Samsung Galaxy S7

[HTP99]

Mr Will said:

techguyone said:

I'm considering pulling the trigger on a s7 but I have reservations.

Can anyone here who has had one for at least 6 months tell me if the home button gets chipped/paint peels off/ stops working/is particularly fragile.

And (obviously it will be in a case) - is the screen especially fragile compared to a no edge type.

I've got an S7 (non-edge) and the screen is the most fragile I've seen in years. Picked up scratches within days and within a month was looking worse than the Sony Z1 and Nexus 4 that preceded it did after two years solid use. I didn't treat them any differently.

It's also the first phone I've ever smashed the screen on, which thankfully got rid of the scratches but now I'm stuck trying to baby it in a way I've never had to do before. Now I see why so many Samsung owners have flip cases.

Perhaps the Edge is better, but I'm certainly unimpressed with the regular S7.

The wife has an S6 (non edge), the build seems very similar to the S7, she is a nightmare with phones and items generally; losing them, dropping them, not particularly going out of her way to care for them, hers is in a silicone cover which covers the back and has a slight lip which sits proud of the front, take the phone out of the cover and it looks as good as new.

My eldest has a 7 Edge, she is even worse than the wife when it comes to looking after things, her phone is in one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Champagne-Premium-Protect... after breaking the screen when she dropped it when it was in a solid clear hard plastic wraparound case; so far so good and the case doesn't bulk it out too much either.

[techguyone]

Flip case sounds like the answer but... I use my phone almost every day as a sat nav and that really rules out flip style cases unfortunately.

[Mr Will]

HTP99 said:

Mr Will said:

techguyone said:

I'm considering pulling the trigger on a s7 but I have reservations.

Can anyone here who has had one for at least 6 months tell me if the home button gets chipped/paint peels off/ stops working/is particularly fragile.

And (obviously it will be in a case) - is the screen especially fragile compared to a no edge type.

I've got an S7 (non-edge) and the screen is the most fragile I've seen in years. Picked up scratches within days and within a month was looking worse than the Sony Z1 and Nexus 4 that preceded it did after two years solid use. I didn't treat them any differently.

It's also the first phone I've ever smashed the screen on, which thankfully got rid of the scratches but now I'm stuck trying to baby it in a way I've never had to do before. Now I see why so many Samsung owners have flip cases.

Perhaps the Edge is better, but I'm certainly unimpressed with the regular S7.

The wife has an S6 (non edge), the build seems very similar to the S7, she is a nightmare with phones and items generally; losing them, dropping them, not particularly going out of her way to care for them, hers is in a silicone cover which covers the back and has a slight lip which sits proud of the front, take the phone out of the cover and it looks as good as new.

My eldest has a 7 Edge, she is even worse than the wife when it comes to looking after things, her phone is in one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Champagne-Premium-Protect... after breaking the screen when she dropped it when it was in a solid clear hard plastic wraparound case; so far so good and the case doesn't bulk it out too much either.

I'm sure it would be fine if I kept it in a flip case, but that's a faff that I'd prefer to avoid. My previous two phones were fine without a case. 2 years each without a scratch. The S7 is probably as tough as an iPhone, but that's not saying much.

[wseed]

techguyone said:

Flip case sounds like the answer but... I use my phone almost every day as a sat nav and that really rules out flip style cases unfortunately.

I use a flip case (hinge down the side) and have one of these magnetic car mounts (I only paid £8 a year ago so if you like the idea shop around)

The magnet is strong enough to hold the phone through the case but I don't trust it not to slide off if I hit a pothole or speed bump so I have it low on the screen with the front of the flip case slid under the holder while the edge of the phone rests on my dash preventing it from moving. It also means that I block none of my windscreen aside from a view of the bonnet.

The only thing that would make me swap the setup would be if you could get the same with a wireless charger built in. I'd love that.

[Ste1987]

Anyone been having issues recording video? I keep getting a Warning: Recording failed error message and it kicks me out of the camera app. Tried everything Google throws at me. It's hit and miss whether it works or not

[Mr Will]

Ste1987 said:

Anyone been having issues recording video? I keep getting a Warning: Recording failed error message and it kicks me out of the camera app. Tried everything Google throws at me. It's hit and miss whether it works or not

Dodgy SD card? Try removing it and see if the problem goes away.

[Ste1987]

Mr Will said:

Ste1987 said:

Anyone been having issues recording video? I keep getting a Warning: Recording failed error message and it kicks me out of the camera app. Tried everything Google throws at me. It's hit and miss whether it works or not

Dodgy SD card? Try removing it and see if the problem goes away.

Need to try that when I have access to a paperclip. It now works again, gotta love intermittent issues

[GreigM]

Mr Will said:

Dodgy SD card? Try removing it and see if the problem goes away.

