Using the Galaxy S7 Edge as My Daily Driver: Thoughts and Impressions

As I've been using the Galaxy S7 Edge as my daily driver for over a week, I wanted to share some thoughts with you about what I really loved about the phone and other things that didn't quite hit the mark. First and foremost, I have to say that I'm absolutely loving the design and build of this phone. The slight curve on the back is not only visually appealing but also makes it incredibly comfortable to hold in my hand compared to last year's Galaxy devices. The camera bump has been flattened a bit, which is a nice touch, and while it still isn't flush, I find that it's a more pleasant design choice than the hump from last year.

One thing that did catch me off guard was the fact that the screen can still be scratched, even with Gorilla Glass 5. I'm not sure what happened, but I thought it might have been keys in my pocket at first. However, after testing, I realized it might have been something else entirely (perhaps a piece of sand?). Either way, it's clear that the screen can scratch if you're not careful, so I would highly recommend protecting it with a skin – and I'm using one from dbrand, which they've kindly linked in the description. Speaking of storage, Samsung has brought back the SD card slot, which I've really missed over the years. Not only is it great to have expandable storage options, but you can also install apps on the card itself, which is a fantastic feature that was previously limited.

The rear camera on the S7 Edge is an absolute beast – 12 megapixels and capable of taking some of the best photos I've shot with any smartphone in recent memory. In bright light, it's comparable to the iPhone 6s, but in low-light conditions, it truly shines. The images are stunning, and I think this phone definitely deserves its "Camera Crown." That being said, if you're considering upgrading from a 2015 flagship to the S7 for just the camera, I'd say unless you're shooting an awful lot of low-light photos, probably not – the 2015 camera kings are still pretty close.

The display on the S7 Edge is another area where I'm thoroughly impressed. Samsung phones often have some of the best screens out there, and this one is no exception. It's covered in Gorilla Glass 5, which adds to its premium feel, and it's just an absolute joy to use. The screen itself is also incredibly vibrant, with deep blacks and rich colors that make watching videos or browsing the web a real treat.

In terms of performance, the S7 Edge is powered by a super-fast Snapdragon 820 processor, paired with 4 gigs of RAM – a combination that's more than capable of handling even the most demanding tasks. The battery life is also impressive, with a massive 3600mAh hour capacity that should easily last you a day or more.

One area where I was initially disappointed was with the speaker quality. As someone who consumes a lot of media on my phone, I expect a certain level of audio output – and unfortunately, the S7 Edge falls short in this regard. The single speaker is not as immersive as some other phones I've used, and it's a shame that you need to cut through conversations or adjust the volume to get decent sound.

Finally, there's one feature that I have mixed feelings about: TouchWiz. As someone who loves a clean, stock OS experience (I'm a big fan of both Stock Android and iOS), I find TouchWiz to be overwhelming with all its features and apps. While it's certainly customizable, and some people will love the extra functionality, I just can't help feeling like I'm carrying around dozens of unused apps and features that are eating up storage space.

That being said, Samsung has made significant strides in improving RAM management on this phone – whereas my old S6 would aggressively close apps when they weren't in use, I don't notice it happening with the S7 Edge at all. So while TouchWiz may not be to everyone's taste, I'm willing to give it another chance and see if I can learn to appreciate its quirks.

