Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review - costly curves

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge were easily two of the best smartphones of 2015, but they also suffered a severe case of similar-itis, as they not only shared the same screen size but they also used the same internal components as well. For us, that made the S6 Edge the clear winner, as its superior looks and gorgeous curved screen meant this was the phone we'd rather have in our pocket, even if it was significantly more expensive than regular S6.

This year, Samsung's taken a leaf out of Apple's book, as the S7 Edge has a larger 5.5in display, giving it another 0.4in of screen real estate over the 5.1in Galaxy S7. They still have plenty in common with each other, as both handsets once again use the same processor, camera and resolution, but the S7 Edge's enlarged screen size finally puts some much-needed distance between each handset to help make it feel like a more obvious upgrade over its flat sibling. 

Design

That's not the only lesson Samsung's learned for 2016, however, as both the S7 and S7 Edge address many of the complaints we had with the entire S6 family. There's still no removable battery, but the S7 Edge now has a microSD slot that lets you expand its 32GB or 64GB of default storage by up to 200GB, and it also has IP68-certified dust and waterproof protection, making it more both flexible and more practical than either of its predecessors.

For some, this alone might be reason enough to sign up for one of Samsung's new generation of smartphones, especially if you're a Galaxy S5 owner who's been deliberately holding off due to the lack of expandable storage. That said, one thing the S7 Edge definitely hasn't improved on is the sheer number of smeary fingerprints it picks up on its glass-plated rear. Grime and grease isn't the best look for a flagship handset, and there were several times during testing when I actually longed for the faux leather rear of the S5. Still, it is, at least, easy to hold, as its curved sides and metal frame converge into a bit of a harder, flatter edge than the regular S7, providing a decent amount of grip despite its large footprint.

Edge Screen

The curved display looks as stunning as ever, and Samsung's made a number of improvements to the Edge Screen software, too. Activated by a simple thumb swipe over the small translucent tab on the side of the screen, the Edge panels are now wider, allowing them to hold more information, and have a greater number of uses. The app shortcut panel and quick access contact page make a welcome return, but you can also have Edge screens that are now solely dedicated to internet bookmarks, a compass, the weather and S Planner to name just a few.

^ The People Edge (far left) gives you quick access to your favourite contacts; the Tasks Edge (centre left) lets you jump straight into certain tasks; My Places (centre right) promotes certain apps depending on your location; and Quick Tools (far right) gives you a full compass

Our favourite new addition is the Tasks Edge. Maybe in response to Apple's Force Touch technology, the Tasks Edge lets you instantly jump to certain phone functions, such as composing a text message or email, viewing your internet bookmarks, creating a calendar event, taking a selfie, or quick dialling specific contacts. There's even a My Places Edge screen, which pinches elements of HTC's Sense 7 Home interface to promote three of your most-used apps that are geared toward your current location. For instance, if you're at Work, the My Places Edge screen might show S Planner or Google Docs, but it might switch to Google Play Music and Google Maps when you're out and about.

All these are handy extras, but considering its two best Edge screens borrow features we've already seen elsewhere (and to arguably greater effect), it suggests that even Samsung seems to be struggling to give its Edge screen purpose. While there's no denying that some of the Edge screens are very convenient, most of the shortcuts (excepting the Tasks Edge) could easily be replaced by adding additional widgets on the home screen. The Edge screens do have the added advantage of helping to reduce the amount of clutter on your home screens, but I'm still not convinced they're an absolute must-have feature yet.

Display

One thing you needn't doubt, however, is the quality of the S7 Edge's display, as Samsung's 5.5in, 2,560x1,440 Super AMOLED panel is, once again, best in class. It covers a full 100% of the sRGB colour gamut along with pitch perfect 0.00cd/m2 black levels. Images look stunning on the S7 Edge, and its ultra-high contrast ratio captures plenty of detail, too, so you can be sure your photos and videos will always look their best.

As per usual, Super AMOLED displays aren't as bright as their LCD counterparts, as evidenced by the S7 Edge's peak brightness level of 361.01cd/m2. However, as with the S7, the S7 Edge has a clever trick of being able to boost its brightness in very bright sunshine when it's set to auto. To test this, I shone a torch over its adaptive light sensor, which promptly made its peak white levels shoot up to 503cd/m2. This is around what I'd expect to see from an LCD smartphone, so to see this on a Super AMOLED display is pretty impressive, combining the brightness of an LCD when you really need it with the rich, vibrant colours of Super AMOLED when you don't.

Samsung's also introduced an always-on element to the S7 Edge's display this year, which shows the time, date and battery status when the phone's in sleep mode. This is incredibly useful if all you want to do is have a quick glance at the time, and it doesn't use much battery either, as Samsung's Super AMOLED panel only illuminates the pixels it needs to show the information instead of the entire backlight. 

Performance

The S7 Edge's performance is equally unparalleled, as its octa-core 2.3GHz Samsung Exynos 8890 processor and 4GB of RAM shot right to the top of our benchmark leaderboard. In Geekbench 3, for example, it scored a massive 2,147 in the single core test and 6,323 in the multicore test, putting it neck and neck with the S7.

