Galaxy S7 Edge: 5 Things I Learned on the First Day

The new Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are officially available in the United States. It looks a lot like last year’s Galaxy S6, but it’s faster, better, more durable, water resistant, has a micro SD slot and a big battery. It’s better in every way and there are a few things we noticed or learned after using the Galaxy S7 Edge for 24 hours.

A full review will be coming soon, but in the meantime, we want to share some of our first thoughts, impressions, things we do and dislikes, and more after using the phone for a day or so. It’s clearly Samsung’s best smartphone to date, and it’s designed to do it all.

The Galaxy S7 Edge has changed a lot and now has a larger 5.5 inch Quad-HD display, a massive battery and Samsung has returned the micro SD card so owners can expand its storage. Everything that buyers will absolutely love. Add in the fact that it has a better camera, a stylish premium metal design, and a fast fingerprint scanner, and you’ll understand why users are heading to a retail store today to buy one.

Last year, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge saw a complete redesign with an all-metal frame, glass front and back, and more. It was an award-winning change, so Samsung stuck to it again this year. At first glance, the Galaxy S7 looks the same as last year, but there are some notable new additions. Then with the Galaxy S7 Edge, the larger screen will be instantly noticeable.

As a quick summary before moving on to what we’ve learned and liked, the Galaxy S7 Edge has a 5.5-inch Quad-HD display, a powerful Quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a micro SD slot. , a new 12 Dual Pixel camera setup that is thinner than last year (no camera bump) and a big fat battery that will last a very long time.

We still have the premium metal and glass design, a similar fingerprint scanner on the home button, fast charging, wireless charging and fast wireless charging. Not to mention Samsung Pay, Android 6.0 Marshmallow and more. There are all.

Perfect Refined Design

One of the best things about the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge is its design. This is because Samsung is sticking with the same design as last year but improving it. Owners will love the all aluminum design with glass front and rear. There’s no plastic anywhere on this high-end premium phone. But it’s a fingerprint magnet, slick, and we recommend a case from our link above.

What Samsung has managed to do with design is pretty work. Almost the same as last year, only rounded back. This makes it easier to hold, lift from the table and feel slimmer in your hand, making it more ergonomic. It’s similar to the back of the Galaxy Note 5, but more rounded on all sides, not just left or right.

They have managed to make it IP68 dust and water resistant while keeping everything pretty much the same. This means it can sit in 5 feet of water for more than 30 minutes and come out just fine. The Galaxy S7 also has a better camera, which is thinner and closer to the back instead of a big bulge. It retains all the specs from last year, but now has a massive 3,600 mAh battery. The Galaxy S6 was only 2,550, and even the larger 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 5 was only 3,000 mAh. So the Galaxy S7 Edge will be a battery champion, but more on that below.

Above is a demonstration of the IP68 rating, which is one of the many ways we love about the design of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. It’s pretty impressive that Samsung has managed to keep things the same, upping the durability, returning the micro-SD card and boosting the battery. Users will love this phone.

Stunning Galaxy S7 Edge Display

The Galaxy S7 Edge is an excellent phone. Not too big and not too small. It comes in at 5.5 inches, but feels much smaller. In fact, it’s significantly smaller and thinner than the Galaxy Note 5. If the Note 5 is too big for you, but you want a bigger screen than the Galaxy S6, the Galaxy S7 Edge is the perfect happy medium. Samsung nailed it.

It has an award-winning 5.5 inch 2560 x 1440 Quad-HD AMOLED display that looks amazing. It’s covered with Gorilla Glass 4, so it should be very durable and of course water can’t get past it either.

After using the Galaxy S7 Edge for a little over a day, I’m starting to love the display. It’s clearer, brighter, has great colors and doesn’t drain battery life than the Galaxy Note 5. I didn’t like the new “always-on display” functionality at first, but it’s growing inside of me. I turned it off at first but now I’m turning it back on. Samsung claims that the always-on display can show important information for an entire 8-hour workday and only consumes a few % of the battery. So there is no point in turning it off. It’s really impressive.

