The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge Review: Part 2
by Joshua Ho on July 5, 2016 8:00 AM ESTCharge Time
While charge time is no longer much of a concern in light of how OEMs have made it a major priority in the last few product cycles, I still wanted to go ahead and verify its effects. Testing this is done with the usual method of monitoring until power draw at the outlet reaches a value approaching 0 to try and eliminate inaccurate battery percent reporting as a problem.
Interestingly enough, the Galaxy S7 charges faster than the HTC 10 here even though both have similar power output on their AC adapters. I suspect that we’re actually seeing the differences between QC 2.0 and QC 3.0 here as the environment in San Jose recently has never gone below 80F when testing. At any rate, the delta between the Galaxy S6 and S7 in charge rate is effectively not worth talking about, which isn’t really a huge surprise.
Miscellaneous
The miscellaneous section of each review is really just a list of comments that are too short to justify a separate section, but something worth discussing regardless. The first of these subjects is sound quality. While I don’t really have the ability to test 3.5mm output properly, I can say that the speaker output of the Galaxy S7 is weak without question. Maximum volume is quite low, and even ignoring that the quality of the output is nothing special with emphasis on higher frequencies. I suspect this is just the cost of waterproofing at work here.
The fingerprint scanner remains a Synaptics design win, and it generally works quite well. I like it a lot but it isn’t particularly fast or reliable the way the iPhone 6s’ TouchID is. I would say that it’s better than the iPhone 6’s fingerprint scanner, and is comparable with the HTC 10’s fingerprint scanner. However I do favor the HTC 10 fingerprint scanner design as it’s faster to just place a finger to the fingerprint scanner rather than pressing a button and waiting to scan, but the delta here is basically not worth talking about.
Samsung Pay is actually, finally available. Weirdly enough the magstripe transmission still has applications as places like Safeway seem to have completely ignored the liability transfer and continued using magstripe-only readers. Places like Walmart don’t seem to have NFC enabled despite moving to EMV which is strange to say the least. For the US, Samsung Pay actually does provide value, and turns paying from your phone from an occasional experience to a common one. For now at least, Samsung Pay has some real value which is good to see.
I haven't seen any real issues with GPS on the Galaxy S7, as OEMs have been taking this sort of thing seriously for a while. I don't think anyone is really going to face issues with GPS at this point, but it's worth mentioning just to confirm that this is the case.
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shm224 - Thursday, July 14, 2016 - link
any idea why Anandtech is still using web/javascript benchmarks that are intended to measure software/javascript engine performance to measure the system / SOC performance?ozmick1 - Saturday, July 16, 2016 - link
The material (Samsung has told me plain glass and plastic) used over the rear camera lens if too fragile. Many owners are starting to complain of it breaking for no apparent reason as reported on Samsung's US Community website. Buyer beware with the S7 as it made from not-fit-for-purpose material. Samsung even told me that to prevent the rear lens from breaking - to leave the phone on the desk. Buyer beware with the S7.FourEyedGeek - Monday, July 18, 2016 - link
I just got the phone and I really like it. I used the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge for a couple of months and wasn't a fan, this is better in all the little things.The phone is snappy, interface moves smoothly and opening up applications leaves me with minimal load times. Mine has 32GB but is backed up with 200GB, I move large applications over to the SD card as a way of keeping the inbuilt a free as possible.
It takes high quality pictures, not as nice as my DSLR but still good for a smartphone. The games I run play very smooth, much faster than the S6 Edge, my model uses the Exynos 8890.
I've set up finger print scan, but isn't consistent enough for my liking, haven't used Samsung Pay and I'm not sure I will either but ny favourite cool feature is the water proofing. Used my phone under water for brief moments with my son and we love it. Make sure it is fully charged before dunking as the excellent moisture detection feature prevents charging until it is dry.
BuddyRich - Monday, July 18, 2016 - link
Im rocking the S7 (not Edge - didn't like the cureved edges), while I disagree with some of review, one thing I have noticed, and you are the only other review to mention it, is the Camera lens flare issue with bright light sources at night. Not sure whats going on but I have the same issue with mine (Canadian S7 with the Exynos and different camera senor than 820s I believe, but same issue.) For an otherwise good camera this ruins it for me. Not everyone mentions it, but did you ever get a comment from Samsung on this, is it a defect perhaps? Its almost like they didn't put an AR coating on the lense or something.InspectHerGadget - Sunday, July 31, 2016 - link
I owned an S6 then the Note 5 and now the iPhone 6S Plus. I had previous to these, a Nokia 1520. All are great phones. The stand out feature of both the 1520 and 6S Plus is the battery life. The S7 will have the same issues with battery life that the S6 had, just slightly longer due to the larger battery. It isn't good enough and even the Note 5 battery life was only just adequate.I think that the review is outstanding and I appreciate the thorough approach to testing and reviewing. These phones are complex devices and every component needs to be analysed and tested. If you are going to shell out lots of money, you need to be sure of what you are buying.
If a manufacturer such as Apple are shown to put together an outstanding device where every aspect of the device is exemplary, then the accolades are deserved. This doesn't happen by chance but is the result of blood, sweat and tears and thorough testing also.
It is fair enough that Anandtech point out where Samsung have fallen short and why. It will put Samsung on notice to do better. Samsung are sloppy with what they do and they can't afford to be when up against Apple who make very few mistakes.
Bigbank - Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - link
You need to have field experience.S7 is the best, most versatile, best ROCKING audio on video playback.
I'm sure the HTV will do a goid job, but if u can, u should.
I'm sad because I can't allocate enough memory to 1080p, much less 1920p.
Nice site