The latest offering from Samsung is simply stunning
Camera
Considering last year's competent but underwhelming S6 snappers, we had high hopes for the S7 range. The S7 Edge places a 12MP Dual Pixel Sensor on the rear while your selfie needs are catered for with a 5MP front-facing sensor. The camera sits almost flush with the phone's body, with only the smallest (0.42mm) bump. Pleasingly a double-tap of the Home button acts as a handy shortcut to fire the camera into action.
The Dual Pixel Sensor aids in autofocusing, making it one of the fastest phones for pick-up and shoot we've ever had the pleasure of using, demonstrating an ease normally associated with high-end DSLR cameras.
Despite the lower pixel count, the larger 1.4um pixel size means the sensor lets in more light when compared to its predecessor. The f/1.7 aperture makes for brighter images, and it also works a treat at night-time and in low-light situations.
Our test shots resulted in reduced grain despite the lack of natural light available. The below were all taken in a darkened room under artificial light.
And this one was at dusk as daylight was fading.
Alongside that you'll find LED flash, and OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) tricks.
If we had to angle one criticism at the camera, we encountered one instance of the screen freezing-up after launch. But this only happened the once, and later that night received a small (1MB) bug-bashing update. Spooky timing.
Screen / display
The 5.5in AMOLED screen of the Galaxy S7 Edge packs in a QHD resolution of 2,560x1,440 which is both bigger than the S7 and S6 Edge at 5.1in, but a fraction smaller than the 5.7in Edge 6 Plus.
Unlike the S6 Edge, the screen curves around the phone entirely and makes it feel like one piece. Like a shiny, polished pebble.
The display is nothing short of stunning. Colours stand out, and in fact sometimes the screen is so shiny, it almost verges on dazzling. Viewing angles suffer slightly then, especially near to where the screen's edges wraparound.
Placing the S7 Edge side-by-side with last year's S6, the S7 colours appear brighter and whites whiter.
Samsung wants to ensure you'll never scrabble around for the time again, thanks to the Always-on display. It's separate to the Night Display feature first introduced last year, which lights-up the screen with just a small amount of pixels to provide you little nuggets of information like day and date, battery health, as well as notifications from Samsung's staple apps (messaging, email and calls).
Yet, you still need to wake it from sleep and unlock to see if you've received WhatsApp, third-party email or other messages - which seems a little strange as we don't expect many people still use stock Samsung apps anymore... It also reminds us a little of those old- fashioned Windows screensavers you'd see bouncing around on library computers.
Last year the Edge screen arrived as a half-baked idea, but thankfully Samsung realised it needed to put something of value on the extra real estate afforded by the lovely Edge screen. This time around we found ourselves being drawn to the mass of information (RAM monitor, compass, data use monitor etc.) as well as the numerous app shortcuts on offer.
There's even a dedicated Galaxy App portal to download new layouts and designs as they come available.
[We'll touch more on the differences in our dedicated S6 Edge/S7 Edge comparison feature]
Next: Software and security
