The first few days of the S7 being available has already proven what a successful device it's been. If you're still on the fence, let me share my first 72 hours with the Samsung Galaxy S7.
If you don't know what the S7 is, well here's basically a rundown: the Samsung Galaxy S7 is the newest generation of the Galaxy S line. It has the same 5.1-inch QuadHD Super AMOLED display as the S6 but has been slightly overhauled in just about every aspect. It looks different partly due to the new Onyx Black color on this model but they also added a curve on the rear end just like the Galaxy Note 5.
The S7 is now waterproof and has an even larger battery at 3,000 mAh. Also, the camera has been upgraded to a lower megapixel count but with larger pixels which should be providing excellent low light images and video. Because of the new waterproofing and larger battery on the S7, the S7 is a bit thicker than before but it's also a nice way to make that camera hump disappear.
The S7 is running the latest version of Android Marshmallow with Samsung's UI, formerly known as TouchWiz; which proves to be the most refined and fastest version of it we've seen. Overall, the S7 is the ultimate refinement of the S6 in basically every single way. And so far, the S7 has proven to be a fantastic device. The first thing to bring up is just how fast this phone is. The Snapdragon 820 is an impressive chipset on the Galaxy S7 with Android Marshmallow and it's proven to be the most powerful Android device I've used thus far. Anything from gaming to hardcore multi-tasking, the S7 can basically handle it with no problem. And battery life is just as good. You can thank the larger battery but also give credit to Doze, a feature built-in to Android Marshmallow and finally the Galaxy S7 devices can tap into its battery-saving goodness.
In the past three days, I've not killed this phone. Not even once. At its worst, I got down to maybe 25%; that's with no power saving mode on. This, by far, is the most impressive feature and a complete 180-degree turn from the Galaxy S6 last year. One thing to mention is the Always On battery drain. With Always On on, the battery drain is noticeable. Maybe about a percent or two per hour. If that does bother you, you can always turn it off in the Quick Settings.
The camera is a pretty big deal as well. It's a new 12MP unit which may sound more whimsy on paper but it's a serious contender. While its full resolution pictures are now 4x3 instead of that glorious 16x9 from last year, the images do look really good. Though it does tend to oversaturate in well-lit conditions. Though in low light conditions, it does a whole lot better with color rendition and not oversaturating them. Its 4K UHD video is also really impressive. OIS still looks robotic and not as smooth as the G5's OIS video but the video quality itself is unmatched. The closest thing in terms of video quality to the Samsung Galaxy S7 is the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus 4K video.
Other things I've noticed with the S7 is the speakers. They're not fantastic and that's mainly due to the waterproofing. Also, the phone is still slippery as hell and will slide all over flat surfaces with ease and there's plenty of bloatware pre-installed by the carrier and in this case, it's Verizon bloatware. But that's basically it. A full review of the Galaxy S7 is coming soon.
