some, is still a solid improvement from past versions, and it's also the first time Samsung's skin feels usable to me.

 

[jejb]

The battery drain on the Edge is a jagged, little pill and I don't want to mince about in an attempt to find the perfect blend of apps which won't anger my S7 Edge.

That is an issue on every Android phone. It's why developers would rather code for iOS than Android. There are so many combinations of release levels, phone architecture, user tweaks, etc on Android that it's hard to keep apps running clean on every variation.

 

[iOS Gravity]

That is an issue on every Android phone. It's why developers would rather code for iOS than Android. There are so many combinations of release levels, phone architecture, user tweaks, etc on Android that it's hard to keep apps running clean on every variation.

That's also one of the main reasons Java is used on Android.

 

[Matty]

I currently have both devices and like both devices for certain features. Is the S7 edge still better than the V20 despite being out since mid March? Which phone would you choose?

Just because of the Dual Edge screen, i would say the S7 Edge would be the victor. Sure the V20 has a small 2nd screen but to be quite honest i think its a gimmick. I think 2017 will be all about smartphones having less bezels and the V20 has some incredibly thin ones but they just need to remove that 2nd display and then they might be in with a chance!

 

[Matty]

Will it get water resistance probably? Will it get a micro sd slot? They haven't put it in a single phone for about 7 years, why start now?

Imagine Apple and Google both put Micro SD card slots in their next devices! I would truly be speechless for the whole year haha. Yeah, probably close to 0% chance of it happening. The profit margin on internal store is to sweet to give up.

 

[Rumblee1]

I currently have both devices and like both devices for certain features. Is the S7 edge still better than the V20 despite being out since mid March? Which phone would you choose?

I had the v10. It was a great phone. I went back to the S7E as soon as it came out because it was nicer and the size of the lg was just way to cumbersome to fit in a pocket comfortably.

 

[Tsepz_GP]

I made my desicion with my wallet, Galaxy S7 Edge

The large battery, IP68 Protection, SuperAMOLED display, Wireless Charging, the Camera and compact design make it an all-round better device, IMO.

 

[djepperson1]

I currently have both devices and like both devices for certain features. Is the S7 edge still better than the V20 despite being out since mid March? Which phone would you choose?

Like you i have both phones. Audio always the v20. Quick camera shots s7 edge wins. Screen s7 edge wins. Even with 7.0 beta on my s7 edge while it has improved dramatically the v20 is more polished and smoother software wise but less features. I would say both are great phones

 

[jejb]

Imagine Apple and Google both put Micro SD card slots in their next devices! I would truly be speechless for the whole year haha. Yeah, probably close to 0% chance of it happening. The profit margin on internal store is to sweet to give up.

That, and they want to sell you cloud storage space.

 

[Aquila]

That, and they want to sell you cloud storage space.

And microSD is less secure, less stable, slower and majorly confuses and frustrates the user experience in a way that merely having sufficient internal storage never can. Google has made it quite clear that they believe microSD slots are only suitable for budget devices in emerging markets. Apple hasn't ever really shown an interest in them, which is smart, because they then don't have to tackle the headaches of developing a proprietary encryption and access method for external storage. It's 100% useless on iOS though considering you can back up your entire device and essentially clone it to another one.

 

[Morty2264]

It's really hard to say if you put it between those two devices. I'd have to say if I had to pick between the two, it'd be the Edge. But both are great options if you're looking at a premium flagship device.

 

[LeoRex]

That, and they want to sell you cloud storage space.

I hear this pop up all the time, but it's just not the case. If Google wanted people to pony up and buy cloud storage they wouldn't a) give you 15G for free right off the top and b) give you unlimited, full resolution picture and video storage with Google Photos.

Google just doesn't like SD cards. Google's been overhauling SD security since KitKat, and it's still a work in progress. And they have no control over the quality of the card people stuff in the slot... a fair number of people stuff in the cheapest quality card they can get their hands on.

 

[Aquila]

I hear this pop up all the time, but it's just not the case. If Google wanted people to pony up and buy cloud storage they wouldn't a) give you 15G for free right off the top and b) give you unlimited, full resolution picture and video storage with Google Photos.

Google just doesn't like SD cards. Google's been overhauling SD security since KitKat, and it's still a work in progress. And they have no control over the quality of the card people stuff in the slot... a fair number of people stuff in the cheapest quality card they can get their hands on.

If your goal is to provide the best and most secure experience possible, a microSD card is a nightmare.

 

[jejb]

I hear this pop up all the time, but it's just not the case. If Google wanted people to pony up and buy cloud storage they wouldn't a) give you 15G for free right off the top and b) give you unlimited, full resolution picture and video storage with Google Photos.

That's how they get the hooks in you. Once you go past 15gb, they're in your wallet. And Google Photo's isn't unlimited for bigger than 16mp photos.

