The official S7 /S7 Edge review thread

[jma78b]

I have the S7 regular. The battery life on it so far is amazing! The only time it ran hot was when I first turned it on and it did its updates. Love the feel of it, love the use ability of it, just love it! Selling on my S6 edge. I know there isn't that much difference between the two but I like new and exciting

 

[rushdewalt]

I've been a Windows phone user for years starting with a Samsung Omnia 2, then a HTC Trophy, then a Nokia 822 and finally a Nokia Icon. So when it came time to upgrade this time and with no Windows flagship phones anywhere on the horizon I decided to switch to a different OS. My wife has an Iphone 6 that I've had a chance to play with, but, I just found it boring. Don't get me wrong its a solid device but the Apple environment is just to closed for my taste. So I went with the S7.
I have had this phone for a few days now and I must say I'm impressed. Smooth,fast, great display and most importantly much better battery life (so far) than my Icon. Under ideal conditions the camera in the Icon may be a touch better, but, I find I take more keepers with the S7 in most situations. I also found that shooting in PRO mode and adjusting the white balance accordingly eliminated most of if not all of the yellow tinge in low light photos.
I did have an issue yesterday with being unable to place a call. You could dial the number and you could hear it ring but it would drop the call as soon as the other person answered. When they tried to call me back it would send their call directly to my voicemail. After I restarted the phone all was well again and I haven't had that problem reappear. I think it might have been a glitch with Verizons system but I will be keeping an eye out to see if the problem returns.
I do miss a couple of things from my Windows phones. First, I like the Windows UI better. The live tiles might look lame to some but it does allow the home screen to appear much more organized and less cluttered. But after downloading the Nova Prime launcher I don't think my transition will be too difficult. Secondly, I really miss the ability of Cortana to read my text aloud as they come in and the ability to respond while I'm driving or if I had my hands full at the time. I have an older vehicle without Bluetooth and don't like wearing earpieces so that was a nice feature to have.
But all in all I'm really liking this phone so far. The ability to customize to your liking just blows Apple away. It does everything better than my Icon ( with the exception of those mentioned) and if its as reliable in the future as my other phones have been I think I will be in the Android world for quite some time.

 

[ric2001]

AndroidAuthority has posted their review of the S7 and S7 Edge.

 

[JHStewart1023]

I've been a Windows phone user for years starting with a Samsung Omnia 2, then a HTC Trophy, then a Nokia 822 and finally a Nokia Icon. So when it came time to upgrade this time and with no Windows flagship phones anywhere on the horizon I decided to switch to a different OS. My wife has an Iphone 6 that I've had a chance to play with, but, I just found it boring. Don't get me wrong its a solid device but the Apple environment is just to closed for my taste. So I went with the S7.
I have had this phone for a few days now and I must say I'm impressed. Smooth,fast, great display and most importantly much better battery life (so far) than my Icon. Under ideal conditions the camera in the Icon may be a touch better, but, I find I take more keepers with the S7 in most situations. I also found that shooting in PRO mode and adjusting the white balance accordingly eliminated most of if not all of the yellow tinge in low light photos.
I did have an issue yesterday with being unable to place a call. You could dial the number and you could hear it ring but it would drop the call as soon as the other person answered. When they tried to call me back it would send their call directly to my voicemail. After I restarted the phone all was well again and I haven't had that problem reappear. I think it might have been a glitch with Verizons system but I will be keeping an eye out to see if the problem returns.
I do miss a couple of things from my Windows phones. First, I like the Windows UI better. The live tiles might look lame to some but it does allow the home screen to appear much more organized and less cluttered. But after downloading the Nova Prime launcher I don't think my transition will be too difficult. Secondly, I really miss the ability of Cortana to read my text aloud as they come in and the ability to respond while I'm driving or if I had my hands full at the time. I have an older vehicle without Bluetooth and don't like wearing earpieces so that was a nice feature to have.
But all in all I'm really liking this phone so far. The ability to customize to your liking just blows Apple away. It does everything better than my Icon ( with the exception of those mentioned) and if its as reliable in the future as my other phones have been I think I will be in the Android world for quite some time.

Customization is why I keep going back to android, but for some reason the s7 edge I have has had app issues. Brought it into Verizon and they did replace it. I hope this isn't a preview of things to come.

 

[recDNA]

I like user reviews. "Professional" reviewers on big websites seem to give positive reviews on every light that comes out and they leave out things that interest me like the bugs and glitches all phones have. I want to KNOW the bugs and weaknesses up front so phone doesn't disappoint me. Many people don't like talking about them because they get raked over the coals for being too negative.

 

[road_kill]

I like user reviews. "Professional" reviewers on big websites seem to give positive reviews on every light that comes out and they leave out things that interest me like the bugs and glitches all phones have. I want to KNOW the bugs and weaknesses up front so phone doesn't disappoint me. Many people don't like talking about them because they get raked over the coals for being too negative.

Well my only negative is and only is so far is the signal strength isnt being displayed properly. I have zero bars and able to crank texts and calls like i have bars and the best that im getting on Sprint is 3 bars where an iphone would have full. but that is it.

