Inside the Samsung Galaxy S7

Waterproofing has become a major selling point in smartphones recently. Sony led the way with its premium Xperia Z range of phones, including the Sony Xperia Z5 and Sony Xperia Z5 compact models, but Samsung is no slouch in this area. The Galaxy S5 had an IP67 rating, which meant you could spill your drink over it, then take it to the sink and wash it clean again, all without causing damage. Strangely the S6 appeared with no such protection.

The S7 fixes this error by coming equipped with IP68 certification, which means the device is resistant to dust and can be submerged in water up to a depth of 1.5 metres and for a maximum of thirty minutes. One clear giveaway of this feature is the thin plastic cover that protects many of the internal parts of the S7. When iFixit conducted its recent teardown of the S7 it also found that this cover was held in place with black glue, which could well be a newly formulated type to aid with the waterproofing. That, or the designers at Samsung are all getting in the Sisters of Mercy. 

It's interesting to note that the cover also houses elements of the device's antennas and speakers.

Image courtesy of iFixit.com

While the Samsung S6 was a marked improvement upon it predecessor in many ways, its achilles heel was undoubtedly the paltry battery life. With Samsung also choosing to close up the device and no longer allow users to easily remove the battery and pop in a new one, this quickly became a big problem. 

It's good news then that the S7 should suffer no similar power related problems. Gone is the 2550 mAh unit of the S6, replaced with a far more capacious 3000 mAh battery. The extra girth could also account for the slightly thicker measurements of the S7 chassis, but this also has the added benefit of reducing the rather unsightly camera bulge on the back of the unit. So everyone's a winner.

Image courtesy of iFixit.com

Of course one of the main components on any phone is that of the display, taking up the majority of the construction.

In the S7 Samsung has chosen a 5.1-inch, 2560 x 1440 Quad HD Super AMOLED display, just as it did with the S6. This gorgeous screen really does render images and text beautifully, plus there is the addition of a new 'always-on' feature that displays the time and date, plus other user definable information, even in standby mode. The screen is also desinged to last as it is encased in Gorilla-Glass 4, which should stave off a few attacks.

One of the most important elements of a smartphone to many people is the camera, and in the S7 Samsung has a beauty.

While the initial specifications might seem a step down from last year's S6, which came equipped with a 16-megapixel unit, this isn't the case. Samsung has opted for a 12-megapixel/4K camera in the S7, but with Dual Pixel autofocus for each of the larger pixels. This, as our tests have shown, results in stunning images, even in low light.

Around the front there is also a 5-megapixel selfie camera with an F 1.7 aperture, which captures some decent instances of duckface, surprised at pressing the wrong button face, and smiling, arms-length, group shots.

At the heart of the S7 is the motherboard which holds the CPU, storage, and RAM.

Samsung opted for the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which is shrouded by 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, as you can see highlighted in red on the iFixit image. These are partnered with 32GB of Samsung MLC Universal Flash storage 2.0, this time highlighted in orange.

The motherboard is also home to various audio modules, motion sensors, the heart rate monitor sensor, and on the reverse there are controllers for NFC, wireless power, and Wi-Fi. These allow the S7 to pay for services with Tap and Pay (or at least that will be the case when Samsung Pay is released in the UK in the coming months), charge wirelessly, and speed around the web thanks to the 11ac dual-band Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO.

All in all, it's a mightly impressive package.

To read more about this excellent device, take a look at our in-depth review - Samsung S7 review

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