The Samsung Galaxy S7: A Tale of Two Phones

When it comes to buying a new smartphone, one thing that's often on our minds is the battery life. We want a phone that can last us all day and night without needing a charge. And when it comes to the US version of the Samsung Galaxy S7, we're disappointed to say that its battery life falls short of expectations.

In a test conducted by publications online, it was found that the US variant of the Galaxy S7 had battery life that was anywhere between 20% to up to 70% less efficient than its global counterpart. This is a significant difference, and one that's hard to ignore. The chipset, which is a big part of the phone's performance, plays a role in this disparity. However, it's also clear that optimization played a factor, as other Android phones with the same Qualcomm chip performed better.

The issue here is that when you buy a Galaxy S7 for the same price as anyone else in the rest of the world, you're getting worse performance and lower battery life. It's hard to accept, especially when it comes down to the little things like the box that your phone comes in. The international version of the Galaxy S7 comes with a nice magnetic clasp that closes elegantly, while the US version has a paper tab instead. It may seem like a small thing, but it's the principle of it.

When you pull out the phone from its box for the first time, you're greeted with a big Samsung logo on the back of the device. This doesn't happen on international versions, and it just wouldn't happen if Samsung put as much thought into designing the US version as they did the global one. The experience is just not the same.

The carrier apps that come pre-installed on the phone are another source of frustration for many users in the US. While you can disable them, they still take up storage space and can be annoying to deal with. And when a new version of Android comes out, it's often months before updates are rolled out to the US market.

This isn't unique to Samsung, of course. Other Android manufacturers also struggle with carrier bloatware and delayed updates. However, as one of the biggest Android manufacturers in the world, Samsung has a responsibility to provide its users with an experience that's on par with what others receive around the globe.

So, what can be done about this? One suggestion is to raise awareness on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. By telling Samsung that you want an equal phone for an equal price tag, we can put pressure on the company to do better. It may not be a drastic solution, but it's a start. After all, if enough people know about the issue and Samsung knows that people know about it, they'll likely take steps to address the problem.

As I always say in my videos, "Keeping it real". That means being honest with our viewers about the issues we face, and advocating for change when necessary. In this case, it's not just about the phone itself, but about the experience that comes with owning a Samsung device in the US. By speaking out and demanding better, we can make sure that future generations of Galaxy S phones are equal to those found on other continents.

