The Indian smartphone market is principally dominated by the premium-budget segment, most of which is manufactured by new-age Chinese players due to their potential in offering value-for-money devices. While these affordable handsets are gaining immense popularity and traction among the masses, there also exists a huge demand for premium-class flagship handsets. However, on most occasions, mobile users tend to shy away from flagship devices due to the exorbitant price and hesitation.
They are always thinking if the humongous price they are paying for a device is commensurate to the functionalities offered by the device. And rightly so - there is nothing wrong in analysing intricacies before spending so much on a mobile device. Also, over the past few years, numerous flagship smartphones have entered the market and failed to make any impact. On the other hand you have phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Apple iPhone 6s, HTC One M9, and many others that have managed to create a favourable niche.
While only a few flagships have managed to shine among the vast lot, today I am going to talk about one smartphone that definitely has all the ingredients to be the best smartphone in the world. Yes, I am talking about the recently released Samsung S7 Edge. I had a chance to use this device for a week, and I have never come across a better flagship before. Here is a detailed review of the same.
Pros: Excellent display, great chipset, amazing camera, integrated cooling system, magnificent looks.
Cons: Slightly big, fingerprint magnet.
Design and Display: From the time I got my hands on the Galaxy S7 Edge, I was intrigued by its perfect design; the smartphone feels premium from every slant. Although it borrows most of its design cues from the preceding Samsung S6 Edge, the new iteration brings a lot of neat design changes, which make the device more desirable in contrast to its forerunner.
Firstly, the edges on this handset are a bit thicker than the S6 Edge, adding more grip and firmness to the handset. Next up, the rear camera bulge on the S6 has also been reduced to almost negligible on the new Galaxy S7 Edge. While the screen size is bigger on this device, I could hardly feel any difference as the weight discrepancy between the two is negligible– it is just 25g heavier than the S6 Edge.
Coming to the design, the streamlined 3D curved glass design, smooth edges, and sleek lines speak volumes about its intuitive design. Also, the bigger 5.5-inch Super AMOLED Quad HD display with a resolution of 2560 X 1440 Pixels (534ppi) looks brilliant from every angle; Samsung has always been known for its amazing displays.
Moreover, the front and rear sides of the device are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4, making it even more sturdier. However, due to the glass body, fingerprints and smudges are frequent on both sides.
Moving on, the front end of the devices features only a home button and two capacitive keys for navigation. The top end on the front side of the device houses a light sensor and a 5MP front shooter. The volume keys are placed ideally on the left-hand edge and the lone power key resides on the right side. On the top side, there is a dual-SIM tray, capable of holding two Nano-SIM cards or one microSD card and one SIM card. Lastly, the bottom end of the device comes along with the speaker grille on the bottom along with the USB charging port, just like the Galaxy S7. The rear end houses the primary 12MP camera setup along with a heartbeat sensor, and the company’s logo. The device undoubtedly looks extremely stunning and elegant from all possible angles.
Coming to the salient display traits, the readability and lucidity is unparalleled on this handset - reading articles, watching movies, and playing games is an amazing experience on the Edge 7; however, there is one slight concern with the rounded edges on the sides of the screen, as text or video appearing on those portions are not always clearly visible. Well, I don’t mind these minor scuffs as the overall reading and viewing experience seems to match the adeptness offered by a Kindle.
Also, the 2K display is rich in colour contrast, vivacity and brightness, and the powerful processor makes sure that users get the best experience during watching a movie or gaming. Apart from that, the 'Always ON' display feature and edge screen notifications are not only useful but also add up to amplify the style quotient.
Well, in terms of design, the handset brings a lot of trivial changes, making it ergonomically ideal for users. Some of the key design facets include the smooth screen touch, IP68 certification for water and dust-proofing, and a bezel-less screen.
However, some other aspects like the rounded edges can be problematic for first time users. It sometimes gets difficult to type on the device due to the rounded edges, especially with one hand; the same applies when you’re gaming or reading something. Apart from that, the phone’s design is a charm—both visually and function-wise.
I can assure you that there are not many smartphones in the market that offer a better display – whether you are watching a movie, gaming, or reading. Although there are faint differences between the display of the S7 and S7 Edge, both offer excellent vibrancy, and are great for viewing any kind of multimedia content. Accompanied by the Gear VR, the device also opens up users to amazing VR applications and games.
Hardware and Battery: Moving on to the hardware specifications, this is one area where this smartphone gains the 'upper edge' over all existing smartphones in the market. Under the hood, the S7 Edge comes along with an Exynos 8890 SoC in India and other some countries while the US gets Snapdragon 820. While the company’s motive behind abstaining from using the Snapdragon in India is strange, I assume that it is predominantly an endeavour to thrust its own chipsets in up-and-coming markets.
Moving on, the eight-cored Exynos SoC has been divided into two parts, generating a overall clock speed of 2.6 GHz + 1.6 GHz. It is further accompanied by a 4GB RAM, and an ARM Mali -T880 graphics GPU. Combining all these cutting-edge specs, the handset has the competence to gust through any task, and that too, faster than any other smartphone in the existing market.
In terms of storage space, the phone comes in two options—32GB and 64GB— but only the lower storage capacity variant is available in India. However, there is no reason to worry as the smartphone can be expanded to 200GB via a microSD card; you can further use an USB-OTG for fast transfer and storage.
The handset also accompanies all the usual connectivity options such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, and GPS. The device is backed up by a 3,600mAh battery, which is a bit larger than the 3,000mAh battery on the regular S7.
