WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7?

WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S7?

To use a tired cliche, Samsung has had a year of two halves. After the release of both the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, things were looking strong. It had a phone that was better than the HTC 10, better than the Huawei P9 and it’s still better than the iPhone 7.

But then the exploding Galaxy Note 7 landed and Samsung took a bit of a hit. Is it enough to make you think twice about buying a Samsung device?

In a word, no. The Galaxy S7 is still the best phone we’ve reviewed this year. Maybe the Google Pixel phone will have something to say about that though?

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 – DESIGN

After the massive, and much needed, change in design direction Samsung took with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in 2015, all rumours pointed to things staying pretty much the same for the Galaxy S7.

Well, it’s not like Apple, HTC or Sony make drastic changes to their industrial design every year.

And that’s exactly the case here. Place the Galaxy S7 next to the S6 and you’d be hard pushed to instantly pick which one is which. Frankly, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The S6 was already one of the best-looking phones around, and the Galaxy S7 follows suit.

Both the front and back are covered in Gorilla Glass 4, while a metal rim snakes in between. Two volume buttons sit on one side, with a lock/standby switch on the other. It’s a clean look, with the back free from any markings aside from a Samsung logo.

The camera lens now sits just about flush with the glass body too. This might seem a small change, but it makes a big difference. I can now tap out an email with the phone flat on my desk without it jumping and rocking from side to side.

There is one notable design change on the back – the sides now curve ever so slightly, just like they did on the larger Galaxy Note 5, and it makes a huge change to how the Galaxy S7 feels. While the S6 felt harsh and rigid, the Galaxy S7 slips softly into my palm. It’s so much more ergonomic and makes picking it up off a flat surface much easier.

And the way the sides almost melt into the glass just looks damn cool. Good job, Samsung.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 – DISPLAY

Close to perfection. That’s the best way to describe the display on Samsung’s Galaxy S7.

Not much has really changed from the outgoing S6, but this still holds up as the best screen on a smartphone.

It’s still a 5.1-inch QHD panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and just like every Galaxy flagship so far, it uses Samsung’s Super AMOLED tech, rather than the more common LCD.

AMOLED displays are a lot better at showing off blacks than LCDs. Instead of looking slightly grey and washed out, the blacks here are inky deep. Some say AMOLED screens produce colours that are too oversaturated, so reds will look way brighter than they should, but that isn’t much of an issue here. And if you really prefer things toned down, there’s a picture setting for that.

Having so many pixels jammed into a relatively small space means you can’t really spot one pixel from another, and that sharpness makes everything from gaming to watching YouTube an absolute pleasure. Play a round of Alto’s Adventure or Monument Valley on this display and you’ll instantly be drawn in by the crisp details and vivid colour reproduction.

I wouldn’t normally watch a film on a screen this size, but the panel here is so gorgeous that I can’t help getting lost in it.

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⧭iPhone 7 Review⧭

he iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are deeply unusual devices. They are full of aggressive breaks from convention while wrapped in cases that look almost exactly like their two direct predecessors. Even that continuity of design is a break from convention; after almost a decade of Apple’s steady two-year iPhone update pattern, merely retaining the same design for a third straight year plays against expectations.

Inside that case, everything else about the iPhone 7 is a decisive statement about the future. The dual cameras on the iPhone 7 Plus promise to usher in a new era in mobile photography. The iconic iPhone home button is no longer a physical button, but instead a sophisticated ballet of pressure sensors and haptic vibration motors that simulate the feel of a button. The new A10 Fusion processor blends two high-power cores that rival laptop performance with two low-power cores that combine with a much larger battery to extend run time by up to two hours.

And, yes, Apple has removed the headphone jack.

Removing the headphone jack is an act of pure confidence from Apple, which is the only company in tech that can set off a sea changes in the industry by aggressively dropping various technologies from its products. Floppy drives, optical drives, its own proprietary 30-pin iPod connector, flash, even USB — Apple decides that it’s time to move on, and it has a massive installed base of customers that love and trust the company who make it happen. And now it’s decided that — yikes — the headphone jack is over.

After using the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus for about a week, it’s clear to me that Apple has forceful, but considered opinions about how the next generation of phones should fit into our lives. But it’s also clear that the iPhone 7 is a transitional step to that vision of the future, not a complete expression of it. The question for would-be upgraders is simple: is all of the latent promise in this phone worth the inconvenience of that transition?

