Galaxy S7 regular/edge owners roll call....

[pimpin-tl]

I bought two S7 Edge's when they were released with AT&T. Just recently sold my personal one for an iPhone 6s plus till the new one comes out. But I have my other for my work phone. I personally liked the phone but hated the edge part. I won't own an edge phone again. Android still has a ways to go with refinement in their O/S.

 

[lupi]

Had the restart notification again. It opened the samsung+ app which I've never used or initialized myself so some type of default setting.

 

[WelshBloke]

Had the restart notification again. It opened the samsung+ app which I've never used or initialized myself so some type of default setting.

You can disable that app.

 

[dawheat]

So ended up selling my Note 5 on swappa for $430 and picked up a brand new, unopened S7 Edge off for $570. I was considering the unlocked version but it apparently is even slower to get security updates and they were running about $100 more.

I was going to wait for the Note 7 but that would be $800 at launch and I'm becoming cheaper in my old age while still wanting to switch phones regularly. So this was a decent compromise and in a couple months, I'll see if I want to switch to the Note 7 and basically do the above again (sell the S7 Edge for a small loss and pickup the Note below launch prices).

Things I like:
- AT&T wifi calling and their advanced messaging. Other phones will get it I'm sure but AT&T just happened to push this update right when I got the phone
- Phone size is excellent and I really like the stealth look in black (no chrome around the home button)
- The fingerprint reader seems a bit faster than my Note 5 though that could just be me
- mSD - threw in my 200GB card and it's nice having the luxury to throw a crapton of content and not worry about it. My 64GB Note 5 was fine but I did have to restrict how much media I put on it and occasionally rotate content. Now I don't have to.
- Battery life so far is significant better than the Note 5. Even after heavy use all day, I still end up comfortably at 30%. My Note 5 would be completely empty in comparison.
- Screen quality and brightness is Samsung flagship normal which means excellent.

Things I don't like:
- The Edge screen took a little getting used to and I'm keeping the edge notifications on, but the edge screens so far seem pointless. I would have liked a screen with diagnostic info just for fun (CPU, memory, GPU, network, etc usage and info), but I didn't find anything like that.
- The lack of good glass screen protectors. I bought the best rated one (GPEL gen 2) and it's not good. The fit is perfect but it creates touch dead spots on the edges, making me miss letters and having to hard press a couple times. Annoying enough that I just took it off though I'm a huge glass protector fan. I'm going to try a few others but it's not promising.
- Headphone sound quality doesn't seem as good as the Note 5 - I've heard the S820 DAC isn't very good while the Exynos one is pretty good.

One other thing - I've gotten accustomed to using Nova Prime + Material Dark theme on my last couple phones - what are other people using?

 

[evident]

What's everyone's feeling on the S7 after months of use? My dad's G2 died so I gave him my S5. I just ordered one off swappa for $400 that has a factory warranty till next sep.

I wanted to try out an Xperia Z5 but they are still so damn expensive ($350, wtf!) , and a generation behind the S7.

 

[Oyeve]

Well, I had gone back to my S7 Edge after I had to give my Note 7 (second edition) back and the screen on the S7E started acting wonky so I had Tmobile swap it for another. So far so good. It's a great device but it's no Note 7.

 

[lothar]

Well, I had gone back to my S7 Edge after I had to give my Note 7 (second edition) back and the screen on the S7E started acting wonky so I had Tmobile swap it for another. So far so good. It's a great device but it's no Note 7.

And that you should be thankful for.

 

[ScottAD]

And that you should be thankful for.

Aside from the battery issue the Note 7 was my favorite device. Using a S7 Edge at the moment, unlocked version.

 

[slag]

I have an S7 edge and my hand keeps brushing the edge screen and doing weird crap. It's annoying. I'll probably forgo the edge next time and get another LG. I really like the double tap to turn on and off the device.

 

[Paladin]

I have an S7 edge and my hand keeps brushing the edge screen and doing weird crap. It's annoying. I'll probably forgo the edge next time and get another LG. I really like the double tap to turn on and off the device.

Using the Edge now also after my Note 7. The edges on the Note were better and I didn't have the issue. As soon as I got the Edge I had the same problem, and it's pretty bad IMO. When my case arrived it resolved the issue and I'm really liking it. But, just wish it will get all of the refinements of Grace UX that the Note had, sooner than later. Probably coming with Nougat.

 

[lupi]

Agree about the edge being real sensitive, and while a case minimizes it, still an issue.

My first screen protector in need of replacement, anyone come across a good case friendly one?

 

[dainthomas]

I have an S7 edge and my hand keeps brushing the edge screen and doing weird crap. It's annoying. I'll probably forgo the edge next time and get another LG. I really like the double tap to turn on and off the device.

I turned off the edge feeds and whatnot on mine. Basically all I have on it is the side dock and night clock.

