Codename Project Lucky Manufacturer Samsung Electronics | Brand Samsung Galaxy Series Galaxy S | |
 | ||
Slogan Beyond Barriers
Rethink what a phone can do
More than a phone (Indonesia only) Model SM-G930x
SM-G935x (Edge)
(Last letter varies by carrier and international models) | ||
Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge are Android smartphones manufactured and marketed by Samsung Electronics. The S7 series is a successor to the 2015 Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and S6 Edge+, and was officially unveiled on 21 February 2016 during a Samsung press conference at Mobile World Congress, with a European and North American release on 11 March 2016.
Contents
- Hardware
- Software
- Reception
- Sales
- Known issues
- Samsung Exynos 8890 Models
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Models
- Samsung Exynos 8890 Model
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Model
- References
The Galaxy S7 is an evolution of the prior year's model, with upgraded hardware, design refinements, and the restoration of features removed from the Galaxy S6, such as IP certification for water and dust resistance, as well as expandable storage. As with the S6, the S7 is produced in a standard model with a display size of 5.1 inches, as well as an Edge variant whose display is curved along the wide sides of the screen. Unlike the S6, the S7 Edge also utilizes a larger 5.5-inch display rather than matching the screen size of the base model.
Hardware
The Galaxy S7's hardware design is largely identical to that of the S6; it retains its metal and glass chassis, but with refinements such as a squarer home button, and a thinner protrusion for the camera. Both models are available in black and gold colors; white, pink, and silver versions are available depending on market. As a Worldwide Olympic Partner, special editions of the Galaxy S7 Edge were released by Samsung for the 2016 Summer Olympics, with a dark blue body and hardware and software accents inspired by the colors of the Olympic rings. The devices were sold in limited quantities in selected markets, and were given to nearly all athletes participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics (the 31 phones meant for the North Korean team were confiscated by order of the country's government). In October 2016, Samsung announced a new light blue ("Blue Coral") color option, as previously offered on the recalled Galaxy Note 7.
The S7 and S7 Edge are IP68-certified for dust and water resistance; unlike the Galaxy S5, the ports are sealed and thus do not require protective flaps. Both the S7 and S7 Edge feature a 1440p Quad HD Super AMOLED display; the S7 has a 5.1-inch panel, while the S7 Edge uses a larger 5.5-inch panel. As with the prior model, the S7 Edge's screen is curved along the side bezels of the device. Both models also have larger batteries in comparison to the S6, with 3000 mAh and 3600 mAh capacity respectively and support for AirFuel Inductive (formerly PMA) and Qi wireless charging standards. They also feature a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with a "Dual Pixel" image sensor and f/1.7 aperture lens.
Galaxy S7 devices are equipped with an octa-core Exynos 8890 system on a chip and 4GB of RAM. In China and the United States, the S7 uses the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820; unlike Exynos, this SoC supports older CDMA networks that are extensively used by carriers in these markets. The heat from the processor is transferred with a 0.4mm thick water-to-steam heat pipe cooling system. The S7 includes either 32, 64 or 128 GB of internal storage (in most markets only the 32 GB model will be available). Storage can be expanded using a microSD card.
S7 devices are packaged with a USB OTG adapter. It can be used with the included "Smart Switch" app to help transfer content and settings from a previous Samsung Galaxy device running Android 4.3 or later, iPhone running iOS 5 or later, or BlackBerry running BlackBerry OS 7 or earlier.
Software
The Galaxy S7 ships with Android Marshmallow (6.0) and Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz software suite. The new TouchWiz also allows the user to disable the app drawer. A new "Always On" functionality displays a clock, calendar, and notifications on-screen when the device is in standby. The display is turned off completely if the device's proximity sensor detects that it is in an enclosed space such as a pocket. Samsung claims this feature would only consume half a percentage of battery capacity per-hour. New widget panes can be displayed on the edge of the S7 Edge, in "Edge Single" and wider "Edge Single Plus" sizes. Android Marshmallow's "adopted storage" feature was disabled by Samsung and is not usable.
An update in September 2016 added support for Vulkan, a new low-level graphics API. In January 2017, Samsung began to deploy Android 7.0 "Nougat" for the S7. It introduces a refreshed interface, Samsung Pass—a platform allowing apps to provide biometric authentication via the fingerprint reader, and new "Performance mode" settings with optimizations for gaming, entertainment, and battery usage.
Reception
The Galaxy S7 received generally positive reviews with critics praising the return of the micro SD card slot and water resistance, though some felt the device was too similar to the preceding Galaxy S6. However, the Galaxy S7 received negative reviews too, for example, Samsung removed the IR Blaster of the Galaxy S7, stock apps like music, video player and downloads manager are gone and finally the camera megapixels decreased to 12 MP.
The Exynos version is faster than the Qualcomm Snapdragon version at multitasking where there is a clear difference, as the Qualcomm version fails to keep as many apps in the background and takes more time to switch between apps. However, the Snapdragon version performs better in graphically intensive apps and games.
iFixit noted the extensive use of glue makes the Galaxy S7 very difficult to repair. The display needs to be removed (and likely destroyed) if one wants to replace the USB port. Replacing the glass without destroying the display is probably impossible. Official Galaxy S7 Edge screen repair is $270, so getting insurance is recommended.
Bloatware on the system has been criticized, as it takes 8GB of storage that cannot be used for other applications.
The "Active" version is advertised as water-resistant, but Consumer Reports tested it and found out that it was not. This, however, was attributed to a bad batch of phones and Samsung offered a free replacement for those phones that failed after being submerged in water for extensive periods. This was eventually recognized and fixed after a hardware revision.
Sales
Between the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, approximately 100,000 devices were sold within two days of the official launch in South Korea. Within the first half of 2016, 13.3 million devices were sold.
Known issues
At release, videos recorded at high frame rates stuttered, with both Exynos and Snapdragon models suffering from the issue. A following firmware update claimed to fix "flickering video playback after recording".