Questions for S7 owners (from a iPhone user)

[DroidN3wbie]

Hello android community! Ive been a iPhone user for quite some time since the 3GS iPhone days on and off. Ive owned a Htc m7 and the LG G3 but i always went back ios because of how smooth the software was and how good the iPhone camera has improved. Well im kind of fed up with having to use itunes for everything when i enjoyed dragging and dropping with the LG and HTC in the past an more customization and better camera feature software. If the iPhone 7 ends up being great later this year then i'll just sell the S7 but at the moment im really liking what i see on the S7 and its software etc. So heres my questions...

1. Mail- I use yahoo and gmail email accounts and in the past on the HTC and LG i could never get the mail to push. I had to go in the app itself to see if i had anything in the inbox. I dont want to download the yahoo mail app or gmail app. Does the S7 have a dedicated mail app that actually works when it comes to push mail for yahoo and gmail?

2. Toggles- On the android phones i owned before , the drop down menu at the top of the screen had the volume control slider for ring volume and could also adjust text message or notification volume. So they were separate volume adjust sliders. Does the S7 have that?

3. File transfer- Does Android File Transfer work with the S7 on a Mac laptop?

4. Charging- Ive seen mixed reviews on the quick wireless charging dock and was curious, charging with a cable does it charge pretty quick? My iPhone 6 charges up fast without any problem.

5. Security- All of this talk about iPhone encryption that has been in the news lately has me wondering if the S7 will be just as secure without any worries? What steps would i have to take or settings would i need to configure to ensure im encrypted and if lost, it will wipe completely?

6. Skype- Will i be able to use Skype on cellular or is it a must to use wifi?

7. Bloatware- I read that Samsung doesnt sell unlocked S7's like other companies so if i buy it through At&t will there still be At&t bloatware on the S7 if i buy it off contract?

Sorry if this was such a long post. Im just weighing out my options and hoping the S7 will be worth switching to. Thanks in advance!

 

[SpookDroid]

Hi there! Not sure why you had such a bad experience before (most of the stuff you want has been there for quite a while!), but here's my take on an S7 (Edge version, but shouldn't be different for the S7).
1) Yes. You have either the dedicated GMail app or the native e-mail app. Not sure if the Yahoo! account itself supports Push, but GMail does. I do like to keep the GMail app around, though, and you can add the Yahoo account there as well.

2)It's there on the S7, but not on the main notification shade. You can long press on the Ring volume toggle to get them or just adjust the volume with the volume rocker and expand from the pop-up level that shows up.

3)Should work, but I don't own a Mac. This one someone else would have to jump in. It works without issues on a PC.

4)It will charge definitely a lot faster than an iPhone (have one of those for work). On the S7 Edge you can charge from 0 to 100 in a little over an hour. The first 50% will charge pretty fast, tough, in about 15 to 20 minutes.

5)Out of the box it's encrypted, but you can select to require the lockscreen login to decrypt or if it's not required when you turn on the device. Also, just like an iPhone, you can set up the phone to wipe itself after a certain amount of bad logins (or disable that altogether). For the S7, specifically, you can remote wipe the device (and other functions, like location, ring, display a message, etc.) both from your Samsung Account (FindMyMobile.com) or from your Google Account's Device Manager.

6) Works fine on both. I use it all the time with family abroad.

7) Wrong. They do. BUT in the US they don't 'oficially'. You can, however, get the unlocked international version. It's up to each carrier to add bloatware, and from the looks of it, AT&T is very bad at it. You can still disable most of it, however, so not a big deal.

Hope it helps!

 

[liamng355]

Yes android file transfer works with the s7 on a mac

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[DroidN3wbie]

Hey Spook! How are you liking the Edge so far? Thanks for all the replies to my questions.

Thanks liamng!

1) Ok good to know. So does the native e-email app on the S7 allow for gmail push as well or its just within the gmail app itself? I'd like to keep all email accounts in one app together. On the past android phones i couldnt get yahoo to push within the native app. So i wonder if now it works?

7) Bummer too bad its not US officially unlocked to sell. Yes At&t makes me cringe on bloatware. Do you think buying unlocked from At&t wil have just as much bloat as the S7 on contract?

Have a few more questions to add to this that popped up.

I held off from pre-ordering because it seems like the 1st batches of any cell phones sent out always have issues. When do you think they will start shipping the 2nd round of phones or should i say, when would it be safe or best to buy mine? How long should i wait?

Everyone is welcome to chime in. Thanks in advance!

 

[SpookDroid]

Liking it very much, especially the camera! Just last night I was with an iUser who was 'showing off' his panoramic picture from a restaurant we were at...and then I showed him MY picture. Totally blew his mind. So clear and so much light without a flash even in the panorama. He was speechless.

Anyway, for your questions.
1) It should, but the Push function really depends on your e-mail provider. If Yahoo! decides to restrict push to BlackBerries, iDevices and their own app, then the stock one won't support it (don't have a Yahoo! e-mail to try, otherwise I'd do it).

7) You can buy the unlocked version now outright from Amazon, but yeah, it's not an US version. Such a thing won't exist. And yup, even buying outright from AT&T will be loaded with bloatware (most can be disabled, but it's their ROM still, not Samsung's version).

You'd be in the clear after release date, so most likely anything you buy now should be OK, and while it's mostly true that first batch phones usually have issues, I haven't seen any on mine so far. In any case, since your phone will be under warranty should anything go wrong, you could get a warranty replacement after a couple of months while still enjoying the new phone at launch and getting the pre-order bonus.

 

[DroidN3wbie]

Nice! Yeah im intrigued at how well pictures are coming out and video recording seems decent as well. Haha i bet he wants a S7 now after seeing your panarama pic.

1) Well yahoo email was able to be pushed on my iPhone and it works fine and thats from the stock native app on it. Gmail is spotty. It will sometimes push but not all the time through the native mail app. So im assuming they may restrict on android since i couldnt get yahoo to work in the past on android phones. I'll make a thread and ask about it on there.

7) Ah ok well i might as well just go for it then and just disable everything i can from at&t when the time comes. Just curious, but has any galaxy phone ever had stock android system on it where its plain android like nexus usually has and moto x?

Cool on hopefully not running into any issues. Glad you havent run into any issues on yours! How does a warranty replacement work? Would it be a replacement from samsung or from whoever i end up buying it from? Im leaning towards best buy cause they still are offering the pre order bonus even though its past the pre order phase.

 

[SpookDroid]

It's usually from the people you buy it from (they get it from Samsung, it's just usually faster to get through a retailer). As for my coworker, yup, he wants one...and a Tab S after seeing me use that VS his iPad.

There was one Galaxy phone with 'stock' Android a-la-Nexus (Developer Edition), but in all honesty, if you're getting a Galaxy phone without the software features that make a Galaxy a Galaxy, then there are far cheaper options out there.

 

[DroidN3wbie]

Oh ok cool. Best buy is who i think ill be going through when it comes time to buying it.

 

[Seremedy]

For push notifications, auto sync needs to be on in settings then account and turn on auto sync. My s7 edge gets gmail notifications

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[DroidN3wbie]

For push notifications, auto sync needs to be on in settings then account and turn on auto sync. My s7 edge gets gmail notifications

Posted via the Android Central App

So your using the native mail app? (not the gmail app for mail)