Samsung Galaxy S7 32GB UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Black

During this review i will be comparing the Samsung Galaxy S6 with the new S7. DESIGN Samsung's Galaxy S7 features mostly the same design from the S6, but this isn't a bad thing because the S6 is a great phone with its glass and metal construction, making it feel like a premium device. This time Samsung has chosen to master the design of the S6 by making the back curve near the edges on the S7 to make holding the device feel more snug in the hand and reducing the camera bump on the back. The S7 is now water resistant (NOT GUARANTIED) and also has micro SD card slot for expandable storage up to 200GB. CPU/GPU Since this is Samsung's top phone at the moment the high specs are there, the UK version is slightly better then the US version due to them using different CPUs and GPUs but are very similar in day to day life. The UK version comes on board with the Exynos 8890 which is made by Samsung and the US comes with the Snapdragon 820 (which is in the LG G5 and HTC 10), all of this partnered with 4GB of RAM makes this phone a powerhouse. DISPLAY Samsung has been producing some of the best smartphone displays since the orignal Galaxy S1 and the S7 doesn't end that trend. The 1440p Super AMOLED display in the S6 was stunning, and they've continued to improve it by making it more accurate and brighter. It is easily the best display in a smartphone. BATTERY The battery in the S6 wasn't awful...but it could have been better. The S6's 2550mAh battery has been upgraded to 3000mAh in the S7 which does greatly improve battery life as iv'e been getting around 4.5 hours of screen on time nearing the end of the day. The speed of the charging is not bad, though not as fast as some other phones like the newly released OnePlus 3, however the S7 benefits from wireless charging. CAMERA The camera in the S6 was top notch, with the S7 things haven't changed. It features a 12MP rear camera which is less then the S6's 16MP but Samsung has opted for dual pixel technology which has made the S7 the fastest focusing smartphone on the market, they've increased the size of the pixels to make the camera better in low light and has an aperture of f/1.7. In simple terms this is one of the best if not the best camera in a smartphone right now. The rear camera can shoot up to 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps and 720p at 240fps (slow motion). The 5MP front camera isn't bad either, shooting at up to 1440p at 30fps and is a wider angle then some other smartphones so you can get more in the shot. LITTLE FEATURES Other little features include a Always On Display which can show you either the time and date, a calendar or 1 of 3 images and will only use a little bit of the battery due to the only pixels you need are being lit. The auto brightness on the S7 is also the best iv'e seen, accurately and quickly altering the brightness when going into different lighting conditions. CONCLUSION I think Samsung has made a brilliant phone that ticks all the boxes, the design, speed, display, battery life and camera are all great which makes this phone a serious contender in the battle of the best smartphone. But should you upgrade if you use last years S6? I'd say no...you won't notice that much of a performance gap, but if you're coming from a phone that's older then i'd say it's worth it, i came from the HTC One M7. This is my first review, i'm sorry that it's a long one, tell me what you thought of it and don't hesitate to ask any questions.

Moved from a Nexus 6, to an iPhone SE, then to this. The Samsung is by far and away the quickest phone, it's silly how much quicker it is. Build quality is on par with the iPhone, and way better than the Motorola-built Nexus 6. I thought I'd hate TouchWiz but it works fine, though I did change the launcher to Nova Launcher. I also didn't sign up to a Samsung account which seems to defeat a lot of the spammy apps other people complain about. I really love the S Health app, much much better than Google Fit or Apple's Health app. Counts steps and distances fine, and can even do heart rate and blood oxygen levels via the finger scanner beside the camera on the back of the phone. The camera is good, and the fingerprint scanner for unlocking is easily as good as the one on the iPhone SE. Battery life is decent, I get about 36 hours out of it (light use, email, a bit of Facebook, Google Now, etc), about 24 if I'm using the Plex app a lot. Quick Charging boosts the battery really quickly, so plugging it in to a QuickCharge compatible car charger (Anker PowerDrive+1) on my short commute keeps the battery running all day. I'm using the always-on screen, which makes this more impressive. This is my first Samsung phone, and I have to say I'm really impressed.