Overall, I think the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is an absolutely fantastic phone – aside from TouchWiz and the speaker quality, which are areas where it falls short. But hey, even with those minor complaints, this phone feels like a premium device that's well worth considering if you're in the market for a new smartphone.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey how's it going guys this is Dave 2D so I've been using the Galaxy S7 Edge as my daily driver for a little bit over a week and wanted to share some thoughts with you about what I really loved about the phone and other things I didn't like as much so first I really like the design and build there's a slight curve on the back it's easier to hold than last year's Galaxy devices visually the difference is subtle but when you hold it it's noticeably more comfortable the camera bump has been flattened a bit it's still not flush and the hump last year wasn't ever a big issue for me but this is nicer it has Gorilla Glass 5 which is supposedly better than Gorilla Glass 4 but I scratched my screen on the third day I don't even know how I did it at first I thought it was keys in my pocket but I tested it it wasn't the keys it might have been like a piece of sand or something but whatever it was the screen can still be scratched so protect it if you care about scratches the same thing goes for the back it'll scratch if you're not careful and it's slippery so get a skin for it this one's from dbrand I'll link it in the description so they have SD cards again and I've really missed this feature but not only is their SD support but unlike what they originally said in their press release you can totally install apps on the card you can just transfer it over if you remove the card the apps installed on the card just get gray out the rear camera is a beast it's 12 megapixel I've shot a lot of photos on this thing over the past week and I think it shoots a little better than the iPhone 6s and the Nexus 6p so it's faster to focus equally good in bright light and much better in low light the photos look great and I think this really deserves the camera Crown right now but if you're wondering whether or not it's worth upgrading from a 2015 Flagship to the S7 for just the camera like unless you're shooting a ton of lowlight photos probably not because the 2015 camera kings are still pretty close it has a 5 1/2 in Quad HD AMOLED panel and Samsung phones often have the best displays they have the best contrast best viewing angles Energy Efficiency they're brighter and more visible in sunlight and even like the best color accuracy so the default setting again is crazy oversaturated to make it pop out in stores but if you put it on basic mode the color accuracy is banging on the always on feature is also pretty cool it just puts the time or the calendar up on the screen when the device is sleeping and it doesn't seem to drain batteries very much I found the Dual Edge display on the S6 Edge a little gimmicky and on the S7 Edge there's more customization but I still don't find it super useful it is really cool looking though it's ip68 dust and water resistant and having a water resistant phone is nice it's not a big deal but it's one less thing you need to worry about if you're ever in the rain or if you drop your phone in the toilet like we've all done that right okay yeah me neither the S7 comes in two processor variants so the one I'm running here is the Snapdragon 820 4 gigs of RAM and it's supposedly Vapor cooled it's very fast but when you compare to other Flagship devices right now it's not a huge jumping speed so obviously the 820 is going to Benchmark faster than an 810 and if I'm trying to find a difference between them them yeah the s7's a little bit faster but when I'm using it in my day-to-day all three of these devices feel super fast now thermally the S7 does way better than the Nexus 6p the 6p always ran a little hot and it throttled down because of it but the S7 stays as cool as the iPhone 6s it's a really fast processor with excellent thermals it's got a beefy 3600 Milah battery and with very heavy use I was comfortably lasting a full day with around 4 and 1/2 hours of screen on time it's a nice change over the S6 devices with more normal use the battery lasted a day and a half with screen on time closer to 6 hours it still uses micro USB I kind of wish Samsung used the S7 to speed up USBC adoption around the world but micro USB is still cool the phone also supports fast adaptive charging and of course it has wireless charging okay on to a couple things that I don't like first the speaker so just to be clear this is the loud speaker not the earpiece it's on the bottom again and it's not a great position it's like the iPhone where you need to cut to hear stuff better and it's a single speaker so you lose that immersion when you're playing games or you're watching videos now a lot of people won't notice or even care about speaker quality but I consume a good chunk of my media on my phone and compared to the Nexus 6p the audio output here is really tame and lastly the thing that I just like the most about the phone is TouchWiz I like my stuff clean so I'm a stock OS kind of guy I love stock Android I love stock iOS but TouchWiz comes with a ton of features that are completely useless to me and I know I can root it or run launchers to hide touch wiiz like I'm running a material theme that kind of masks it and I'm using de bloater to turn a bunch of things off but these apps are still eating up storage and it just kills me that I'm carrying around dozens of apps and features that I'll never use and I can't uninstall but that's just me one nice thing is that the RAM management is much improved the S6 would aggressively close apps when they weren't in use but this time around I don't really notice it okay the Samsung S7 Edge fantastic material choices and build quality a very premium phone awesome looking screen covered in Gorilla Glass 5 but it can still scratch the rear facing camera is arguably the best on smartphones right now inside we're rocking 32 gigs of storage that's expandable with micro SD it's got a super fast Snapdragon 820 with 4 gigs of RAM a big 3600 Milah hour battery that'll easily last you a day or more all of this in a water resistant package okay so the phone is awesome and aside from TouchWiz and the speaker I would consider it nearly perfect for everything I'm looking for in a smartphone but here's the thing tons of people use TouchWiz and love it and I'm a firm believer that if you use something for long enough you can learn to appreciate it and like it as well so because the hardware is as good as it is that's what I'm going to do I'm going to force myself to use TouchWiz and see if I can get on board this train that's the end of this video hope you guys liked it thumbs if you liked it subs if you loved it it's been nice I'll see you guys next time\n"