Samsung Galaxy S7 Review

Call Quality and Connectivity

With everything so powerful on the S7, let’s not forget that the main feature of a phone is calling and other wireless communication. That said, making a call is definitely something to look forward to thanks to the loud earpiece and noise-cancelling feature.

As for the wireless connections, almost everything is onboard the S7 starting with LTE Cat9 radio ensuring you have access to the fastest LTE band available anywhere in the world. There’s also a dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS w/ A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, and NFC, but it’s lacking an FM Radio.

Battery Life

From a 2,550mAh battery on the S6, Samsung managed to fit in a 3,000mAh non-removable Li-Ion battery on S7. It still supports both fast wired and wireless charging using appropriate accessories.

Under our usual battery test wherein we loop a full HD video with 50% brightness and volume with headphones and set in Airplane mode, we were able to get 12 hours and 30 minutes of playback. While PCMark battery test gives it a pretty impressive 9 hours and 19 minutes of runtime.

Conclusion

With all the refinements done to the Galaxy S7 that the S6 lacks, Samsung’s game in this age is to put all the features in a simply packaged handset. Adding water-resistance, storage expansion, and bigger battery is a good move before deviating from the appreciated looks and feel of its predecessor. The S7 is definitely a flagship Samsung can be proud of.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 retails in the Philippines at Php34,990USD 596INR 50,547EUR 568CNY 4,342 for the 32GB model with 2 color options — Black Onyx, and Gold. It’s also available for the postpaid plans of Globe and Smart.

Samsung Galaxy S7
5.1-inch Super AMOLED Quad-HD display
2560 x 1440 resolution, 576ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Samsung Exynos 8890 64-bit octa-core CPU 2.6GHz
Mali-T880 GPU
4GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable up to 200GB via microSD (uses SIM 2 slot)
12MP Dual Pixel rear camera dual-tone, dual LED flash, f/1.7 aperture
5 megapixel front-facing camera with f/1.7 aperture
Dual SIM (hybrid), dual LTE
WiFi 802.11ac
Bluetooth 4.1
NFC
Fast Wireless Charging, Fingerprint Scanner, Heart-Rate Sensor
IP68 rating
Android 6.0 Marshmallow with TouchWiz
3,000mAh Li-Ion non-removable battery
Black and Gold

What we liked about it:

• Refined design and build
• Great display
• Fantastic camera
• Impressive battery life
• Top-notch performance

What we didn’t:

• Mono speaker
• Underperforming fingerprint scanner
• Video recording needs better microphones

READ: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review