Galaxy S7

[dark_knight177]

The problem with past galaxies, including the S6, is that they release multiple versions for different regions. They even release multiple versions for the US market with different LTE bands for Verizon and AT&T and T-mobile.

Why can't they just make one world phone that can work with most carriers in the world? I travel a lot and I know that my unlocked iPhone 6S Plus will work in both Europe, US and South America without any problems.

Heck, my unlocked iPhone 6S Plus will even work with Verizon, in addition to AT&T and T-mobile.

As much as I love Android and Galaxy phones, I can't buy one, because I need one phone that will work both in US and in Europe. I can't carry 2 phones with different LTE bands for different countries that I travel.

 

[MRU]

Assuming the same sensor size, the 12MP camera will always have the advantage in terms of light. And picture detail has more to do with light than pixels. I wouldn't take a higher resolution photo, even when zoomed or cropped, over one that's more consistent and accurate.

Tell that to HTC users that got sold down that river with its ultrapixels

And likewise you missed my point. Sensor size and light / lens are not exclusive.

They could add 16mp with better lens rather than dropping to 12mp and adding it. It's not an either / or situation.

I do have a 2015 Sony Alpha 7S and a Hasselblad professional 50mp here in the studio ... I am not naive when it comes to the technology.

And the Alpha 7S whose selling point is it's wide lowlight sensor at 12mp has in my experience often produces images lacking detail that the Note 5 / Edge + currently take. Whilst undoubtably better in lowlight, under good light the current Samsung devices shoot in my own experience the better shot overall.

 

[nj-morris]

Tell that to HTC users that got sold down that river with its ultrapixels

And likewise you missed my point. Sensor size and light / lens are not exclusive.

They could add 16mp with better lens rather than dropping to 12mp and adding it. It's not an either / or situation.

I do have a 2015 Sony Alpha 7S and a Hasselblad professional 50mp here in the studio ... I am not naive when it comes to the technology.

And the Alpha 7S whose selling point is it's wide lowlight sensor at 12mp has in my experience often produces images lacking detail that the Note 5 / Edge + currently take. Whilst undoubtably better in lowlight, under good light the current Samsung devices shoot in my own experience the better shot overall.

Putting a high MP count limits low-light potential, regardless of sensor size. One can implement a 20MP 1/2" sensor which produces the same low-light results as a 12MP 1/2.6" sensor, because the sensor is bigger. OR, they could just implement a 12MP camera with a 1/2" sensor, which is what they're rumoured to do, making low-light better than in both of my previous scenarios, because the pixels are bigger, capturing more light per pixel.

 

[msavic]

Tell that to HTC users that got sold down that river with its ultrapixels

And likewise you missed my point. Sensor size and light / lens are not exclusive.

They could add 16mp with better lens rather than dropping to 12mp and adding it. It's not an either / or situation.

I do have a 2015 Sony Alpha 7S and a Hasselblad professional 50mp here in the studio ... I am not naive when it comes to the technology.

And the Alpha 7S whose selling point is it's wide lowlight sensor at 12mp has in my experience often produces images lacking detail that the Note 5 / Edge + currently take. Whilst undoubtably better in lowlight, under good light the current Samsung devices shoot in my own experience the better shot overall.

The S6 is a force to be reckoned with in terms of outdoor image quality. I've done numerous comparisons with it and other dedicated cameras and it nearly always produces a better shot. I've compared it with a Canon G1X and a G7X, both have sensors that are worlds larger at 1.5 and 1 inch respectively yet the S6 produced the same or more detail and balanced the image correctly. The image processing works extremely well outdoors ensuring that exposure is correct and nothing gets blown out, the Canons on the other hand were not as consistent.

In the grand scheme of things, there really isn't much anyone could ask for in terms of daylight image quality with the S6. I'm glad Samsung is taking the necessary steps to vastly improve the lowlight image quality though. The only thing I would be against is the rumoured drop to a F1.7 aperture, there's already hints of blurriness at the far edges with the current F1.9, I'd prefer they keep it at 1.9 or if they must go to a maximum of 1.8.

