Samsung Galaxy S7 Review

Another year, another Galaxy S release. As expected, this one is called the Galaxy S7 -- although it is joined by the Galaxy S7 EDGE -- and it picks up where last year’s Galaxy S6 left off. Not through big, sweeping design changes, though, but, rather, a more focused approach whereby core elements have been updated and refined to improve the overall user experience. Sort of like what Apple does with its “S” updates.

The Galaxy S7 is the poster boy, to be sure, but it will be joined by the larger, somewhat more interesting Galaxy S7 EDGE which you can read all about in our Samsung Galaxy S7 EDGE First Look. I say, “more interesting”, but what I actually mean is better -- the Galaxy S7 EDGE has more or less the same specs as the Galaxy S7, save for the display and battery which are both significantly larger, and this, in my book these are two very important factors and after a year spent with phablets I'm kind of all about bigger phones these days.

Still, I really like that Samsung has given punters a choice here. Smaller handsets do seem to be more popular on a macro level. Just look at Apple's iPhone 6s sales, for instance, and that the company is apparently just about to launch a 4in iPhone. My only real concern about the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 EDGE, however, is that they’re not really all that different-looking from last year’s models, and while that is certainly OK from an aesthetics point of view, both handsets looked stunning then and now, sales weren’t exactly stellar last year and punters, looking for something different, may pass on Samsung in favour of something, well, a little more interesting like LG’s modular G5, for instance, or wait for Apple's iPhone 7 which launches later on this year. 

I wasn’t expecting a great deal from Samsung this year, if I’m totally honest. I knew they’d stick with the design and build materials of last year’s handsets and I am fine with that; as I said above, both are stunning. I also appreciate the finer points of what the company has set out to achieve -- the updated imaging, the new processor, the advanced cooling system, the increase in battery size, the always-on display -- but I am not blown away by this handset. It isn’t exciting. And after a year of rather run of the mill stuff, I think we’re all now ready for some cool stuff. Right?

Last year wasn’t a good year for phones, either. Apple had an easy run of it in 2015 with its iPhone 6s, which, as iPhones go, was a pretty solid update. Personally, I thought the Galaxy S6 was going to give the iPhone 6s a run for its money in 2015, but this didn’t happen. And the Galaxy S6 was actually very exciting last year with its design changes and all. This year looks to be a far more competitive market place than 2015 and while I do appreciate the core updates present inside the Galaxy S7, I am worried that it will be perceived as too incremental by the general public.

But perhaps things are looking up for Samsung after all! As of March 14, Samsung has officiallyrevealed via its Dutch branch, that European pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge combined have exceeded those of the Galaxy S6 series; the S7 series received 2.5x as many pre-orders inside Europe!

"Market analysts and officials state that sales and pre-orders of the Galaxy S7 range have exceeded previous expectations in the key markets of China, Europe, and India. In Europe, sources are suggesting a 250 percent increase in combined pre-order sales since launch over the Galaxy S6," reports Android Authority. 

The news comes days after Samsung's chief of mobile, Koh Dong-jin, gave a somewhat more vague statement that S7 series pre-orders have thus far exceeded the firm's expectations.

And now reports circulating on April 4 suggest Samsung is doing far better than anyone believed on Galaxy S7 sales, according to CNBC multiple Korean analysts are stating that only a month since launch sales are "stronger than expected". Samsung, it's claimed, shipped 10 million Galaxy S7 series units (a distinction doesn't appear to be made between S7 and S7 edge units) inside March alone, considerably higher than the estimated 7 million predicted by industry watchers. Some analysts have already raised their 2016 sales forecasts and speculate that Samsung may be coming out of its 2-year flagship dip. It's important to stress, however, that these are not Samsung's official figures, the firm is yet to release sales and shipping data and has not commented on the reports, but with that said, these analyst estimates are more in-line with earlier comments from Samsung about which analyst reports had been skeptical. Samsung previously stated, based on pre-order figures, that the Galaxy S7 would out-sell previous Galaxy S flagship models.