DESIGN

 here’s really no getting around it: the iPhthe iPhone 6 and 6 Plus from 2014. They are now water resistant, which is nice, although they’re not fully waterproof — keep them submerged in a    meter of water for more than 30 minutes and things might not go your way. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Note 7 are technically even more water resistant, but I think it’s basically a push — you can get these one 7 and 7 Plus look more or less exactly like phones casually wet now without catastrophe, and that’s a big win. If you want to go snorkeling with your iPhone, you should probably get a case anyhow

Apart from the water resistance, there are three main external differences between the 6 and 7: first, the antenna lines on the back have been tweaked and colored to blend into the body on the matte black and glossy jet black models, which is a welcome refinement. (The antennas remain a dull gray color on the silver, gold, and rose gold variants; Apple says there are limits on what colors can be applied.) Second, the camera bump has been enlarged and more artfully curved into the rear casing, which looks particularly handsome on the smaller phone with a single camera.And third — here it is again — there’s no headphone jack.But really, once you put the iPhone 7 in a case, it looks exactly like an iPhone 6. And if you get a jet black model, you’ll want to get it into a case immediately — my jet black review unit scratched and scuffed almost instantly, and the only time it’s remained fingerprint-free is when we literally handled it with white gloves for the photo and video shoots accompanying this review. Apple is being unusually open about the propensity of the jet black finish to scratch, but beyond that, I’d get the matte black anyway — it just looks meaner.The iPhone 6 has always been one of the more utilitarian designs in Apple history, and a smoothed-out camera bump and less visible antennas don’t really change that. Apple’s competition is getting better at making beautiful phones, and nothing about the iPhone 7’s design exceeds the rest of the industry. The iPhone 7 Plus in particular is actually falling behind its large-screened competition; the 6 Plus was always a bit of a surfboard, and new devices like the Galaxy Note 7 fit enormous displays into much smaller, tighter packages. (Too bad about the explosions, though.) This is still a phone that looks best in a case.

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Steep review

                                                 

                    Steep review

Available on PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC

SSX, Amped, Shaun White Snowboarding or Cool Boarders and Steep will still give you some things to cheer about but fail to deliver what you’re really looking for. To really get to grips with Ubisoft Annecy’s game you have to understand where it’s coming from. With its open world structure it’s firmly in the established Ubi game mould, doing for extreme alpine sports what The Crew did for driving and Far Cry 2 for the FPS. Yet when I think about its feel, I keep coming back to a more unexpected influence: Nintendo’s Pilotwings 64. For all its stunts, thrills and breakneck racing, Steep is at its best when you chill out, have fun and just explore.

It helps that snowboarding is just one of four pursuits on offer (or five if you include the odd hike). Don the wingsuit and you can launch yourself off cliff edges and platforms, swooping through rings to rack up points or speeding perilously close to the ground. Open up your paraglider and you can soar over mountains, descending through trees and gullies or using thermals to climb upwards and reach new peaks. Then, of course, you have the skiing and snowboarding, both keyed into the same race and trick showcase challenges, but each having their own moves and feel.

Then there’s the map. Ubisoft Annecy has compressed the scenic highlights of four alpine regions into one winter sports wonderland, putting Mont Blanc within easy reach of the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa just around the corner. You’re free to explore the whole area, but to get to certain peaks you’ll need to unlock a ‘drop zone’ first, entailing getting close to them by air or land or checking them out with your binoculars from less than 1Km away. Unlock a drop zone and you also unlock the related challenges, which might be races, stunt trails, wingsuit events, paragliding challenges or cross-country time trials. You’ll even find rather surreal mountain story events, where the mountain itself will reveal objectives that will help you get to know it better.

It’s a great map to explore, partly because the alpine scenery is so beautiful and also the actual feel of skiing and snowboarding is so brilliant. While there’s a little scenery pop-in, the odd rough texture and the occasional dropped frame, Steep often looks stunning, particularly if you’re lucky enough to be playing it on a 4K screen with the PS4 Pro. There’s a convincing – even stomach-churning – sense of speed, and the handling on both skis and snowboard just feels right, to the extent that the way your snowboard cuts through the powder, the edge gripping as you turn, is almost tangible. Based at a major centre of the winter sports world, Ubisoft Annecy has created a game that’s clearly based on years of real experience.

It’s no dry sim, either. Drop zones work like fast-travel points, so you never have to waste time wandering to a new event or challenge, and there’s an impressive variety of stuff to try. Some events are almost relaxing, giving you time to explore on a cross-country ski route or enjoy the scenery as you glide from peak to peak. Others are pure adrenaline, pushing you to chain together daredevil flips and rodeos or fly at speed through rock arches, glacial ice fields and narrow passes – all thrilling stuff. Others still go for knockabout comedy, asking you to do little more than reach the bottom of the mountain as quickly as possible, even if that means breaking a few bones on the way.

Plus Steep is built for social play. Instead of cramming the Alps with CPU-controlled racers or extravagant rivals, Steep has you sharing the mountains with other online players, with a quick ‘group up’ function and options to save your best efforts as challenges and share them with your friends. You can also capture shots and videos, picking camera angles to make you look your best.