What a great phone. I was upgrading from an iphone4s due to that getting slower with every update. It arrived well packaged and contained the phone , the charger, a usb adapter for transferring data and the headphones. The only things missing were the instructions and a sim tray removal tool. This wasnt a huge issue for me because i already own a samsung tablet, so alot of the interface is familiar, but also the instructions are easily available for free online. If , like me , you are upgrading from an older phone you may need a different sim card ,the S7 takes a nano sim so consider that if you want to use it on day one. The phone itself looks great in black , but that shiny back looks like it might scratch really easily so a case or protector of some kind might be an idea if you prefer your phone to stay shiny. It was over 50% charged on opening , so you could have got started straight away if you wanted. I opted to top up the charge, and my first exposure to fast charging was great. it took about 10-15 mins and that was it. no more needing to leave the phone plugged in for an hour. Setup was very straightforward, guiding you through each step. just a word of warning, if you are new to android and not setup with a google login, some features may not work fully . The screen is great, really sharp and clear and responsive . i was able to transfer my old contacts and other info and photo's over wifi using a great app ' copy my data' (other apps are available and i am not affiliated with the producers) you download it to both phones , follow the instructions and in my case 5 mins later, job done. or you can use the usb adapter to hardwire your old and new phone and transfer it that way. battery usage so far (only on day 3) has been great. i've been easily able to get through a day without having to top it up. I haven't used the headphones yet, but they look ok and i'm sure they'll be fine. i'm loving the addition of the memory card slot , meaning space is no longer at a premium. you can just slot up to 200gb micro card in there and put all your music and photos on. I'm not sure about testing the waterproofing, theres something inherently wrong with dropping your £500 brand new phone in the sink just to test it, so i'll wait until i'm feeling a bit more brave. finally this is just to help those who get the phone and spend ages trying to find what the little symbol in the top right that looks like an N is. Its for near field communication ( it didnt appear in my online instructions) and can be turned off from the settings menu . that'll save you 10 mins of your life on the internet

So today was the day that my nine-year love affair with Apple truly started to come to an end. At 2.14pm today, I waved goodbye to my 64GB Space Grey iPhone 6S. The same phone that I queued up for on launch day, queued up to pre-order and waited excitedly for two weeks to arrive, watching the Apple event over and over again so that I knew the specs inside out. As I sealed the envelope to Mobile Cash Mate, I thought about how the year-ago me wouldn't have ever dreamed of embracing an Android device, let alone a SAMSUNG one! So what happened to make me change my mind? Over the nine years of my iPhone experience, the whole thing finally became too boring and predictable. Every September I would eagerly await the launch event and would actually believe that the new features would change mine and everyone else's lives. Somehow they convinced me to spend more and more money whilst tying me in to an ecosystem that gradually took a grip of so many important parts of my life. I definitely wanted out of that. Somehow, I agreed to paying £2.99 every month for cloud storage and email, which has ended up hosting all of my photographs, documents and email. NO!! Opening the packaging for my Samsung Galaxy S7 was an Apple-esque experience. The same inner contents - my cellophane wrapped mobile, high speed wall charger and USB cable along with a plastic box with a pair of earphones inside. Straight away, I already have a load of cables within my home for charging this new device as Samsung, along with almost every other manufacturer apart from the Cupertino giant, use a standardised cable type. Maybe they make less money from replacement parts, but their customers will resent them less. You can buy a high quality, fast charging microUSB cable for less than £2 with free shipment from Amazon. Any Lightning cable not approved by apple will not work so you'll struggle to get a replacement Apple cable for less than £10. Finally within the S7 box is a SIM re moval tool. Common to most smart phones, but a necessity nonetheless, and adding to the Apple-y feel! The Samsung/Android hybrid operating system is familiar to me whilst being new. The TouchWiz launcher is slow at times, but offers a layout that Apple users will understand. I immediately loved the innovative widgets and straight away had a clock/weather display on my home page. On my iPhone I would have needed a jailbreak to do this. The fingerprint sensor is quick and accurate. It offers the same app-login features as its fruit based rival. Android have combined the notification centre with the control centre and a slide down from the top of the screen will reveal six control buttons along with quick controls for audio playback and all of the current notifications. A second pull down from the control buttons will load the complete bank of buttons and gives rapid access to most of the settings for the phone. A long press of the buttons sends you straight to that particular settings menu item. Android Pay seems to work better than Apple Pay. Every transaction results in a notification and a click on the app lets you have a look at all of your recent transactions. Sadly there is no Android Pay functionality on the Samsung Gear S2 and I have definitely missed being able to buy things with my watch. I'm quite sure this is just around the corner. In September last year, Tim Cook and the gang raved about '3D Touch' on the 6S and 6S Plus. I agree that this is a useful feature, but I don't feel like I miss it on my Android device. I loved the 'Live Photos' function, but this is also a little-known feature on Android phones with their 'Motion Photo' setting. An improvement to the fruity feature is that with my Sammy handset I can send my motion photos as a video file, meaning that anyone can enjoy them and not just Steve Jobs' disciples. Nobody ever seems to mention the actual mobile telephone functions of a smartphone, but I can tell you that the S7 outperforms the 6S by a country mile. There is even a button for increasing the speaker-phone volume beyond the max if you need to, and the S7 supports internet calling which seems to activate without any user intervention (subject to network access to the feature), making crystal clear calls with no drop-outs. As for the cloud, I have yet to pay a single penny for the hundreds of gigabytes of storage I am using on my S7. Microsoft offered me 100GB of One Drive storage in return for a share on Twitter and all of my photos are now stored on Google's servers free of charge. All of these services are compatible with my iPad and MacBook Pro so I can still access all my files and photos on every single device. As for music, I can drag and drop any audio file I like onto my phone's onboard storage or SD card and the music players just seem to recognise them all. Simples! The S7's camera is without doubt the best snapper I've ever used. Even at 9.1MP in 16:9 mode, the pictures are incredibly vibrant and colours more realistic. The dual pixel technology increases low-light performance - something that iPhones don't do well - and the SD Card slot means that 4k video is a more realistic proposition as the handset can take up to 256GB of storage on top of it's standard 32GB. As if all of that isn't enough, my new favourite moby also supports wireless charging. If you've never used this technology, it might seem like a white elephant, but once you've had it for a few weeks you will never want to go back. Can you imagine sitting in your favourite seat in the lounge at night, watching TV or chatting to your significant other. By 8pm most people's phones are very much in need of some juice but don't you just hate having to constantly unplug. With wireless charging, you pick your phone up to use it for a few minutes and then plonk it back down on its little pad. So how will I feel next month when the latest offerings from California go public? I will probably feel a little bit sad. Then I will check my bank balance and glance at the list of reasons why I love my S7 more than any iPhone I’ve ever earned, and all will be well with the world again.