We'll continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as necessary. In the meantime, we want to hear from you – what's your experience been like with the US version of the Galaxy S7? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys David here and if you live in the US and you bought the Galaxy S7 like you may not know this but Samsung sold you an inferior version of this phone and this is despite charging you the same amount of money that they're charging other people in other countries for the better version now I know some of you guys may be sitting there thinking like what are you talking about Dave I live in the US I got the Galaxy S7 and it's a good phone in fact you yourself on Twitter said that you thought it had the best hardware on any smartphone in all of 2016 and yeah that's true okay the Galaxy S7 is a good phone in fact it's a great phone wherever you buy it but that doesn't change the fact that Samsung is selling an inferior version of it here in the US along with a few other countries like China and Japan so how exactly is the US version of the Galaxy S7 worse than the global version which is sold pretty much everywhere else there are a couple things actually and the first is performance so those of you who follow fumo know that we do performance test that's kind of our thing and when we tested the US version of the Galaxy S7 against the global version we found that not only not only is it slower in initially loading up applications but it's also significantly worse in keeping those applications ready for you in the background which overall equates to slower performance now there are two different chipsets being used so the US version has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip whereas the global version that's sold everywhere else has an exos 8890 chip that's made by Samsung itself and you know at first glance you would think like okay well maybe the processor difference is the reason why one phone is slower like I mean that makes sense but it turns out that's actually not the case later on when we tested other Android phones with the same Qualcomm chip those phones not only perform better than the US version of the Galaxy S7 but they also performed better or at least some of them performed better than the global version with Samsung's own xos chip so like clearly the hardware wasn't the problem right the chipset difference wasn't the problem it was really that Samsung just didn't optimize the US Galaxy S7 as well as they did the xnos version now if you really wanted to you could make an excuse for Samsung and say like well they had two different chipsets to worry about and obviously they were going to put the emphasis on their own in-house chip in fact they were more familiar with that chip so like it just makes sense that it performed better on their device than the Qualcomm chip but here's the problem with that argument guess who was the exclusive manufacturing partner for Qualcomm to make the Snapdragon a20 guess who won the contract that some analy say was worth over a billion to make the Snapdragon a820 for Qualcomm it was Samsung okay so they were familiar they were very familiar with the Snapdragon 820 because they were the ones literally making it so like you would think like you would think that Samsung would take some of that profit take some of that knowledge about the chip and make sure that the Snapdragon 820 on the US variant of the Galaxy S7 performed really really well better than any other Android phone out there when in fact it's the opposite and like it doesn't make sense to me but maybe performance isn't your thing right now everybody has the Need for Speed now everybody wants a sports car not everybody cares about you know 0 to 60 times some people just want a car that gets you to point A to point B and they want to do it in a very fuel efficient manner here's the thing the US version of the Galaxy S7 also has worse battery life so there's Publications online line that did tests on both versions of the Galaxy S7 and they found that the US variant of the Galaxy S7 had battery life that was anywhere between like 20 to up to 70% less efficient than the global counterpart like that's a lot now I will say a big part of the difference here is due to the chipset but at the same time optimization was a factor since other Android phones with that same Qualcomm chip perform better than the US version of the Galaxy S7 so you live in the US you buy a Galaxy S7 for the same price as anybody else in the rest of the world and you're getting worse performance and it getting worse battery life like you would think that would be it as if they wanted to add insult to injury it's all the carrier you have to deal with it starts right when you get the phone you get this box on the international version there's this nice little magnetic clasp that you know closes elegantly and on the US version the box has this little paper tab instead and like I'm not trying to make a big deal out of the box it's not a big deal you get the phone out of the box and you never see the Box again but like it's the principle of it right like it's almost like the Samsung was just looking at these two different versions of the S7 they're like you know what for the global version that we sell everywhere else we're going to make sure we pay attention to detail and put this nice little magnetic clasp on there yeah that'll be nice but the US version eh let's put a little paper tab that you know it's a little cheap version who cares and then you pull the phone out of the box okay it's like okay wow this is a nice phone right and it is and you turn it around and boom what do you see you see a big old stamp logo on the back of your phone okay this doesn't happen on International versions and it just wouldn't happen like and going back to the car analogy right imagine you buy your car and before you drive it off the lot the de is like hey hey hey hold on hold on let us spray paint our logo real quick on the back of your car like that just wouldn't happen so you turn on the phone and what are you greeted with the first thing you see it's a bunch of carrier apps that you just don't want and yes you can disable them but even when you disable them they're not completely off your phone they're always going to take up a little bit of your storage space and then to top it off right like to top it all off when a new version of Android comes out with all the new features and Bug fixes guess what you're not going to get updated to the latest version until like months after everyone else yeah sure other Android manufacturers do the same thing with carriers right they have all the bloatware and tram stamps on there but we're talking about Samsung right like this is the biggest Android manufacturer and their biggest competitor in apple doesn't do that stuff like it doesn't matter if you buy an iPhone in California or if you buy in Australia I've done both the unboxing experience is the same you don't get tram stamps you don't get carrier BL Weare and updates roll out around the same time for everyone even Google they went exclusive with Verizon this year on with the pixel but that phone doesn't have a tra sub on it doesn't have carrier bloatware so like what's Samsung's excuse and you know when you add it all up together right like the slower performance the lower battery life the delayed updates and all the other carrier BS like it's just hard to not feel like Samsung gave the US the short end of the stick when it came to the Galaxy S7 and honestly I'm afraid that they're going to do the same exact thing again with the Galaxy S8 unless we do something about it and what can we do let talk about it right like talk about the issue on Facebook tweet Samsung and tell them that you want an equal phone for an equal price tag me in your post I'm at phonebuff pretty much everywhere I think if enough people know about the issue and Samsung knows that people know about the issue they'll do the right thing they'll step up to the plate and they'll make sure that they offer the same great experience that they're offering to other people in other countries to people in the US equal phone for an equal price that's all we ask for anyways that is it for