Test: Samsung Galaxy S7, the best Android smartphone – 01net.com

Samsung Galaxy S7: the promise

After a very successful flagship in 2015, Samsung continues its momentum by offering what feels like an evolution of the Galaxy S6. However, we find a slightly revamped design, more power, some highly anticipated features and above all a new photo sensor.

Samsung Galaxy S7: the

At first glance, difficult to differentiate the Galaxy S7 of his predecessor. The metal and glass are still on the agenda but as the aircraft released last year was perfectly flat on both sides, the back of the new flagship store is slightly curved. And in terms of grip, it changes almost everything. In addition to its visual appearance not unpleasant, this finish allows the smartphone much better hold. The breakdown insurance and breaks should be less essential this time, especially for those not wishing to protect their device by a shell.

A still perfect screen

At the back, the camera is much less than protuberant that of S6. Samsung is it managed to reduce its size? Certainly. The manufacturer may also (very) slightly cheated by adding a small layer thickness to the smartphone (barely 1 mm extra). The S7 is also a bit heavier than the S6 with 152g against 138g. In the hand, it is not disturbing anything. Generally, we must get to the evidence. It stands there definitely the best Android market smartphone, the Galaxy S7 Edge apart.

Despite a screen size – 5.1 inches – similar to the previous model, Samsung has managed to offer a significantly narrower and less top unit. It is therefore even less wasted space around the slab Super AMOLED Quad HD. The screen does not differ fundamentally from that of the Galaxy S6 but after all, why change something already close to perfection?

Not surprisingly, the picture is beautiful, very detailed and very colorful. The infinite contrast ratio and brightness reaches 600 cd / m² make optimal comfort, even when it comes to read or watch videos in full sun. Although this is not a very large size, the Galaxy S7 should also convince large consumers of videos, rather prone to PHABLET

the players have come to see what

however, there is the processor side change. In France, we are entitled to a new Exynos 8890 to 2.3 Ghz coupled with 4GB of RAM, against a 2.1 Ghz Exynos in with 3GB last year. Samsung boasts provide an apparatus 30% faster than its predecessor, with a gain of 64% graphics power. Since we must talk numbers, we compared the AnTuTu benchmarks. With the key to an increased overall score of 32% and 53% in 3D. So we can say that the manufacturer was quite realistic in its estimates.

With this level of performance, it is obviously not confine to Candy Crush Saga. Moreover, the device is clearly designed for the game with its new Game Launcher way to consolidate all its games in one place. Under Epic Citadel, one is near 60 frames per second. ultimately results very close to those of the Galaxy S6. Gourmet titles like Real Racing 3 or Asphalt 8 will run without a hitch. It certainly will take many months – even years – before the S7 finds too limited to fare turn a game in good conditions

All of these high-end components obviously make the user experience a pleasure, as the menus are fluid and reagents. RAM allows to take full advantage of multitasking without any slowdown. The only – very light – just the flat fingerprint sensor. After the arrival of devices like the Nexus 5X 5X or Honor, we expected a near-instantaneous release when the finger on the Home button. Yet there is still a slight delay, no one can be explained.

The three surprises from Samsung

In contrast, Samsung has booked real surprises at the Galaxy S7 equipment. The return of the seal, and even improvement with IP68 allowing immersion under 1.5m of water for 30 minutes. Without going to take a shower with his smartphone was enough to cope with rain showers.

autonomy has also been reworked, including a battery that goes from 2550 to 3000 mAh. The results of our measurements are up this gap. When the Galaxy S6 held in 8:33 versatile autonomy, it now spends more than 10h. In video playback, the latest model is 4:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. against his predecessor. As for Web surfing, it borders against the 20h 5:30 p.m. for the S6. With these advances, Samsung hits hard in one area that arouses more expectation on the part of users.

The third nice surprise is the return of the microSD slot for adding up 200 GB of extra storage. With an offer that is confined to a model of 32GB of storage – of which 7 are taken by the operating system, not a luxury. Samsung has however not integrated Adaptive Storage offered Marshamallow Android. An option to merge it with microSD storage internal storage and thus to install applications directly on the map. The brand justifies its decision by his fear that users remove important data from their device by mistake. One would however appreciated having the choice, especially when consuming lots of music and we love download Spotify or Deezer content to listen offline.

the overlay software also approximates the previous model, with a version of TouchWiz based Marshmallow. We regret that Samsung continues to impose its design, too far from the spirit of Google Material Design. There is also the option Always On that displays constantly certain elements on the screen, even when it is locked. Without being revolutionary, the overlay software offers some interesting progress, we further discussed at a dedicated test.

a small disappointment photo

If we were to remember only one thing from the press conference by Samsung – except in the arrival rockstar Mark Zuckerberg, this is certainly the shift at the picture. Going from 16 to 12 megapixels, the brand made a strong choice, to reduce the definition to leverage larger photosites and better aperture (f / 1.7). All in order to offer the best in low light possible result

After our photos tests, the results are not conclusive. If the photos are actually brighter in dark environnment, we slightly lost in details. Finally, the overall good quality remains the appointment, with different types of defects.
When the scene is well lit, smoothing operated by the software is sometimes too advanced, offering made less natural than on a Samsung Galaxy S6. We also note a slight loss of quality on the periphery of the image. Regarding the smoothing, it is hoped that this defect, certainly related to the software processing will be corrected later. In conclusion, the Galaxy S7 is excellent in photo, certainly among the best. But it seems that photos taken in good conditions suffer slightly the efforts to manage the dark environments. Finally, as announced by Samsung, the development is done with impressive speed. But those few tenths earned are they worth the effort? To find out, we compared the latest Samsung camera with competition in a dedicated test.

Meanwhile, the video is still very satisfactory, fluid, very well stabilized and rich details. The capture 4K is it, quite impressive. Despite slight deformation movements, rendering is very accurate, with colors perfectly managed.