Galaxy S7 Edge Review: Samsung's Frustrating Futuristic Smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has a huge challenge – it needs to follow up one of the South Korean company’s most innovative handsets not just of 2015, but perhaps of the last few years. The Galaxy S6 Edge handed Samsung something more important than sales, market share, or revenue. It handed it public prestige, critical acclaim, and an air that the company could innovate on mass market hardware.

How do you follow that up? That’s the challenge the Galaxy S7 Edge faces. Has it succeeded?

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (image: Ewan Spence)

The answer to the ‘how’ is the easiest answer. Samsung listened to many of the concerns voiced about the S6 Edge and appears to have addressed them all. And then made everything a little bit better.

The design of the S7 Edge is perhaps the area where this process has had the biggest impact. The S6 Edge had a completely flat back, with only the camera lens bulge lifting the handset up from a table or desk. The curved long edges of the display came to an abrupt end with a very narrow band between the screen and the back. It was awkward to pick up, and there was little surface area to get a good grip of the device.

That has changed on the S7 Edge. The back of the smartphone has a gentle curve that sits much easier in the palm of my hand. This lifts the chassis edge slightly higher off a table, and makes the smartphone easier to pick up, and the edges also have a slight curve so the phone is easier and more secure in a normal grip.

As for the curved screen, the change in physical size to an effective 5.5 inches opens up Samsung’s TouchWiz interface and the amount of physical space works well with Android Marshmallow. The screen curves more than the S6 Edge ever managed, and thanks to Samsung’s own Super AMOLED technology it’s incredibly bright and vibrant. It’s almost cartoonish in color reproduction, and that might turn a few people away, but it does help bring a sense of fun to the handset.

Which is good, because fun would be the key word I use to describe the design of the S7 Edge chassis and screen.

The screen is not without issue. By curving the edges away, Samsung has created a UI issue that is rarely addressed. While Samsung’s software is usually smart enough to put a ‘gutter’ along the edges so vital areas are not placed in the curved portion, there are many times where the curve has been a distraction and annoyance. Framing a picture when the edges curve away; working with a strong light source that causes unexpected reflections; full screen video playback; and pretty much any application where the UI elements are close to the edge of the screen. Annoyingly one of the biggest culprits of the latter are Google’s own apps (Gmail I’m looking at you).

But there are times where the curved edge threatens to change the paradigm of smartphones altogether. Samsung almost managed that last year. The initial S6 Edge software showed promise but needed more functionality to be added. Unfortunately it took until the update to Marshmallow for this to happen… The update that was the software for the S7 Edge. I hope Samsung don’t wait until the S8 Edge to add to the software on the S7 Edge – it deserves to be innovated throughout the year.

Last year I was worried that the edge software available out of the box would be it, and there would be no changes. That proved to be true for almost a year. I fear the S7 Edge may suffer the same fate, and that would be a shame.

MicroSD support has returned to the flagship handsets. Stripped out of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge and leaving people with just the internal storage selected when they purchased a device, this was seen by many as a cut too far. While some markets rarely need microSD cards (where online storage is plentiful and data bandwidth is cheap) others use microSD card as a backup location, to transfer files between machines, and also as a trading tool to sell content on to others. It’s a very versatile solution that many treasure. The return in the S7 Edge (and the S7) is both welcome, and gives Samsung an air of ‘it’s okay we listened to you.’

The S7 Edge retains Samsung’s smart use of IP68 waterproofing and dustproofing. It really is the ultimate peace of mind knowing your phone can handle the worst of the weather and the bar on a night out

The S7 Edge retains wireless charging (something I am very glad to see) but has increased the battery to 3600 mAh. Couple that with the improved efficiency of Android Marshmallow (including the doze mode that stops too many background apps waking up and quietly going online to pull down information) and you will make it through the day with a little bit to spare. There’s nothing stunning in the battery life of the S7 Edge, the bigger battery simply ensures that the handset delivers the ‘full day’ as expected by many before an overnight top up.

If you do have a wireless charging pad, then the S7 Edge is going to be sipping on power all day, and that makes a huge difference. It’s convenient, easy to use, and something that you don’t actually have to think about. As long as you pop your phone down by your desk on a charging pad, all is good

With basic charging pads available for ten dollars or so, I would strongly recommend purchasing one.

Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is still here, with little change from last year’s implementation. Because of Samsung’s dominant position in the Android market, TouchWiz is Android for many users. There are some subtle tweaks, the icons are less artistic and clearer in design, the settings dialog (always a flood of choices) has a more logical layout, and it all feels usable with no surprises.

It may need a decent level of specifications to run, but the S7 Edge ships with either a Qualcoom SnapDragon 820 or Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 (the two system on chip sets have different LTE frequencies, so this determination is on a carrier-by-carrier basis). And being Android if you have a huge issue, just switch in another launcher.

Samsung’s own software continues to be bundled alongside equivalent choices from Google. There’s little choice here if Samsung wants to continue to develop its own cloud services and relationship with Galaxy users. Google’s software comes as standard with access to the Google Play store, so a manufacturer either gives up the ground to Mountain View, or doubles up the apps. Samsung has chosen to double up.

It’s still confusing for a new user to be presented with two options for a web browser, two email clients, two gallery applications, and it is a weak point in the presentation of the device. Once someone has spent time with the device they’ll settle on which application to use. Given the concerns over the curved edge, and the shortcuts that feature in some of the edge software are targeted at Samsung’s apps, I think that many will bias towards the South Korean applications. The good news is that they are as competent as Google’s apps (and in some cases, such as ad blocking and privacy in the web browser) there are benefits to using the alternatives – the main one being they have been written with the assumption that the screen has a curve.

And then there’s the camera. More than microSD, more than waterproofing, more than the curved screen, it’s the imaging capability of the current Galaxy S7 family that is Samsung’s strongest card.

Samsung has pulled the resolution back to 12 megapixles, but the increase in quality and speed more than makes up for the loss of a big number. Autofocusing uses all the pixels in the sensor, as opposed to a handful of pixels used by a rival handset. The sensor captures enough data that shooting in RAW mode is a viable option, and once you switch off the automatics the Pro mode has all settings that you would expect on a high-end digital camera.

I still think I would have liked a dedicated shutter button on the device, but a double tap on the home button to launch the camera offers quick access, while you can still use the volume keys to take the picture with a stable grip.

The S7 Edge follows the Asian trend of biasing images towards bright colors that pop out of the image. Coupled with the OLED screen the pictures on-screen are incredibly vibrant. That reduces a touch when you view them on another device, so be aware. If it does upset you, you can dial it back in pro mode or in post-processing if required.

The smaller resolution of images means that each sensor pixel is gathering more information than previous Samsung devices, and that means better performance in low light. The S7 Edge improves on the S6 Edge, and arguably the image-stabilised iPhone 6S Plus, in low-light pictures with sharp detail without overexposing any moderately lit areas.

Samsung already had the lead in smartphone imaging in 2015. The S7 Edge (and the vanilla S7) extend that advantage. If your only consideration is imaging, this is 

your device – you just need to decide if you want the curved screen or not.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has shown that Samsung can produce innovative technology on mass market handsets. It has shown that it can listen to consumer concerns. And it has shown it can sell the latest iteration of its flagship.

For the users the Galaxy S7 Edge is a little bit more of a mixed bag. Yes the curved edge looks gorgeous, and the edge apps are finally practical and are more than a gimmick. You need to appreciate a larger device to appreciate the 5.8 inch screen (curved or not), and while benefits such as battery life and a gorgeous looking screen will come as standard, you still have a device that can be awkward in a single-hand grip to use, even if it is secure while being held.

But the curve gets in the way doing normal smartphone tasks. Reading texts, following social media profiles, a little bit of video streaming, are all impacted by the curve. The question on ‘curve or not’ turns the S7 Edge into a fashion choice rather than a practical choice. There’s no doubt the S7 and S7 Edge both have the capability to be great smartphones, the question is whether you want something that looks futuristic.

I think I’m being just a little bit ‘Grandpa Simpson’ with this, because there is a demand for the Edge variant. It is an engineering marvel that offers a powerful smartphone that feels futuristic… And that’s the S7 Edge in a nutshell. Practical, powerful, with just a bit of Buck Rogers.