I do like how it's a little narrower than the Note 7, so reaching across with my thumb is a bit easier.

 

[Kini1000]

Have had my S7 Galaxy now for about 2 months. Pretty disappointing actually. Came from my first Android phone a 2015 Moto G. For the money the Moto G was a better phone.

The S7 with all its "horsepower" is still laggy, not really much better than the Moto G. The screen is much better and the SD card works much better but for a nearly $700 (retail) phone it's pretty meh.

I never use a case before but after getting the S7 and reading about how easy the back glass cracks I bought a case, it adds unnecessary bulk even though it's the thinnest case I could find with decent protection.

The camera is great, quite a bit better than my wife and daughter's iPhone 6S. Pretty much its only redeeming feature.

The biggest disappointments are, the battery life is awful. 30-40% less than either of the a fore mentioned 6S'. On a recent trip to the Grand Canyon doing the same stuff the S7 went down to below 50% while the two 6S' were still at around 80%. So much for the great battery life claim. The only way it can make it through a normal day is to put it in low power mode.

The other disappointment is the reception, again clearly inferior to either the 6S', same place, same time, same carrier.

I really, really like many aspects of Android over iOS, but Android is always laggy in comparison even with much better (supposedly) hardware.

Probably my last Android experience unless Google can figure out how to make it run without quad-core or octo-core processors sucking juice like a 65" plasma TV.

 

[Oyeve]

But, just wish it will get all of the refinements of Grace UX that the Note had, sooner than later. Probably coming with Nougat.

Yeah. The interface on the note 7 was pretty nice. Like opening a folder, launching an app, closing the app and the folder is still open. The drop down menu was much better as well.

 

[Crono]

Have had my S7 Galaxy now for about 2 months. Pretty disappointing actually. Came from my first Android phone a 2015 Moto G. For the money the Moto G was a better phone.

The S7 with all its "horsepower" is still laggy, not really much better than the Moto G. The screen is much better and the SD card works much better but for a nearly $700 (retail) phone it's pretty meh.

I never use a case before but after getting the S7 and reading about how easy the back glass cracks I bought a case, it adds unnecessary bulk even though it's the thinnest case I could find with decent protection.

The camera is great, quite a bit better than my wife and daughter's iPhone 6S. Pretty much its only redeeming feature.

The biggest disappointments are, the battery life is awful. 30-40% less than either of the a fore mentioned 6S'. On a recent trip to the Grand Canyon doing the same stuff the S7 went down to below 50% while the two 6S' were still at around 80%. So much for the great battery life claim. The only way it can make it through a normal day is to put it in low power mode.

The other disappointment is the reception, again clearly inferior to either the 6S', same place, same time, same carrier.

I really, really like many aspects of Android over iOS, but Android is always laggy in comparison even with much better (supposedly) hardware.

Probably my last Android experience unless Google can figure out how to make it run without quad-core or octo-core processors sucking juice like a 65" plasma TV.

This is one of the reasons I dislike Samsung... or at least dislike the Galaxy S' position in the market. Most regular people associate the laggy interface of Samsung's TouchWiz on the S series (Grace on the Note is a different story) with Android, when stock Android, Motorola's UI, CM/OxygenOS on OnePlus devices, and HTC's UI (Sense) are plenty fast and smooth, especially when disabling animations. Even Huawei's UI (EMUI) - though it's a mixed bag as it is a clone of iOS - is very fast and smooth. I've used my Honor 8 next to the iPhone 7 and there's more stutter and lag to iOS 10.0.X than it. Apple probably has sorted this out or will sort it out in future versions of iOS, but I'm decidedly unimpressed by iOS on the iPhone 7 right now.

Apple gets a lot of praise from the tech press, but each gen there's at least one Android flagship that's as smoother or smoother, with shorter animations obscuring transition speeds. Apple hardware is always faster, but it's also not as good at true multitasking with less RAM and iOS designed to manage that memory aggressively.

And there are plenty of Android phones with good battery life. Apple did a good job with the 7 Plus in that regard, though. Besides reasonable battery capacity on Plus variants, mostly their advantage comes from strictly limiting background processes, which actually can be done on Android phones (the Honor 8 does it, which I actually don't like on by default).

 

[dawheat]

I've had my S7 Edge now for about 3 months and a few things:

- I've gotten accustomed to the edge screen but every now and then I find the screen not responding b/c my hand is touching the edge. I did like how the Note 7 refined the edge and expect the S8 to follow that or improve on it further.
- I do like how it makes the phone narrow as it feels significantly easier to handle than the Note 5, even accounting for the screen difference size.
- Screen and camera are great, no complaints there
- Battery life is very good. I almost never have to charge during the day outside of extreme use cases. It is substantially better than the Note 5 which under my usage had to be charged during the afternoon.
- Performance is meh. I actually feel like I notice hiccups and slow keyboard loading more than my previous Notes. My biggest complaint with the phone - not a deal breaker but noticeable. Not sure why the Notes were always better in this regard, even with older hardware.
- Software is fine. I use Nova and material dark theme and have no complaints aside from the above.