Samsung's Q1 estimated earnings report is in as of April 8 and although it's not concrete the initial figures look good! The firm revealed consolidated sales of $43.3 billion up from last year's Q1 performance of $40.7 billion, and an operating profit of $5.7 billion - a growth of 10.45%  from 2015's first quarter. It's believed the Samsung Galaxy S7 series played a signfiicant part in these figures.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Display

The Galaxy S7 has a 5.1in QHD display whereas the Galaxy S7 EDGE has a 5.5in, curved QHD display. Samsung has been making excellent displays for as long as I’ve been writing about technology. Last year’s Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 EDGE possessed two of the brightest, most detailed panels of any smartphone I’ve come across. For this reason, Samsung was wise to leave the overall composition and resolution of the Galaxy S7 / S7 EDGE’s display well alone -- QHD was good enough in 2015 and it is certainly still good enough this year.

The Galaxy S7’s display does possess some new technology, though, and the one you’ll notice the most is the Always-on feature, whereby elements of the display are illuminated to deliver notifications or the time, for instance, without the actual screen having to be switched on entirely.

The battery is quite a bit larger (3000mAh) this time around as well and this coupled with improvements to Android’s power management inside Marshmallow, as well as Samsung’s MANY optimisations, should result in some pretty significant uplift in battery performance -- or, at least, I’d expect this to be the case. Samsung knows just how important battery performance is these days. But with new CPUs and crazy new features you just never know what the affect on battery performance is going to be until you've thoroughly road-tested a handset out over the course of a couple of weeks

Samsung Galaxy S7 Design

With respect to design, Samsung has pretty much left the overall design language well alone. The Galaxy S7 looks more or less identical to the Galaxy S6, aside from a few extra curves that you might not even notice unless told about them, but this was always going to be the case after such a big update last year. The Galaxy S7 is made from the same materials - glass and metal - and it will also be available in the same colours as last year’s model.

BUT there are differences, oh yes! And some of them are pretty darn significant. Take, for instance, the re-introduction of microSD-support -- you’ll find it in the SIM tray -- and the return of water and dust resistance, which has been achieved by coating the phone’s components with protective layers, negating the need for port covers and rubber grommets. Both are welcome additions and neither have been present on a Galaxy S handset since the days of the Galaxy S5 which launched many, many moons ago now.

Then there is Samsung's rather interesting and very PC-like solution for "overheating" issues -- the handset contains a heat pipe filled with water, and when the SoC heats up the water turns to vapour before being cooled via a heatsink. Smart.

If you were interested in what the inside of a Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge looks like, Youtube channel JerryRigEverything has uploaded a video showcase with a teardown of the edge model, and in particular it's interesting that we get a look at the heat pipe setup at the 4:30 mark.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Camera 

The camera, now a 12MP setup, sits almost flush to the back of the handset. In reality, the lens sticks out by 0.46mm, but it's substantially reduced in its bulkiness from what came before. Samsung achieved this using a new production technique. Granted, this isn’t a HUGE deal, but it is still nets the company a nice one-up on its arch rival, Apple. Also, when you know what you’re looking for (or you have a Galaxy S6 to hand) you will see that the overall finish of the handset is a lot slicker as a result too.

We didn’t get a lot of time with the Galaxy S7, but we do know what the handset is packing in the imaging department. As per the rumours, the Galaxy S7 employs a 12MP camera but do not be fooled by the lower MP rating: the setup promises to be very impressive indeed thanks to clever tweaks in places that count. You have a brand new sensor which uses a higher-rated 1.4um pixels, up from the Galaxy S6, to help with noise reduction, improved low-light performance thanks to its larger, f/1.7 lens, dual photodiodes and 100% phase detection. I cannot wait to test this camera out properly.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Specs & Hardware

One thing that is odd (and also reminds me of Apple) is how cagey Samsung is about “details” these days. No details were given about which regions will get which processors, for instance. Nor was there much talk about memory -- both have 4GB, FYI -- or the major differences, if any, between Exynos and Snapdragon 820 versions of the Galaxy S7.

Instead, Samsung, in another typically “Apple” move, proclaimed the processors to be 30% faster than last year’s model without providing any actual evidence or method of testing. It also confirmed BIG improvements to the GPU as well, apparently it’s 67% faster this time around, but, again, we’re not exactly sure which one Samsung is talking about. All we have for now, and until we test the handset out, is a bunch of arbitrary numbers straight from Samsung’s marketing people.

