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We are what we think & my blog entries reflect how I think. Have a sip of the poison of my mind.. It's not always lethal.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Hands-On With The Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge

It's like the wayward son finding his way back on course again, thank goodness.

Previously, I dissed the S6 series for having taken away the staple features the Galaxy series have always been celebrated for. Now, the S7 series is finally here and like an S Apologist, finally makes things right again - for the most part. And hot damn, that edged screen..

Fondling the S7 series in the store


Right off the bat, I'll just let it be known that I'm not interested in the smaller S7 with its 5.1 inches display and 3000 mAh capacity battery. I'm a phablet guy who enjoys a bigger screen and a bigger battery, so the bigger S7 Edge with its 5.5 incher and 3600 mAh battery (yum) is where it's at for me. I like it bigger and juicier, that's what she said.

The first thing that captures the attention when I approach the display sets at the Samsung store is the screen. And oh my, what a beautiful screen the S7 Edge is sporting. Even though the screen is 5.5 inches across, it does seem smaller than it actually is because of the edged display and thin bezels. It's almost like a visual trick to my eyes, at least. That screen is not only looking beautifully sharp, I love the way the contents flow off the edged parts, making them pop outwards and towards you. It's stunning, to say the least. But wait, you will have to deal with some occasional mistaps as well as some glare on the edged parts under certain lighting conditions and angles.

In the S7 Edge's case, beauty does come with small prices here and there. I guess the Edge is a phone that you will have to train yourself in how you hold the phone while using it; it certainly feels more delicate than your typical flat-screened phone. I can imagine that using a good case ought to alleviate the problem to a more manageable degree though, as well as lessening accidental mistaps on those edges, with the sides of the case also functioning as bezels of sorts.

Turning the phone over to its back disgusts me as expected, what with all the eewy fingerprints and grime stuck on the glass surface. I don't know about you, but I don't like glass backs because of this very reason but I use cases on my phones anyway, rendering supposedly premium glass builds moot for me. Since it's glass and glass is more fragile, you better protect your expensive investment for the long haul anyway. So much for glass.

OEMs will always tempt you to buy their phones by making you fall for the first visual impression, causing you not to ponder about the potential problems that might come with the physical look and build in the long run, so look beyond the physical beauty and think long term in real-life practical day-to-day usage as a discerning consumer before you plunk down that credit card at the cashier. As for screen protectors that works well for those edged surfaces, the jury's still out. See? Think a few paces ahead of what the OEMs want you to think feel on impulse.

All in all, the S7 Edge not only looks good, it feels good too in the hand with its thin bezels and width.

Software

The first thing I'll always do before I dive into the software of any display phone set is to hit the multitasking button and close out all running apps in the background. People have the tendency to leave their crap behind for the next person to clean up after them, you see. If the crap is too much, the phone might choke since RAM and running resources are not infinite.

With all the junk zapped, the S7 Edge sure feels zippy. Whether it can remain zippy for the long haul will depend on user habit and periodic management of the device, especially when all the apps the user needs have all been installed and used for some time - which is something​ to bear in mind when it comes to new phones. But from what I'm observing here, the apps and the launcher are running smoothly.

The white interface of the system UI is ok, but I prefer it dark instead. Well, there's the theme store to take care of that, but I wonder if the colour schemes of themes will stick if I install another launcher after that though. Firing up the gallery to look at the photos and videos is a treat, as the contents pop and flow off the edged screens beautifully. I'm​ liking that quite a bit. I'm not sure about glare at the edges under sunlight though, since I can't untether the display sets from their stands and bring them outside under the sun to see.

As I've mentioned, how long the running software and apps can remain smooth would be something which only long term usage can really tell, so I can't attest to that yet even though things seem smooth at the moment. But that's a mileage that varies among different users in terms of usage habits and user prudence, so you can't nail such a thing down and apply the same experience across the board.

Finally, I'm not sure why Samsung has removed the IR blaster which has proven quite convenient and rather fun for me on my Note 4 (the coffeeshops will never know it was me who switched their TV programmes whenever what I was seeing was boring as heck). But oh well, at least the SD card slot is back - something much more important to me than an IR blaster when all is said and done. It's nice having an IR blaster, definitely, but it's more of a want rather than a need for me.

Conclusion

I like the S7 Edge. I've mentioned in my other blog post that if I should switch over to another phone with a non-removable battery, then it has to have at least a 3500 mAh battery. In this area, the S7 Edge hits the mark.

Will I buy the S7 Edge? No I won't, even though I like the phone. I'm more of a Note person and if the S series has bloated to a bigger and more beautiful 5.5 inches screen and a bigger battery, perhaps the next Note might surpass 5.7 inches with reduced bezels and come packing more juice - A bigger curved screen with reduced overall physical size and being able to go a longer distance. Slurp.

But yeah, it's hard to pass up on the S7 Edge. It has turned my head to give it a second look, unlike the previous iterations before it. That's a good thing in my non-fiction book. From the handicapped S6 series, which to me personally, was a failed experiment, I think Samsung has redeemed themselves with the S7 series this time.