Samsung launched its new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this past week. Although details of the devices were widely leaked before the official unveiling by the company’s mobile chief DJ Koh, they didn’t do justice to just how great the two flagship projects look and feel in the reality.
While at first glance they look quite a bit like their predecessors, there are actually quite a few differences, some subtle and some quite significant.
One of the big disappointments of the S6 line was that Samsung did away with the removable battery, water resistance and the micro SD card slot.
There’s still no removable battery – nor is there likely to ever again be one, given how these devices are now built. But Samsung’s done the next best thing (for traditionalists) by squeezing in bigger batteries.
Poor battery life was one of the big downfalls of the S6 line, one Samsung looks to have rectified with its successor.
The S7 comes with a 3 000mAh battery, up from the S6’s 2 550mAh, while the S7 Edge, a bigger phone, boasts a beefy 3 600mAh battery, a full 1 000mAh bigger than the one in last year’s Edge. There’s also a range of aftermarket battery packs and wireless charging attachments available.
The micro SD card makes a welcome return, and both devices will ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which allows users to merge the SD card with the internal flash memory to create a single big pool of storage.
One of the things I really liked about the Galaxy S5 was its water resistance. Although its ingress protection level of IP67 meant it was only guaranteed to guard against brief immersion, it was enough to save the phone from a temporary dunking, like a drop in the loo or a poolside fumble.
I wasn’t alone in my disappointment when Samsung removed even this mild level of protection with the S6 line. But now it’s back and better than ever.
With an IP68 rating, the S7 and S7 Edge are now both totally dust tight and will withstand submersion in 1.5m of water for 30 minutes. Nicely played, Samsung!
The company’s clearly heard its customers, a point underlined by Koh at the launch.
“We listen to our customers and… never assume we know everything. Unlike some companies, we would never presume to tell our customers what they should want,” he said.
No prizes for guessing who he’s talking about.
Speaking of Apple-bashing, the camera on the S7 and S7 Edge was repeatedly compared at the launch to the snapper on the iPhone 6 – and not to Apple’s benefit.
Although the megapixel count has dropped from 16MP to 12MP, Samsung is billing this as an upgrade because they’ve upped the pixel size, allowing more light into each snap.
I’ve long believed raw megapixel count isn’t a reliable gauge of a digital camera’s capabilities and Samsung may just have achieved the perfect balance with the S7 and S7 Edge.
The low-light examples shown at the launch looked particularly impressive and the few shots I snapped using the demo units bore this out. I am really looking forward to putting the camera properly through its paces when a review unit becomes available.
There will also be plenty of aftermarket accessories for the S7 and S7 Edge, including some nifty clip-on camera lenses.
As I mentioned earlier, both phones bear a passing resemblance to their predecessors, which is not a bad thing as the S6 and S6 Edge were two of the prettiest phones around. The new versions are, if anything, even more striking, with the S7 Edge in my opinion now the most beautiful phone in the world.
Samsung has also improved how they feel in hand, with both devices easier to hold and manipulate with one hand, despite their fairly large sizes. The S7 has a 5.1-inch, quad HD super amoled display, just like its predecessor, while the Edge has a bigger 5.5-inch quad HD super amoled display that’s curved on both sides.
One of my gripes about the S6 Edge was that, although it was a real looker, it didn’t feel great, with its flat, fairly sharp back tending to cut into your hand. The S7 Edge, by contrast, feels just as good as it looks.
The back of the phone now has a slight curve to it and it nestled nicely into my medium-sized mitts. Surprisingly well, in fact, for such a big phone and a lot better than the similarly-sized iPhone 6S Plus. Samsung’s also added plenty of clever software features that make use of the device’s curved edges. For example, you’re able to call up your favourite contacts, scroll through them and dial one, all using the thumb of one hand.
Samsung had one more surprise in store for the tech journos gathered for their event in Barcelona. Tethered to each chair in the hall was one of the company’s Gear VR virtual reality headsets, which were used for several demonstrations during the launch. After one such demo, we removed our headsets to find a surprise guest standing on stage – Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. The geek equivalent of Bieber mania ensued as journalists surged towards the front to snap pics.
Facebook owns virtual reality company Oculus, which makes an expensive, high-end headset called the Rift, and Zuckerberg was there to talk up the bright future he sees for this new way of interacting with content.
The Gear VR is much cheaper and you don’t need to pair it with a high-end PC. Instead, you slot in one of Samsung’s newer smartphones to access games and other VR content.
In an attempt to kickstart VR adoption, Samsung announced it would give away a pair of Gear VR headsets to anyone who pre-ordered an S7 or S7 Edge. Samsung South Africa’s Justin Hume confirmed this would apply in South Africa too.
The S7 and S7 Edge land here on March 11. Local pricing has yet to be revealed, but you can expect it to be on the high end of the spectrum.
Samsung’s event took place in the run-up to Mobile Work Congress. Check out next week’s column for details of other product launches and more highlights of this, the world’s biggest trade show devoted exclusively to mobile technology. l Alan Cooper attended the event as a guest of Samsung.
Follow Alan Cooper on Twitter @alanqcooper
