Samsung Galaxy S7

The ultimate way to test a new phone? Travel with it. When you're seeing sights and losing yourself to the moment, there's no room to tolerate a poor camera or buggy software, slow speed or short battery life. If there's a flaw, you'll find it.

So I tested the Samsung Galaxy S7 in London and Berlin, while colleagues also took it for a spin in San Francisco and Sydney. And you know what? It did great. Better than great. In fact, the S7 was an awesome phone that never cracked under the pressure of being the only way I take pictures and navigate completely unfamiliar terrain, all while keeping battery life going during long days out.

Straight up: the Galaxy S7 is the best all-around phone out today. It's superior to the excellent Google Nexus 6P, Apple iPhone 6S, LG G5 and HTC 10. In fact, the only phone that surpasses it is its own fraternal twin, the larger, curvy-screen S7 Edge, which is technically my top pick -- but only if you're willing to splurge. Sure, there are some potentially worthy rivals out beyond the horizon -- the iPhone 7, the next Nexus model, and the Galaxy Note 6. But none of them will likely be on the market for months to come. So, for now, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge remain the best phones money can buy.

Here's what I found (along with fellow S7-testers) while using the S7 around Europe. You can also scroll to the end for a specs comparison chart.

SAMSUNG'S GLEAMING GALAXY S7 IS ALL WIN (PICTURES)

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2016, February
	Status	Available. Released 2016, March

BODY	Dimensions	142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm (5.61 x 2.74 x 0.31 in)
	Weight	152 g (5.36 oz)
	Build	Corning Gorilla Glass 4 back panel
	SIM	Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
		- Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified) - IP68 certified - dust proof and water resistant over 1.5 meter and 30 minutes

DISPLAY	Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	5.1 inches (~72.1% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels (~577 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 4
		- Always-on display - TouchWiz UI

PLATFORM	OS	Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820 Exynos 8890 Octa
	CPU	Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo Quad-core 2.3 GHz Mongoose + quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53
	GPU	Adreno 530 Mali-T880 MP12

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 200 GB (dedicated slot) - single-SIM model microSD, up to 200 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) - dual-SIM model
	Internal	32/64 GB, 4 GB RAM

CAMERA	Primary	12 MP, f/1.7, 26mm, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash, check quality
	Features	1/2.6" sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 9MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, Auto HDR, panorama
	Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality
	Secondary	5 MP, f/1.7, 22mm, dual video call, Auto HDR

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- 24-bit/192kHz audio

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	v4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
	NFC	Yes
	Radio	No
	USB	microUSB v2.0, USB Host

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, heart rate, SpO2
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Java	No
		- Fast battery charging: 60% in 30 min (Quick Charge 2.0) - Wireless charging (Qi/PMA) - market dependent - ANT+ support - S-Voice natural language commands and dictation - OneDrive (115 GB cloud storage) - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264 player - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player - Photo/video editor - Document editor

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery
	Talk time	Up to 22 h (3G)
	Music play	Up to 62 h

MISC	Colors	Black, White, Gold, Silver, Pink Gold
	SAR US	1.40 W/kg (head)     1.59 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.41 W/kg (head)     0.62 W/kg (body)
	Price group	9/10

TESTS	Performance	Basemark OS II: 2004 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 2128 Basemark X: 32345
	Display	Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 4.376 (sunlight)
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	Voice 66dB / Noise 62dB / Ring 66dB
	Audio quality	Noise -92.5dB / Crosstalk -92.7dB
	Battery life	Endurance rating 80h