A detailed review of the Samsung Galaxy S7 camera: from features to controls and features. How the Samsung Galaxy S7 shoots Samsung galaxy s7 brings the camera closer

Dear readers of our blog, hello everyone! In the Samsung Galaxy S7, the camera has many new technical features that greatly expand the functionality of a mobile device. How many megapixels can this device "pull"?

How well can you shoot photos and videos? What are the specifications of a cell phone camera? We will try to tell about this and many other things today in a new review.

Camera operation in various lighting conditions and filming process controls

In comparison with the best models of such eminent manufacturers as iPhone and LG, Xiaomi, HTC and some others, the new Korean has an updated Sony IMX 260 sensor. Despite the fact that the camera resolution has slightly decreased (12 megapixels of the new versus 16 megapixels of the old one), the quality of the photomodule is still on top!

The new sensor uses a special Dual Pixel technology in its work. It is often used in the latest models of DSLR cameras. All pixels on the surface of this sensor are small photodetectors that capture the flow of light that is reflected from a particular object.

The use of special technology "Dual Pixel" provides the highest speed, as well as focusing accuracy. At the same time, the image quality remains consistently high. Customer reviews for this camera are excellent. What other camera can transmit excellent image detail at any time of the day!

The pixel size itself is only 1.4 microns, and an optical image stabilization system is also used. However, most importantly, the aperture of the lens itself has also increased to f / 1.7 versus 1.9 of the previous model. This level of aperture is the best among this type of smartphones.

As a result, its characteristics are significantly improved, and the resolution of the camera lenses is one of the best on the market! Thanks to this, photos in macro and portrait shooting amaze with the study of all the details.

To match the camera and LED flash. Alas, it is only one, in contrast to the numerous "double" counterparts in the latest generation of cell phones.

The shape of the photo lens is also well made. It protrudes from the body of the device by only 0.46 mm. Using design features, it was possible to remove an extra millimeter of the camera.

Setting up the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge is very easy. So, to launch the application, you need to pull the lower right corner. You can also launch it by clicking on a small icon from the screen, or by double-tab clicking on the Home button.

The application menu is made classic and very familiar to the device of the South Korean manufacturer. Above are the settings, where there are flash and HDR control buttons, as well as a shooting timer and a settings menu. If necessary, you can set a timer delay of 2, 5, 10 seconds in order to take pictures with the front camera.

The maximum image quality is 4032*3014 pixels (12 megapixels) with an aspect ratio of 4:3. These proportions are great for professional photography!

As for the video, the resolution is VGA (640 * 480 pixels) to UHD (3840 * 2160 pixels), there is also a "classic" HD or Full HD at 60 frames per second. There are also special "chips". For example, voice control of the camera, image review after shooting, geotagging, on-screen grid and quick launch should be noted.

You can select the location where photos or videos of the front or rear cameras will be stored, as well as assign a particular function to the keys. If necessary, it is easy to change the shooting mode menu and place mode shortcuts on the main screen.

The front camera is excellent and made at a high level! No worse than it was in last year's flagship! When the weather is good, the camera reveals its full potential: the highest detail, together with the reproduction of natural colors, allows you to produce great pictures.

In addition, it became possible to select the focus point and adjust the brightness of the image. The quality of photos is more than enough for use on social networks, as well as for framed portraits.

Great shot indoors too! Superb detail reproduction and high-quality background blurring, as well as accurate foreground details. Phase detection autofocus with "Dual Pixel" technology doesn't miss a beat. The flash does a great job of highlighting and illuminating the subject.

One of the novelties of the camera is the so-called live panorama. When you tilt the device, the image starts to move. The quality of all panorama photos is excellent at any time of the day or night, both on the smartphone screen and on the computer monitor.

With the selective focus mode, you can choose the object on which the camera will focus. At the same time, perfectly high-quality and clear images are obtained.

An interesting innovation in this South Korean flagship is the "Food" mode. In this case, you can use different shades of the color palette of the shooting. In the "Pro" (professional) mode, it is possible to make fine adjustments to exposure and aperture and use effect filters. All images can be saved in JPEG or RAW format.

As for the choice of video, you can shoot in a wide range of modes: VGA, HD, 1:1 (1440 × 1440), Full HD, Full HD (60 fps), QHD (2560 × 1440), UHD (3840 × 2160) . There are also special (slow-motion and time-lapse - accelerated) shooting. Fans of making photo collages also got their own specific shooting mode.

In the dark, you can shoot very well in Full HD mode. Shooting in 4K provides not only excellent elaboration of any details with a resolution of 3840 * 2160 pixels, but also the ability to zoom in on the image. For fast (time-lapse) shooting, you will need a tripod, and the video resolution will be Full HD.

