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Samsung has made its latest play for your attention with the newest generation of its flagship smartphone – the Galaxy S7.
Not only that, but the edge is back too after a hugely successful introduction of the curved screen with the S6 edge last year.
At first glance Samsung has stuck with the design recipe that won it so many plaudits with the re-think of the Galaxy S line in 2015, but some key changes have been made – and old features reintroduced in some cases – that suggest that rather than resting on that success, there is still an urge to prove the S7 remains a serious rival to anything else out there.
Though for the most part things remain unchanged in terms of looks, there are a couple of neat details that are different on the S7.
The first is that the camera lens has been retracted more into the body. If you got a smartphone in 2015 you’ll have noticed that mildly annoying trend across many manufacturers of the camera lens sticking out of the rear. The S7′s has been shaved down and it makes the profile of the phone look a lot neater.
The front and rear panels of the phones have also been smoothed and curved slightly, which makes S7 and the edge both feel more like a single piece of material.
It fits your hand a little more comfortably, and you feel far less likely to drop it.
One of the key features Samsung is using to push the S7 and S7 edge is the camera. The Korean firm says that the focus has been placed on low-light conditions, and providing better images for your nights out and other such occasions.
To do this, the aperture in the rear camera lens has been increased – the key number here is that 25% more light is let into the lens, and this means brighter photos.
The pixels have also been increased in size, again increasing light, with Samsung saying this means around 56% more light can be seen in images than last year’s S6.
In practice it is genuinely impressive, with the amount of detail that suddenly appears in low-light images really surprising you. You suddenly see what you’ve been missing out on.
The focus is sharper too, and you can’t help but notice this when using the S7 yourself. There’s a dual pixel sensor in there now too, the first to be put in a smartphone, and a piece of technology normally reserved for DSLR cameras. So serious stuff.
As well as a camera revamp, Samsung has reintroduced some features that were dropped for last year’s S6. The devices are now fully waterproof once again – they can handle being in a metre of water for up to half an hour no less (which is ideal should you ever drop it in the sink!).
But crucially for some, expandable storage is back too. It’s been neatly placed in the SIM tray too so there’s no extra port on the device.
Both make sense as features, and both slot into the S7 with extreme ease.
There’s a striking familiarity to using the S7 and the S7 edge – both have very much stuck to what has served Samsung well already.
Of course now there is the added bonus of Android Marshmallow running on both.
Not only that, but what already appears to be a theme for 2016 – the “always on” display – is here too, enabling users to check the time without waking their phone.
Additionally, the user experience has been given a slight tweak on the edge.
The Edge Panel – a side menu that appears from the curved part of one side of the screen – has been extended outwards so that it can support two columns of apps.
Not only that, but it’s now big enough to become a news feed in itself, with Samsung confirming that third-party developers will be able to use this space for news stories and pictures.
Given that the Edge Apps, Tasks and People sidebar was a smart but ultimately little used feature on the S6 edge, this looks and feels like a clever way of utilising it.
Stepping away from phones, Samsung did have another piece of gadgetry for us in the form of the Gear 360.
This is a product that makes a lot of sense given Samsung’s close ties with Facebook and Oculus these days, as 360 cameras are what are used to create many VR experiences.
The camera is smart and stylish, the mini-tripod doubling nicely as a grip point when you hold it, and the camera is light enough to in no way hinder you moving around with it.
It’s heavier than action cameras such as the GoPro, but you don’t feel any more burdened while using it.
There’s a small display on the 360 that tells you the shooting mode you’re in – image or video – and there are small LEDS above each of the two fisheye lenses to tell you which of them you’re using as they can be operated individually for more “analogue” photo or video capturing.
There’s a dedicated app too, which can be used to remotely control the 360 – ideal when you’re using the tripod and stood away from the device.
Content you grab here can be uploaded to Facebook, YouTube and Google Street View too. You can use Gear VR to look around what you capture as well.
As a product then the Gear 360 fits neatly into the direction Samsung is heading – towards a more virtual reality – and the 360 gives the average user the chance to now not only experience it, but create some for themselves too.