The cloud is useless to me. I'm often in areas with no data connection. If it's not on my phone, I don't have it.

 

[jejb]

And microSD is less secure, less stable, slower and majorly confuses and frustrates the user experience in a way that merely having sufficient internal storage never can.

For those that this is true of, they have the choice of phones that don't have that option, or the choice of not installing an SD card. I personally don't understand that perspective as SD cards are simple to use, IMO.

Google has made it quite clear that they believe microSD slots are only suitable for budget devices in emerging markets.

I think Samsung would disagree on that one, and they sell a few more phones than Google does. It's an important feature to a lot of buyers.

 

[jamezr]

And microSD is less secure, less stable, slower and majorly confuses and frustrates the user experience in a way that merely having sufficient internal storage never can. Google has made it quite clear that they believe microSD slots are only suitable for budget devices in emerging markets. Apple hasn't ever really shown an interest in them, which is smart, because they then don't have to tackle the headaches of developing a proprietary encryption and access method for external storage. It's 100% useless on iOS though considering you can back up your entire device and essentially clone it to another one.

I am not sure about stable and secure though. I use SD Cards all the time between phones and never have had an issue. I had a V20 and S7 edge and would switch phones by swapping the sim and SD card out of one into the other. Very convenient....all my movies and music is now on the next phone.
Then if you are into rooting and flashing roms. You can store the backups on the SD Card and never have to worry about wiping internal storage and losing your data. Also if your phone dies.....you have all your data ready for the replacement phone.
But I can see your point if the sd card is old or not as fast as the internal storage....so write speeds is important when buy sd cards.

Apple doesn't want you to use an sd card for purely monetary reasons. They want to channel all of your content through their pay to play formats.
Restoring from the cloud can sometimes take hours.....restoring from a backup on your sd card takes only a few minutes......

 

[Aquila]

That's how they get the hooks in you. Once you go past 15gb, they're in your wallet. And Google Photo's isn't unlimited for bigger than 16mp photos.

The cloud is useless to me. I'm often in areas with no data connection. If it's not on my phone, I don't have it.

all photos uploaded from a pixel are free, including a lot of 4k wallpapers I've downloaded

 

[Aquila]

I am not sure about stable and secure though. I use SD Cards all the time between phones and never have had an issue. I had a V20 and S7 edge and would switch phones by swapping the sim and SD card out of one into the other. Very convenient....all my movies and music is now on the next phone.
Then if you are into rooting and flashing roms. You can store the backups on the SD Card and never have to worry about wiping internal storage and losing your data. Also if your phone dies.....you have all your data ready for the replacement phone.
But I can see your point if the sd card is old or not as fast as the internal storage....so write speeds is important when buy sd cards.

Apple doesn't want you to use an sd card for purely monetary reasons. They want to channel all of your content through their pay to play formats.
Restoring from the cloud can sometimes take hours.....restoring from a backup on your sd card takes only a few minutes......

The security and stability issues are both well documented. The security issues are one of the main reasons that the manner in which the cards work on Android is constantly changing and why users have to jump through hoops to move apps to the cards. Now it is not possible to store apps on the card at all unless you're using adoptable storage, which means no swapping of the card to other devices without reformatting it.

Another user said above that they don't find it confusing, but we've had hundreds if not thousands of threads just on AC where we have to try to figure out why a user can't sort out their lack of storage, which is usually because they don't understand how the OEM implemented SD storage on their device. If we know they have an S5 on KitKat we then know it is x issue, whereas if that S5 is on Marshmallow, the the issue is y. These questions simply don't exist when the user doesn't have e removable storage and instead has 128 GB of internal storage.

 

[jamezr]

The security and stability issues are both well documented. The security issues are one of the main reasons that the manner in which the cards work on Android is constantly changing and why users have to jump through hoops to move apps to the cards. Now it is not possible to store apps on the card at all unless you're using adoptable storage, which means no swapping of the card to other devices without reformatting it.

Another user said above that they don't find it confusing, but we've had hundreds if not thousands of threads just on AC where we have to try to figure out why a user can't sort out their lack of storage, which is usually because they don't understand how the OEM implemented SD storage on their device. If we know they have an S5 on KitKat we then know it is x issue, whereas if that S5 is on Marshmallow, the the issue is y. These questions simply don't exist when the user doesn't have e removable storage and instead has 128 GB of internal storage.

Good points! But it is up to the user to stay informed about how to use their device. Google has adoptable storage to support SD Cards.
I am am not disputing your points. But the shear convenience I listed in my first post is more than enough reasons to keep the SD card around.

Google does support SD Cards. They don't put them in their phones. But that doesn't mean anything. They don't offer a lot of features you can find on non Google branded phones.
I love the ability to have my 60GB of music and movies on a SD Card to put into any phone I want in just a few minutes without having an internet connection.

 

[Aquila]

Yep, I get why people like/want the feature