One other issue that the movement to a larger sensor with less megapixels should help is in lowlight group photos. The current S6 camera software defaults to a slower shutter speed resulting in motion blur leading to unusable group shots. The additional light coming into the sensor should allow them to bump the shutter speed one or two stops giving much better results.

 

[TG1]

So would the possible drop to 12 MP on the camera eliminate the native 16:9 resolution of the Samsung Galaxy photos? I actually enjoy taking pictures in 16:9 (especially landscapes or big groups of people) and would hate to see this go. I could always drop down to a standard size photo at the touch of a button when I didn't need it. It's one of the things I missed most when switching to the iPhone. Just curious. Thanks.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Tell that to HTC users that got sold down that river with its ultrapixels

And likewise you missed my point. Sensor size and light / lens are not exclusive.

They could add 16mp with better lens rather than dropping to 12mp and adding it. It's not an either / or situation.

I do have a 2015 Sony Alpha 7S and a Hasselblad professional 50mp here in the studio ... I am not naive when it comes to the technology.

And the Alpha 7S whose selling point is it's wide lowlight sensor at 12mp has in my experience often produces images lacking detail that the Note 5 / Edge + currently take. Whilst undoubtably better in lowlight, under good light the current Samsung devices shoot in my own experience the better shot overall.

Rumor has it that Samsung is increasing the width of the S7 range by 1mm for two reasons. A bigger battery and to ensure the entire camera housing remains flush with the chassis, instead of sticking out like on the S6 or how the iPhone is. This may have required compromising other details of the camera and the best option is what we are geting?

 

[nviz22]

Rumor has it that Samsung is increasing the width of the S7 range by 1mm for two reasons. A bigger battery and to ensure the entire camera housing remains flush with the chassis, instead of sticking out like on the S6 or how the iPhone is. This may have required compromising other details of the camera and the best option is what we are geting?

To be fair, my iPhone's protruding camera isn't that bad. Some folks make a huge deal over it.

 

[msavic]

So would the possible drop to 12 MP on the camera eliminate the native 16:9 resolution of the Samsung Galaxy photos? I actually enjoy taking pictures in 16:9 (especially landscapes or big groups of people) and would hate to see this go. I could always drop down to a standard size photo at the touch of a button when I didn't need it. It's one of the things I missed most when switching to the iPhone. Just curious. Thanks.

It's possible but since the sensor would be completely new we don't know what's its native format will be so its hard to tell. Although a 12mp resolution is usually associated with a 4:3 format simple due to the fact that it matches up that way. 4000*3000 fits perfectly as 4:3 while other resolutions such as 16mp are better suited to 16:9.

I'm hopeing 16:9 stays as all the means with which we consume media are built around a 16:9 screen.

 

[nj-morris]

So would the possible drop to 12 MP on the camera eliminate the native 16:9 resolution of the Samsung Galaxy photos? I actually enjoy taking pictures in 16:9 (especially landscapes or big groups of people) and would hate to see this go. I could always drop down to a standard size photo at the touch of a button when I didn't need it. It's one of the things I missed most when switching to the iPhone. Just curious. Thanks.

It's likely. It could just go down to the 3984x2988, which would just be cropping the top and bottom out of the sensor that the S6 series had (5312x2988). It would also be the same resolution as the 6S. And to get 16:9 photos, you would have to have a 3984x2241 (9MP), which still isn't too bad.
The good thing about the more square aspect ratios is that they take in a bigger percentage of the light that goes into the camera. I think what BlackBerry are doing with their circular sensors is quite clever, I think that should become more widespread.

 

[JaySoul]

To be fair, my iPhone's protruding camera isn't that bad. Some folks make a huge deal over it.

This applies to most things on the internet. Ever.

 

[epicrayban]

Cool app that I'm using on my S6: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tiripsstudio.quickcontactedgelite&hl=en

Very subtle, very useful. My only wish is that it had a setting where you could pick to have it dial the person right away. Instead, it slides out with options to SMS, Email, Dial, etc. Still neat.

And it primes me up for the S7 Edge (5.1") if it comes to fruition.

