Samsung Galaxy S7 edge review: We’ll be reviewing the flagship on a daily basis and giving our feedback here.

When I finally jostled my way through the MWC crowd to reach the Samsung press preview lounge, it was almost deja vu for me. It felt like it was 2015 and I was peering into the Samsung Galaxy S6 at the very same stall. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S7 series does look a lot like the S6 series that came a year before, and that is why in my hurried first impression I was not really impressed.

Now, with the phone launched in India, I have a review device and starting today, will tell you how it feels to live with the newest flagship in the market. I am using a 32GB version of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge looks a lot like the S6 edge+

Day 1

Out of the box, as I mentioned before, the S7 edge does look a bit too much like the s6 edge+, which I used extensively covering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley last September. The nostalgia aside, this phone still has a very contemporary design. I would have loved an all-metal body and think all flagships should have that differentiator for the price they charge.

Samsung has managed to push in the camera bump and it does not protrude as much as in the S6. Except for that the design hasn’t changed much if you can overlook the feel of the fingerprint scanner, which you will.

Once I set up the phone, the one thing that captured my attention the most was the always one screen. The S7 phones have the ability of switching on a black lock screen on which it can display a lot of basic information like time, missed calls, new messages and the like. There is even a set of screen art that is being created just for these black screens. Thankfully, this always on screen doesn’t seem to be sapping the battery much, which is good.

In terms of design, the S7 edge and S6 edge+ look pretty much alike.

Also, the display is something to die for. Samsung makes even the most boring Android screen look a bit more interesting thanks to its crisp display technology. And this one has a 5.5-inch 2K screen which make everything look better, even your own selfie.

I have set a fingerprint scanner as one of the first steps, and am regretting it a bit now. The phone fails to recognise my thumb 9 out of ten times and I am forced to key in the PIN to get in. This is strange, because fingerprint scanners are now a very common technology, and you should be able to get it right. I think we can safely assume that an update in the works.

Day 2

I went to sleep with about 50 per cent left on the phone. Eight hours later, I am up and the phone has lost just 10 per cent juice. So my fear that the always on screen will drain more battery seems to be unfounded. I guess the best idea would be to start using the phone as a night clock, so that a quick glance will show you if there has been an spurt of activity in the dead of the night.

But let’s get to the feature, users want to know more about.

The most buzz so far has been around the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge. The S6 series had a great camera, and I would have thought it was difficult to better that. But Samsung seems to have done just that, especially when it comes to low-light photography. This is something very close to my heart, because over the past decade or so I have focussed on clicking photos without the flash. Low-light performance does impress me.

And impress me did the S7 edge. I didn’t try anything fancy, just a shot of my TV remote on the bed with just the glow of the television as light in the bedroom. It is rare for a camera to give a sharp shot in a such a scenario, let alone a frame that showed the play of light to such perfection.

It is rare for any smartphone to offer a night shot so subtle. (pixellation, if any, caused by compression for web) Source: Nandagopal Rajan

The other feature users are excited about is the edge. The edge is not really new on a Samsung flagship, but this time it seems to have been fine-tuned enough to be really effective. For instance, you can add any app on the edge and there are two of these screens which you can access and populate with your most commonly used apps. Then there is the ability to add contacts to the edge like before. There is also the Yahoo News widget that brings top news to this edge.

Source: indianexpress.com