 So with the Galaxy S6, Samsung finally figured out design. This was a big deal, it was the first Samsung phone with beautiful curves and premium materials instead of those cheap and plasticky designs that the company used to crank out. So here we are a year later, and Samsung hasn't changed too much. The new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge aren't radically different from last year's models and they look almost identical. They're refinements and progressions, they're iterations on what was already a good product. It's really a good thing because the S6 was a good phone and Samsung has done enough here to make the Galaxy S7 a great phone. The standard Galaxy S7 has undergone the fewest changes. It's got the same size screen, same overall design, largely looks indistinguishable from the Galaxy S6. It's still glass and metal and there isn't a shred of plastic to be found. It's a little bit softer and a little bit easier to hold and it's also slightly thicker with a more rounded back which makes it more comfortable in your hand but other than that it's pretty much the same phone. But the S7 Edge has undergone a number of changes that really make it head and shoulders better than its predecessor and smaller sibling. Well for starters it's got a larger 5.5 inch display. Still super AMOLED, still Quad HD resolution, still stunning to look at. It also still has those curved sides on the front but now the back is a slight curve too which makes it way more comfortable to hold and easier to pick off of a flat surface. Now I don't want to get too crazy here but it really feels like the S7 Edge might be the nicest phone I've ever held and I've held a lot of phones. Now let's talk about those curves. Samsung's been putting curved screens on phones for a couple of years and well it's always felt like a bit of a gimmick. But the S7 Edge actually proves that there's a reason for those curves. It allows for a larger display without making the phone huge. In fact it's notably narrower than other phones with similar sized screens. Look at a Nexon iPhone 6s Plus or a Nexus 6P or the LG G4 or even Samsung's own Note 5. In each case the S7 Edge has a similar or same size display but it's noticeably narrower and smaller in size. That makes it easier to hold, easier to use in one hand, and easier to slip into your pocket without giving up that big screen. Finally those curves have a reason to exist. Both phones are also water resistant this year and they can go under a meter and a half of water for up to 30 minutes at a time. But the practical use here is that you don't have to worry about dropping it in the sink or spilling coffee on it or getting caught out in the rain. And the other big hardware difference is support for SD cards so if the 32GB of storage that comes with the phone isn't enough, well you can easily expand it. Aside from that the hardware on the S7 is really familiar, again these are refinements not overhauls. And again that's a good thing because last year's phones were really nice and these ones are just better. Inside Samsung's made bigger improvements. The phones are thicker this year because they have much bigger batteries, 3000mAh on the S7 and a whopping 3600mAh on the S7 Edge, which addresses the biggest complaint with last year's phone. Both phones have been able to get us through a day but they probably won't get you to two. But you see if you're concerned with battery life the S7 Edge is the one to go with, you just can't argue with the size of that battery. Both also have fast charging and fast wireless charging so it's easy to top up when you need to. Now the S6 wasn't slow by any means but it did get bogged down when you pushed it to the limit. The S7 on the other hand doesn't have any performance issues that we can see. It's got a new processor and 4GB of RAM that make everything from browsing the web to taking pictures to playing games a piece of cake. And it doesn't get nearly as warm as last year's phone did either. Ok let's talk about the camera because the camera's a big deal and Samsung's making a big deal about the camera. It's all new, it's got lower resolution and a brighter lens and an all new sensor. It's also really fast to launch and focus and that unsightly bump that's on the back of the phone isn't nearly as bad this time around. It takes great pics in all kinds of lighting situations. But truth be told it's not hugely different from the S6's camera. It still produces yellowish images in low light and if you zoom in all the way there's a good amount of oversharpening happening. But those are pretty minor complaints. I had no problems trusting the S7 to take pics when I needed it to and was often very happy with the results. So I've mostly been raving about the S7 and the S7 Edge so far and that's really because there's not a whole lot to complain about. But if there is one thing to complain about it's unsurprisingly with Samsung software. They both run Android 6.0 Marshmallow and they have Samsung's TouchWiz interface which is still ugly but it's probably the best it's ever looked. You can still theme it pretty easily if you want something closer to stock Android too. The Verizon models that we've been testing are loaded with crapware and the vast majority of it is bad and not useful. It'd be really great if Samsung stood up to carriers and stopped them from loading up otherwise great phones with a bunch of useless apps. But that hasn't happened here. Samsung has added a couple of new software features like a bigger edge screen on the S7 Edge. It's twice as wide as before so it shows more information and you can do a little bit more with it than you could last year. But it's still pretty gimmicky and I ended up turning it off most of the time. Both phones also have a new always on display mode which lets you easily see the date and time or a month calendar or even a picture if you want without turning the screen on. But it doesn't show me app notifications which would be way more useful and it begs me to double tap the screen to fully wake it up which of course doesn't work. It's like an always on version of what Motorola and Google have done but with less practical utility. But the overall upside here is that while these software features kinda stink, you can easily turn them off and pretend they never existed. So that's where we're at with the S7 and the S7 Edge. They're really great phones. Not perfect but really great and perhaps the best Android phones you can buy right now. They get the basics right. Great screens, great cameras, great performance, reliable battery life and they have eye catching designs and premium materials. It turns out that a new design one year and refinement on the next is a great idea. And you know what? Great ideas make great phones.