Samsung Galaxy S7 hands-on, first impressions

Samsung has finally unveiled the Galaxy S7 and it looks like the Galaxy S6 but with a lot of improvements.

UPDATE: Uploaded sample shots and video.

It still has that same old yet gorgeous look with an all metal frame and glass on glass design using a tough Gorilla Glass 4 panel.

The power button is still on the right, the volume controls are on the left while they repositioned the nano-SIM card slot up top to sit along with the 3.5mm audio port. The home button that also serves as the fingerprint sensor is slightly rounder and softer while the camera at the back does not protrude that much compared to the Galaxy S6.

The flat back panel curves quite a bit toward the edges just like what they did to the Galaxy Note 5 in order to make handling of the device more comfortable to the hands. The 5.1inch AMOLED display still has the same quad HD resolution of 2560x1440pixels.

There are a number of improvements that Samsung did with the Galaxy S7:

First is they made it IP68 compliant which means it is dust and water resistant for up to 1.5 meters and as long as 30 minutes. It’s a feature they introduced in the Galaxy S5 but neglected to include in the Galaxy S6 Edge. No, you can take your S7 Edge out for a swim or under heavy rain without worrying.

Second, a hybrid dual-SIM card slot with one of the SIM tray capable of supporting a microSD card of up to 200GB. That is perhaps the reason why they’re only making the 32GB and 64GB storage variants (only the 32GB variant will be released in the Philippines). They’ve done this with their mid-range Galaxy A series like the A8 so there’s no reason it’s not a standard on the Galaxy S7.

Third, bigger battery. The Galaxy S7 now has 3,000mAh of internal battery which means longer operating time. Fast charging is standard as well as faster wireless charging. There’s no USB Type-C here, just the standard microUSB 2.0 port. The IR Blaster is also gone.

Fourth is the camera. The camera on the Galaxy S6 was already good but Samsung managed to make it a little bit better with the Galaxy S7. There’s a new 12-megapixel rear camera with a maximum aperture of f1.7 and optical image stabilization. That means better low light performance and better video quality even in dark environments. Samsung uses a dual-pixel sensor that’s similar to the technology found on the Canon 70D. Focus time is down to just 0.02 seconds.

The megapixel count might have been reduced from 16 to 12 this time but that’s mainly the result of the shift to dual-pixel. The main camera can still record 4K videos. The front camera was also improved with a 5MP sensor and f1.7 aperture.

Here are some sample shots:

And here is a UHD video sample:

And lastly, it’s got better hardware — 4GB of RAM and a faster octa-core Exynos processor that scored 132,076 on Antutu benchmark.

Check out our hands-on video below:

Here’s a complete side by side specs comparison between the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S6.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 will come in Gold, Silver, White and Black color options.

READ: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge hands-on, first impressions