me in this video thank you guys for watching and as always I'll be keeping it real with you in the very next episodewhat's up guys David here and if you live in the US and you bought the Galaxy S7 like you may not know this but Samsung sold you an inferior version of this phone and this is despite charging you the same amount of money that they're charging other people in other countries for the better version now I know some of you guys may be sitting there thinking like what are you talking about Dave I live in the US I got the Galaxy S7 and it's a good phone in fact you yourself on Twitter said that you thought it had the best hardware on any smartphone in all of 2016 and yeah that's true okay the Galaxy S7 is a good phone in fact it's a great phone wherever you buy it but that doesn't change the fact that Samsung is selling an inferior version of it here in the US along with a few other countries like China and Japan so how exactly is the US version of the Galaxy S7 worse than the global version which is sold pretty much everywhere else there are a couple things actually and the first is performance so those of you who follow fumo know that we do performance test that's kind of our thing and when we tested the US version of the Galaxy S7 against the global version we found that not only not only is it slower in initially loading up applications but it's also significantly worse in keeping those applications ready for you in the background which overall equates to slower performance now there are two different chipsets being used so the US version has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip whereas the global version that's sold everywhere else has an exos 8890 chip that's made by Samsung itself and you know at first glance you would think like okay well maybe the processor difference is the reason why one phone is slower like I mean that makes sense but it turns out that's actually not the case later on when we tested other Android phones with the same Qualcomm chip those phones not only perform better than the US version of the Galaxy S7 but they also performed better or at least some of them performed better than the global version with Samsung's own xos chip so like clearly the hardware wasn't the problem right the chipset difference wasn't the problem it was really that Samsung just didn't optimize the US Galaxy S7 as well as they did the xnos version now if you really wanted to you could make an excuse for Samsung and say like well they had two different chipsets to worry about and obviously they were going to put the emphasis on their own in-house chip in fact they were more familiar with that chip so like it just makes sense that it performed better on their device than the Qualcomm chip but here's the problem with that argument guess who was the exclusive manufacturing partner for Qualcomm to make the Snapdragon a20 guess who won the contract that some analy say was worth over a billion to make the Snapdragon a820 for Qualcomm it was Samsung okay so they were familiar they were very familiar with the Snapdragon 820 because they were the ones literally making it so like you would think like you would think that Samsung would take some of that profit take some of that knowledge about the chip and make sure that the Snapdragon 820 on the US variant of the Galaxy S7 performed really really well better than any other Android phone out there when in fact it's the opposite and like it doesn't make sense to me but maybe performance isn't your thing right now everybody has the Need for Speed now everybody wants a sports car not everybody cares about you know 0 to 60 times some people just want a car that gets you to point A to point B and they want to do it in a very fuel efficient manner here's the thing the US version of the Galaxy S7 also has worse battery life so there's Publications online line that did tests on both versions of the Galaxy S7 and they found that the US variant of the Galaxy S7 had battery life that was anywhere between like 20 to up to 70% less efficient than the global counterpart like that's a lot now I will say a big part of the difference here is due to the chipset but at the same time optimization was a factor since other Android phones with that same Qualcomm chip perform better than the US version of the Galaxy S7 so you live in the US you buy a Galaxy S7 for the same price as anybody else in the rest of the world and you're getting worse performance and it getting worse battery life like you would think that would be it as if they wanted to add insult to injury it's all the carrier you have to deal with it starts right when you get the phone you get this box on the international version there's this nice little magnetic clasp that you know closes elegantly and on the US version the box has this little paper tab instead and like I'm not trying to make a big deal out of the box it's not a big deal you get the phone out of the box and you never see the Box again but like it's the principle of it right like it's almost like the Samsung was just looking at these two different versions of the S7 they're like you know what for the global version that we sell everywhere else we're going to make sure we pay attention to detail and put this nice little magnetic clasp on there yeah that'll be nice but the US version eh let's put a little paper tab that you know it's a little cheap version who cares and then you pull the phone out of the box okay it's like okay wow this is a nice phone right and it is and you turn it around and boom what do you see you see a big old stamp logo on the back of your phone okay this doesn't happen on International versions and it just wouldn't happen like and going back to the car analogy right imagine you buy your car and before you drive it off the lot the de is like hey hey hey hold on hold on let us spray paint our logo real quick on the back of your car like that just wouldn't happen so you turn on the phone and what are you greeted with the first thing you see it's a bunch of carrier apps that you just don't want and yes you can disable them but even when you disable them they're not completely off your phone they're always going to take up a little bit of your storage space and then to top it off right like to top it all off when a new version of Android comes out with all the new features and Bug fixes guess what you're not going to get updated to the latest version until like months after everyone else yeah sure other Android manufacturers do the same thing with carriers right they have all the bloatware and tram stamps on there but we're talking about Samsung right like this is the biggest Android manufacturer and their biggest competitor in apple doesn't do that stuff like it doesn't matter if you buy an iPhone in California or if you buy in Australia I've done both the unboxing experience is the same you don't get tram stamps you don't get carrier BL Weare and updates roll out around the same time for everyone even Google they went exclusive with Verizon this year on with the pixel but that phone doesn't have a tra sub on it doesn't have carrier bloatware so like what's Samsung's excuse and you know when you add it all up together right like the slower performance the lower battery life the delayed updates and all the other carrier BS like it's just hard to not feel like Samsung gave the US the short end of the stick when it came to the Galaxy S7 and honestly I'm afraid that they're going to do the same exact thing again with the Galaxy S8 unless we do something about it and what can we do let talk about it right like talk about the issue on Facebook tweet Samsung and tell them that you want an equal phone for an equal price tag me in your post I'm at phonebuff pretty much everywhere I think if enough people know about the issue and Samsung knows that people know about the issue they'll do the right thing they'll step up to the plate and they'll make sure that they offer the same great experience that they're offering to other people in other countries to people in the US equal phone for an equal price that's all we ask for anyways that is it for me in this video thank you guys for watching and as always I'll be keeping it real with you in the very next episode\n"