AT's S7 & S7 Edge Review: Part 2

[Lodix]

It is incorrect to state that the display on the S7 is more efficient than on the S6. In fact they use almost the exact same amount of power at similar brightness levels. The only difference is that the S7 can go significantly brighter, but it also uses significantly more power whilst doing so.

http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S7_ShootOut_1.htm

I thought they were using Galaxy Note 5/S6 edge+ generation display :S

They didn't measure display power in this review.

 

[antihelten]

You can say all that until you're blue in the face, nut the S6 in N.A. pretty much drained battery as you were looking at it. It reminded me of the Galaxy Nexus, CDMA.
This was across the board on all 4 carriers.
My S820 S7 non-Edge has fantastic battery life.
I would also say this is beyond simple anecdotal gathering. It's pretty much accepted as fact.
Benchmarks suck.

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Eerm that would pretty much be the definition of anecdotal evidence, and no it is not accepted as fact.

And the fact that you think benchmarks sucks really says it all as far as your objectivity goes.

I thought they were using Galaxy Note 5/S6 edge+ generation display :S

They didn't measure display power in this review.

They did measure display power in the linked review (the Displaymate one):

The Note 5/S6 Edge+ displays aren't any better than the S6/S6 edge display efficiency wise either.

 

[deputc26]

I've been reading AT for 10 years, I've read at least 95% of their smartphone reviews in that period, this was the most biased review I've ever read on this site.

It reminded me of a politically partisan reporter writing an article about a strong candidate from the "wrong" party and targeting politically neutral readers. Positives were present but were de-emphasized and couched in language and caveats that made them sound unimpressive, negatives were dwelt on and emphasized, the tone was often subtly accusatory.

All in all it was ridiculous, I'm especially irritated by the fixation on "real world colors" by which they mean conformity to the adobeRGB color gamut *which includes only about 50% of the colors that the human eye can see and therefore is not synonymous with "real world colors"* the S7's camera is clearly the best camera on a smartphone for the average Joe. I've used it, it's awesome. The Edge has outstanding battery life they vaguely mention this and the ding it for being "heavy" ...ridiculous, Battery life was faintly praised for the regular s7 and then the phone dinged for efficiency ...ridiculous, grasping at derogatory straws. And after stating in the intro that he was going to be more data centric, straight hypocrisy.

 

[antihelten]

All in all it was ridiculous, I'm especially irritated by the fixation on "real world colors" by which they mean conformity to the adobeRGB color gamut *which includes only about 50% of the colors that the human eye can see and therefore is not synonymous with "real world colors"*

AT has focused on color accuracy for ages, why is it suddenly biased now?

And sure Adobe RGB may only cover 50% of visible colors but this isn't about color coverage it's about color accuracy and for those 50% that the Adobe RGB covers it is absolutely synonymous with "real world colors" (as defined by CIELAB).

the S7's camera is clearly the best camera on a smartphone for the average Joe. I've used it, it's awesome.

And I'm assuming that you used all the other flagship smartphones out there to do a proper controlled test to establish this?

Because surely this couldn't be your own bias taking over.

The Edge has outstanding battery life they vaguely mention this and the ding it for being "heavy" ...ridiculous, Battery life was faintly praised for the regular s7 and then the phone dinged for efficiency

This is what is stated about the S7 edge with regards to battery life (emphasis mine):

• The Galaxy S7 edge is pretty much the top here, but achieves its battery life through sheer battery size rather than efficiency.
• The Galaxy S7 edge performs well here, but on the basis of its battery size rather than efficiency.
• The Galaxy S7 edge extends the lead here, again mostly due to the larger battery as the two devices are generally quite similar to each other.
• Of course, the Galaxy S7 edge manages to last longer than either due to its larger size and battery.
• while the S7 edge has great battery life due to its relatively large battery compared to its display size.
• The Galaxy S7 edge is the only device that is an obvious step up in battery life for both variants, but this is through sheer battery capacity rather than any efficiency gains, as the Galaxy S7 edge ends up being a fairly heavy device in return for its great battery life

That's a hell of a lot more than just vaguely mentioning the battery life of the S7 edge.

Yes the fact that they mention the weight as a negative is a bit weird seeing as it's only 5g more than the S7, 14g more than the iPhone 6S, 4g less than the HTC 10 and a staggering 35g less than the iPhone 6S plus.

...ridiculous, grasping at derogatory straws. And after stating in the intro that he was going to be more data centric, straight hypocrisy.

The only one grasping at straws here is you, especially with you complaining about them not being data centric enough after you just made some of the most vapid dataless arguments possible in favor of the S7.