 

[nj-morris]

Rumours of the S7 are very conflicting at the moment, but at the moment I'm still seeing a 5.1-inch and 6-inch variants of the normal and Edge versions. Makes sense. And the most reliable sources back me up.

 

[jamezr]

Rumours of the S7 are very conflicting at the moment, but at the moment I'm still seeing a 5.1-inch and 6-inch variants of the normal and Edge versions. Makes sense. And the most reliable sources back me up.

yeah I have been seeing conflicting rumors too. I really hope they don't make it wider than the Note 5. I hope it isn't as wide as say the Nexus 6 was..... to me that was just a little too wide to hold in my hand comfortably.

 

[MRU]

yeah I have been seeing conflicting rumors too. I really hope they don't make it wider than the Note 5. I hope it isn't as wide as say the Nexus 6 was..... to me that was just a little too wide to hold in my hand comfortably.

Yeah it was .. It's amazing how much width of the device affects usability far more than height, but the N6 was just too wide.

I'm not sure why Samsung would go that wide...

 

[Tig Bitties]

The problem with past galaxies, including the S6, is that they release multiple versions for different regions. They even release multiple versions for the US market with different LTE bands for Verizon and AT&T and T-mobile.

Why can't they just make one world phone that can work with most carriers in the world? I travel a lot and I know that my unlocked iPhone 6S Plus will work in both Europe, US and South America without any problems.

Heck, my unlocked iPhone 6S Plus will even work with Verizon, in addition to AT&T and T-mobile.

As much as I love Android and Galaxy phones, I can't buy one, because I need one phone that will work both in US and in Europe. I can't carry 2 phones with different LTE bands for different countries that I travel.

Get the best Android phone ( best phone period ) available, the Nexus 6P, that is the "one" phone to rule all carriers LOL It's just like the iPhone in that case, working for both GSM + CDMA.

 

[GadgetSN]

Good move by Samsung to introduce the S7 plus. Most of us who bought a Note only wanted tbe screen size and dont even use the pen. If this keeps the cost down vs the Note equivalent then all the better.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Good move by Samsung to introduce the S7 plus. Most of us who bought a Note only wanted tbe screen size and dont even use the pen. If this keeps the cost down vs the Note equivalent then all the better.

Will there be an S7 Plus ? Just a flat S7 with a larger screen ?

 

[MRU]

Will there be an S7 Plus ? Just a flat S7 with a larger screen ?

That's what they expect tba ...

 

[Zwhaler]

I wonder if there will be an S7 edge+? I really like mine my only complaint about the electronics is that the battery life could be a little better. But I'm not really interested in upgrading until either it or the next Note has an UHD screen.

 

[nj-morris]

Will there be an S7 Plus ? Just a flat S7 with a larger screen ?

 

[Tig Bitties]

For me, a guy into custom ROM's, the S7 having the SD820 means hood development on XDA, as opposed to the Exynos.

So we should see CM13 ROM on the S7 pretty quickly.

 

[AppleRobert]

I'm quite happy with the Edge+, we'll see if I cave on the S7 when it is released.

 

[nj-morris]

Although this phone looks to be great, I don't see any of the models being better than my Edge+. 5.7 inches is my sweet spot, and the changes with the S7 seem to be minimal. I'm planning to keep my Edge+ for the next year or so, and unless there's something with a killer value in 2016, I'll give this year a miss.

 

[Lloydbm41]

Although this phone looks to be great, I don't see any of the models being better than my Edge+. 5.7 inches is my sweet spot, and the changes with the S7 seem to be minimal. I'm planning to keep my Edge+ for the next year or so, and unless there's something with a killer value in 2016, I'll give this year a miss.

SD card support, 3d touch support and waterproofing seem to be the 3 big add ons for the S7 over the S6. I have the Edge+ and looking to move down to the 5.1" or 5.5" models of the S7.

 

[msavic]

SD card support, 3d touch support and waterproofing seem to be the 3 big add ons for the S7 over the S6. I have the Edge+ and looking to move down to the 5.1" or 5.5" models of the S7.

There's also the 12mp 1/2" sensor with approximately 1.8um pixel size with a F1.7 lense. This should drastically improve low light photography and allow a faster shutter speed in the dark preventing motion blur.