It's interesting to note, though, that the S7 and S7 Edge still can't beat Apple's iPhone 6S when it comes to the single core test, as both handsets are a good four hundred points slower than the 6S in this respect, showing that they're slightly less efficient when it comes to low-level tasks. The S7 family have the edge in multicore performance, as the iPhone 6s only managed 4,417 here, but it's clear that Samsung's Exynos chip still has room for improvement despite being significantly faster than every other Android phone you can buy right now – although this, too, might change once we get the LG G5 in for testing, as this will be coming with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 820 chipset. 

For the time being, though, the S7 Edge's GPU provides a big step-up over existing Snapdragon 810 handsets, as it finished GFX Bench GL's offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test in 2,296 frames, giving it an average frame rate of 37fps. It's essentially the same score we saw on the S7, which is no surprise given the identical hardware, but it's still a great phone for mobile games, and one that will happily handle anything Google Play can throw at it.

Web browsing was super-fast, too. With a Peacekeeper score of 1,528, the S7 Edge breezed through complex web pages, providing quick and easy scrolling even while pages were loading lots of pictures and adverts.

Battery Life

There's a lot more to the S7 than raw performance, though, as it also has a gigantic battery life. When we set the screen brightness to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2 and ran our continuous video playback test, the S7 Edge lasted a massive 18h 42m, which is just shy of a full hour over the S7.

Admittedly, I was hoping the Edge's larger 3,600mAh battery might last a little bit longer than the S7's 3,000mAh battery, but when you take into account the Edge's big screen, it's perhaps not all that surprising. Either way, you should easily get a full day's use out of the Edge, if not well into a second day if you don't use it too heavily.

What's more, Samsung's improved its fast-charging technology for the S7 Edge, as it takes just under two hours to go from 0 to 100% using a typical 5V 2.0A fast charger. It also supports wireless charging via the usual Qi and PMA standards.

Camera

On the back, you have Samsung's new 12-megapixel camera. This might seem like a step down from the S6's 16-megapixel sensor, but more megapixels doesn't always necessarily mean better image quality. With the S7 Edge's camera, Samsung's actually increased the size of each individual pixel from 1.12um on the S6 to 1.4um, allowing each pixel to 'see' more light and reduce the amount of noise in low light shots. It's also widened the aperture to f/1.7, letting even more light into the sensor to produce higher quality shots.

It's a risky move, but the S7 Edge definitely delivers. In our outdoor test shots, the S7 Edge produced beautifully detailed shots that had plenty of contrast and bright, accurate colours. Certain parts of the frame were a little overexposed, particularly in the bright sunshine, but this is easy to rectify thanks to the camera's onscreen exposure compensation slider. This appears whenever you tap the screen to focus, but you can also switch to HDR mode as well if you prefer.

^ GALAXY S7 EDGE: Outdoors, the camera produced brilliant images that were full of detail and rich colours

Indoors, the S7 Edge's camera performs even better. Not only was there a very high level of detail on show, but I also couldn't see any visible noise in our low light test, which is pretty impressive for a smartphone camera. That said, when you compare these test shots to those we took on the S6, you might say they look almost identical.

This is true, at least at first glance, but when you drill down into the shutter speed information, the S7 Edge reveals itself to be the superior camera, as it was able to take this low light shot below at 1/25 sec rather than 1/15 sec on the S6. This means the S7 Edge will be more reliable in low light situations, as its faster shutter speed is less likely to blur moving objects, giving it the edge, so to speak, overall.

^ GALAXY S7 EDGE: Indoors, the S7 Edge performed equally well, but it's a close-run race with its immediate predecessor

^ GALAXY S6: Looking at the S6 and the S7's indoor shots side by side, you can't see much difference; it's only when you look at the shutter speeds that the differences start to become clear

Conclusion

At present, the S7 range are the best Android smartphones you can buy. The big question, then, is whether this year's S7 Edge is worth paying the extra for over the regular S7. Like last year, the curved edges do look lovely, and no doubt the big screen alone will be enough to convince some that this is the superior handset, especially when you take into account its better battery life.

However, now that the regular S7's back is more rounded, there's not such an obvious difference in design between the two handsets as there was last year, and it makes the S7 Edge feel slightly less special as a result. The S7 Edge's curves are so slight that you don't really notice them at first glance, and the Edge Screen software still hasn't really convinced me that the curved sides are any more useful than a normal flat screen. You could easily put Samsung's translucent tab on a flat screen and still achieve the same thing, and the amount of time you spend swiping through each Edge screen doesn't really make it any more practical than having everything on the home screen.

The S7 Edge is also more expensive, although how much depends on how you buy it. At Carphone Warehouse, for instance, with an 11GB data plan and no upfront cost, the cheapest S7 Edge deal starts at £54-per-month compared to the S7's £40-per-month contract, which is a pretty big mark up for what's essentially the same phone. However, prices are much closer if you're happy to pay some cash today, as you can get an S7 for £80 upfront and then £36-per-month, with the same deal on the S7 Edge costing £130 upfront and then the same £36-per-month. An extra £50 over two years isn't a lot when you put it like that, and is probably unlikely to dissuade most people from going for the S7 Edge. 

For me, however, I still think the S7 is the better buy. While there's no denying the S7 Edge is a great smartphone, the normal S7 is a more convenient size, it's just as powerful and its battery life is still pretty incredible. If you want the best-looking smartphone money can buy, then by all means go for the S7 Edge, but those after a more practical proposition should stick with its flat sibling.