The number seven is widely recognized as a magical number. As a number that brings miracles. Sometimes, however, there is no need to look for any deeper meaning behind this number and it should simply be taken as another number that you can show on your fingers. So there are two views of this number, almost as there are two models of the new one Galaxy S7. The more important question, however, is which of the two meanings Samsung's new flagship model fits more. Is it just another mobile in the offer of the South Korean giant or is it finally a mobile that can do miracles? We looked for an answer to that while testing it, and we're bringing you the result right now.
Design
If you were to look for some groundbreaking design changes, you'd probably find very few. Galaxy The S7 bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor. Again we meet with a glass back cover and there is also an aluminum frame. However, it is noticeably thinner on the sides and no longer has the interesting shape we saw with the S6. This is mainly due to the rounded back cover of the Galaxy Note 5. From an ergonomic point of view, it is definitely a good solution, as the phone holds even better than Galaxy S6, even if it is a few millimeters wider in terms of dimensions. Emotionally, I could compare it to Galaxy S6 edge.
Well, because it is a curved glass, it is a relatively slippery surface and one has the urge to hold the mobile phone more firmly. What I also noticed is the lower scratch resistance of the glass. I noticed a scratch on the back cover during use, which didn't look very nice and confirmed to me that the back side definitely has a protective glass or packaging.
What I personally also really like is the camera, which now sits practically flush with the body of the phone. Two factors are mainly responsible for this. Firstly, it is the fact that the mobile phone is a bit rougher than its predecessor, due to a thicker battery and a new processor cooling system. Well, this is mainly due to technological progress in the field of photography, combined with a lower resolution.
Camera
While Galaxy The S6 boasted a 16-megapixel camera that offered the same, and sometimes better, quality photos than iPhone 6 with double resolution, u Galaxy The S7 is different. That is, mainly in the field of resolution. This has settled at 12 megapixels and is therefore the same as u iPhone 6S a iPhone SE. However, despite our concerns, the lower resolution did not result in quality degradation. On the contrary, photos taken in broad daylight from Galaxy The S7 are of the same quality as the predecessor.
However, the biggest charm came in the area of night photography. There, where Galaxy The S6 took pictures of the dark, so there Galaxy The S7 brings results that we could only dream of with mobile phones. I'm not lying when I say this is the best night camera for mobile! Galaxy The S7 can automatically adjust the lighting conditions so that things are visible in the photo, even in a dark space with only bits of light. For comparison, a photo from Galaxy S6 left, z Galaxy S7 on the right.
Well, there is also Pro Mode, in which you can set the shutter length and light transmission. The result? In the photo with a 0,5-second shutter you can see Orion, and in the photo with a 10-second shutter you will see dozens of stars and maybe, maybe even some planets. Well, at least it looks like Saturn is in the lower left. The presence of a 10-second shutter will definitely be appreciated by photographers who want to take some pictures of night trips. And if you want to be sure that the photo will be sharp, you set manual focus. This surprised me especially with the processing. At the moment when you select the focus level, you see a section of the image on the display, like on SLR cameras. And speaking of SLRs, there is the option to save photos in RAW format. The aforementioned Pro Mode also works when recording video, so you can perfectly set the characteristics of your video.
Performance
A high-end camera also needs high performance if it is to handle working with the operating system and several other applications at the same time. Samsung released two hardware revisions this time Galaxy S7 with the fact that each is available in a different market. We released a version with the Exynos 8890 processor, which is currently the most powerful processor in the world Androidov. It is a chip that was partly developed directly by Samsung. If I were to specify it, it is again a combination of two 4-core chips, except that the more powerful one was designed directly by Samsung. As a result, completely new possibilities are unlocked in terms of performance, and this was also evident in the benchmark.
This processor, combined with 4GB of RAM and the Mali-T880 graphics chip, achieved a rating in the editorial AnTuTu benchmark 126 787 points, almost double the Galaxy The S6 we had here a year ago. The score then was 69 points. However, you can recognize this performance only when games and other content load faster.
TouchWiz
In this case, Samsung and Google took care of the fluidity of the software. As said, the optimization of TouchWiz for the flagship model was taken care of by engineers directly from the division that develops Android. The reason? Google simply did not want a flagship Androidat the sawmill. And that they paid attention to optimization can be seen in normal use. Not once did I trip or fall. The loading of pre-installed applications is almost instantaneous and when I needed to open Phone, for example, it happened in an instant. No waiting, no loading. Visibly better compared to Galaxy S6, which was already quite fast. However, software support remains a question. After all, Samsung could pay more attention to the speed of issuing updates - which has been the target of criticism.
Visually, not much has changed on TouchWiz. Actually, it is quite similar to the one we could see on Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S6 edge+. One really noticeable change is the white color of the notification bar and the quick settings bar.
Well, there is also an improved, all-day form of the Always-On display. Actually, the point is that if the display is locked, the time is shown on it. But if you wear a smart watch, it will confuse you. You will see a display with a few pixels on and you want to unlock it by tapping on the display. However, this does not happen. You have to turn it on with the Home Button. Maybe it's u Galaxy S8 will change and there we will unlock the display by tapping on it.
By the way, when I mention the display - in terms of quality, it is practically identical to the team u Galaxy S6. In terms of diagonal, resolution, pixel density and color range, it is actually the same as it was a year ago. Despite the speculations, we won't find 3D Touch here, which doesn't matter, since it's with users iOS it was not a very popular feature. However, the camera hides the ability to shoot Live Photos similar to the team from iPhone 6s, titled "Motion Photography". On the other hand, this feature was available on flagship models Galaxy already in the past.
Drums
As I mentioned, so Galaxy The S7 also has a larger battery. However, this is not a fundamental difference. It should be taken into account that the mobile phone is almost twice as powerful and high performance takes its toll. Despite the higher capacity, the battery life is almost the same as the previous model - all day with a few minutes extra.
Summary
I personally feel that Galaxy The S7 is more of an improvement over last year's model, similar to how the model was a few years ago Galaxy S4. There's been an update to the design, which is now a bit sexier than a year ago, and we've seen an increase in performance, but that's not the main reason for the upgrade. The main reason for the upgrade lies primarily in the camera, which has undergone a drastic change and can be described as the best mobile camera at the moment. Definitely if it's night photos. For daytime use, automatic HDR will please, but in terms of quality, there is no need to expect miracles in comparison Galaxy S6. And the decisive factor is undoubtedly the return of microSD cards, which could not be inserted into the S6.
So who is it for? It will definitely find its owners among the owners of older models (Galaxy S5 and older) and I would definitely recommend it to people who want a top-notch camera in their phone. And it is also possible that switchers from the iPhone will go into it.
