Samsung Galaxy S7 Active: The Olympic performer

Introduction

We're already used to seeing Samsung release an 'Active' version of its current Galaxy S flagship. The Samsung Galaxy S7 active is the latest in the series and it has been released exclusively to AT&T as it's also become customary. If history should serve as any reference, the model would likely not see availability outside the stable of this particular US carrier.

The S7 active has a much larger 4,000mAh battery inside. (by contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S7 has a 3,000mAh battery) Compared to the vanilla S7, there's also the extra physical key on the phone's side which takes you directly to an "Activity Zone" app, which is exclusive to the Active model.

Samsung Galaxy S7 active Key Features

• Built to comply to the MIL-STD-810G standard with increased salt, dust, humidity, rain, vibration, solar radiation, transport, and thermal shock resistance
• IP68 certified - dust proof and water resistant up to 30 minutes in 5 feet of water
• 5.1" Super AMOLED QHD (1440 x 2560) resolution, Gorilla Glass 4, shatter proof for falls of up to 5 feet high onto a flat surface
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 - dual-core 2.15 GHz Kyro & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kyro w/ Adreno 530
• 4GB of RAM; 32GB of built-in storage, microSD up to 256GB
• Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Touchwiz UI
• 12MP camera, f/1.7 aperture, 1,4micron pixel size, phase-detection diodes at every pixel in the sensor, 4K video recording, LED flash, optical image stabilization
• 5MP front-facing camera, f/1.7 aperture, QHD video, HDR
• Fingerprint sensor
• LTE Cat.9, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC, IR port, Bluetooth 4.2, ANT+
• Heart-rate sensor, barometer, SpO2 sensor
• 4,000mAh battery ; wireless charging
• FM Radio

Main disadvantages

• Thicker than most of today's flagships (duh!)
• Exclusive to AT&T with lots of carrier bloatware
• No Samsung Gear VR compatibility

Rest assured, we're all wondering for how much longer the Active series will remain an AT&T exclusive. Surely, there are many fans all over the world who would love to get one as an unlocked, carrier-free device without any pre-installed AT&T apps. We have no idea when that may happen but we're surely keeping our fingers crossed.

Galaxy S7 active: Sandy Gold • Green Camo • Titanium Gray

As for pricing, the premium for the Active model is just $100, which means it costs the same as the Galaxy S7 edge model in the US. So are the added features of the Galaxy S7 active worth this sort of premium? Read on and we'll find out together.