 

[recDNA]

Well my only negative is and only is so far is the signal strength isnt being displayed properly. I have zero bars and able to crank texts and calls like i have bars and the best that im getting on Sprint is 3 bars where an iphone would have full. but that is it.

The bug thread has lots of things. So many it is hard to check them all. Most are probably anecdotal however some will turn out to be real. When I read professional reviews they talk about the great specs and screen and low light photos but I seldom read about bugs. Maybe it is because they don't install many apps and most bugs are app related. Anyway I like the bug thread. I do read the big reviewers too and appreciate that links are listed here. Makes them easy to find. They are great sources of everything good about phone models. They just seldom cover many negatives ime.

 

[road_kill]

The bug thread has lots of things. So many it is hard to check them all. Most are probably anecdotal however some will turn out to be real. When I read professional reviews they talk about the great specs and screen and low light photos but I seldom read about bugs. Maybe it is because they don't install many apps and most bugs are app related. Anyway I like the bug thread. I do read the big reviewers too and appreciate that links are listed here. Makes them easy to find. They are great sources of everything good about phone models. They just seldom cover many negatives ime.

Could you link me to the bug thread by chance, I was looking but nothing unless i overlooked.

 

[fcjr77]

I ordered the S7 for my two boys, but they are now saying that they would have rather purchased the S7 edge due to the size. Has anyone run into that? They like the rest of the phone fine. Definitely looking forward to getting the Gear VR when it ships from Samsung to try VR.

 

[recDNA]

Could you link me to the bug thread by chance, I was looking but nothing unless i overlooked.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=649219

 

[talhamid]

Best. Phone. Ever.

Unparalleled look and feel. Best, brightest and now WHITEST screen on the market. Sick battery life - I am 36 hours in with 20% left and 5 hours SOT already clocked. Tolerable UI with some very good features. Best camera on the market. SD card allows you to transfer apps and even can be converted into adoptable storage (see MoDaCo.com).

Gripes? Just one. TW launcher is hedious, and default DPI is set at an excruciating 640 making everything big and ugly. Thankfully, DPI can be fixed - Note 5/S6 Edge+ had beautiful 560 and you can set the same for S7 edge with amazing results and 0 difficulty through ADB. No bugs or instability.

Samsung have nailed it. Who knew I'd be saying this after declaring HTC One M8 the best phone in all of eternity!

 

[anon(5021)]

Best. Phone. Ever.

Unparalleled look and feel. Best, brightest and now WHITEST screen on the market. Sick battery life - I am 36 hours in with 20% left and 5 hours SOT already clocked. Tolerable UI with some very good features. Best camera on the market. SD card allows you to transfer apps and even can be converted into adoptable storage (see MoDaCo.com).

Gripes? Just one. TW launcher is hedious, and default DPI is set at an excruciating 640 making everything big and ugly. Thankfully, DPI can be fixed - Note 5/S6 Edge+ had beautiful 560 and you can set the same for S7 edge with amazing results and 0 difficulty through ADB. No bugs or instability.

Samsung have nailed it. Who knew I'd be saying this after declaring HTC One M8 the best phone in all of eternity!

DPI is the first thing I change. Can't stand big text and especially big icons.

 

[philly]

anyone wondering about battery life, the phone has amazing results. I have 2 units and they both are giving well above average battery life. I am coming from a droid turbo 1 which had the best battery life on the market bar none, and even I am happy.

 

[yatishr]

All the S7 reviews i have seen till now are pretty positive.

 

[KnicksALLday]

is it just me or the phone gets hot? this is the only complaint i have for this phone... and its not like im on youtube while checking out instagram at the same time... all im doing is checking my email then browse the net and all of a sudden my phone is crazy hot

 

[tomatosouplabs]

is it just me or the phone gets hot? this is the only complaint i have for this phone... and its not like im on youtube while checking out instagram at the same time... all im doing is checking my email then browse the net and all of a sudden my phone is crazy hot

This has been concerning me, I'm almost obsessed with checking GSAM temperature readings and plots during the day. It almost seems to warm up for no apparent reason, then cool down for no apparent reason and repeat. The graph almost zig-zags. It swings from 70F around lowest point to 85F. It does not seem to coincide with battery drain. It goes from 75 to 85 in about an hour but my battery barely dropped, maybe 1-2%. GSAM reports 4 doze sessions which maybe coincides with the temperature drops. I don't know that much about M's doze feature yet. I originally thought AOD may have kept the temperature up, maybe that's still the case but I disabled it now.

 

[love4speechless]

I love this guy's reviews. Thought it should be shared here:

https://youtu.be/pNT8ZLIlQqk

 

[calicocat2010]

I love this guy's reviews. Thought it should be shared here:

https://youtu.be/pNT8ZLIlQqk

FLOSSY . This guy is hilarious!

 

[ric2001]

Phandroid has posted their review of the S7.

There's also a camera comparison (S7, S6, G4 and 6S) on phonearena.

 

[PsychDoc]

Best smartphone cameras: Galaxy S7 vs. iPhone 6s vs. Nexus 6P vs. Lumia 950 | Android Central