I am reviewing this phone in retrospect after owning for many years. At the time it was quick, well priced and had an excellent battery life. Unfortunately over years of ownership the battery life is somewhat degraded, and the processing speeds have been vastly superceded by more modern devices. I still use it for music and photos so probably worth buying as long as you don't need something with super fast processing power.

I bought this phone from KT SUPREME in mid-May and they delivered a box which had a TIM sticker on it (the Italian telecoms provider). The start-up screen had TIM and Italian on them, but changing this to English was no problem and I had to remove all of the TIM apps (totally superfluous...!!), but I was not pleased that this was not a UK sourced S7. Before purchasing, I went to the Samsung website and communicated with their Customer Service Team, as I’d read others feedback about non-UK phones. I made sure that the model I was buying was SM-G930FZKABTU, as this is a UK model. Surprised then to receive one that had Italian set-up and was concerned this was the SM-G930FZKDITV, which Samsung Customer Service informed me might not be fully compatible with UK apps or services, had dual SIM's and a different processor. Thankfully, this phone has a single SIM and so I believe it to be the SM-G930FZKABTU, but why oh why, does it have the TIM data loaded?? Couldn’t locate the original review I completed for feedback, so I’ve typed this one instead.

Just bought this as a replacement for my HTC one m8. I have owned an S3 and an S4 a few years back and decided to try HTC - what a mistake. The build quality of the S7 is just amazing and the responsive user interface is just sublime. Coupled to now having a waterproof phone that has expandable memory (the S6 doesn't have those) then i'm certain this S7 will last for many years to come. This particular phone is a duo - it will either take an extra SIM card - which could come in handy or the extra memory. Mine didn't have any 'vodafone' stuff which some other reviewers complained of. It did have a broken seal on the box (which was covered up by another seal) but otherwise it was in brand new condition, no scratch no usage. It has everything official on it including the Samsung 24 month warranty. I have installed my apps and even used it with a Gear VR - all fine. All in all I'm very pleased to be back using a Samsung and this for me is just perfect.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is my first "smart" 'phone. I had long wanted a single device to keep in my bag instead of both a camera and a mobile 'phone. My objective was to secure a camera that will make the odd 'phone call in an emergency, not a fancy device that does everything except juggle jelly. It has been a disappointment. In the first place it arrived without a complete charger and had I not possessed the necessary adaptors in my bag of electrical bits and pieces, it would have been three days before I had the opportunity to charge it. There was no instruction leaflet and the default language on the 'phone was something I do not recognize. As I am reasonably technically literate I was able to get the device set up but without the benefit of the helpline as I had no voice. Had I been able to access telephone help it would have cost a lot of money as there is only a premium rate number offered. The device itself is easy to operate but the camera is a great disappointment. There are few shooting options and all photographs need to be brightened and have the contrast increased in order to give passable prints BEFORE downloading onto a computer. This is a more cumbersome process that it needs to be but can be done. On the screen of the 'phone or on the television the shots are fine but really poor when printed, comparing unfavourably with those of any camera (film or digital) I have ever owned. My little 2002 Canon Ixus (2 million pixels) enlarged without loss of definition or resolution to A4 fit for framing. The ones printed from the Galaxy are dull and lack definition by comparison and require a great deal of editing to make them acceptable. The trouble is that the manufacturers continually pander to those who need to live their lives through their electronic devices and ignore those of us for whom they are tools to be used at appropriate times in appropriate places. I don't yet know whether or not it makes 'phone calls as I have had it only a month but discovered to my cost that to send a text costs a lot of money if too many words are used. It suddenly jumps to something called MMS without warning and without the opportunity to change it. Surely it would have been a simple enough matter for Samsung to have offered the opportunity to enable this function only if required.