We know performance will be good, but it’d be nice to know what, if any, type of disparity there will be between the Snapdragon 820 and the Exynos versions of the handset. And which model we’ll be getting here in the UK. If we were betting men, which we most definitely are, our money would be on the Snapdragon 820 version simply because this has historically been the way Samsung has done things in the past, saving its Exynos chipsets for markets closer to home.

According to some leaked AnTuTu benchmarks that surfaced on February 16 the Galaxy S7 powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chip actually comes out with faster performance than the Galaxy S7 using Samsung's own Exynos chipset. The AnTuTu Weibo account posted a set of results for an international Galaxy S7 model tested in France.

In the past Samsung's international models have been the Qualcomm Snapdragon-based editions, but it appears here to be the Exynos 8890 version. Does this mean the Snapdragon 820 edition will be available in Asia instead? At any rate, the Exynos version scored 105,000 points. The Snapdragon 820 model has already scored 125,288 points. AnTuTu's analysis claims the difference in performance may be down to the GPUs - Qualcomm's Adreno 530 GPU allegedly being much more powerful.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Price & Availability

Samsung has now officially confirmed the global release date as March 11, when both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge will be up for grabs in stores and online in over 60 countries. The word comes from the mouth of Samsung's own head of mobile, Koh Dong-jin.

"The Galaxy S7 is slated to go on sale in 60 countries on March 11. We expect its sales to surpass shipments of the previous model, the Galaxy S6," he said. In 2015 Samsung's Galaxy S6 sales were estimated at around 38 million units, a figure it made no bones about being displeased with in its earnings reports and public-facing statements. The Galaxy S7, of course, is intended to remedy this. So keen is Samsung to sell the phone in massive numbers that it's reportedly positioning only the variants it thinks will sell the most in specific regions, and that extends to a pretty limited availability of the higher-end 64GB storage model, according to some murmurs from the interwebs. SamMobile, a reputable source on Samsung's activities, claims to have heard that the 64GB storage model will not be available in the US, while in Europe it's only expected to hit a very small number of countries (and if history is anything to go by, we believe the UK won't get the 64GB model either). It's rumoured that Samsung believes 32GB handsets tend to produce higher profit margins - perhaps the cheaper models sell better?

UK networks have also begun revealing price plans and contract tariffs for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, with the Galaxy S7 generally being the cheaper of the two, despite similar specs, but largely owing to the lack of a larger and more complicated edge display. You can pick the Galaxy S7 up on any of the following networks in either Black Onyx or Gold Platinum colour options, and in every instance it's the 32GB storage option on a 24 month contract.

EE - £9.99 Up-front and £49.99 per month

O2 - £9.99 Up-front and £54 per month

Vodafone - £9 Up-front and £50 per month

Three - £29 Up-front and £41 per month - Pre-order by March 6 to receive handset by March 8; three days earlier than general release on March 11.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Initial Reaction

I loved the way the Galaxy S6 looked. The build materials were second to none, the handset handled beautifully, and the overall finish of the device was pretty much unparalleled in 2015’s Android space. Samsung hit the ball out the park last year, but consumers didn’t react as planned, most bought an iPhone, for instance, and Samsung was left with worse than expected sales and financials.

In 2016, the company needs to change this. It needs to shift the Galaxy S7 by the boatload. But has it done enough to create the kind of buzz required to do so? Difficult to say right now. I do like the handset, the refinements and improvements all make sense and will make a huge overall difference to the usability of the phone. But -- and there’s always a but -- I’m a lot more impressed with what LG has created with its G5.

Samsung is the bigger brand out of the two, but I beleive 2016 could well be the year LG begins to really close the gap on its rival. A lot of this will be down to how the company markets and prices its phone, but for me it is definitely the more interesting launch out of MWC’s two biggest announcements.

Samsung appears to have done just enough to its flagship, treating it like an iPhone S update, but there is nothing that SCREAMS innovation or BUY ME. Whereas the LG G5 is the exact opposite, being interesting, engaging and completely different from last year’s still-excellent LG G4.