WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7?

  

To use a tired cliche, Samsung has had a year of two halves. After the release of both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, things were looking strong. It had a phone that was better than the HTC 10, better than the Huawei P9 and it’s still better than the iPhone 7.

But then the exploding Galaxy Note 7 landed and Samsung took a bit of a hit. Is it enough to make you think twice about buying a Samsung device?

In a word, no. The Galaxy S7 is still the best phone we’ve reviewed this year. Maybe the Google Pixel phone will have something to say about that though?

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 – DESIGN

After the massive, and much needed, change in design direction Samsung took with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in 2015, all rumours pointed to things staying pretty much the same for the Galaxy S7.

Well, it’s not like Apple, HTC or Sony make drastic changes to their industrial design every year.

And that’s exactly the case here. Place the Galaxy S7 next to the S6 and you’d be hard pushed to instantly pick which one is which. Frankly, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The S6 was already one of the best-looking phones around, and the Galaxy S7 follows suit.

Both the front and back are covered in Gorilla Glass 4, while a metal rim snakes in between. Two volume buttons sit on one side, with a lock/standby switch on the other. It’s a clean look, with the back free from any markings aside from a Samsung logo.

The camera lens now sits just about flush with the glass body too. This might seem a small change, but it makes a big difference. I can now tap out an email with the phone flat on my desk without it jumping and rocking from side to side.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 – DISPLAY

Close to perfection. That’s the best way to describe the display on Samsung’s Galaxy S7.

Not much has really changed from the outgoing S6, but this still holds up as the best screen on a smartphone.

It’s still a 5.1-inch QHD panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and just like every Galaxy flagship so far, it uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED tech, rather than the more common LCD.

AMOLED displays are a lot better at showing off blacks than LCDs. Instead of looking slightly grey and washed out, the blacks here are inky deep. Some say AMOLED screens produce colours that are too oversaturated, so reds will look way brighter than they should, but that isn’t much of an issue here. And if you really prefer things toned down, there’s a picture setting for that.

Having so many pixels jammed into a relatively small space means you can’t really spot one pixel from another, and that sharpness makes everything from gaming to watching YouTube an absolute pleasure. Play a round of Alto’s Adventure or Monument Valley on this display and you’ll instantly be drawn in by the crisp details and vivid colour reproduction.

Acer Aspire S7 (2015) Ultrabook Review

Sharp as a knife. Slim, elegant and streamlined - the looks of the S7 will stop everyone from simply passing by Acer's premium range. Will the pricey first-rate configuration of WQHD screen and SSD Raid ultimately be convincing? We examined that in this in-depth test report.

For the original German review, see here.

In 2012, Acer launched a premium line that most certainly deserves this title with its Aspire S7. The thin yet firm and stiff casing was unmatched and the slim silhouette of the 13-inch device impressed testers and customers alike. Following the first generation based on an Ivy Bridge SoC (Aspire S7 391, 2012), the manufacturer upgraded to Haswell and a WQHD screen in late 2013. The modifications in the casing were slight, but the battery's capacity was increased. Now an absolutely unchanged S7 faces us. The casing is identical with that of the 2013 model. Never change a winning team? We will find out.

We will reexamine the build and input devices considering the time span between the tests and, of course, the brand new technological acquisitions, namely the Broadwell Core i7-5500U processor that still has to manage with an unchanged capacity of 47 watt hours.

The rivals can be found among our Top 10 Subnotebooks and Ultrabooks in the current market environment. Apple's MacBook Air 13 2014 belongs to this group just like Dell's XPS 13-9343 andAsus' Zenbook UX303LN. All three contenders are lightweight 13-inch devices with a very high-quality, attractive build. Except for the Air 13 (Broadwell version currently in review), Intel's new Broadwell SoC powers the devices, and the TFTs have a resolution of at least WQHD (2560x1440 pixels).

What does our review sample have to offer for 1500 Euros (~$1640)? Can it match the successfulDell XPS 13-9343 (2015)? Or is it even better?

Now I know what a tiny 1,000-ppi 4K display looks like

At this year's CEATEC, Sharp is showing off a bunch of hot new displays that might actually have some practical use. If you thought the pixel density wars ended once we reached the point where the naked eye can no longer tell the difference between ever-sharper smartphone screens, VR may make you think again — the technology involves you placing the screen super close to your eyes and focusing on it with special lenses, which is unforgiving even to the sharpest display.

That's why Sharp made this head-turning new 4K IGZO screen with over 1,000 pixels per inch. I don't know the exact size of the display, but to hit that ppi at 3840 x 2160 it'd need to be smaller than 4.4 inches across. How does it look? Well... sharp.

Even through the magnifier, which doesn't replicate a VR headset entirely but comes close enough, this screen looks really good. It might not be enough to get most VR companies to switch away from OLED, which is currently preferred for its low latency, and very few people will own hardware that could actually power VR software on this screen for a while. But it's nice to know where things could go in the future.