As a result, you can put a solid five for the new Samsung Galaxy S7 camera. Here everything is on top - both coated optics and the technical component. Now any fashionista or fashionista can take a great selfie, take a photo or video of any event?

To buy this gadget with a great camera, you can use sales systems such as aliexpress or ebay, where devices will cost much cheaper!

This concludes our article about the new Galaxy camera. If you want to continue to receive information about the latest mobile technology and office applications, then you should subscribe to our blog and advise your family and friends to do so on FB, youtube, twitter. See you soon!

From year to year, Samsung strives to ensure that the cameras in its smartphones receive the title of the best. Last year, many agreed with this, because in S6, as later in Note 5, there was a high-quality module with a 16 megapixel sensor, which produced excellent results both at night and during the day. However, the manufacturer did not stop there and continued to develop this important element of a modern smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge use a completely new camera. What came out of this, we will figure it out during the test.

Equipment and management

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have a Sony IMX260 sensor (according to unconfirmed information, both Sony sensors and Samsung-made chips with similar characteristics are used in different batches) - an updated version of the IMX240, which was just used in the previous generation of Samsung flagships . The camera lost four megapixels: the resolution of the new sensor is “only” 12 megapixels versus 16 megapixels for the IMX240, but, in this case, pixel to pixel is different.

The new sensor uses Dual Pixel technology, which is also used in some modern DSLR cameras, for faster phase focusing. Essentially, each effective pixel on the surface of the IMX260's sensor consists of two independent photodetectors that pick up light reflected from an object to perform phase detection autofocus. Dual Pixel technology delivers fast, accurate focusing without sacrificing image quality.

The pixel size in the new sensor is 1.4 microns. The camera also has optical image stabilization. But most importantly, the aperture of the lens has grown to f / 1.7 (in the previous generation it was f / 1.9). If we take into account the fact that we are talking about a smartphone - the value is amazing. It seems that for the first time a smartphone camera has such aperture. On paper, this means more background blur in portrait and macro shots, and better results when shooting at night. The camera is helped by an LED flash - it has not changed for the second year in a row - one "firefly", which is surprising against the background of devices with dual LED flash that are already widely used on the market.

It's nice that in the new flagship the camera sticks out by only 0.46 mm - thanks to a change in the design of the case, it was possible to reduce this figure by almost a millimeter.

The Camera app can be launched from the lock screen by dragging the bottom right corner, from the home screen icon, or by double-clicking on the home button. For some reason, the last function is disabled in the menu, although it makes it possible to take almost lightning-fast shooting: I took my smartphone out of my pocket, pressed the Home button a couple of times and took a picture.

The application menu looks familiar to Samsung. Above (in a vertical position) - a number of quick settings, including: turning on the flash and HDR, effects menu, delay timer, resolution selection and the classic gear icon to call the main settings menu.

You can set the timer delay to 2, 5, or 10 seconds, and check the box to have the device take three pictures in a row.

As always, frame size is related to aspect ratio. The maximum image size is 4032×3024 pixels (12 MP) with an aspect ratio of 4:3. Note that these proportions are more common in professional photography than 16:9 (in this format, the camera shoots with a maximum resolution of 9.1 megapixels).

In the main settings menu, you can select a video resolution from VGA (640 × 480 pixels) to UHD (3840 × 2160), including Full HD and Full HD at 60 frames per second.

You can also include some useful and funny chips there. Autofocus tracking is more of the former, while motion capture (a short video clip taken before each photo) is more of the latter. It also includes a screen grid, geotagging, voice control, image review after shooting, quick launch. When shooting in Pro mode, you can save a RAW version of the file for further post-processing - this is also enabled in the settings. In the same place, the photo storage location is selected (device memory or memory card), and the function of the volume keys is assigned: photo, video, or zoom.

At the bottom of the application screen, in the center, there is a shutter button and a video recording button (both virtual), and on the sides there is an icon for switching to the front camera and opening the gallery. The latter can also be done with a right-to-left swipe. The application also has a menu of shooting modes, which can be opened by swiping from left to right. In S7 edge, it became possible not only to swap modes in the menu, but also to place shortcuts to individual modes on the main screen.

