Samsung recently launched their latest flagship devices – the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. And we are lucky enough to get our hands on the phone for a full review, thanks to Samsung Pakistan. But before we do that, let’s take a look at our initial impressions about this smartphone, the Galaxy S7 Edge to be exact, as we just unboxed and started using it.
These phones are now available in retail stores all over the world and here we have the bigger variant for a quick unboxing. We’ll also take you through the contents that come inside the box, and ofcourse, the Galaxy S7 Edge itself.
Galaxy S7 Edge – Unboxing
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge comes in a dark blue/black box, a somewhat premium packaging than what we have seen with the past flagships from the Korean manufacturer. The box opens up to the side, again something we haven’t seen Samsung do with their other phones — usually you find the typical shoe box design with no textures on the top. Not to forget, Samsung even once went for recycled papers for their boxes after the launch of the Galaxy S4.
On the front side you only have the phone branding and at the top corner, you can find the storage variant you chose to buy. We have the 32GB version with us for review. At the back side, there are some highlighted technical specifications of the phone. Let’s see what’s inside the box now.
At the very top, you have the Galaxy S7 Edge handset. Under that, there is a box with the usual user guide, warranty information and a SIM ejection pin. Here is a complete list of things you find inside the box:
- Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
- User guides
- SIM ejection pin
- Micro USB cable
- Fast charger adapter
- Earphones
- USB OTG connector – this was surprising and we loved using it!
Like we mentioned earlier, we loved the little OTG connector that Samsung packed inside the box. It works flawlessly and it seems to support the high-speed USB 3.0 (we haven’t tested that yet!). More on this later in our full review of the phone.
Check out the following gallery of pictures for the unboxing and each of the contents:
Galaxy S7 Edge – Initial Impressions
The first thing you notice about the phone after you take it out of the box is the gorgeous, refined look and feel of it. The Edge variant feels much more polished and improved as compared to its predecessor. The camera bump has been reduced, while the overall thickness of the phone has been slightly increased. Samsung’s design team deserves an applause for creating a product that everyone wants to “check out” — mainly because of the curved edges and with the Galaxy S7 Edge, the curves get a lot more useful with the Edge panels and other features. Anyone with the previous Galaxy S6 will not notice much difference in looks, but the feel of the phone has been improved by a significant margin.
After powering up the phone for the first time, it takes a few minutes to go through the initial setup but that is just once and you don’t have to do it again and again. You can instantly start loading up the phone with your favourite apps, sync your contacts and start customizing your phone — Samsung even include themes now!
The new camera deserves a mention as Samsung has done a fantastic job with the software and hardware of this phone. Let us put out a few sample shots that you can go through below and see the much improved camera quality in the Galaxy S7 Edge:
Overall build of the phone is all glass with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 at the front and back sides which makes the phone very slippery — in fact, the phone once slipped out of my jeans pocket while sitting on the sofa and I didn’t even notice. Another issue I have faced with this phone is the home button and the fingerprint scanner. Why do I have to wake up the phone first before using the fingerprint scanner? And the home button feels cheap and plastic-y, and makes a weird sound when you press it. The buttons on the side are of the usual premium build, but a better home button would have been much more awesome.
UPDATE: You can read our full review: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Review.
