Not worth the cost

Posted: Sep 21, 2016, 4:06 AM

Phone owned for less than 3 months

Although I'm about to slate this handset, keep in mind I'm comparing it in my head to the Xperia compact, and the Fairphone, so I'm sure it's still better than many lower end phones in speed and features, However!

The two biggest issues are it's too large to operate in one hand, and is also built in slippery materials that feel nice, but mean you Will drop this phone. Then it will break because it's thin and flimsy. Then it will cost you half the cost of the phone (around £200), and at least a week or some serious effort to fix. Because it can only Really be fixed by Samsung, and they can Only fix with the same Colour parts... which they won't have.

Second, the battery will last you a few hours. Litterally, 3-4 hours, if you're using your phone, and that's not even with half the features turned on. If I left NFC, 4G, and GPS on I could run it down in 2 hours while it overheated, but being conscientious, turning off what you don't need, the screen will still gobble the battery, e.g. browsing the internet for a few hours.
The quick-charge is a nice feature, and helps take the sting out, you really can get to 90% in about half an hour but you're still finding places to plug in twice a day OR keeping your screen turned off... which kind of defeats the purpose of an amazing phone with these capabilities.

Originally I recommended this phone to my Dad as his first smartphone. I think it probably is a good phone for technophobes still, it's pretty simple to operate and even has Extra simple settings, so for Apple users who are fed up with Apple's nonsense or a "my first smartphone" it would do ok... except, let's face it, why not get one that fits in your hand and is half the cost then?

The VR is Brilliant! This IS the future, and the Gear VR is smooth and high quality. The potential for games is amazing and I only wish I had the money to make one. I immediately invented three whole new genres of game that could be played with this VR that uniquely couldn't be achieved with a PC version...
of course none of these games exist yet, and I can't see anybody Trying to make anything similar... and I'm afraid I'm not a millionaire. So it'll be no better than many others until someone with money, meets someone with imagination and ingenuity.

This is not even the edge model, just the normal S7, but even so it's very difficult to hold without accidently touching the edges of the screen and activating stuff you don't want. I can't imagine how awkward the "futuristic" edge is. The "one hand mode" is ridiculous. It squashes all the content into a space too small. WHERE are the ergonomics people!?

The camera is brilliant, but so are the others I'd compare it against. The one area it seems to Really outperform is low light photography.

I've given the display score a 5, but the actual Quality of the display is 9 or 10. It's a crisp high quality display. It just breaks easily and cost a fortune to fix.

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