Samsung Galaxy S7 edge review: Stargate

Telephony and loudspeaker

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge is available as a single-SIM phone, but there is a model with dual-SIM support, too.

The dialer and the phonebook are pretty much the usual TouchWiz deal.

Dialer • Smart Dial • Favorites • Contacts

The Do Not Disturb mode can be put on an automated schedule. When it's on, only priority notifications can get through and you decide what counts as "priority" - it can be anything from calls from select contacts to reminders from key apps.

Do not disturb • Priority notifications • Priority apps

The Galaxy S7 edge did the same as the Galaxy S7 on our loudspeaker test and posted a Good mark. While the loudness isn't among the best ones we've heard, the speaker sound quality is very good.

Text input

The Galaxy S7 edge uses an updated version of the Samsung Keyboard. It's quite feature-packed, with a dedicated numbers row, a row above that for word suggestions and additional characters on each key (accessible via long-press).

Keyboard

If that seems too tall, you can scale the keyboard down (or up, if you want bigger keys). We don't like that the Space key is quite short, though.

Keyboard size: Smallest • Default • Biggest | High-contrast mode

Additional typing tools include swipe input, My Hot Keys (predefined phrases that can be typed by long-pressing a number key) and voice dictation.

Other apps

Samsung continues to bundle the Microsoft app package that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Skype.

Microsoft app package

Google Drive is pre-installed, however, the actual document editors are not (they are a free download, though).

The Samsung-customized web browser features Web sign in - a feature that works as a password manager secured by your fingerprint. This makes log-ins as simple as unlocking the phone.

With the Samsung browser, your fingerprint is your password

S Health is on board and it can fully utilize the heart-rate and blood oxygen sensors. It also tracks walking/running/cycling and you can manually input water and coffee intake and so on.

S health is missing the hardware sensors

Smart Manager is a hub that controls several key areas - battery, RAM, Storage and Device security. This gives you tools to track down apps that drain the battery, use too much RAM and clean-up unnecessary files.

Smart Manager • Cleaning up the storage • Cleaning up the RAM

The Device Security tab lets you activate KNOX (protects the phone and OS from hacking but makes for longer boot times) and scan for malware. The My KNOX app lets you separate work and corporate apps and access by creating a secure, isolated space on the phone, which becomes inaccessible as soon as KNOX detects an unauthorized change in the OS.

KNOX security manager

The My Files app is the default file browser. It features Google Drive integration. You can ZIP folders to make them easier to share as a single file.

My Files

Finally, there's Galaxy Apps, Samsung's own app store. Galaxy Essentials is a good place to find great tools (like Kids Mode), but for general app shopping, you would probably be better off with Google Play.

Galaxy Apps