Interestingly, it is impossible to download additional modes directly from the Camera application - the “More” item has been removed, but the additional modes themselves are still in Galaxy Essentials in the Samsung app store. True, we didn't find many add-ons there: Animated GIF, Dual Camera, Sports Shot and Surround Shot. There are a lot of modes in the menu, and it’s not a fact that they will all come in handy: “Auto” and “Pro”, “Selective focus”, “Panorama”, “Video collage”, “Live broadcast”, “Slow motion” and “Time lapse” video shooting, "Virtual shooting", "Food". There are few updates in the set of modes compared to the S6: time-lapse photography (also known as Timelapse) has come to replace the accelerated shooting, which apparently did not justify itself, and one new mode has appeared - “Food”.

The 5MP front camera remains the same as last year's models.

Photography

Let's start with daytime photography. In good weather, in conditions of sufficient illumination, the camera shows itself from the best side. We managed to catch good weather with a bright sun and a blue sky with white clouds. The pictures turned out great: high detail and natural colors, coupled with sufficient contrast. In other words, you get great shots during the day. In the application, you can select the focus point and adjust the brightness. Sometimes setting the latter makes the picture a little better. The quality of the resulting images will definitely be enough for use in social networks. It even allows you to print pictures on an A4 sheet and hang them in a frame.

Outdoor daytime photography:

When shooting indoors, the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge camera also feels great. On the face - good detail and correct color reproduction. Let's remember the high aperture of the lens (f / 1.7), thanks to which images are obtained with high-quality background blur and accurate details, up to the inscriptions, in the foreground. When shooting indoors, phase-detection autofocus also comes to the fore, which works with the new Dual Pixel technology. During testing, she never missed, while her speed was extremely high.

Shooting indoors:

When shooting in HDR mode, Samsung's flagship handles brilliantly. Shooting with a wide dynamic range, by default, is enabled in automatic mode, it can also be turned on / off manually. Photos in HDR mode are very effective, while the colors remain natural: the smartphone “pulls out” too dark and too light areas.

HDR mode enabled HDR mode off

Recall that unlike most modern smartphones (not only flagships), Samsung flagships have a single LED flash for the second year in a row. This can only be explained by the fact that the company does not rely on this camera element when shooting in difficult conditions, believing that in a smartphone the flash is more often used as a flashlight.

Nevertheless, it does its job well, correctly highlighting and highlighting the object.

An innovation in the cameras of the S7 line - in addition to the usual panorama, the device can also shoot the so-called live panorama. On a smartphone, this looks very interesting: thanks to the microgyroscope, the image moves forward or backward when the user tilts the device. At the same time, if an action took place in the frame during the shooting - a person walked by, a dog ran by or a car drove by - it will also be reproduced in the "live" panorama. The user can save such a panorama as a video with all the movements, but on the smartphone screen it still looks much more interesting than a simple video.

The quality of panoramic photos is very high, and when shooting both during the day and at night.

View full file (73 MB)

In the dark, the Samsung camera is back on top. As in the past generation, there is literally nothing to complain about: you take out the camera, focus and shoot. Once again, you get high-quality photos that you can print and hang in a frame - just a few slight noises will distinguish a picture taken on the Galaxy S7 edge from an image taken with at least a compact camera.

At night, autofocus works perfectly and does not miss, the device correctly adjusts to the shooting conditions and produces the picture that you expect to get. Moreover, all this looks good both on the smartphone screen, and on the monitor and on the photo print.

In the list of shooting modes there is "Selective Focus". The smartphone takes a series of shots with several focal points, after which the program can choose near or far (respectively, the blur will be in the background or foreground). You can also make everything in focus. Then clear and beautiful images are obtained.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge has a food mode. In it, firstly, you can highlight the subject, leaving everything else out of focus, and secondly, you can fine-tune the color temperature to get a more “warm” or “cold” shade.

There is little to say about the “Pro” mode, in which you can adjust the shutter speed, ISO value, choose a focus point and adjust the white balance, as well as use effect filters. Also here you can select the metering mode: center-weighted, matrix or spot. Professional mode will certainly be appreciated by people who are good at photography. It fully reveals the potential of the already excellent camera of the device.

Pictures taken in "Pro" mode can be saved not only in JPEG format, but also in RAW (file extension - DNG). Subsequently, such images can be processed in photo editors. However, when comparing a digital negative to a JPEG image (Samsung's built-in post-processing), the latter looks very cool and rarely needs any editing. But the ability to shoot in RAW can still be useful.

Shooting text does not cause any problems for Samsung: all letters are perfectly readable.

The 5 megapixel front camera shoots exactly the same as it did in the S6 line - with high quality. Now she has received a "virtual" flash: while shooting Super AMOLED, the display illuminates the face with a soft white glow, which improves the image.