Would be my guess - I record lots in 4k and never had this issue.

As for fragility - for business I run a number of S7, S7edge as well as iPhone 5/6/7 and the iPhones are significantly more fragile. I've fairly thrown my personal s7 edge about far too much and its still in one piece (granted it does have screen protector + Spigen case)

[wseed]

Which screen protector do you have and is it any good? I tried a "genuine ???? glass" one that is remarkably flexible and garbage which I removed after a few days. I'd loove to find a decent one that fits round the entire screen.

[GreigM]

wseed said:

Which screen protector do you have and is it any good? I tried a "genuine ???? glass" one that is remarkably flexible and garbage which I removed after a few days. I'd loove to find a decent one that fits round the entire screen.

Currently using this yootech one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01IY1JUIO/ref...

goes on well (if you do exactly as in the video), no bubbles etc, sticks extremely well, happy so far

[wseed]

Thanks I'll give one a shot. I'd like a more minimal case but won't try one with the screen unprotected.

[anonymous-user]

I think the update a few days ago was to give the S7 'always on' screen the same functionality as the Note 7.

Since this update my phone lock screen has gone blank and freezes at least once a day; and then the phone restarts itself after 5 minutes.

[papercup]

jamesbilluk said:

I can confirm the S7 edge is very fragile too..

As can I. Cracked the screen from left to right (near the middle) by having it in my back pocket in under a month (despite having a Samsung case) and then the first time I dropped it, it cracked again from the Home button to the left hand edge. Still works though and I don't plan to [pay to] fix it.

Its very fragile compared to my S5 which seemed bulletproof in comparison.

Not overly impressed, I'll be honest.

Fragility aside though, its excellent in every other way; battery life, speed etc. No other complaints.

[SwissJonese]

Yes cracked my S7 (non edge) on the bottom, luckily not that noticeable. I have a collection of all my old mobiles phones over the years and none are broken at all, so yes S7 is a bit fragile.

Last few days it seems to be reluctant to sync Outlook (work emails), gmail etc. I've had to reset the phone a number of times and remove/add the email accounts again to get them working again, very annoying.

[TheJimi]

Has anyone went S6 > S7?

If so, is the screen on the S7 more fragile than that of the S6?

[prand]

I upgraded to an S7 (non edge) around 5 months ago.

It is an impressive upgrade to my previous iPhone 4s. Lots of good features and finally, as my wife upgraded to an S7 at the same time, we became an Apple free household. I was able to ceremoniously uninstall iTunes on my laptop which was extremely liberating.

3 problems -

Mrs P's S7 decided to brick itself after two months, and would not restart even with a forced reboot. Replaced under warranty, but lost a couple of months of photos (we have now set google backup correctly so this won't happen again).

I can confirm the screen scratches without much invitation - have picked up a couple of deep scratches from car keys or coins in my pocket. Previous iphone was not as badly scratched after 4 years of very similar use. I do have a Spigen slim silicone cover which has protected it well from drops.

Not really phone related: Although I love having a 4G phone, now we have switched to EE from O2, the EE signal in the house and in other areas that doesn't have 4g is hopeless, which is very annoying, as we both work from home often. Wifi calling is not particularly good at all.

[techguyone]

prand said:

Not really phone related: Although I love having a 4G phone, now we have switched to EE from O2, the EE signal in the house and in other areas that doesn't have 4g is hopeless, which is very annoying, as we both work from home often. Wifi calling is not particularly good at all.

If you can prove poor signal - EE will send you something called a Signal Box - you plug into your router and it creates a house sized phone mast type signal.

I have one, and it makes the signal 5 bars from 0 to 1. Well worth a shot.

[wseed]

It would appear that there's people reporting the S7 Edge catching fire like the note has. Doesn't sound good for Samsung.

[prand]

techguyone said:

If you can prove poor signal - EE will send you something called a Signal Box - you plug into your router and it creates a house sized phone mast type signal.

I have one, and it makes the signal 5 bars from 0 to 1. Well worth a shot.

Worth a shout, thanks. My initial enquiries said use Wifi calling, but making and receiving calls and receiving texts is still poor.

[menguin]

TheJimi said:

Has anyone went S6 > S7?

If so, is the screen on the S7 more fragile than that of the S6?

I went from S6 edge to S7 edge. I dropped my S6 quite a few times and never cracked the screen - chipped the metal surround in a number of places even to the extent that it dug into the screen and lifted it up slightly. Never broke.

I've dropped the S7 twice so far and it is holding up well.

I can't comment on scratches - I don't use a case or screen protector and aren't really worried by tiny scratches - I buy the phone to enjoy its design, not to hide it! That does mean that after 2 years I'm generally left with something that looks like it's been through a belt sander though