Gadgetory

what's up guys lon here from andrew authority and last year was a radical design shift for Samsung with the galaxy s6 and the s6 edge they were easily the most premium feeling smartphone Samsung has ever produced and were ultimately pretty good phones marred only by bad battery life and some questionable emissions of key features that made a Samsung a Samsung does a refined design and a reintroduction of those features enough to win back the hearts of Samsung diehards let's find out with the Samsung Galaxy s7 edge so before we get started I just want to quickly let you guys know that we're handling the review process a little bit differently so the video review what you're watching right now is obviously being done by me but the written review is actually done by our writer Andrew grush and you can see his thoughts on the s7 edge up here linked in a card or down below in the description and he's actually been using the X Notes version of the s7 edge so he'll be it will show you comparisons in terms of benchmarks and all that stuff against the 820 in the written portion so if you want to see all that make sure to check out the written review but with that being said let's go ahead and get started with the s7 edge the galaxy s7 edge isn't a complete departure from the design of last year's s6 edge but it didn't really need to be it's more of a refinement or an evolution the biggest difference between this year's s7 edge and last year's s6 edge is the size it's a little bit bigger due to the increase in screen real estate but for a phone with a 5.5 inch display it's surprisingly a lot smaller in comparison to other flagship smartphones with similar display sizes a lot of this has to do with how the screen spills over on the sides and the fact that Samsung has managed to keep the side bezels extremely thin I still want to consider this a compact size smartphone by any means because a 5.5 inch display is still a 5.5 inch display no matter how you slice it but it's definitely one of the easier 5.5 inch smartphones to use in one hand the Super AMOLED panel is everything you would expect from a Samsung display the colors are vibrant and saturated blacks are inky dark it's bright enough to be visible outdoors on a sunny day and it's quad HD just like last year's model so still super sharp despite the bump in screen sighs if anything the extra screen real estate makes content like movies and games even more enjoyable and it may be a placebo effect at this point but Samsung screens always seem to get better and better each and every year and the s7 edge of screen really looks phenomenal new to Samsung's flagship this year is the always-on display feature this takes advantage of the AMOLED screen by only lighting up the necessary pixels to show you useful information but right now it's pretty limited in functionality and nowhere near as robust as similar features from Motorola or even Google's own stock Android right now I can show you the clock a calendar or a few predefined images which doesn't do much of anything except just look cool it doesn't drain much battery but until Samsung adds more features to it or gives you the ability to peek at notifications it isn't really all that useful and honestly feels a little half-baked the glass and metal construction returns from last year's Galaxy S is so as far as design materials go it still feels largely the same in your hand and despite being larger the s7 edge feels way more comfortable to hold due to not having those super sharp chamfered edges of the s6 edge the metal frame has a much more rounded feel and the rear glass panel tapers down on the sides similar to the note 5 the tapered backside allows for a couple of different things one it's a little bit easier to pick up off a table which actually helps out a lot considering the phone side rails are a lot thinner than most other phones and to the tapered edges allows the phones to nestle nicely in the hand and it may sound weird but it honestly is one of the most comfortable feeling phones I've ever held there are still downsides to this design however the phone is still a huge fingerprint magnet if you're like me you'll probably find yourself wiping the phone on your shirt quite often or carrying around a microfiber cloth the other downside is it's not the grippy alone in the world which isn't all that surprising given the build materials it's not a slippery bar of soap or anything but you'll probably find yourself being a little more cautious than normal especially if you aren't rocking a skin or a case what this slightly revamp design Samsung has also brought back a couple of key features that were notably missing from last year's models microSD card expansion is back which means there's only a 32 or 64 gig variant this year but with micro sd you can expand up to an additional 200 gigs to store all of your photos and videos the phone is also water and dust resistant again which means it can survive the accidental dunk in the toilet a spilt drink or the occasional rainstorm but this time around there's no annoying covers or flaps to deal with because it's completely sealed in from the inside all of the buttons and ports are exactly where you would expect them to be on a samsung phone the power button is on the right where it's easy to reach volume rockers on the left physical home button up front flanked with capacitive recent apps and back key and along the bottom is the headphone jack microUSB port and the bottom firing speaker the speaker is nothing amazing but it does sound significantly worse from previous devices it's super tinny at high volumes and you can most likely thank the waterproofing for that one now you also might be thinking right now why Samsung why microUSB why not USB type-c USB type-c is the future so the answer to that question is twofold one USB type-c hasn't exactly skyrocketed in adoption there still aren't that many devices out there that use USB type-c so at least for me microUSB is still be more convenient standard and answer number two would be gear vr which uses micro USB and the new gear VR supports the s7 the s7 edge the note 5 the s6 edge plus the s6 edge and the regular s6 and from a production or a logistical or raw material standpoint whatever you want to call it it just wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for Samsung to make a whole nother VR headset specifically for two devices when they can just make the one that works with all of them the home button up front still doubles as a fingerprint scanner just like before and while the setup process is a little bit long compared to other phones like the Nexus 6p or 5x the fingerprint sensor feels a lot faster and more accurate over the s6 or even the note 5 and very rarely did I run into the sensor not reading my fingerprint on the first attempt internally the phone has undergone the usual improvements with a faster processor and more RAM and the states the phone is being powered by the Snapdragon 820 chip whereas in other regions you're getting Samsung's own Exynos 88-90 but all versions come with the same 4 gigs of ram the version that I've been using for the past week is the Snapdragon model and overall I've been very pleased with the performance I will admit there are still some random hiccups here and there or quote on Samsung lag but the majority of really stems from Samsung's own launcher the Flipboard scrolling issues that plagued the s6 and note 5 has been mostly alleviated it still causes some drop frames when swiping between home screens from time to time but aside from these small hiccups general performance has been really great it launches apps quickly multitask and plays graphically demanding games like a champ and thanks to the built-in water cooling the phone gets warm but it never overheats speaking of gaming Samsung is also one of the first manufacturers to take advantage of the new Vulcan api's in their smartphones and once developers take advantage of this this is going to allow for better games much smoother gameplay better graphics performance and an experience that is much less resource-intensive over the current OpenGL framework where Samsung has made its biggest improvements is in battery life the s6 edge was a struggle to get through a full day but the s7 edge is massive 36 hundred million power battery solves Samsung's battery life woes getting through a full day has not been a problem regardless of whether I'm using the phone casually or hammering on it with a lot of gaming and picture-taking it's not going to go the extra mile and get you a second day but if you're just looking for a good solid full day of use the s7 edge provides exactly that now we know that screen on time numbers isn't the only metric that should be used to gauge a phone's battery life but when a phone is consistently putting out five plus hours of screen on time that obviously speaks volumes to how much the battery life has improved and never did I feel that I had to monitor or cut back my usage in order to get through a day in those times where you do have to fill up or top off your phone the Estevan edge does support wireless charging and fast charging but one thing to keep in mind about the fast charging on the s7 edge if you have the Snapdragon version is its quick charge 2.0 and not the newer 3.0 this doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of actual charging speeds and to the average user they probably won't care but you are getting a charge that is less energy efficient with quick charge 2.0 versus 3.0 Samsung has always done a really great job with their smart phone cameras but this year they decided to take a slightly different approach aesthetically the camera looks much better the unsightly camera bulge has been shrunk it down to just a slight bump but instead of increasing the megapixel count or keeping it the same they actually reduce the megapixels from 16 down to 12 this allows for much larger pixels for increased low-light performance similar what Google did with the Nexus line and you're also getting a much brighter F 1.7 aperture lens the new sensor utilizes dual pixel technology which isn't new in the camera world but is the first of its kind in a smartphone this creates for a much faster autofocus and coming from something like the Nexus 6p there's a very noticeable difference in focusing speeds especially in low-light the camera interface is largely the same as before and you still have many of the same modes like selective focus YouTube live broadcast slow motion and of course the more typical ones like Auto Pro and panorama what is new is a feature Samsung calls motion photo which records a short clip before a photo is taken it's similar to Apple's live photos for the iPhone and just like live photos it's pretty gimmicky but it is there if you want to use it or can be completely disabled if you don't over although I've been very pleased with this camera and the photos that it produces day light and