Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 Camera Shoot Out

The Galaxy S7 has big shoes to fill as its predecessor was highly praised for its 16MP camera and regarded as one of the best cameras on an Android phone when it was released.  Rather than increase the pixel count Samsung has actually reduced the  number of pixels in its camera but increased its sensor size.

	Galaxy S6	Galaxy S7
Megapixels (higher better)	16	12
Aperture (lower denominator better)	f/1.9	f/1.7
Sensor Type (for this review)	Samsung ISOCELL S5K2P2	Sony IMX260
Sensor size (higher better)	1.0µm	1.4µm
OIS	Yes	Yes
Autofocus	Phase Detection	Dual Pixel
Flash	LED	LED

Samsung has prioritized low light performance over daylight photos with an increase in the sensor size, higher aperture, and reduced megapixel count. But a majority of the photos I've taken with my phone have been in bright daylight, will the Galaxy S7 produce better photos than the Galaxy S6?

Framing
First thing you'll notice when taking photos with both phones is the framing is completely different.  As the Galaxy S7 takes photos in a 4:3 ratio in maximum size while the Galaxy S6 takes photos in a 16:9

The green is the scene framed by the S7 while the blue is the area that is framed by the S6.  The S7 can frame much more from the top and bottom of the scene while not losing much to the S6 on the left and right.

Photos
With that out of the way let's get into the photos.  All photos were shot entirely in auto mode
with the Galaxy S6 running on the last Lollipop software and the Galaxy
S7 Marshmallow launch software.  As I mentioned above, the Galaxy S6 unit in the test uses a Samsung sensor while the S7 has a Sony unit.  Your device may vary.

Galaxy S6 ISOCELL photo (left) vs Galaxy S7 IMX260 photo (right) the Galaxy S6 photo was scaled down to the S7 photo size

There is more noise in the shadows of the Galaxy S7 photo.  Text is sharper in the Galaxy S6 photo.

	Galaxy S6	Galaxy S7
Sensor	Samsung S5K2P2	Sony IMX260
Photo
File Size	5,101,334 bytes	4,867,789 bytes
ISO	80	125
Exposure	1/30	1/60
Program Name	G920FXXU3COI9	G930XXXU1APAC_LLK
Image ID	A16LLIC08VM	C12LSII00VM

Galaxy S6 ISOCELL photo (left) vs Galaxy S7 IMX260 photo (right) the Galaxy S6 photo was scaled down to the S7 photo size:

There's more sharpening in the Galaxy S7 software with less noise in the grey counter

	Galaxy S6	Galaxy S7
Sensor	Samsung S5K2P2	Sony IMX260
Photo
File Size	4,596,250 bytes	4,379,145 bytes
ISO	80	125
Exposure	1/30	1/60
Program Name	G920FXXU3COI9	G930XXXU1APAC_LLK
Image ID	A16LLIC08VM	C12LSII00VM

In the situation we photographed, the Galaxy S7 tended to shoot at a higher ISO level and reduced exposure.  From the above examples, the S7 produced photos with more noise, contrast, and sharpening compared to the S6.  There wasn't a noticeable difference in color between the cameras.

Final Thoughts
In this set of tests I prefer the S6 photos over the S7 photos but photo comparisons I've seen in GSMArena favored the Galaxy S7 as did my first impressions.  At this moment it's hard to say the S7 camera is better the S6 let alone best Android camera. I'm hoping future S7 software will reduce the noise and sharpening used and I get more hands on time with the S7 to compare low light photos.

Samsung Gear VR Review

The age of virtual reality is upon us.  Leading the charge are HTC's Vive and Oculus Rift.  Samsung and Google have joined the party by partnering with the Gear VR and Cardboard, respectively.  Unlike HTC and Oculus, Samsung's and Google's approach rely on the smartphone to serve as the brains and the display.  They lack the processing power of a full computer but offer a wireless experience.

Samsung Wireless Charger Review

Although Nokia was a major pusher of wireless charging, Samsung has taken the torch and run with it.  All of Samsung's recent flagship devices have built-in Qi and Powermat (PMT) wireless charging support: Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge plus, Note 5, S7, and S7 edge.  It only made sense that  Samsung made and sold a wireless charger of their own: Welcome the Samsung Wireless Charger.

Samsung Galaxy S7 First Impressions

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have finally arrived bringing incremental upgrades to the well received S6. Gone is the IR blaster but in comes the microSD slot, IP68 certification for water exposure, bigger battery, more RAM, and faster CPU.

How-to: Remove out of range WiFi networks for Galaxy devices

*Updated 3/18*
This method won't work in Android Marshmallow or later as Marshmallow won't allow an app edit a WiFi networks created by another app

If you rely on Wi-Fi networks a lot you'll likely add a lot of Wi-Fi networks to your phone over its lifetime.  But the more Wi-Fi networks you add, the more effort Android takes to connect to a Wi-Fi network as it goes through the list of added Wi-Fi networks to see if there are any hidden networks to connect to first before presenting you a list of all Wi-Fi network SSIDs being broadcasted.  In short, you want to keep you saved Wi-Fi network list short so you save battery life when connecting from network to network.

You can normally remove Wi-Fi networks by pressing and holding onto a Wi-Fi network and click on Forget in the popup.  For out of range networks, they would usually appear at the bottom or you would click the "...", click "Saved Networks" and click on the network you want to remove in Android.  But unless you have a Verizon Galaxy S6/S6 edge/Note 5, you may have noticed that there is no "Saved Network" option under "More" in "Wi-Fi" settings on new Galaxy devices running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop - mimicking iOS which doesn't provide visibility to all saved networks.

Sadly you'll need to rely on a 3rd party device to remove those out of range networks.  I recommend Wi-Fi Manager mainly because it doesn't ask for permissions to your device identity and call information or phone ID or location like other Wi-Fi managers and it's free.

Samsung Fast Charge 5200mAh Battery Pack Review

When your device needs some extra juice fast

There are a lot of battery packs, battery banks, or portable chargers in the market.  But very few of them support quick charge capability.  If you have a HTC One M9, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, LG V10 or LG G4, then you'll want to pick up a battery bank that supports quick charge so you can enjoy more time with your phone and not constantly wired to the battery pack.

The Samsung Fast Charge Battery Pack is one of the few battery packs that supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0.  That means it'll charge your phone almost as fast your phone plugged into a quick charge wall adapter - up to 50% faster than a non-quick charge battery pack.

Samsung Galaxy G6 Long Term Review

After disappointing sales of the Galaxy S5, Samsung had to make a big turnaround with its next Galaxy phone. Introducing the fruit of its project zero, the new Galaxy S6.

An aluminum framed phone powered with Samsung's own Exynos 7420 processor sandwiched between two slabs of Gorilla glass 4, the Galaxy S6 lives up to its flagship status with 3GB of RAM, Quad HD Super AMOLED display, 16MP F1.9 aperture rear camera, 5MP front camera, IR blaster, Quick Charge 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11ac WiFi support, wireless charging, fingerprint scanner, biometric reader, and GPS/GLONASS support to name a few. The downside is the lack of microSD support, switch to the smaller nano SIM, and smallish battery (2559mAH) that's non-removable.