The Samsung Galaxy S7 has long been usurped as the South Korean company's latest flagship handset, by the Samsung Galaxy S8, and with the Galaxy S9 just around the corner, some might question the wisdom of buying an S7 today.
It's still a great phone. The Samsung Galaxy S7 was a beast of a smartphone on its release in 2016 and it's still a good performer now – certainly better than most budget smartphones. And many of its best features, including the excellent camera and super screen, haven't changed all that dramatically. It's very reasonably priced these days as well. You can find one on Amazon UK for under £300 (or Amazon US for under $500).
The trouble is, competition at around this price is super hot right now, with the excellent Honor 9 available for £350 and the incredible OnePlus 5T at £450, the latter boasting a dual-camera setup, great battery life and a big 6in edge-to-edge display. Even the Samsung Galaxy S8 isn't much more either at around £500 these days.
It's also worth bearing in mind that, if you do buy an S7 now, you'll probably still want to be using in in two years' time, at which point it will be a four-year-old phone for which Samsung will have stopped issuing updates.
Read on for my original review, and to find out why the S7 was so great in 2016.
Samsung Galaxy S7 review: What’s new?
So, without further ado, here’s our review of the Samsung Galaxy S7. We'll start with a closer look at the major changes, most of which are impossible to spot from a cursory physical inspection.
The first feature of note is storage expansion. Galaxy fans were in an uproar about the lack of a microSD slot in last year’s models, so Samsung has brought back the feature here. It’s the sensible thing to do, and Samsung hasn’t compromised on the design of the phone to do it either. The microSD card is neatly hidden away next to the nano-SIM card in an elongated SIM drawer on the top edge, meaning there’s no unsightly second slot to muddy the phone’s clean lines.
The dust and water resistance is another nice feature making a comeback here that doesn’t impact on the look and feel of the phone. It’s an upgrade on the IP67 protection of the Samsung Galaxy S5, too, which was the last Samsung flagship to have the feature.
Technically, this means it’s possible to completely submerge the phone in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes, so you could use it to take pictures of hermit crabs in rock pools – if that’s what floats your boat.
I prefer to think of it as extra peace of mind. With the Galaxy S7, you don’t have to worry about getting your phone out when it’s raining, or putting it down on a beer-soaked table in the pub. From that perspective, it’s something that’s well worth having.
Samsung Galaxy S7 review: Specification and price
| 5.1in Super AMOLED display, Quad HD resolution, always-on |
| Octa-core Samsung Exynos 8890 processor (2 x quad-core CPUs running at 2.3GHz and 1.6GHz) |
| 32GB storage |
| microSD slot supporting up to 200GB |
| Android 6 Marshmallow |
| 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture, dual-pixel phase-detect autofocus |
| Smaller camera “hump” protrudes only 0.46mm |
| IP68 dust and water resistance |
| 3,000mAh battery capacity |
| Price: SIM-free, £480 inc VAT - Buy Now from Amazon |
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