Video

The choice of resolution when shooting video in the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge is quite large: VGA, HD, 1:1 (1440 × 1440), Full HD, Full HD (60 fps), QHD (2560 × 1440), UHD (3840 × 2160). In addition, there are several special modes related to video shooting. First of all, this is slow motion and time-lapse photography. There is also a video collage: it allows you to record several short videos, tiling them in a grid. You can create collages with an aspect ratio of 1:1 or 4:3, as well as use slow motion. The Live Streaming mode allows you to stream online directly to YouTube. There is also "Virtual Shooting", which allows you to make a video of an object with shooting from all sides, but it looks rather prosaic and is not surprising.

Note that when shooting video, a new sensor, a lens with a high aperture ratio and, of course, optical image stabilization come to the fore.

Video in Full HD is good even in the dark. The device produces a high-quality picture with natural colors and high detail. It is possible to record video with HDR - this function works when recording Full HD videos.

Also, the user can record Full HD at 60 frames per second, then the movements seem smoother.

When recording at 4K resolution, fine details become more visible. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge does a great job with a video resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. An interesting detail is that on the screen of a smartphone, videos in UHD quality can be zoomed.

New mode - time-lapse shooting (Timelapse). He came to replace the accelerated shooting and, perhaps, looks more interesting. The user can choose from 4 to 32 frames per second or rely on automatic speed detection. It is important to say that for the best shooting quality in this mode, you definitely need a tripod and a smartphone holder. The video is recorded in Full HD resolution.

Shooting slow motion video has remained at the same high level as its resolution - still only HD. This is a little disappointing.

Results

Samsung has taken an interesting step by completely changing the camera after the success of the previous generation. Only after trying a new device in practice, you understand that this did not happen by chance, and no one in a Korean company would decide to change an excellent module for one that is worse. In the opinion of the inhabitants, four megapixels are really lost, but an experienced amateur photographer will tell you that happiness is not in the number of megapixels. Things that are controversial about the new camera is the added "Food" mode. However, it allows you to easily and quickly change the color temperature, and can be useful not only for shooting delicious and beautiful dishes. The absence of a dual LED flash and the Live Panorama mode, or rather its video part, may also raise questions. But, like last year, we have a camera that will be recognized by most users as one of the best in smartphones. An excellent application, a large number of useful modes and great opportunities for shooting both day and night, outdoors or indoors - all this is the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge - a new benchmark in mobile photography.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge sets a new standard for camera quality in smartphones for at least the next year. For excellent photos both day and night, spectacular videos, optical stabilization and many shooting modes, the w3bsit3-dns.com editors mark SGS7 edge with the “Nice Shot” sign

Pros:

• accurate and fast autofocus;
• excellent shooting at night;
• high-quality HDR mode;
• high lens aperture;
• shooting in RAW.

Minuses:

• single LED flash;
• reduced number of megapixels.

The smartphone is not only one of the most powerful on Android, but also takes great photos and videos. Well, we are sharing with you colorful shots taken with it on the shores of the White Sea and talking about the features of the camera.

The function of quickly launching the camera works great (double-clicking on the Home button with the tap turned off): unlike many similar solutions, here it happens really quickly. As, in fact, focusing with a shutter for a couple. Processor power allows.

Even with a very meager level of lighting, the result will be quite digestible, and sometimes just gorgeous. From the strange: it is not clear where the purple halo came from in the photographs of an open flame (in simple terms - a fire). Although, to be fair, we must again say that in such darkness, few smartphones can take a picture like that.

Also, one cannot traditionally not urge the oversaturation of the picture, which comes at the expense of the naturalness of the colors. And paired with a Super AMOLED display, some shots look quite acidic. But to say that it is ugly is to dissemble. You can only show here that this is not entirely fair. Well, even in the S7 Edge, the rounded edges of the display sometimes get in the way of properly aligning the frame boundaries and the horizon.

Many creative modes correspond to flagship status, and they also work fine for the most part, and most importantly, they are not as whimsical to shooting conditions as is usually the case. Only the panorama let us down a bit: it didn’t work out to move the camera so smoothly and slowly that we could do without ugly splicing in the frame. Even though he seemed to be trying.

Unfortunately, our admin panel does not like panoramas 18112 x 2112 and weighing 55 MB, so the original can

Part 2: Examining the screen, camera, battery life and other features in detail

We continue the story about the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. In the first part of the article, the performance of the device was tested in detail, and its design was also described. Now we will study other key aspects, first of all, the quality of the screen and camera, battery life. And finally, we will share with you the experience of using a smartphone in extreme conditions.

