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Introduction
Like other ‘Active' smartphones from Samsung's Galaxy S lineup, the Galaxy S7 Active is very similar to its non-Active counterpart in terms of internal specifications, yet it stands apart with a bigger focus on ruggedness.
The 2016 model was the fourth in the Galaxy S series to boast the Active moniker, and was succeeded by the Galaxy S8 Active before Samsung stopped releasing Galaxy S Active models altogether.
Design
The Galaxy S7 Active shares more design elements with the Galaxy S6 Active than it does with its Galaxy S7 / Galaxy S7 Edge siblings. In fact, the two Active models look almost the same to an untrained eye, with key differences revealing themselves at closer inspection.
The phone is surrounded by a pronounced frame that contributes to its durability, but the visible screws/rivets are gone. The three physical buttons on the front panel are more separated, yet the Galaxy S7 Active retains a dedicated key on the left edge. It can be assigned to launch any application.
Samsung retained a camo finish adopted by the 2015 for only one of the three color options. The Galaxy S7 Active was released in Camo Green (which does have a camo pattern on the back panel) as well as two other, less ostentatious flavors called Titanium Gray and Sandy Gold.
The device measures 148.8 x 74.9 x 9.9mm and it weighs 184.8 grams, making it nearly 15 grams heavier than its predecessor. It boasts the same IP68 rating as the regular Galaxy S7, but goes the extra mile by meeting the MIL-STD-810G standards.
Specifications
Unsurprisingly, Qualcomm's chipset solution is powering the USA-bound Galaxy S7 Active. Specifically, the phone features the Snapdragon 820 SoC comprising two high-performance custom Kryo cores clocked at up to 2.15GHz, and two power-efficient Kryo cores operating at a frequency of 1.59Ghz. The chipset also includes an Adreno 530 graphics chip with a frequency of 624MHz. The rugged phone was released in a single memory configuration. It has 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage expandable via microSD.
While the 2015 Active model lacked this feature, the 2016 Galaxy S7 Active does have a fingerprint scanner embedded in the front-facing home button. Other specs include LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G+5GHz, VHT80 MU-MIMO, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, USB 2.0, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unlike newer Galaxy smartphones, the S7 Active has SpO2 and heart rate sensors.
Samsung maintained its strategy from the year before and equipped the Active model with a larger battery compared to the standard Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. The components rely on a unit with a capacity of 4,000mAh. It supports 15W fast charging and has wireless charging capabilities.
Display
The Galaxy S7 Active has the same display as the standard S7 model. It's a Super AMOLED panel with a 5.1-inch diagonal, a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen-to-body ratio is lower than the S7's, sitting at around 64%.
Like its predecessor, the Galaxy S7 Active protects its display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. However , the Galaxy S7 Active, and indeed the standard S7 models, were Samsung's first Galaxy S smartphones to boast Always-on display capabilities, leveraging the Super AMOLED's ability to turn off individual pixels. This feature remains a core element of Samsung's smartphones four years after its debut.
Camera
Camera-wise, there's nothing differentiating the Galaxy S7 Active from the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge. The rugged smartphone is equipped with a single 12MP rear-facing shooter with an f/1.7 aperture, a 26mm wide lens, and optical image stabilization (OIS).
2016 was the first year in which Samsung introduced Dual Pixel Autofocus to its Galaxy S flagships. It debuted with the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, and the Galaxy S7 Active took advantage of this technology as well.
The main 12MP camera is paired with an LED flash and can record 2160p / 1080p videos at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps, and 720p at 30/60/240fps. Meanwhile, the phone has a 5MP front-facing camera with an f/1.7 aperture and 1440p/1080p/720p video recording capabilities.
Software and Features
The Galaxy S7 Active was released with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box and TouchWiz UI. The device was the updated to Android 7.0 Nougat, which introduced new features such as Samsung Cloud and Samsung Pass. The second major firmware update pushed the OS version to Android 8.0 Oreo. It replaced TouchWiz UI with Samsung Experience 9.0.
The rugged hero had S Voice support at launch but the assistant is being discontinued on June 1, 2020. The Galaxy A7 Active is compatible with Samsung Pay, but it will soon stop receiving security patches after its four-year anniversary.
Price and Availability
Samsung's rugged flagship was released only in the USA exclusively via AT&T. Customers could acquire the phone with AT&T Next on a 30 months agreement for $26.50 a month, or via AT&T Next Every Year at $33.13 a month on a 24 months agreement.
Some incentives were offered as well. For starters, customers buying two Galaxy S7 Active phones on AT&T Next would get up to $695 in bill credits over 30 months. Additionally, AT&T customers could get the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch for free when acquiring the phone on a 2-year agreement.
Downloads and Resources
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