Image credit: Samsung
It was divine timing. I just so happened to stop by the mall to turn in some old cell phones for recycling and stopped by the AT&T store. I'd heard the Samsung Galaxy S7 was coming out soon, but didn't know when. They had one on display in the store. I've actually looked in the last couple weeks at various cell phones on the market and thought about upgrading. My current Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is awesome, but it's 16 months old. They gave me 20 months of payments with no interest and I wasn't done yet, so assumed I had to (or should) wait until at least July or even August to even think about a new phone. While at the store, the salesman said I could simply turn in my old phone and upgrade for free, and they'd cancel my remaining payments and I could have the same 20 month payment plan for the new phone, so there would be no net change on my monthly bill, no activation fee. That means rather than paying for my 650-800 phones, I'd be just renting them. Since I've never done anything with my old phones (and I can't give them to my kids because then they'd argue over who gets which) I took them up on the offer. I'm still not convinced it was a great idea, but I haven't thought of a specific need/use for the old phone yet (as cool as it was) so I'm not sad I did. I went back on Friday (the release date) and showed up right as they opened. I was their first customer.
The S7 is awesome (PhoneArena). It feels great. Some say it's "slippery," but I prefer the term "smooth." The material used for the surface feels very nice to the touch, and the smooth edges (which I admit have obvious inspiration from the iPhone 6, but do have a subtle difference) are nice. I figure since I've got a 12.2 inch tablet (Samsung also) that I am ok with downsizing my phablet to a human size phone. The Note 4 is 5.7" and the S7 is 5.1". Some more features:
- Waterproof (up to 5 feet for 30 minutes)
- Wireless charging (ordered a charger online, should be here Friday)
- Fingerprint sensor (touch not swipe, good upgrade)
- Android 6
- Home screens allow 5x5 (traditional is 4x4)
- Ultra shiny (gold is not my preference, silver would be better, but they didn't offer that, but the shiny is cool. Not better than black, better than white though, and just different.)
Battery life is great (I've been actively "testing" it the first three days and it's ended with 30-50% each day). I'm very pleased. Praise God for Samsung, and for Apple too, who I'm sure provided significant inspiration.