Screen

As we already noted in the first part of the article, in the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, the manufacturer decided to rely on the average screen size - less than in the Galaxy S6 Edge +, but more than in the Galaxy S6 Edge. At the same time, the resolution remained ultra-high (2560×1440). And visually, the screen really makes an excellent impression. Instrumental testing of the display was carried out by Alexey Kudryavtsev, editor of the "Projectors and TV" section. Below is his conclusion.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the screen of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens (on the left is the Nexus 7, on the right is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is slightly darker (the brightness of the photos is 103 versus 111 for the Nexus 7, the glare curved edges of the tested screen are excluded) and does not have a pronounced tint. The ghosting of reflected objects on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, better than Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

When displaying a white field in full screen and with manual brightness control, its maximum value was 410 cd/m², the minimum was 1.6 cd/m². You also need to take into account the fact that in this case the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. As a result, readability during the day in the sun should be at a fairly good level. The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device without any problems even in complete darkness. Automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). You can make adjustments to how this function works by moving the adjustment slider. Next, for the three conditions, we present the screen brightness values ​​for the three values ​​​​of this setting - for 0%, 50% and 100%. In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness decreases to 1.6, 7.9 and 7.9 cd / m², respectively (the first is too dark, the second and third can be normal after adaptation of the eye), in an office lit by artificial light (approximately 400 lux) brightness is set to 1.6, 130 and 405 cd/m² (dark - just right - bright, which corresponds to the specified correction), in a brightly lit environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20000 lx or a little more) - rises to 520, 540 and 540 cd / m². These values ​​are greater than the maximum with manual adjustment, and such brightness should definitely be enough to ensure that the image on the screen is well distinguished in any natural conditions. In general, the result of the automatic brightness adjustment function is as expected. Note that even with automatic brightness correction turned off in a dark environment, the smartphone does not allow you to set the brightness above 190 cd / m². At any level of brightness there is a significant modulation with a frequency of approximately 60 or 240 Hz. The figure below shows brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum and close to it, the modulation amplitude is not very large, and as a result, there is no visible flicker. However, as the brightness decreases, modulation with a large relative amplitude appears. Therefore, the presence of such modulation can already be seen in the test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with a rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, such flickering can cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light emitting diodes. A full color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are twice as many green subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphoto:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

On the fragment above, you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), while repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without gaps and overlap. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer considers the screen resolution based on green subpixels, on the other two it will be two times lower. The location and shape of the sub-pixels in this variant is close to the case of the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen and some other newer Samsung devices (and not only) with AMOLED screens. This version of PenTile RGBG is better than the old one with red squares, blue rectangles and stripes of green subpixels. However, some uneven contrasting borders and other artifacts are still present. However, due to the very high resolution, they have minimal effect on image quality.

The screen has excellent viewing angles. True, the white color, when deviated even at small angles, alternately acquires a light blue-green and pinkish tint, but the black color remains just black at any angle. It is so black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the white field is excellent. For comparison, here are photos in which the screens of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (profile Basic) and the second comparison participant, the same images were displayed, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 190 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K. White field:

Note the excellent uniformity of brightness and hue of the white field (with the exception of darkening and changing hue towards the curled edges). And a test picture (profile Basic):

The color reproduction is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens is slightly different. Note that in this case, the picture occupies the height (with this screen orientation) of the entire area available for displaying the image and goes to the curved edges of the screen, which leads to darkening and color distortion. Also, in the light, these areas almost always glare, which makes it even more difficult to view images displayed in full screen. And even the picture of films with an aspect ratio of 16:9 comes to bends, which greatly interferes with watching movies. The photo above was obtained after choosing a profile Basic in the screen settings, there are four of them:

Profile adaptive display differs in some kind of automatic adjustment of color rendering to the type of displayed image and environmental conditions, which is obtained by selecting the two remaining profiles shown below.

AMOLED movie:

Saturation and color contrast are markedly increased.

Photo AMOLED:

The saturation is still high, but the color contrast is closer to normal. Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile AMOLED movie). White field:

The brightness at an angle on both screens has noticeably decreased (in order to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed is increased compared to previous photos), but in the case of Samsung, the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the screen of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since you often have to look at the screen of a mobile device at least at a slight angle. And a test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of Samsung at an angle is noticeably higher. Switching the state of the elements of the matrix is ​​\u200b\u200balmost instantaneous, but there may be a step at the front of the switch-on width of about 17 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). For example, the dependence of brightness on time looks like this when moving from black to white and vice versa:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects. However, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high definition and even some “twitchy” movements.