 

[Megatomic]

Well at least the Samsung Knights are less hostile here on AT than they are on G+ and some other sites...

 

[WelshBloke]

It's not a huge issue, but it does matter a bit. Higher-capacity batteries typically take longer to charge, and they can add weight if they're significantly bigger. Samsung does have fast charging, but that theoretically reduces the lifespan of the battery.

You seem to only have a theoretical nonproved con against the pro of greater battery life there.

 

[dawheat]

This is what is stated about the S7 edge with regards to battery life (emphasis mine):

• The Galaxy S7 edge is pretty much the top here, but achieves its battery life through sheer battery size rather than efficiency.
• The Galaxy S7 edge performs well here, but on the basis of its battery size rather than efficiency.
• The Galaxy S7 edge extends the lead here, again mostly due to the larger battery as the two devices are generally quite similar to each other.
• Of course, the Galaxy S7 edge manages to last longer than eitherdue to its larger size and battery.
• while the S7 edge has great battery life due to its relatively large battery compared to its display size.
• The Galaxy S7 edge is the only device that is an obvious step up in battery life for both variants, but this is through sheer battery capacity rather than any efficiency gains, as the Galaxy S7 edge ends up being a fairly heavy device in return for its great battery life

That's a hell of a lot more than just vaguely mentioning the battery life of the S7 edge.

Yes the fact that they mention the weight as a negative is a bit weird seeing as it's only 5g more than the S7, 14g more than the iPhone 6S, 4g less than the HTC 10 and a staggering 35g less than the iPhone 6S plus.



The only one grasping at straws here is you, especially with you complaining about them not being data centric enough after you just made some of the most vapid dataless arguments possible in favor of the S7.

I changed the bolding to why the tone of the review bothered me. The author seemingly couldn't state a single time the S7 Edge has great battery life without the caveat that it's through size - in every single reference. A normal writer would have stated it once and then let it go - especially since there is no packaging or weight downsides to it. It's incredibly compact for its screen size and lighter compared to all it's competition.

It's as if he couldn't let any unmitigated praise stand and had to make sure readers were ABSOLUTELY clear it's through battery size, as if that matters to any regular consumer.

 

[antihelten]

I changed the bolding to why the tone of the review bothered me. The author seemingly couldn't state a single time the S7 Edge has great battery life without the caveat that it's through size - in every single reference. A normal writer would have stated it once and then let it go - especially since there is no packaging or weight downsides to it. It's incredibly compact for its screen size and lighter compared to all it's competition.

It's as if he couldn't let any unmitigated praise stand and had to make sure readers were ABSOLUTELY clear it's through battery size, as if that matters to any regular consumer.

Sure the author does seem to belabour the point quite a bit, but he's not wrong though. Honestly though, this seems to more a case of poor writing style rather than bias to me.

Also I think this slightly wonky focus and writing comes from the fact that AT has just changed their review setup, to be less superficial (like most other sites) and more in depth and thus probably also more critical. It's clear that they still need to find the balance on how to do this seeing as they have arguably been overly critical in some areas (S7 edge weight), but given that the whole setup is still quite new (and probably still being worked on), it's way too soon to complain about bias imho.

Also a slight correction but the S7 edge isn't really lighter than all of it's competition. It is certainly in the low end and yes it's lighter than the iPhone 6S plus (arguably it's main competition), but that phone is also one of the heaviest phablets out there. There are several other recent ~5.5" phones that weigh the same or less like the Oneplus 3, LG G5, Moto G4 plus, Moto Z (an impressive 21g less, but also a smallish battery) and a couple of chinese phablets.

 

[dawheat]

Also a slight correction but the S7 edge isn't really lighter than all of it's competition. It is certainly in the low end and yes it's lighter than the iPhone 6S plus (arguably it's main competition), but that phone is also one of the heaviest phablets out there. There are several other recent ~5.5" phones that weigh the same or less like the Oneplus 3, LG G5, Moto G4 plus, Moto Z (an impressive 21g less, but also a smallish battery) and a couple of chinese phablets.

The Moto Z is certainly an outlier, but the counterpoint is that none of the phones are in the ballpark of the S7 Edge's battery life. The Moto Z is likely to be average at best considering the battery size and the S820.

 

[deathBOB]

You seem to only have a theoretical nonproved con against the pro of greater battery life there.