Now the battery on the S7 Edge is ample to help your phone cruise through the day, albeit the always on feature and the large display. Although the AMOLED display is the main reason behind the low power consumption of the 'Always On' feature, it still takes toil on the overall battery.
On a single charge, the device managed to last more than a day with active 4G, casual multi-tasking and gaming. I am really happy with the battery on this device unlike its predecessor which had serious discharging issues. Also, the wireless charging feature makes this device more elegant than most other flagships in the market.
Coming to the speakers, I am totally satisfied with the clear and vibrant sound output on this device. The S7 Edge is one of the rare devices I have reviewed with good sound quality. It’s loud but not uncomfortable; the bass and treble is perfectly balanced to give a crystal clear sound output.
Camera: I was not really happy when I heard that the S7 and S7 Edge’s camera has been scaled down to 12MP from the 16MP one on the Samsung S6 and S6 Edge.
However, I was blown away as soon as I clicked the first picture using the S7 Edge; the detailing cannot get any better. If you are not zooming in while clicking images, it will give you amazingly clear pictures with amazing image detailing. I clicked numerous pictures on the phone in almost all conditions and the results came out much better than I expected.
The 12MP dual-pixel primary camera with OIS, f/1.7 aperture, and PDAF is also supported by numerous nifty camera apps that help you attain a lot more than just clicking normal photos. Although I am not delving deep into all of those features, some of them such as the Motion Photos feature (similar to Apple’s Live Photos) and 360-degree photos are ones that you need to try out.
Accompanied by a fast shutter, impeccable 1/2.6" sensor, the camera does manage to click magnificent pictures; the best I have seen for a while on any phone apart from Apple’s iPhone 6s. Also, while clicking pictures, I figured that the images clicked in close contact (macros) were much better in comparison to clicking objects at a distance. Even in low-light situations, the camera performed exceptionally well. While clicking images using the device, I faced no problems what so ever in most conditions apart from a few minor focusing issues.
The front 5MP shooter was also equally adept at clicking wide selfies with numerous other amazing options such as spotlight and selfie flash for enhanced images. You can even click selfies by tapping on the heart beat sensor on the rear, making it much more convenient. The primary camera also offers 4K video recording and the front snapper can seamlessly record QHD resolution videos. All-in-all, the camera on this device just enhances the total value of the phone, making it much more desirable than other existing flagships.
Here are some of the sample pictures that I clicked using the device:
Software: This is one area where the company has significantly improved from previous version. This time around, the device’s TouchWiz interface seems cleaner and free from unnecessary bloatware. However, even with the Marshmallow OS, the handset’s homescreen feels a tad untidy. In that case, users can select from a slew of themes from Theme Store (both paid and free) for changing icons and wallpapers.
The phone gives you a lot of options – one hand usage, single layer UI, and many others. Other than that, there is the Always-On display feature, which I have discussed before in this review.
The Always-On display is a neat feature which gives continuous updates to users regarding time, battery, and notifications, and that too, without consuming too much charge.
Moving on to the edge screen, the features are similar to the S6 Edge but with a few minor updates – it has two side columns rather than a single column on the S6, which allows more information such as news, notifications, and other updates to be displayed. While the edge screen is not something that is an absolute requisite, it is still a handy feature for people who use a lot of apps or read a lot of news.
The company has offered a slew of apps; a mixture of some of its own apps such as the Gear Watch app, S Health, S Voice along with other apps from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. All-in-all, the apps available are quite useful and unnecessary apps have been mostly eliminated or placed aside in Galaxy Apps. Users should face no problems using the phone and there is adequate software for fulfilling important tasks and others can be downloaded from the Play Store.
Performance: My experience with the Galazy S7 Edge has been brilliant; I have tested the review unit to the extreme and it took up every challenge daringly, and performed way better than expected.
Various benchmarking scores from GeekBbenc, AnTuTU, and many more have listed the S7 Edge and the S7 on the top half of the spectrum. Not only is the device ergonomically balanced but it also has the computing power to enhance efficiency.
There were minor heating issues while charging or playing games but this cannot be avoided as glass bodies tend to heat up faster than usual. However, you can minimise heating while charging by disabling fast charging, if you want to. Well, heating is still not a major issue on this smartphone as the company has also incorporated a Heat Pipe cooling system (Air cooling mechanism) to keep the dissipate the warm air.
I was really happy with how the device panned out; the combination of the large display, powerful hardware and nifty applications make this handset a joy to use and has surely cemented new standards in premium smartphone market.
Verdict: Should you spend so much on a device which has been termed as a ‘novelty’ by many? Well, it depends; you can buy a mid-ranged smartphone and avail most of the functions but perfection…now that’s a different story altogether. Most mid-ranged or higher-end models promise numerous functions but fail to perform them adeptly. However, with the Samsung S7 and S7 Edge, you get rock-solid, high performance-oriented devices that offer exactly what they claim. Also, the S7 Edge brings numerous improvements over its award-winning predecessor, surely making it one of the best devices in the current flagship category.
Not only has the company concentrated on making its handset better but it has also incorporated new VR functionalities, which make it even more desirable. After few years of silence in the smartphone domain, Samsung has really turned the bets starting last year and this year only gets better for them. I felt that the Rs 57,000 price tag on the device (Black Onyx variant) is completely justified and commensurate to the slew of functionalities on offer. If you have a deep pocket, the S7 Edge is one device you should not miss out on.
