Samsung Galaxy S7 Best Review

Samsung has been at the top of the smartphone mountain (and at times it really can feel like a literal mountain) for some time, but in 2015 it dropped the ball.

Not in terms of the quality of its flagship handsets – that remained characteristically brilliant – but in the way it attempted to market two top-end handsets with the same screen size at vastly different prices.

All that has changed with Samsung’s approach to the Galaxy S7, with the company placing clear air between the 5.2in Samsung Galaxy S7 and its 5.5in sibling, not only on price but also on screen size.

In short, Samsung – just like Apple does with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus – is giving its customers a clear choice. If you like your smartphones big, you’ll want to opt for the 5.5in Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and pay a bit more; if you don't like having to sew up holes in your pockets every few months, the smaller, slightly cheaper 5.1in Samsung Galaxy S7 we’re reviewing here is the way to go. Either way, you're getting the best smartphone on the market.

There. I said it. You don’t even have to read the rest of the review if you don’t want to. You might as well go out and buy one right now if you want to save yourself the effort. It’s good, great even. Trust me.

But you’re not going to do that because you’re here to find out more. You want to know exactly why it’s so fantastic. Why the design is better, the features more feature-y and the camera more capable than the compact you spent hundreds of pounds on ten years ago.

Latest news: The Samsung Galaxy S7 is one hell of a smartphone and, in my book, a better handset than the iPhone 6s. For once, it seems that the general public agrees, and US sales of the S7 and S7 Edge have overtaken the iPhone for the very first time.

The latest figures on the US mobile phone market for the three months ending in May (issued by Kantar Worldpanel) see the S7 and S7 Edge accounting for 16% of sales, while the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus grab 14.6%. Across all models, Samsung holds an even bigger lead, with a 37% share compared with Apple’s 29%.

It’s a landmark moment, for sure, but it seems that not many of those buying the S7 are moving from an iPhone – that's 5% according to the report.

Meanwhile, in Blighty, the competition between the two brands is a much closer affair, with each manufacturer commanding 36% of the total smartphone market. The most popular handset in the UK is the Apple iPhone 6s, followed by the iPhone 5s, the Samsung Galaxy J5 and the iPhone SE.

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 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.