For profiles Photo AMOLED and Basic the gamma curve constructed from 32 points with equal intervals over the numerical value of the gray tint did not reveal any blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent of the approximating power function is 2.14, which is slightly less than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma - the curve slightly deviates from the power dependence (in the captions in parentheses are the exponent of the approximating power function and the coefficient of determination):

For profile AMOLED movie the gamma curve has a pronounced S-shaped character, which increases the apparent contrast of the image, but in the shadows the distinguishability of shades is preserved.

Recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for images that are generally bright. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) most likely does not correspond slightly to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential grayscale output almost on the entire screen.

Color gamut in profile case AMOLED movie very wide, it almost covers Adobe RGB coverage:

When choosing a profile Photo AMOLED coverage is pressed to the borders of Adobe RGB:

When choosing a profile Basic coverage is compressed to sRGB borders:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In the case of a profile Basic with the maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut without proper color correction, normal images optimized for sRGB devices look unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation - in most cases, watching movies, photos and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Basic, and only if the photo was taken on an Adobe RGB setting does it make sense to switch the profile to Photo AMOLED. Profile AMOLED movie, despite the name, is the least suitable for watching movies and anything else.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is good. Profile color temperature AMOLED movie noticeably higher than 6500 K, in the remaining two it is close to 6500 K, while in a significant part of the gray scale this parameter does not change very much, which improves the visual perception of the color balance. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) remains below 10 units for most of the gray scale, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, and also does not change very much:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale in most cases can be ignored, since there the color balance does not matter much, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Let's summarize. The screen has a very high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is permissible (and in bright light it is necessary) to use the mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works quite adequately. The advantages of the screen include a good oleophobic coating, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB and an acceptable color balance (when choosing a profile Basic). At the same time, let's recall the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected on the screen), excellent white field uniformity, noticeably smaller than that of LCDs, and a drop in image brightness when viewed from an angle. The disadvantages include modulation of the screen brightness. Users who are particularly sensitive to flicker may experience fatigue as a result. However, overall the screen quality is very high. Separately, we note that in terms of image quality, curved edges are only harmful, since this design find introduces very noticeable color tone distortion and reduces brightness at the edges of the picture, and also leads to inevitable glare at least along one long side of the screen in ambient light conditions .

Video playback

We did not find an MHL interface, as well as Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video signal playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output frames of video files with different parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In tests, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

Note: If both columns Uniformity and Passes green ratings are set, this means that, most likely, when watching movies, artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the respective files.

According to the criteria for displaying frames, the quality of playing video files on the screen of the device itself is very good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, going to the bends. The clarity of the picture is high, but not ideal, since there is no escape from interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experiment, you can switch to the one-to-one mode by pixels, there will be no interpolation, but PenTile features will appear - the vertical world through the pixel will be in the grid, and the horizontal one will be a little greenish. This is true only for viewing test worlds; the described artifacts are absent on real frames. The brightness range displayed on the screen actually corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - in the shadows and in the highlights, only a couple of shades merge with black and white, respectively.

The experience of using the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge showed that the curved edges in no way harm the image when watching a movie - you soon forget about them altogether, and the headphones do an excellent job of outputting sound: even in conditions of road noise at low volume, the speech of the heroes is legible, while your neighbors the film is not heard.

Camera

On the occasion of the release of the new flagship, Samsung decided to gather journalists and take them to the "nearest suburbs" so that they can appreciate the smartphone in harsh conditions, without being distracted by work, social networks and other machinations of dark forces. However, the nearest Moscow region, corresponding to the required harsh conditions, turned out to be the Karelian coast of the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea - in fact, the Arctic. There, our editor of the "Digital Photo" section, Anton Solovyov, tested the smartphone's camera. Below is his detailed report.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has been updated with a camera module as part of a general consumer improvement program, as is the case with many other features of this model. The lens now has an aperture ratio of 1:1.7, the pixels on the sensor have become even larger and have reached a size of 1.4 microns (you can even remember the “famous” HTC ultra pixels), while each has become double for faster focusing. The number of pixels was reduced to 12 million, which is the golden mean in such a form factor (suffice it to recall the history of the development of compact 1 / 2.3 ″ cameras).

However, hardware innovations had little effect on the camera menu.

An interesting feature of the camera is the presence of a manual mode, in which it is possible to shoot in RAW. In general, manual mode, like RAW, on a smartphone are far from essential tools. Moreover, the manufacturer tries to hone and bring the auto mode to the maximum, and the built-in converter often works much more adequately than third-party ones, so in most cases it is more expedient to use it for shooting.

However, in difficult lighting conditions, white balance problems can occur, which are solved by manually setting the temperature.

