Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge review: Samsung makes the Galaxy S exciting again

Benchmark Performance

Benchmark Performance

Singapore variants of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge get a 64-bit octa-core Exynos 8890 processor. Within the Exynos 8890 is a combination of four Cortex-M1 cores (clocked at 2.3GHz) and four Cortex-A53 cores (clocked at 1.6GHz), together with a Mali T880 MP12 GPU (currently the highest performing GPU within the Mali family). Per Samsung’s claim, the upgraded processors in these phones gives them 30 percent faster CPU speed, along with 60 percent faster GPU speed when compared to the Note 5 and S6 Edge+.

Both phones were barely warm after the entire course of benchmarking – we attribute this to its built-in “thermal spreader cooling system”. According to Samsung, this built-in cooling system prevents the phones from overheating with a pipe that contains liquid. The liquid vaporizes at higher temperatures, then travels towards the cooler end of the pipe where it condenses and the cycle continues.

Another performance perk would be the S7 and S7 Edge being the first smartphones to support the Vulkan 1.0 API. Unlike traditional OpenGL API, Vulkan 1.0 gives direct control over the GPU and memory allocation, and it takes better advantage of multi-threaded CPUs. Of course, this only advantageous if you've games that are coded with the Vulkan API in mind, so this advantage might be better realized in the future. You can read more about Vulkan 1.0 API here.

We compared the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge to other flagship phones that surfaced late in 2015. We included the Galaxy Note 5 because it is generally regarded as one of the most powerful smartphones among the 2015 handsets.

Test phones compared

	Samsung Galaxy S7	Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	Sony Xperia Z5 Premium	Huawei Nexus 6P	Apple iPhone 6s Plus	Samsung Galaxy Note 5
Launch SRP	From S$998	From S$1098	From S$1098	From S$949	—	From S$1088
Operating system	Android 6.0 Marshmallow	Android 6.0 Marshmallow	Android 5.1.1 Lollipop	Android 6.0 Marshmallow	iOS 9	Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
Processor	Samsung Exynos 8890 octa-core (quad-core 2.3GHz Cortex- M1 & quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex-A53), 14nm process	Samsung Exynos 8890 octa-core (quad-core 2.3GHz Cortex- M1 & quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex-A53), 14nm process	Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core (Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2 GHz Cortex-A57)	Qualcomm MSM8994 Snapdragon 810 v2.1 (Quad-core 1.55 GHz Cortex-A53 & Quad-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A57)	Apple A9 64-bit dual-core 1.8GHz processor	Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core (quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 2.1GHz Cortex-A57)
Built-in Memory	4GB RAM	4GB RAM	3GB RAM	3GB RAM	2GB RAM	4GB LPDDR4 RAM
Display	5.1-inch / 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (577 ppi) / Super AMOLED Always-On Display	5.5-inch / 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (534 ppi) / Super AMOLED Always-On Display Edge Screen	5.5-inch / 4K UHD 3840x2160 pixels (806 ppi) / IPS LCD	5.7-inch / 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (518 ppi) / AMOLED	5.5-inch Retina HD / 1,920 x 1,080 pixels / IPS	5.7-inch / 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (518 ppi) / Super AMOLED
Camera	Rear: 12-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture and smart OIS Front: 5-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture	Rear: 12-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture and smart OIS Front: 5-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture	Rear: 23-megapixel, f/2.0, 1/2.3-inch sensor size, 5248 х 3936 pixels, OIS, autofocus, LED flash Front: 5.1-megapixel	Rear: 12.3-megapixel with f/2.0 aperture and laser autofocus Front: 8-megapixel with f/2.4 aperture	Rear: 12-megapixel iSight camera with phase detection autofocus, optical image stabilization and dual warm/cool LED flashes Front: 5-megapixels FaceTime HD camera	Rear: 16-megapixel with f/1.9 aperture and smart OIS Front: 5-megapixel with f/1.9 aperture
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5GHz), 4G+ LTE Cat 9 (up to 450Mbps), Bluetooth 4.1, VHT80, MIMO (2x2), GPS, GLONASS, NFC, Screen Mirroring	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5GHz), 4G+ LTE Cat 9 (up to 450Mbps), Bluetooth 4.1, VHT80, MIMO (2x2), GPS, GLONASS, NFC, Screen Mirroring	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot, NFC, Bluetooth v4.1	Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4+5GHz), MIMO (2x2), Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, USB 2.0 Type-C connector	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.2, A2DP, LE, GPS, GLONASS, Lightning connector, 3.5mm headphone jack	Bluetooth 4.2, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4+5GHz), Wi-Fi Direct, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
Storage Type	32GB internal storage (UFS 2.0) 200GB (MicroSD)	32GB internal storage (UFS 2.0) 200GB (MicroSD)	32GB internal storage microSD support up to 200GB	32 / 64 / 128GB internal storage	16 / 64 / 128GB internal storage	32 / 64GB internal storage
Battery	3,000mAh Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging	3,600mAh Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging	3,430mAh	3,450mAh	2,750mAh	3,000mAh
Dimensions	142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9mm	150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7mm	154.4 x 76.0 x 7.8mm	159.3 x 77.8 x 7.3 mm	158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm	153.2 x 76.1 x 7.6mm
Weight	152g	157g	181g	178g	192g	171g

Sunspider Javascript

SunSpider JavaScript measures the browsing performance of a device when processing JavaScript. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience. As noted in our Note 5 benchmark tests, the Chrome browser is nowhere as optimized as Samsung's built-in Internet Browser app. That said, it’s Samsung optimization we wanted to test, and we took the score generated from their in-built browser app. The results are some of the fastest we've seen for an Android phone and it shows too in actual usage of the built-in browser that it was blazingly fast. Just for kicks, we did try the same benchmark in Chrome with the Galaxy S7 devices and they garnered results in the range of 517ms to 525ms.

Quadrant

Quadrant benchmarks a device’s CPU, I/O, and GPU performance. The combination of new processors and faster UFS 2.0 storage explains the whopping lead of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. In day-to-day use, both smartphones are certainly smooth and fast at loading just about any app, and there’s no noticeable slowdown even with multiple apps running in the background.

3DMark 2013

We ran 3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited test, which uses a mix of graphics and physics tests to measure hardware performance. The first test measures the GPU’s ability to process lots of vertices, while the second does the same thing with lots of pixels and post-processing effects. Finally, the physics test switches the load to the CPU to test its ability to process physics simulations, while keeping GPU load low. It appears that the Mali T880 MP12 GPU does have a sizeable performance advantage over the Mali T760 MP8 (found in the Nexus 6P). The Apple iPhone 6s Plus originally had the slight lead in graphics performance, but that changes now with the S7 and S7 Edge in play.

As a whole, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones are certainly one of the most powerful smartphones you can get now, but we’ll give other brands a chance to update their line-up before we decide if the Samsung flagships are indeed the most powerful phones of 2016.