No question, the Galaxy S7 is a wonderful "piece of kit" (as my UK friends would call it). It’s fast, has plenty of RAM (4GB), and is expandable via microSD card (unlike its immediate predecessor, the Galaxy S6). But while it runs circles around my old Avant in terms of performance, I found the phone’s TouchWiz-enhanced Android 6.0 Marshmallow UI to be uninspiring.
Frankly, I had expected more in the way of a functional improvement over my aging Avant -- though, to be fair, I had significantly modified my old phone via myriad homebrew ROMs based on the Android Open Kang Project (AOKP). So, in the end, I simply chalked my experience up to unrealistic expectations and settled in for a long relationship with my new mobile companion.
Then a funny thing happened: Samsung released a public Beta version of is upcoming Android 7.0 Nougat implementation for the Galaxy S7/Galaxy S7 edge. Up until then, most of what I’d read about the new OS was nearly as uninspiring as my initial Marshmallow observations. There was talk about virtual reality (not interested), additional UI customization options (been there, done that with AOKP), and some boot-time security stuff (boring). Basically, nothing exciting, and certainly not worth the 2GB download.
But then I heard from other Galaxy S7 users who were proclaiming what a wonderful job Samsung had done with Android 7.0. Phrases like "sleek and clean" and "complete UI overhaul" kept bouncing around the web forums. So, with my curiosity no thoroughly piqued, I bit the bullet and pulled down the massive ZIP archive. I then decompressed the four component files that make up the build and flashed them to my S7 via the Samsung Odin side-loading tool.
After a lengthy initial boot-up, I entered my SIM card PIN and began the "new phone" setup process. Much looked the same from my earlier experience setting up Android 6.0, but then the process was done and I started to poke around the UI a bit.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the new Quick Settings panel. Samsung has moved to a gorgeous, aqua-esque blue/gray color scheme on a near white (hint of light blue dithering) background. The icons are minimalist and the whole effect feels quite iPhone-like, especially the smoothness of the tray’s integration with the notification shade. It just "pops and snaps" in a way I hadn’t experienced before under Android.
Bottom line: Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 is shaping up to be a solid release full of useful functional upgrades and some nice visual tweaks. I was happy with my Galaxy S7 before I installed the beta. I’m doubly happy now that I can see what a great user experience Samsung has in store for me when the final version drops next year.
Photo Credit: BigLike Images/Shutterstock
~ Randall C. Kennedy
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