In short, this is a game of freedom and choice, where you can spend whole days just wandering around the map, blazing your own trails, unlocking new drop zones and tackling whatever events you fancy. You can level up gently, opening up new areas and gated challenges, or simply relax and focus on exploration and discovery. It’s also good to see a willingness to be a bit eccentric, whether that means a challenge where you have to find a talking tree or another where you’re doing your best to trace a trail of flowers. In the end, Steep’s Alps are a pretty cool place to hang out.

Yet this attitude has a downside, and that’s that Steep isn’t all that compelling. There’s nothing to keep you moving forward beyond the pull of more peaks, more drop zones and more events, and with time one area and one event begins to look and feel much like another. The challenges become more difficult, with more awkwardly placed checkpoints or tighter rock arches to glide through, but the actual experience fails to develop. Like so many previous Ubisoft open-worlders, Steep gives you an awful lot of things to do but not enough motivation to keep doing them. As a result, Steep is an enjoyable, amiable sort of game, but not the kind of game that keeps you hooked.

What’s more, it’s beset by minor niggles. The menus and interface seem over-complicated, making switching or customising characters unnecessarily hard work. The 3D map can be hard to get your head around, and it’s trickier than it should be to find your next event. At times you’ll activate a wingsuit or paraglider challenge, then find your character stuck on the platform, unable to continue, until you manually switch to, say, your snowboard then back to the wingsuit again. Characters will start some challenges facing in entirely the wrong direction, while getting stuck on, behind or even halfway through a rock happens more than it should.

What that all means is that Steep ends up in the same position as The Crew did two years ago; as a fresh and very different take on a genre which has all the fundamentals in place, but that isn’t quite as polished or rewarding as it should have been. It’s an easy game to recommend to fans of skiing, snowboard and exploration, but a tougher sell for those who are looking for more straight up thrills. With a few tweaks and a good expansion pack Steep could still reach its potential, but right now it has a climb ahead of it and that climb is going to be, well, steep

Verdict

Ubisoft Annecy has crafted a gorgeous-looking winter sports game with a strong foundation of exploration, enjoyable gameplay and a feast of events to unlock. What it hasn’t done is create a pathway through that game that will keep you playing through to the end. Despite the variety of events and sports the action and scenery grows repetitive, while some minor issues keep on cropping up. The result is a game that’s close to brilliance, but not quite close enough.

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iMacwear SPARTA M7 Smart Watch Review

Pros

The touch and overall experience of the device is snappy, it doesn't lags even if you are using heavy apps like Facebook and Twitter.

The feel of the material is also solid metal, it is not like some cheap plastic that is very light. It feels very rigid even the straps. The rubber material is very strong and cannot be easily worn out.

The sound it is making when playing Youtube videos is unbelievable, many of my friends can't believe it is capable of producing that kind of volume despite its small size.

Cons

The common issue with the device of course is, typing. Not only the keyboard is really really hard to get used to, but the problem is, when the keyboard starts to appear, it is occupying the entire screen, making it hard to see the letters you are typing.

The fact that you have to open the back metal plate just to insert/remove memory card is a big inconvinience.

One of the annoying things about it is, the small screws can easily get loose-thread making it hard to actually remove the metal cover. So once you had inserted your SIM card/memory card inside, be sure that you don't plan to remove it very soon, since it is very very hard to remove again. In my case, the metal cover suffered several dents just because I had accidentally scratched it with the screw driver.

One of the problems with the device is, the "thin and crispy" paint coating it have. It can be easily scratched when you are moving your arm through items inside your bag. This resulted into the above appearance on which all the coating on the edges was all scratched off.

The same is true for the top, the small edges along the touch screen is easily scrathed producing that look. Here is the back of the metal plate cover, all the small screws is all gone, only one is actually left, but as you can see, it doesn't fall off still since even w/o the screws on it, it is very hard to open.

The most annoying thing about it, is the charger. It is not ordinary charger since its like a clamp on which you have to put the watch inside it and seal it on to make contact with the bottom of the watch.

The problem is the mechanism on how the watch actually locks in the watch on the cap. There is two small notches that slides in to the main body of the charger, the problem is if one of those two is damaged, the charger cannot press the watch inside anymore. You have to somewhat use some rubber band or something to make a better grip to the charger.

You cannot usually see if the watch is charging specially when it got battery drained (no physical LED power indicator on both watch and charger), so with loose charger contact and battery drained watch, you cannot charge it for example while inside a car, it has to be still since it can't tolerate too much movement.

Bottomline

M7 Sparta is worth the price, but probably the size itself makes it really hard to have some serious use-case. I can say though that it is really more usefull compared to Samsung Gear or Apple Watch, since it can host its own SIM and thus can faciliate communication even if you don't have a phone. Overall, it is still good to have for emergencies and driving, but will not be a complete replacement for your smartphone.

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