Samsung Galaxy S7 edge review: Stargate

Stargate

GSMArena team, 14 March, 2016.

Gallery

The TouchWiz gallery orders photos by time, but you can switch to folder-based Album view. Thumbnail sizes can be resized with a pinch gesture and the album selection pane on the left can be hidden.

Sharing options include wireless printing, Android Beam and Wi-Fi Direct, but no DLNA (or other way to send an image to your TV).

TouchWiz Gallery - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review TouchWiz Gallery - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review TouchWiz Gallery - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review TouchWiz Gallery - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review TouchWiz Gallery - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
TouchWiz Gallery

Several image editing tools are available - from basic cropping, to collage making, to a more capable editor (which supports image correction, effects and drawing).

Viewing an image - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Image details - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Sharing options - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Powerful editor - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Powerful editor - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
Viewing an image • Image details • Sharing options • Powerful editor

An additional option lets you pick several photos and stitch them into an animated GIF.

Music player with great EQ features

Google Play Music is the default player for your tunes on the Galaxy S7 edge. The app has been treated to the material design a while ago, and its functionality remains unchanged - it can play your local files, as well as stream music from the cloud.

The Samsung sound enhancements are available, of course, you can access them from Play Music, too. They include the SoundAlive tool, which has an intuitive interface to tuning the equalizer (a manual 7-band equalizer is available for more knowledgeable users).

Google Play Music - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Google Play Music - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Google Play Music - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Google Play Music - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
Google Play Music

Adapt Sound is even simpler. It tunes the EQ to your hearing and your particular pair of headphones by playing multiple frequencies and asking how well you hear them. Smart Volume automatically adjusts the volume of tracks from multiple sources.

UHQ sound resolution enhancer is available, Surround sound emulation and Tube Amp Pro simulator are onboard, too.

Equalizer and other settings - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Equalizer and other settings - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Equalizer and other settings - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
Equalizer and other settings

Video player

There is no video player app pre-installed and the Gallery handles the videos by default. If you want a dedicated app, you can grab the TouchWiz Video player from the Galaxy Apps repository. The default video player supports pop-up window, a feature dating back to the Galaxy S III.

It has full subtitle support with advanced features to modify their appearance. The app lets you play only the audio (if you just want to listen to a music video) and to play the audio via Bluetooth (if you have a BT-enabled speaker handy).

Video player - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Video player - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review Video player - Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review
Video player

There's an "Editor" option too though that may be overstating it - it just lets you trim the video. If you want a more capable video editor, there is such in the Galaxy Apps store for free, courtesy of Samsung.

Both Video apps were once part of the TouchWiz package, but Samsung decided to get rid of as much bloatware as possible and left the choice of apps to you.

Audio output as clean as they get

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge delivered perfectly clean output with an active external amplifier - hardly a surprise given its family results lately. Volume levels were just above average so there might be room for improvement there, but the overall showing is still excellent.

Somewhat surprisingly, stereo quality when we plugged in our standard headphones set dropped less than it did on the vanilla Galaxy S7. Given that the non-curved flagship was already impressive in that aspect, you can easily guess that the edge flavor was among the best we’ve tested. An impressive result indeed.

Anyway, here go the results so you can do your comparisons.

TestFrequency responseNoise levelDynamic rangeTHDIMD + NoiseStereo crosstalk
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge +0.01, -0.05-92.592.70.0028 0.0089-92.2
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge (headphones)+0.02, -0.06-92.092.00.0052 0.092-85.2
Samsung Galaxy S7 +0.01, -0.04-92.592.60.0027 0.0078-92.7
Samsung Galaxy S7 (headphones)+0.05, -0.05-91.992.10.0044 0.063-73.4
Samsung Galaxy S6 +0.01, -0.04-95.692.80.0024 0.0094-94.5
Samsung Galaxy S6 (headphones)+0.02, -0.05-92.691.90.0025 0.042-83.4
Nokia Lumia 950 XL+0.01, -0.08-91.691.70.00350.012-89.3
Nokia Lumia 950 XL (headphones attached)+0.48, -0.07-90.491.50.0110.293-55.6
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium+0.01, -0.03-95.989.60.00340.012-95.5
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (headphones attached)+0.11, -0.40-95.680.70.00570.227-55.2
Apple iPhone 6 Plus+0.04, -0.04-94.094.00.00130.0064-72.0
Apple iPhone 6 Plus (headphones attached)+0.10, -0.04-94.093.90.00160.087-64.1
LG G4 +0.04, -0.07-93.493.30.0021 0.050-92.6
LG G4 (headphones)+0.93, -0.13- 91.491.90.013 0.244-50.4

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge frequency response
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.

Reader comments

  • dude
  • 29 Oct 2024
  • 8mD

why does this phone take better pics than S24 ULTRA?

  • TRMORY
  • 30 Jun 2024
  • KcW

this is good but the memory is very low

  • Yusuf
  • 12 Jun 2024
  • Nu6

No