Samsung’s best phone yet: the Galaxy S7 Edge reviewed

Battery

With an improved camera, we look to the battery to see if Samsung has managed to make strides in this department, because this is one area that users have felt the pinch for some time.

It seems the more our phones do, the worse the battery life becomes, and so it has become normal to either carry around a charge cable or power brick (or both) on a regular basis.

Fortunately, that’s an area Samsung has apparently been working on, and in the Galaxy S7 Edge, we’re seeing a large 3600mAh battery, bigger than the 3000mAh in the 5.7 inch Galaxy S6 Edge+ (plus), and bigger again than the 2600mAh in the 5.1 inch Galaxy S6 Edge.

Take this and combine it with more optimisation on the part of the rest of the phone and you find a solid one day of life.

It’s not just “one business day” with enough life for the nine to five and not much outside of it, but close to a full 24 hours if need be, with both our wired (wired headphones on 3.5mm jack, no Bluetooth) and wireless (Bluetooth headphones, Bluetooth wearable) rundown tests yielding the day of life users have come to expect, but usually miss out on.

Power users will likely see a little less, but a day of life isn’t bad at all.

We’ve certainly seen the flagships phones falter in this department, and none of Samsung’s models last year could survive a day of rundown, so to see both do it with either Bluetooth on or off is a positive step.

…and then some

There’s more in the Galaxy S7 Edge, and you merely have to pay attention, because in this phone, it is quite clear that Samsung has been listening to feedback from the previous two generations of phones, while also bringing a few new tricks to the table.

Let’s start with expandable memory, because this is back after Samsung tried to pull the wool over people’s eyes in the previous generation.

That was a feature omission we never really understood, and when Samsung opted for storage specifics of 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB, we didn’t really get where Samsung was going.

After all, this was a company that had pushed expandable storage in its phones for years, and yet now was saying that it didn’t matter. It made no sense!

Fortunately, this year Samsung has come to its senses and found a way to include microSD storage, and it’s on the same tray as the nanoSIM slot, something we’re beginning to see from other manufacturers, too.

Granted, overseas variants may see support for two SIMs on this tray, but we’re less fussed about that, and happy that we can install a microSD to expand on that 32GB storage, which will be super handy for VR videos, games, excess apps, and of course the high-resolution 24-bit music that the Galaxy S7 continues to support as well as some neat sound control to make your audio sound a little more full if need be.

Water-resistance has also returned, a feature that went missing last year after the “made for Australia” slogan took a backseat when Samsung removed IP certification from its phones.

That was a shame, but it’s back in this one, and while the glass and metal body can be a bit slippery and prone to fingerprints, you can at least wash any dust or prints off under the tap without fear that it will break the device.

We sure did.

Those two features were the most talked about things missing from the previous generation, but more has been added, while other bits and pieces have stuck around.

Wireless charging is one of those, with Qi compatibility still a thing, and if you have one of Samsung’s Wireless Fast Chargers, you’ll find a speedy cordless charge is possible.

If you don’t, worry not, for Samsung will be selling an accessory to handle this, though it’s optional, and you can still charge quickly using the wired “fast charge” block for the wall as per normal.

The VR side of things is still here too, and this is the first accessory we’ve seen from a previous year that really plays nicely with the new phone.

Indeed, the Gear VR for consumers — the third Gear VR headset, actually, and the one that works with any S6 or Note 5 handset — also plays with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, meaning you not only have an expandable phone, but you have an expandable phone that can work with a Samsung virtual reality headset.

That’s all kinds of cool!