There's nothing that really inspires me to move - I'll check out the Pixel XL but for $870 for the 128GB version, it's way too pricey. I was able to pickup a brand new S7 Edge over the summer for $300 less than that and with a 200GB mSD, have significantly more storage. I'll likely wait to see what the S8+ looks like before deciding whether to go with the XL (which hopefully will be discounted by then).

 

[lothar]

Have had my S7 Galaxy now for about 2 months. Pretty disappointing actually. Came from my first Android phone a 2015 Moto G. For the money the Moto G was a better phone.

The S7 with all its "horsepower" is still laggy, not really much better than the Moto G. The screen is much better and the SD card works much better but for a nearly $700 (retail) phone it's pretty meh.

I never use a case before but after getting the S7 and reading about how easy the back glass cracks I bought a case, it adds unnecessary bulk even though it's the thinnest case I could find with decent protection.

The camera is great, quite a bit better than my wife and daughter's iPhone 6S. Pretty much its only redeeming feature.

The biggest disappointments are, the battery life is awful. 30-40% less than either of the a fore mentioned 6S'. On a recent trip to the Grand Canyon doing the same stuff the S7 went down to below 50% while the two 6S' were still at around 80%. So much for the great battery life claim. The only way it can make it through a normal day is to put it in low power mode.

The other disappointment is the reception, again clearly inferior to either the 6S', same place, same time, same carrier.

I really, really like many aspects of Android over iOS, but Android is always laggy in comparison even with much better (supposedly) hardware.

Probably my last Android experience unless Google can figure out how to make it run without quad-core or octo-core processors sucking juice like a 65" plasma TV.

The problems you describe has to do with Samsung's laggy TouchWiz interface and not that of Android itself.

Android is not always laggy. Don't confuse what you witness on TouchWiz with that of Google's version of Android.
You're not making any sense here. Apple has had better hardware(besides AMOLED screens) than any Android phone for years. What are you on about?

 

[o306]

There are some Play Store apps that supposedly automatically disable the Touchwiz stuff that slows down Samsung phones.

I have no idea if they work or not, but it's worth a shot if you can't return the phone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hecorat.packagedisabler

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ospolice.packagedisablerpro

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ospolice.packagedisablerpremium

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/debloater-remove-carrier-bloat-t2998294

It is a shame that this is an issue at all.

 

[dainthomas]

Apple has had better hardware(besides AMOLED screens) than any Android phone for years. What are you on about?

Haha, what? That is basically the opposite of reality.

 

[Kini1000]

The problems you describe has to do with Samsung's laggy TouchWiz interface and not that of Android itself.

Android is not always laggy. Don't confuse what you witness on TouchWiz with that of Google's version of Android.
You're not making any sense here. Apple has had better hardware(besides AMOLED screens) than any Android phone for years. What are you on about?

I'm using the google now launcher if that makes a difference (probably not), Have turned off everything Samsung that I can. Anyway, it's laggy and shouldn't be even with touchwiz and the battery life is poor. I guess if all I did was watch videos with it in airplane mode I would be impressed. But since I don't I'm less than impressed. I need to check with At&t and see if I can trade it for an iPhone 7 plus without loosing too much.

 

[Raduque]

And that you should be thankful for.

Why? The Note 7 was an amazing device. Samsung really needs to finish backporting Grace UX to the S7/Edge.

 

[lupi]

About to go on a long drive an interested in a car mount for my edge, anyone else use one?

 

[lupi]

Used one of those battery packs from the costco deal for the first time yesterday. Came home at just under 10% and had to go out to the store and grab something. Hooked up the battery and headed out. Worked quite good, charged at about same as fast charge rate and shortly after I got home phone was at 100% and battery down to around 25% by it's light indicator. Guess I'll rotate them and use one at least once a week to do a controlled drain and recharge so they stay in good condition for when I do long drives and such.

 

[Raduque]

Lupi, I traveled 500 miles by car a few months ago, I used a magnetic dash mount. The phone has enough metal in it to stick to the mount without using the plates. I'm not sure if it will do it with a case on, but it will for sure without it. It's a Schoche unit I picked up at Walmart.

I've settled into the Pure Dark theme with all the stock apps intact (IMO, the TW launcher on the S7e is the smoothest one - tried Apex and Nova and didn't like the feel of them - besides, TW launcher allows a selectable 5x5 grid and resizing widgets so...)

 

[lupi]

Happened to notice last night while grabbing something at costco that they had a 3 piece scosche magnetic mount kit for $38. Did some quick research about it at home and I'll probably go back and pick it up.