RAW will also be a nice bonus for those who like to tinker with processing, but do not forget that to get it, you need to turn the corresponding toggle switch in the camera settings, which is active only in Pro mode and is periodically reset after walking through other modes.

Panoramas are well implemented in the camera. Moreover, the power reserve during wiring is enough for more than 360 degrees. In addition, in the panorama mode, you can get interesting compositions if everything you would like does not fit into the frame. However, it should be borne in mind that panoramas are less clear than simple shots. Unfortunately, the HDR mode does not work when shooting panoramas, but it would be very nice.

Keeping IP68 protection in mind, you don't have to worry about your smartphone if it falls into snow or water. And although the manufacturer does not offer to shoot underwater, it would be a shame to miss such a chance, because we tested it not just anywhere, but on the shores of the White Sea (more on our overall impressions of using a smartphone in extreme conditions will be discussed later). There were a lot of problems when shooting with a smartphone underwater: the sensor starts to go crazy, the volume buttons set to release are not very conveniently located, but the water is cold and salty. The first problem was solved by turning on the display after lowering it under water or by partial immersion, the second and third had to be endured, and the smartphone had to be “desalinated” after swimming in sea water in the snow. He endured all these actions with dignity.

Underwater shooting examples

Since we are talking about convenience, it is worth noting the problems when shooting with one quite standard hand. Since there was an Edge modification in use, sensitive edges had to be handled carefully. (In general, these "edges" often create some discomfort when used, although if you want, you can get used to them for the sake of design.) stops responding to pressure.

An example of a standard one-handed grip

For such cases, you can use the volume buttons in the settings and use them as a shutter button. However, they are located in such a way that it will not be very convenient for right-handers, and it is difficult to compose a frame on the remaining third of the display. In vertical orientation, there are problems with the fact that part of the index finger periodically falls into the corner of the frame.

The last option: turn the smartphone over, taking it by the top so that the volume button is under the index finger. However, this is inconvenient from the point of view of general use - you still have to connect your second hand to turn it over. In addition, the smartphone is too thin and tends to slip out with such a grip, and the fingers of the right hand constantly fall into the lens.

	Good sharpness across the field of the frame, and the numbers of cars are distinguishable at such a twilight time.
	Good long-range sharpness.
	There is not so much noise in the shadows, although the work of the noise reduction is visible.
	The camera pays attention to small details.
	Macro photography is good for the camera.
	The camera does a good job of capturing details in fairly complex scenes.
	With night shooting, the camera copes well, but only in manual mode.
	The sharpness across the field of the frame is not always uniform, but the blur zone at the top in this case can be attributed to composition problems.

In addition to the test in real conditions, we tested the camera on a laboratory bench according to our methodology.

The camera turned out to be quite flagship, although a little raw, which, I would like to believe, will be fixed in serial firmware. First of all, quite obvious sharpening and the presence of blur zones in very unexpected parts of the frame are embarrassing. In addition, a slight soapiness is noticeable, which, however, we are already accustomed to with Samsung smartphones. Otherwise, the camera behaves very decently and allows you to take pictures at the level of a good compact, both from the technical side and from the artistic side.

As you can see from the graph, in terms of resolution, the camera is almost at the level of its predecessors, but the overall quality of the images has undoubtedly increased, albeit not by much.

Focusing in a smartphone is implemented so well that you stop paying attention to it. Double pixels, in fact, implement the principle of phase focusing, and their presence on the entire sensor area ensures good accuracy. It's hard to say if the camera focuses much faster compared to other smartphones, but there were no problems with focusing, waiting for focus, and misses during testing. In any case, in this regard, the use of the camera did not cause discomfort, so we can say that focusing is fast enough.

I would like to note video recording separately, because this time its implementation in a smartphone really does not raise any questions. There is practically no effect of "rolling shutter", and other artifacts. The image is stable, sharp, without twitches and ripples, despite only 30 fps. Focusing in movies is as fast as it is in stills.

The smartphone has a slow motion mode that allows you to record in 720p at 240 fps with sound. When viewing, you can slow down a certain fragment. Below is a video made up of various recordings taken on a smartphone during testing.

More examples of shooting on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge camera are presented below in the gallery.

photo gallery

Software and communications

The smartphone runs on the latest version of Android OS - 6.0.1. On top of it, a proprietary Samsung shell is installed, optimized specifically for the Edge modification. We are talking about an auxiliary menu that can be pulled out from the right side, as well as the ability to use curved edges for color alerts.