I noticed something strange in the screen brightness though. Whatever the reason, the screen dims to a lower brightness level when I launch a game, then returns when I get home. It’s nothing to be too worried about, but it doesn’t happen on other Galaxy devices and that means I have to increase the brightness for a similar gaming experience with older phones like the Galaxy Note 5.

Micro SD Slot

Samsung learned its lesson by removing the micro SD card in the Galaxy S6 last year, but gave it back this year. So the phone only has 32GB of storage, but owners can add a 128GB or 200GB micro SD card for relatively cheap. It’s a welcomed feature, something we’re glad it’s back, and I added a 128GB micro SD card with around 5,000 songs, 4-5 movies and moved it to the micro SD slot to offload all my apps and games. Space.

Having a micro SD card slot is a must have for all smartphones as the versatility and options it brings cannot be matched by storing everything in the cloud. Not everyone has unlimited data to stream Google Music, Spotify or Pandora radio all day. Install the SD card instead and take full advantage of this important feature.

Mediocre Software

With the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Samsung finally put a lot of effort into improving its user interface. They still cover stock Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with their own skin, but it’s much better than in previous years. Everything is flat, the icons are round, and there are no cartoonish bright green colors in the notification bar. Now there is a clean white and blue color and everything looks much cleaner.

That being said, the custom interface on stock Android is still average at best. The app tray is completely broken, not alphabetical, and installing an app puts it on the last page. Owners can navigate to the app tray, hit settings, and sort the app drawer alphabetically so everything is fine, but if you download an app it goes back to the back and not where it should be in the alphabet. It’s nothing major, but something that’s annoying and doesn’t make any sense.

Samsung also has a lot of bloatware on these phones. There are multiple messaging apps, Google messaging apps, Verizon has another, Amazon, AT&T stuff, and more. It ends up taking 8GB of the 32GB. Therefore, ready-to-use users have more than 22 GB of available space. Between TouchWiz, bloatware, and Samsung apps, there’s not much room left for photos, videos, music, apps, and games. It’s no big deal, but bloatware can really do some downtime.

Great Battery Life

I’ve been very impressed with the overall performance so far, the new 12-megapixel camera is pretty amazing and focuses insanely fast, but it’s the battery life that I’m most impressed with. The Galaxy S6 had a tiny 2,550mAh battery, and even the massive Galaxy Note 5 was just 3,000mAh.

This year, the Galaxy S7 Edge features an even larger 3,600mAh battery with fast charging and fast wireless charging. Even the regular Galaxy S7 is 3,000 mAh. That’s more than enough to last 24 hours on a single charge for even the strongest user, and around 2-3 days for light users. Below is a screenshot after a heavy day of heavy use. Transfer photos, play games, make calls, watch YouTube, email all day and more.

The main thing to note is that the Galaxy S7 Edge has 21% battery after 22 hours of use. I used it from 4pm and all evening playing games, emailing, watching videos, unplugged all night, then completed an entire 8-4PM workday on a single charge. More than 4 hours and 30 minutes of significant “screen” time and I still have 21% left. It’s impressive to say the least.

Average users should have no problem getting over 30-40 hours on a single charge, if not longer.

final thoughts

So far, the Galaxy S7 Edge looks like a strong contender for the best smartphone of the year, and it’s only March. It has a great design, a beautiful and perfectly sized screen, is water resistant, has a micro SD slot, takes stunning photos and lasts more than an entire day with absolutely no issues. Then, if it dies, 20 minutes will get you 50-60% thanks to built-in Quick Charge technology.

It’s hard to say anything bad about the Galaxy S7 so far after about a day of use. It does pretty much everything, and it does it fast, fluidly, and easily. On sale starting March 11th today, get one and enjoy. Check out some of Samsung’s official accessories below.