The latest in Samsung’s Galaxy series of flagship smartphones, the S7, was released earlier this year to acclaim around the world, with positive reviews from many big tech publications. About 10 million units shipped within a month of its release in March. J+ was recently given a chance to try out the S7 and S7 Edge at a special media event. Which one is best for you? Let’s take a closer look.

LOOK AND FEEL

The Galaxy S7 series continues Samsung’s design tradition of sleek and ergonomic phones. A curved metal alloy body, rounded back, curved sides, glass rear and reduced camera protrusion make for a comfortable feel in your hands.

IP68 certification means that they are dust tight and water resistant. In fact, they can still be used after falling in a pool of water. The phones can reportedly be submerged in shallow water for up to 30 minutes without problems–useful for pool side or beach use, or for making calls and taking photographs in the rain.

A 5.5-inch glass display is curved on its edges–a feature that gives the Edge its name. The regular S7, on the other hand, has a 5.1-inch display and flat glass. Both phones are available in black onyx, silver titanium, gold platinum or white pearl.

PERFORMANCE

Heavy users will be pleased that these phones use larger batteries than last year’s devices. The S7 is equipped with a 3,000 mAh battery, while the S7 Edge has a larger 3,600 mAh. Both get up to 12 hours of use, according to Samsung, and can be charged to full in about 100 minutes.

You get 4GB of RAM as well as a choice of 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage. Most notable is a new MicroSD storage slot that supports a staggering 200GB memory card so that you can always keep your data with you.

CPU and GPU are respectively 30 and 64 percent faster than their predecessors. Both use the latest Android Marshmallow 6.0 operating system and a custom 2.3GHz Exynos 8890 eight-core processor.

Both phones offer a 2560×1440 Quad HD Super AMOLED display, with different pixels-per-inch resolution (the S7’s 577 versus the S7 Edge’s 534), although the difference is indistinguishable to the human eye at that density.

CAMERA, PICTURES, VIDEOS

The improvements made to the cameras for the S7 and S7 Edge should make these phones gold mines for photo enthusiasts. A 1.7f-aperture lens makes for good night shots. You get high quality images despite low light.

Each comes equipped with a 5MP front-facing camera and a 12MP rear-facing camera, the latter of which is capable of recording 4K Ultra HD video in 2160p resolution and 720p slow-motion video at 240 frames per second.

The front camera comes with a “selfie flash” and offers a selfie panorama feature.

Other features include a “Motion Panorama”, which brings movement to traditional panoramic photos.

Some companies make certain imaging features available only on more expensive models. Not with Samsung. There are no qualitative differences between the cameras of the S7 and the Edge.

EXTRAS

The S7 and S7 Edge have notably been optimized for videogames. A Game Launcher allows you to manage battery life by cutting unnecessary notifications while playing. You can even take pictures of your gaming experience and share them.

A liquid cooling system takes inspiration from PC processing and allows for longer playtime. When there is overheating, the system will notice and heat pipes will automatically start to cool the processor.

Vulkan API on these phones allows for high-quality graphic performance on games, with no crashing or lagging.

VERDICT

Which should you get? Each provides more or less the same experience, but the S7 Edge has the larger display and longer battery life. However, with the advanced curved OLED technology comes a higher price tag. At the end of the day, it depends on your budget. Either way, you can’t go wrong with these phones.

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TECH SPECS

OS Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
Dimensions: 142.4x69.6x7.9mm, 152g or 150.9x72.6x7.7mm, 157g
AP: Octa core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.6GHz Quad)64 bit, 14 nm process
Memory: 4GB RAM (LPDDR4), 32/64GB (UFS 2.0) + microSD (up to 200GB)
Display: 5.1” Quad HD Super AMOLED 2560x1440 (577ppi) 5.5” Quad HD Super AMOLED 2560x1440 (534ppi)
Camera: Rear: Dual Pixel 12MP (F1.7), Smart OIS Front: 5MP (F1.7)
Battery: 3,000mAh or 3,600mAh
Payment: NFC, MST
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), MIMO (2x2), Bluetooth® v 4.2 LE, ANT+, USB 2.0, NFC
Sensors: Accelerometer, Proximity, RGB LightGeo-magnetic, Gyro, Fingerprint, Barometer, Hall, HRM

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