By and large, there is nothing new here compared to previous Edge, and, frankly, we still feel that all these features are more of an artificial attempt to justify the presence of curved edges and make this design find at least somewhat useful, rather than really useful features. After all, hypothetically, the same thing could be done with a conventional screen.

A much more valuable innovation is an updated file manager. Now you can easily transfer files from your smartphone to a flash drive and back without any problems, you can delete unnecessary files both from a flash drive and from a microSD card.

As befits a flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge supports all the latest technologies and communication standards, including Wi-Fi 802.11ac 5 GHz, LTE Cat.9, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, ANT+. The latter is valuable because it allows you to connect your smartphone with various fitness accessories (for example, chest heart rate monitors) using an energy-efficient protocol.

Also note that the smartphone supports two SIM-cards. At least that's what Samsung claims, but we haven't been able to verify it. In our copy (engineering sample), the slot did not allow inserting a second Nano-SIM, the space for it was slightly less than necessary. Apparently, it is necessary to attribute this to the features of an engineering sample. But if you buy a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge in a showroom, ask a consultant to show you how and where to insert a second SIM card.

Autonomy and heating

The smartphone is equipped with a significantly more capacious battery than the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge - 3600 mAh versus the previous 2600 mAh. Even the larger S6 Edge+ has only 3000 mAh.

Of course, this increase has had the most positive impact on battery life: the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is one of the leaders in this regard, and it is able to operate on battery even with average active use much longer than the standard time of one day.

With active photo and video shooting in one busy day, the smartphone sat down by about 50%, working in “airplane” mode and with automatic screen brightness. Under the same conditions, watching an MP4 movie loaded into the built-in memory drains the battery by about 10% every hour.

In addition, we tested the battery life of the smartphone according to our method, with the brightness set to 100 cd/m².

As you can see, the less stressful the scenario, the better the smartphone performs. So, in the gaming scene, it is inferior to the iPhone 6s Plus in terms of battery life, and in video playback it is superior. And finally, let's pay attention to the excellent result in the reading mode. By the way, among the Android smartphones that we have ever tested, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is unrivaled in this scenario!

Below are thermal images of the back surface obtained after 10 minutes of running a battery test in the GFXBenchmark program (the lighter, the higher the temperature):

It can be seen that the heating is strongly localized above the center and close to the right edge, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 44 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), which is above the average value in this test for modern smartphones.

Separately, it is worth noting the speed of recharging the smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge supports QuickCharge fast charging technology and when using the supplied power supply (9V 1.67A) it is fully charged in about an hour and a half. The device charges up to 50% in 40 minutes, half an hour is enough to fill the battery by 38%, and 15 minutes - by 22%.

During charging, both the smartphone and the power supply heat up noticeably, but this does not go beyond comfortable values, that is, you won’t burn your hands.

In general, despite the situation with load modes, we can recognize the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge as one of the best (if not the best) Android smartphone in terms of battery life. And, of course, the charging speed is a very big plus compared to the iPhone, since there are cases when you urgently need to recharge your smartphone, but you have only a few minutes - especially when traveling or if you forgot to put your smartphone on charge at night.

conclusions

Well, we carefully got acquainted with one of the main smartphone innovations of this year, tested it both in the laboratory and in real life (and under extreme conditions). Based on the results of studying the device, we can safely admit that at the moment this is the real pinnacle of “smartphone construction”. The device combines innovation, practicality and uncompromisingness in almost all respects. By the fourth model in the Edge line (and the third among the S Edge), Samsung found an almost perfect ratio of screen diagonal and body size, equipped the smartphone with support for memory cards and two SIM cards, and was also able to implement full-fledged moisture protection without sacrificing the dimensions of the device or external view (no plugs - hello Sony!). On top of that, the battery capacity has grown significantly, and now this is one of the best smartphones in terms of battery life.

The curvature of the screen and its functional application, of course, still remain controversial points (for the convenience of everyday use, this is more of a minus than a plus), but it cannot be argued that this feature makes the Samsung smartphone unique, which is perhaps really valuable in our clone time. And advanced photography capabilities and top performance make the new product an ideal choice for enthusiasts. Of course, all this could not but affect the cost: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with a price tag of 60 thousand rubles occupies the highest price category. However, it is also cheaper than the iPhone 6s Plus, even with the smallest amount of internal memory. And therefore, it is a very, very formidable competitor to the flagship of the apple company.

Finally, we bring to your attention a video review, where we share the main impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and clearly demonstrate some of its features (including water resistance).

P.S. For the excellent combination of appearance and design functionality (above all, the implementation of water resistance), we award the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with our Editorial Original Design Award: