Review
Introduction
You're eyeing up the Samsung Galaxy S7, but you find its looks too pedestrian?
We don't necessarily
agree, but let's say for the sake of argument that
you're right.
No worries, Samsung's got you covered - meet the Galaxy S7 edge.
Key specifications
Flagships come in pairs, that's the recent trend and in the case of the
Galaxy S7 and S7 edge they share a good bit of the internals. Which is
another way of saying that the edge has a bigger battery, and that's it.
Then again it has a larger display. And it's that display,
that gorgeous 5.5-inch Super AMOLED spilling over the sides,
that's the real difference between the two, and the sole reason
why one would pay the premium and pick the S7 edge and not the S7.
You're eyeing up the Samsung Galaxy S7, but you find its looks too pedestrian?
We don't necessarily agree, but let's say for the sake of argument that you're right.
No worries, Samsung's got you covered - meet the Galaxy S7 edge.
Design and build quality
Last year's Galaxy S6 edge stood at 5.1 inches, and there was the 5.7-inch Galaxy S6 edge+.
In 2016 so far we have the S7 edge splitting the difference between the two,
but leaning towards the Plus. In our book, that makes a potential S7 edge+ fairly
unlikely to happen.
The S7 edge measures 150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7mm, making it thinner than the plain S7.
It weighs just 157g - 5 grams more than the S7 gets you 20% more battery and 0.4
inches larger diagonal. That said, if you're comparing to the S6 edge, the new model
is 25g heavier and has grown a bit in every dimension to fit the larger screen.
Number crunching aside, the Galaxy S7 edge is one seriously good-looking smartphone. At a quick glance, you might dismiss it as a just a large S6 edge, but it is more than that. Yes, it is basically a curved screen on the front, and two sheets of Gorilla Glass 4 with an aluminum frame on the sides, but it's about the details.
And the details, in this case, include the slight curve on the back that helps
with in-hand feel - where the S6 edge was sharp and pointy at the sides, the S7
edge is smooth and pleasing to hold. The S7 edge is also easier to pick up from a
table.
Palm rejection around the edges isn't perfect and the phone does register touch input
from the sides a little more often than we would have liked. It will on occasion annoy
us by ignoring tapping on the screen because it thinks that palms touching it on the side
are the intended interaction.
Among the properties shared with the S7, the Galaxy S7 edge has an IP68 rating for water
resistance (up to 1.5m for 30 minutes) and is also dust tight. It's equally prone to
collecting fingerprints - an inherent downside to the glass design.
There's no IR emitter, for those that care, but storage expansion is possible, and controls
are in their familiar locations. There's a fingerprint reader in the Home button,
which is activated when you wake up the device - it's not always on.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge has a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display with
dual curved edges. The curves are small, just barely hugging the sides,
very much similar to the ones on the S6 edge.
Infinite contrast is AMOLED's forte, and punchy colors are a given with the technology. The Basic display mode, on the other hand, can give you near perfect color accuracy, should you need it. Maximum brightness is a little less than 400nits, which is a good number for AMOLED if lower than LCD's, but in Auto mode, it can go as high as 610nits when in bright light - an excellent result, which helps the S7 edge ace our sunlight legibility test as well.