Anandtech is a tech site so of course the review discusses efficiency, just like efficiency is discussed in pretty much every other Anandtech smartphone review. It's a big deal that Samsung has made no efficiency improvement this generation and should be discussed. However, nowhere in the article is that fact or the larger battery listed as a reason not to buy the phone. It's only a "con" to the extent everyone around here seems to be butthurt by it.

 

[antihelten]

The Moto Z is certainly an outlier, but the counterpoint is that none of the phones are in the ballpark of the S7 Edge's battery life. The Moto Z is likely to be average at best considering the battery size and the S820.

This is certainly true. The Moto G4 plus might be up there, but of course that would be partly due to the subpar specs (compared to the S7 edge).

For the record I'm not saying that the S7 edge has poor battery life, nor that it is a heavy phone. It is arguably the phone that best balances these two opposing factors (for this size anyway), however it is not the absolute best in either category (i.e. there are other phablets that are lighter and there are other phablets with better battery life, but none with both).

 

[foghorn67]

Eerm that would pretty much be the definition of anecdotal evidence, and no it is not accepted as fact.

And the fact that you think benchmarks sucks really says it all as far as your objectivity goes.



They did measure display power in the linked review (the Displaymate one):

The Note 5/S6 Edge+ displays aren't any better than the S6/S6 edge display efficiency wise either.

Benchmarks are great when comparing two or more devices in the same exact setting. Great, I really want to watch a movie 11 hours without standing. Fantastic.
Gee thanks. 100% CPU/Graphics test, yeah! I really do that, day to day.
I'm a huge fan of the term, "synthetic benchmarks." It describes what it really is.
Nothing simulates usage effectively.
Pick up phone, wake phone, turn on camera or swipe for notifications, make a NFC payment, check messages/FB put phone back in pocket or take a phone call. All those actions tasks different resources in different ways and creates so much variables, you wouldn't see that in a benchmark.
And everything else besides benchmarks says the S7's efficiency is much more than it's bump in battery size.
This is why people love reading/watching real reviews based on usage, MKBHD, Droid Life, Michael Fischer, etc. They want to see people task a phone on how it's supposed to work.

 

[antihelten]

Benchmarks are great when comparing two or more devices in the same exact setting. Great, I really want to watch a movie 11 hours without standing. Fantastic.
Gee thanks. 100% CPU/Graphics test, yeah! I really do that, day to day.
I'm a huge fan of the term, "synthetic benchmarks." It describes what it really is.

And none of that describes how Anandtech performs their WiFi/LTE battery life tests, so what's your point?

Pick up phone, wake phone, turn on camera or swipe for notifications, make a NFC payment, check messages/FB put phone back in pocket or take a phone call. All those actions tasks different resources in different ways and creates so much variables, you wouldn't see that in a benchmark.
And everything else besides benchmarks says the S7's efficiency is much more than it's bump in battery size.

A lot of the stuff you just described is done so infrequently or for so little time for the average user that it has little bearing on battery life.

With that being said though it would be nice if someone could come up with a test that took into account a lot of these niche usage scenarios to get a feel for how they affect battery life, but at the end of the day, stuff like internet browsing, gaming, and consuming media is still far and away the biggest battery hogs for the average user.

This is why people love reading/watching real reviews based on usage, MKBHD, Droid Life, Michael Fischer, etc. They want to see people task a phone on how it's supposed to work.

"Real" reviews that give you different results depending upon what day of the week they were performed, yeah that's real useful. There's a reason why testing under controlled environment is far more informative, and if you don't understand that then I really don't get why you would even come to a site like Anandtech in the first place.

 

[foghorn67]

And none of that describes how Anandtech performs their WiFi/LTE battery life tests, so what's your point?



A lot of the stuff you just described is done so infrequently or for so little time for the average user that it has little bearing on battery life.

With that being said though it would be nice if someone could come up with a test that took into account a lot of these niche usage scenarios to get a feel for how they affect battery life, but at the end of the day, stuff like internet browsing, gaming, and consuming media is still far and away the biggest battery hogs for the average user.



"Real" reviews that give you different results depending upon what day of the week they were performed, yeah that's real useful. There's a reason why testing under controlled environment is far more informative, and if you don't understand that then I really don't get why you would even come to a site like Anandtech in the first place.

I read anandtech for their in-depth technical analysis, but I stopped paying attention to benchmarks years ago for phones.
The reviews I listed above are viable for getting a sense of battery life. If you don't like it, don't like it. Also please never again ask why I or anyone else visits this site. Everyone has their reasons and they don't need qualifications.
If you want to join a smug forum, this isn't the place.
The point is the S6 never had all day battery life in the N.A. market. The S7 does. You can't argue that.

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