well lit indoor shots are very well detailed with pleasant looking colors and you can get some really great depth with the F 1.7 aperture HDR mode is quite subtle as far as colors are concerned which is a good thing because a lot of other smartphone cameras tend to be very over aggressive in this area otherwise it works well in bringing back more detail from shadows and brightly lit areas of photos especially in high contrast scenarios and because it doesn't mess with the colors too much the images still look very natural in low-light the images still pack plenty of detail and the camera does a pretty solid job of keeping highlights in check it's only in the most extreme low-light situations where photos start to fall apart with a lot of noise reduction overexposed highlights and the images start to exhibit an unnatural yellow cast but this is nothing new and has been a problem with Samsung cameras for a while now this can also be said about the front camera but in most situations the five megapixel front shooter is more than adequate for your selfie taking needs there's a wide variety of video recording modes including 4k and the optical image stabilization helps keep the footage from being overly shaky but I would avoid using the software video stabilization at all costs as I notice it tends to cause a lot of warping in the footage while all these changes that Samsung has made to the camera this year have been really great I personally don't think it's a huge leap from the s6 but if you had any concerns about the changes to this year's camera you really shouldn't because it's just as good as any recent camera Samsung has produced if not better the software is Android marshmallow with Samsung's custom interface and Samsung's UI still isn't the prettiest but this is probably the best version of their interface to date the nasty green and blue color scheme is finally gone and has been replaced with a much cleaner blue and white if you're still not a fan of the revamp aesthetics the theme store is still a great option to change the look and feel of the interface and there's many themes available to make it look however you want or even a little closer to stock Android the edge UX has been improved to better take advantage of the curved glass you still have all the same features from last year like the edge lighting apps edge and people edge but the whole edge interface is wider now allowing for twice as many app shortcuts which makes it a lot more useful new to the edge interface is the task edge and edge panels with tasks edge you can create a shortcut to your most commonly used tasks like taking a selfie or creating a calendar event edge panels on the other hand will show you quick information at a glance such as yahoo news sports scores weather or stocks and you can download a few more from Samsung's Galaxy Apps they're pretty much accessible from anywhere on the phone including the lock screen but it does get a little bit cluttered when you have a lot of these panels enabled and depending on how you have things ordered it may take you several swipes just to find the panel that you need one feature that have really enjoyed a lot with the s7 edge is the new game launcher and game tools and if you're big on mobile gaming you may actually find these features to be quite useful the game launcher automatically aggregates all of your games into a single folder for easy access and the game tools is a convenient little floating bubble that lets you mute incoming alerts lock the capacitive keys to prevent accidental presses minimize the game take a screenshot or create a recording all while you're actually playing the game even though Samsung's UI has made some improvements it's still far from perfect it's a lot less intrusive and if you don't like many of the features you can simply turn them off but Samsung still packs a lot of crap we're and redundant applications into their phones for basically every Google application there's a Samsung equivalent of the same app so on the s7 edge you have to email apps to web browsers and to voice assistance with Google now and s voice and depending on which carrier on you may be dealing with even more apps or bloatware pricing for the Galaxy s7 edge is pretty typical for a Samsung flagship off-contract it will cost you 800 bucks but you do have the option of contracts or monthly installments depending on your carrier I won't go as far as saying that the s7 edge is the best Android smartphone you can currently buy but it's pretty awesome along with the usual improvements like the camera and faster processor the s7 edge takes what was great about last year's s6 edge makes a few key refinements like a more comfortable design and improved battery life and brings back microSD card expansion and water and dust resistance there's no such thing as a perfect smartphone but if there's a phone out there that hits the mark pretty damn close it's the galaxy s7 edge as always thank you guys so much for watching this review I hope you guys enjoyed it and found it helpful if you did please give it a thumbs up down below we definitely appreciate it and also subscribe to the channel which is also down below or somewhere around me just click it and subscribe and check out the videos that are yes somewhere around me here as well but that's it guys thank you so much for watching keep tuned here too and yorda thority check the website as well and Jordan Thor comm because we are your source for all things Android