Gadgetory

comparing galaxies flagships was pretty easy a few years ago each had its own set of compromises that make the choice of no-brainer 2016 is a very different animal and with three great galaxies flagships the stakes are rather high I'm high memory VAT with pocket now and this is galaxy s7 active versus galaxy s7 and galaxy s7 edge if we were comparing vehicles the galaxy s7 would be the sedan the s7 edge would be the higher trim and well the galaxy s7 active would be the truck in the past if you went active you'd have to put up with a certain degree of compromise over the flagship siblings but in 2016 there is no compromising and buying into the truck some claim to the galaxy s7 active is really just an s7 with a rugged case but that would be overlooking a ton of the benefits of going active for starters the average rugged case doesn't make your existing display shadow resistant and even though some narrow few include an extended battery none result in a sleek device like what we have with the galaxy s7 active to be fair the S of an active isn't really what we call a beast compared to its siblings the edge is obviously a hair taller but the active is really just 5% taller and eight percent wider than the standard galaxy s7 and the 20% in added thickness is understandable if you're getting 30% more battery power it's simply not as pretty as the others but even that territory is subjective the look and the feel are matters of taste the first two galaxy iterations were designed with the intent of creating the same level of desire you could have for a piece of jewelry the glass and the aluminium is both elegant to see and cool to feel in the hand in addition to easy to smudge as well by contrast the s7 act that feels soft around the borders with a one feel to the metallic sides and some extra grip enos to the back neither phone really feels cheap by any means but this is probably the most substantial difference in day-to-day use internals are really no different you have the same snapdragon 820 processor four gigs of ram and 32 gigs of expandable storage the same antenna bans Wi-Fi fast fingerprint scanners and about the only change is the differences in battery that we've already discussed the four thousand milliamp hour power pack of the active didn't do so well in our first tests I've been able to nail a solid six hours of battery-life after that which is simply awesome keep in mind that the other two siblings don't fall far behind though as the edge will give me around five hours of screen on time and then the regular would give me four all three devices sport a gorgeous AMOLED panel that ranges from 5.1 inches to 5.5 and even with the added polycarbonate layer for shatterproof protection of the active you can't really tell the difference viewing angles are crisp and punchy color along with one of the best always-on displays of the market all come standard this is where products like the edge do a good job at shining just as much as being annoying the edge display provides a window to quick shortcuts to different features though all at the expense of the phone feeling rather awkward to hold in turn scenarios the active doesn't really have a curve to show off but it's got an action button that I find more convenient you can set it up to up to three customization options and I do love the activity zone mainly because the comp ass is always permanently active while in the case of the edge you always have to force and fumble around to make it work and the s7 well you don't get any of that the software story is not even worth spending time comparing if you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all all three devices run the same version of TouchWiz on top of marshmallow all three allow for theming in addition to larger grid options and some very useful widgets and yes all three have the most annoying app tray that doesn't follow alphabetical order you'd think that Samsung would bundle at least a few wallpapers that are focused on the market that caters to the active but there's just one and I did not really like it looks aside all three are extremely snappy and everything except the Flipboard menu that you can easily disable whether you're navigating through menus or playing graphics intensive games the experience of all three devices is very pleasant if not for the major differences in the edge features or the active button you really can't tell each phone apart for some this is good but I find it unfortunate that the active wasn't given more active software features like what we see with the recent Casio Android wear offerings where the difference is sore is when using these phones in day to day all three devices are ip68 water in dust resistant but if you've ever taken the galaxy s7 to a pool you'll know how the water activates the capacitive keys automatically making the experience of taking the photo a true nightmare at times that's where the active comes in handy as the physical buttons work in any scenario even though at the expense of these not lighting up the milspec 810g also takes the act of a step further by providing shock resistance in addition to the ability to survive saltwater solar radiation you name it just keep in mind this is a rugged phone it's not indestructible phone calls sound just as great on all three devices data speeds soar in the toughest of areas and anyone who told you that the speaker on the activists bad is probably over exaggerating the differences are really negligible and about the only thing I don't like about the active in the audio department is the placement of the headphone jack at the top the camera is also the same story there's really nothing to even compare here all three cameras support the same optically stabilized 12 megapixel sensor with a face detection autofocus and F 1.7 aperture in addition to a 5-megapixel selfie shooter that shares the same aperture all three cameras are launched through the DoubleTap to the home button and then offer the same software and same features and all are still regarded as today's best cameras for smartphone in 2016 great color saturation contrast in detail amazing low-light and in case of video recording you also have some of the best double is a ssin you can ask for whether you're going on a hike or just your typical walk in the city either of these cameras just going to do you just fine the bottom line is that 2016 is clearly the year of the galaxy s7 and this time there are three flak ships for you to choose from the times when going active were a reason to compromise or long gone and at this point I even say that the active button the milspec 810g and the added battery are enough to make me consider being an active user the fact that Samsung even decided to launch a golden variant catered to moms is a clear indication that this phone was not designed only for construction workers about the only problem that I find would be active is that well you have to be on a TMT to be able to use it if you're more of a business type or casual and you're looking for gorgeous device in both look and feel the galaxy s7 or galaxy s7 edge or definitely the way to go so long as you don't use a case because then that would completely defeat the purpose of the design now if you're a gym junkie the average person who loves hiking outdoors going out running going fishing or simply lives an active lifestyle or hey it's just the average clumsy person who doesn't want compromise for the price tag of the galaxy s7 edge I would definitely prefer to go for the active it's just better to go for the peace of mind overall folks our coverage of the galaxy s7 active continues so make sure you follow us on social media and hit that subscribe button down below for more videos like this one now this you can also catch our videos on vessel vessel dot-com slash pocket now and follow me on twitter Hein underscore Yvette around Instagram at hi meri later please give this video a thumbs up if you like what you saw I am hi Mary that I thank you very much for watching we'll see you on the next one