Apple iPhone 7 is roughly 7-month away so it’s not fair to put the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S7 and 5-month-old iPhone 6S on the table for a comparison. But this is a never-ending game because Samsung and Apple deliberately design their new products launching date roughly half a year apart – to force consumers to choose and buy.

 

If you can’t decide now and wait until September for iPhone 7, then you’ll be in a constipation period because in another 6-7 months, a newly and probably better Galaxy S8 will be launched. Therefore, unless you’re an Apple fanatic, the newly introduced Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge present tons of reason to get them. Here’re some of the reasons why you should grab it.

 

{ 1 } Water Resistance

Believe me, smartphone in a not so distance future will be scratch and fire resistance, not to mention it could make coffee (*grin*). But for now, the latest Samsung gadgets – Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge – are “completely” waterproof. Unlike Galaxy S5, the new S7 and S7 Edge carry a resistance (water and dust) rating of IP68.

What this means is you can accidently (or deliberately) drop S7 or S7 Edge in water at depth of 1.5-metre (150-cm) and can survive for 30-minutes. Although iPhone 6S was said to be water-resistant, they’re not truly waterproof. Apple made them far more resistant to liquid damage than past iPhones but iPhone 6S doesn’t carry the IP68 rating badge, at least not yet.

 

 

{ 2 } MicroSD Expandable Memory

Yes, Samsung made a huge U-turn eating humble pie. If the removal of expandable storage was the sole reason you jumped ship, Samsung heard you and regreted its stubborness. The MicroSD is back – expandable up to 200GB. The MicroSD cards fit alongside the Nano SIM card in a redesigned hybrid SIM tray.

Another reason why the Korean tech giant thought it’s time to return the expandable storage to its Galaxy gadgets could be the improvement in the read-write speeds technology. Still, S7 doesn’t support adoptable storage – a feature in Android Marshmallow – which allows a device to adopt the microSD as internal storage and use it as one block of memory (similar to one partition).

 

 

{ 3 } Performance

Depending on region, you’ll either have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (US) or Exynos 8890 (parts of Europe and Asia) powering Galaxy S7. Exynos 8890 is an octa-core CPU with four cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and four at 1.6 GHz. With a hefty 4 GB of RAM, Galaxy S7 should easily be able to handle any mobile game or multitasking you could throw at it.

In fact, Samsung claims the new S7 has a 30% more powerful CPU and 64% more powerful GPU than the S6. The Snapdragon 820 is fast, stable, and doesn’t overheat like the Snapdragon 810 many manufacturers skipped last year. Heck, S7 and S7 Edge could be one of the most powerful smartphone to date.

 

 

{ 4 } Liquid Cooling System

Unlike laptop or notebook, smartphones do not include fans simply because they don’t have the luxury of space. Although tablets lack fans, they often have ventilation holes, but phones typically lack them. After Microsoft revealed its liquid cooler for the Lumia 950 and 950XL, Samsung is now introducing its liquid cooling system to the Galaxy S7 family.

Calling it the “air conditioning for your phone”, the liquid absorbs heat from the S7’s processor where it is vaporized. The vapor containing the heat moves through the tube away from the source of the heat and condenses back into a liquid where the heat is dispersed. Apple iPhone tackles overheating problem by switcing itself off automatically.

 

 

{ 5 } Faster Auto-Focus & Better Photos

With consumers crazy about selfieing, Samsung knows where to strike. It has stopped from the megapixel race with competitors but focus in squeezing more from camera. Both S7 and S7 Edge come with 12-megapixel “Dual Pixel” camera. Tackling the 2 biggest challenges modern smartphone cameras face, S7 enables you to take better photos in low-light and can focus faster.

Using a new Sony IMX260 camera sensor that captures more light by using larger 1.4μm pixels, Samsung says the Galaxy S7 is capable of capturing 95% more light than the IMX240 sensor found in the Galaxy S6. It also uses all of the 12 million pixels to act as focus pixels (a feature in full-sized DSLRs). The end result – faster, more accurate auto-focus. There’s no more camera bulge this time.

 

 

{ 6 } Always-On Screen

Although looks like a minor tweak not worth mentioning, this improves everyday usability. With Galaxy S7 display screen, you don’t have to press button just to check basic information such as date, time or new notifications. All these information are always displayed on the screen, so every ounce of valuable battery juice can be saved.

Samsung says the features only consumes half a percent of battery per hour in its tests, and if the proximity sensor is covered, as when the phone is in a bag or pocket, the screen will shut off. It is not a motion-activated display, like Motorola’s Active Display or Google’s ambient display, but remains on all the time.

 

 

{ 7 } Fast Charging & Charge Wirelessly

As compare to iPhone 6S which takes roughly 3-hour to charge, Galaxy S7 can be turbo-charged to the fullest in just 1½ hour – 50% faster the iPhone. The benefit of fast charging can only be felt when you’re on the run where some reports say you could pump 60% of battery juice in 30-minute of charging.

Like the S6 and S6 Edge phones, the new S7 support both Qi and PMA wireless charging standards. However, the latest S7 phones from Samsung can be charged wirelessly “faster” than the regular wired charging, at least that was what the Korean company claims. Regardless, wireless charging is still a cool feature to have.

 

 

{ 8 } Bigger Battery

The S7 and S7 Edge have a 3000mAh and 3700mAh battery pack respectively, respectively. Galaxy S6 possesses only 2,550 mAh while iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have 1,715 mAh 2,750 mAh respectively. Sure, a bigger battery doesn’t necessary mean longer life. But the fact remains a bigger battery packs more juice power.

Samsung is known to come with lots of junks pre-installed. It’s not the battery’s fault if the software sucks the juice faster than iPhone. With a bigger battery bundled into S7, hopefully more tweaks could be done to the default Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and its related junkware to boost battery’s usability.

 

 

{ 9 } Design & Build Quality

There’s little change from its predecessor, the Galaxy S6, but it’s still as sexy as before with its 5.1-inch screen, aluminium sides and Gorilla Glass 4-coating on the face and rear. The back edges, however, are curved toward the frame, in a similar style to the Galaxy Note 5. This improves grip and makes the S7 feel smooth and comfortable to hold.

The Galaxy S7 is a little thicker than the S6, but the difference is negligible, and considering the new S7 comes with a bigger battery (additional 450mAh) the slight thickness is worth it. It’s QHD resolution – 2,560 x 1440 pixels – is simply awesome.

 

 

{ 10 } Free Gear VR Headset (with Pre-Order)

As a bonus, Samsung is throwing a sweetener at MWC in Barcelona. When you pre-order a Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge between Feb 23 and March 18, you’ll get a free Gear VR headset. Additionally, you’ll get 6-game bundle, worth US$50 for free too. The virtual reality gear is compatible with S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5 to play VR videos and games.

The original Gear VR cost US$150 and the free Gear VR you’re getting with this pre-order was the 2015 edition worth US$99. If you want more VR accessory, Samsung is also selling a new standalone “Gear 360 camera” which allows you to shoot 360-degree video that can be uploaded and seen in Gear VR. Gear 360’s pricing, however, is unknown and will be available in the second quarter only.

 

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February 23rd, 2016 by financetwitter

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