Samsung Galaxy S7 Hands on and first impressions

Samsung took wraps off with its brand new Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge at the MWC 2016, Barcelona. The latest flagship retained much of the last year's Galaxy S6 design language, but the South Korean firm has introduced a handful of changes internally to give a great user experience.

At MWC 2016 in Barcelona, GizBot was given access to gather some first impressions of the Samsung's latest handsets, find out more in our report below.

PROS

• Water And Dust Resistance
• MicroSD Card Support
• Great Camera

CONS

• TouchWiz
• Similar Design of Galaxy S6

Design And Display

Well, if you are hoping for a complete redesign, then this will be a disappointment for you as the Galaxy S7 look a lot similar to its predecessor - Galaxy S6. However, the design is not so similar to both device, but Samsung has done a great job making minor tweaks ensure make it a standout with the same design language this year.

The device is built with an aluminum frame with front and back glass panels, which helps to give a premium feel. Samsung has added a slight curve to the left and right edges on the back of the handset, which is similar to the Galaxy Note 5, and the corners are also curved. The last year's Galaxy S6 felt a little boxy, but the slight curves on the Galaxy S7 make it feel smooth and comfortable to hold in one hand.

On the back, you can see a camera module in the center that looks very similar to the one found on the Galaxy S6. Samsung says that the camera bump measures just 0.46 mm tall. Moving to the front, the Galaxy S7 looks very similar to many other Samsung devices, due to the physical home button placed just below the 5.1-inch display.

The bezels around the display look smaller than its predecessor. There is also the logo sitting right above the display along with a couple of sensors, front-facing camera, and earpiece. The sides have not too much changed either. The power button is found on the right-side, the left-hand side features two volume rockers. The top is mostly bare while the bottom edge holds the 3.5mm headphone jack, MicroUSB port, and a single speaker grill.

The best big features, Samsung has decided to bring back to the Galaxy S lineup this year: the first is the microSD card slot and the second is the ability of water and dust resistance

Samsung has been making the excellent display for its smartphones so far. The Galaxy S7 comes with a 5.1-inch QHD display, which comes with some new technology, and noticeable the Always-on feature, few elements of the display such as notifications, time and more are illuminated without the actual switching on the entire screen.

Camera

On the camera front, it has a 12-megapixel primary camera on the back of the Galaxy S7, similar to its predecessor, but the camera bump measures just 0.46 mm tall. Samsung has achieved this reduction in camera bump by using a new production technique.

Samsung has also reduced the megapixel count in the primary camera of galaxy S7 from 16-megapixel to 12-megapixel but comes with new sensor featuring a f/1.7 aperture lens. In addition, it has optical image stabilization and dual-pixel technology, which makes the Galaxy S7 to focus up to four times faster than the Galaxy S6 in low-light conditions and twice faster in daylight. While, on the front it has a 5-megapixel camera with the same f/1.7 aperture lens. Well, the camera interface is similar to the Galaxy S6 and features 4K video shooting, fast motion, slow motion and much more.

Battery

Samsung's latest flagship is packed with bigger battery: a 3,000mAh battery compared with 2,550mAh of Galaxy S6. The handset can charge from 0 to 100 percent in just 90 minutes while charging using a cable and it take 120 minutes with a wireless charger.

Hardware

Depending on the market, the Galaxy S7 will be powered by either a Samsung Exynos 8 octa-core or Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and all the versions will be paired with 4GB RAM. The biggest features that returned to the Galaxy S7 is the ability to expand storage. It comes with 32GB and 64GB of internal storage options and a hybrid microSD card slot to expand memory up to 200GB. It runs on customized build of Android 6.0 Marshmallow with its very own TouchWiz interface on top.

Key Specifications of Samsung Galaxy S7

Early Verdict

Samsung has officially confirmed the global release of the Galaxy S7 and the S7 Edge on March 11 in over 60 countries. Samsung has managed the design of Galaxy S6 with intelligently tweaking the edges and curves, making it more comfortable to hold. The camera, design, and performance of the Galaxy S7 seems credible upgrades from its predecessor.

However, the great improvement is by including a larger battery, water and dust resistance and a microSD card slot. Well, judging the performance in the first impressions will be too harsh. A final performance test will be provided at our full review.