Samsung Galaxy S7 edge

Samsung has played around with a few smartphones with curved screens and what at first felt like a gimmick is now a legitimate technology. Although the Galaxy S6 is the best phone of 2015, it lacks key features such as expandable storage and waterproofing. Those are now back, plus the dual edge screen has more functionality, so the Galaxy S7 edge is a serious contender for best phone of 2016.

Price

On sale for £639, the Galaxy S7 edge is one of the most expensive smartphone on the market. If you’re contemplating buying it over the regular S7 (reviewed last month), it will cost you an extra £70, which isn’t much of a premium to pay to gain a dual edge display.

In terms of competition, the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is the closest on price at £599. It’s also a rival when it comes to size, as is the iPhone 6s Plus, which is cheaper for the equivalent model at £619 but goes all the way up to £789 if you want 128GB of storage.

Other key Android rivals include the £529 LG G5 (see page 25) and the Google Nexus 6P which is just £449, so there are cheaper options if your budget is more limited.

Design

Over the years, the Samsung Galaxy S range has developed and changed quite a bit, with each flagship offering a different design to its predecessor – recognisably so. However, that seems to have changed with the Galaxy S7 edge, which looks a lot like the S6 edge with its curved edge display and body comprised of a gorgeous combination of glass and metal.

While some may feel cheated, we’re pretty happy that Samsung decided to stick with a design that made the S6 and S6 edge two of the most desirable phones of 2015. After all, you can hardly blame the firm for not fixing something which wasn’t broken.

The S7 edge is the larger option out of the two S7 phones, with a 5.5in display. It doesn’t feel like a huge phone, though. An impressive 76 percent screen-to-body ratio means that it’s only marginally bigger than the regular S7 – we’re talking 2mm wider and 8mm taller.

At 7.8mm (Samsung says 7.7mm), the S7 edge is a little thicker than the S6 edge. This means that its camera bump is a lot smaller (0.5mm), which is nice and there’s also room for a bigger battery, though it’s still not removable. We’ll talk about battery life later on, but for now we applaud Samsung for providing this rather than trying to simply make a thinner phone for the sake of the numbers.

In terms of placement, everything is where it was before (buttons, ports and slots). Samsung has stuck with a Micro-USB port instead of moving to USB Type-C. However, what you can’t see from the outside is the resurgence of the microSD card slot, which is combined with the SIM-card in one tray. It’s a big advantage over the iPhone and some Android rivals, too.

Many Galaxy S6 owners were disappointed at the lack of waterproofing, which had been introduced on the S5. Thankfully, it’s made a return and is one of the key new additions to the S7 edge. It offers a rating of IP68, which means it’s totally dust tight and can be submerged in up to 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes. Better still, you won’t have to fiddle with flaps to cover ports or make sure the rear cover is clipped in properly.

The S7 edge looks stunning, with glass that almost wraps around to the back, which is also glass. Once again, it’s easily one of the bestlooking phones on the market. A subtle tweak is that Samsung has

The Galaxy S7 edge offers a rating of IP68, which means it’s totally dust tight and can be submerged in up to 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes