The photo has become one of the favorite battlefields of the manufacturers and the domain has long been dominated by the iPhone, Samsung’s recent advances have allowed him to take the lead with its Galaxy S6.
Announced at Mobile World Congress in February and only available on the French market, the Galaxy S7 promises superior results with a new type of sensor, focal even greater angle, brighter light, results in low light advertised as “revolutionary”, etc. Finally it is to promise, but what about in real life?
The promise of new sensor
The Sony sensor (or Samsung depending on the region) this Galaxy S7 has 12 Mpix, ie 25% less than the previous generation (the GS6 had 16 Mpix).
this definition of reduction aims to deliver better results in low light: the surfaces of the two sensors are roughly equivalent so that the pixels of the GS7 are larger and therefore recover more light. We must add that this new generation of sensor adds a new development process: the contrast detection system, standard in smartphones, adds a mode called phase correlation involving – and this is a first in a telephone – all the sensor pixels
clear. Galaxy S7 promises clean shots in low light and pair two types of autofocus to offer the design the fastest possible item
.
Autofocus: fast and furious
not
Do not turn around the bush: the Samsung Galaxy S7 has the most rapid and accurate autofocus in the world of smartphones. Tripping is instantaneous and the “old” iPhone 6 Plus reference we have sometimes seems a little soft and imprecise next (we had repeatedly criticized the iPhone to focus the shutter speed to the quality of the development).
in the game of setting developed, the Galaxy S7 is faster than the Galaxy S6 and any iPhone, but it is also more efficient, with lower waste rates. Fast but not furious, that’s exactly what he was told
Colors and details: jaundice and-emphasis
Let’s go to the heart the subject and talk about image quality. And the least we can say is that the photographs lack natural for two reasons: first, a strong yellow dominance is noted in skin tones as in low light, And two, the digital processing details is very strong. It’s as if Samsung wanted to make up for the loss by definition detail enhancement.
If this goes well enough on a super bright OLED screen and flashy colors such as Galaxy S7, on a computer screen, the record is less flattering. It is very far from the natural color of the iPhone, an area where Apple smartphones always shine. Fortunately for Samsung – and for us! – This kind of defect is easily corrected in software. It remains whether Samsung will perceive the need.
Note however that the software processing is not bad, far from it – it is actually pretty good. What is however mediocre it is the quality of initial image that the couple produces sensor / optics as evidenced by the quality of the RAW file, the “digital negative.” – We will return
Accuracy of image below the competition
in automatic mode, the clichés of the Galaxy S7 are far from the level of punch – called “dive” picture language – of its predecessor Galaxy S6. The images are flatter, less in relief, less natural and less accurate than in the past.
as for our reference in the field, the LG G4, it literally sinking the Galaxy S7. Fortunately for Samsung devices, the G4 is much slower to focus in the darkness as in daylight.
4/3 ratio and wide angle
Galaxy S7 sensor breaks with the 16 / 9th of the S6 and takes the traditional 4/3 to almost all compact and other smartphones. In front of this sensor, optics is a very wide angle of 26 mm, wider than 28 mm from the previous model.
The problem is that the lowest definition of the sensor and the 4/3 involve cropping the original image to obtain a landscape 16/9. Cropping has the effect of lowering the resolution of 12.2 megapixel (4032 x 3020 points) to 9.1 megapixel (4032 x 2268 points), loss of even more damaging than the S7 images lack sharpness.
Fashion Pro manual settings and RAW file
While the Galaxy S6 just beginning to receive Android Marshmallow 6 and the new application version Photo Samsung, the Galaxy S7 are equipped with these two software when opening the box. Far from being harmless, these updates allow Galaxy S7 users (and soon GS6 so) to take advantage of saving files in RAW format, in addition to traditional JPEG file.
> For the less experienced of you, know that ” raw “means” raw, brut “in English and can be compared to our old negative film. Flatter and less marked than the digital file “developed” in JPEG, RAW file contains more information, including the high and low lights.
This format offers, for some time and the use of specialized software like Adobe Lightroom, DxO Optics Pro (or Raw Therapy for our friends in the free software), the ability to “develop” a final image with more character than Jpeg automatically interpreted by the device . One can thus give relief to raise a cloud or shadow of a tree, difficult operations or impossible to achieve with the Jpeg which is only a compressed file.
Good point for Samsung, the RAW is the universal DNG format that has already already compatible with RAW development software. Note that, maturity issue of the application or interference between the Western astrological calendars and Chinese, we suffered several time of the random deactivation of the “Pro” mode. Hopefully a software patch arrives quickly.
Lower lights: no completed contract
This is the second disappointment with the quality pure image: the pictures in low light the Galaxy S7 are not superior to the Galaxy S6, far from it.
better definition of the S6 enables it to retain more or less the same level of detail and especially the colors are better preserved on the S6 S7 when the turns yellow and red, especially on the skin. Once again the play of colors is the iPhone that gives the most natural results.
Incidentally, the optical stabilization of our iPhone 6 Plus test seems very effective since it is automatically set to a quarter of a second (1 / 4s) to avoid getting into too high sensitivities, a long time exposure shows the confidence of Apple engineers in stabilizing lens. On this iPhone sensor may be older but the hardware and software processing are damn effective!
We have become demanding
Do not get me wrong . Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge smartphones are good photo and take the comparison with the iPhone 6 / 6S, each of the two terminals with its strengths and weaknesses
the problem is that the gain autofocus performance is less important than the loss in image quality. Especially an older device like the Galaxy S6 product finest files! This turning back of the image quality is not acceptable for a high-end terminal and even less for the brand that had the lead in this area.
If the Galaxy S7 is generally a good smartphone, he gives in to his predecessor palm best cameraphone. And the risk of being thrust by the competition that is not likely to sit idle.
All our photos on our Flickr gallery
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