Earlier today, Samsung officially announced what most of us already knew was coming: the Galaxy S7 Active. It’s another member of a growing family of devices, all of which are designed to put a bit of ruggedness on a flagship device. This year isn’t any different, of course. The Galaxy S7 Active is indeed a powerful handset, and now there’s a shell protecting the goods inside.
I think one of the major bullet points for the device is that shatter-resistant display. Considering how important, and expensive, our devices are, making sure that nothing happens to them in our daily use is pretty important. A rugged phone can help reduce some of that anxiety. If there is anxiety.
I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to my smartphones. I’ve dropped my fair share, even just a couple of days ago, in fact. But the device has survived, and, more often than not, without any scratches. I’ve knocked on plenty of wood to keep this streak going, but it was interrupted and the clock reset to zero last year, when I finally did shatter a phone’s display.
Next year, rumor has it that Apple is going to launch another all-glass iPhone. They’ve done that already, with the iPhone 4, and its immediate successor, so it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. There are plenty of people asking for that not to the case, though, because sometimes accidents happen and having an all-glass phones does almost feel like someone’s asking for issues.
Apple would be happy to sell you some extended care for that phone, though.
Each use case is different out there. Someone might need a smartphone with a screen size that’s almost six inches, for example. And someone else might want a 4-inch phone. We may want great speakers, or we might not care about that at all. Every little piece or feature may sound good to one person, and not be at all interesting to another. Ruggedness is one of them.
Or, perhaps more specifically, how that ruggedness is available. The Galaxy S7 Active is for someone who wants a rugged phone, right out of the gate. If there are rugged cases out there for the Active lineup, that might seem silly, but if anyone wants to make sure that their phone has just about as much protection as possible, it seems like a pretty good idea.
Or, if you prefer to have a phone that doesn’t look like a juggernaut, and want to rock the standard Galaxy S7 for example, there are rugged cases out there that will try to keep your phone safe, while not sacrificing the design that you might prefer. Both scenarios are quite different, but ultimately the end result is the same: Protect the device.
Considering the Active family has been around for three generations now, it stands to reason that it’s at least a somewhat successful lineup. I wouldn’t imagine that the devices are flying off the shelves, but they must be selling in general for AT&T and Samsung to keep selling and making them, respectively.
So it got me curious after seeing the Galaxy S7 Active: Do you buy rugged phones or rugged cases? If you’re someone out there that needs to make sure their phone is safe and secure, and protected as much as possible just in case, how do you go about doing that? Do you only buy Galaxy S Active devices? Let me know!