AmazingThe Samsung Galaxy j2 Edge is a phone I’d hate to have had to make. Its predecessor was a multi-award-winning phone, simply because it packed all the power of the’normal’ Galaxy S6 and yet. that curved edge. I wasn’t alone in loving it, whipping it out proudly whenever possible.
But that was last year, and the world is bored of the curved design. We’ve seen it. It’s been done. So what can Samsung do to make the new phone a real step forward?
Well, unlike what it’s done on the Galaxy j2, which looks(initially) like last year’s model, the changes on the are brilliant, adding a zest to a design that could have quickly become tired.
The screen is larger, yet somehow the phone doesn’t feel too much bigger in the hand. The rear of the phone is now curved too, making it sit nicely in the hand. It’s waterproof. There’s a microSD card slot. There’s so much power in there I’m pretty sure I could strap it on the back of a speedboat and make my way across the Atlan
And that’s even more possible because the battery - such a disappointment on last year’s S6 phones - is boosted massively too, giving us a handset that’s able to last over 24 hours between charges.
All this comes at a cost obviously, and a pretty hefty one. In the UK that(although if you shop around it can now be found for, while in the US you’re looking at a huge on a two-year contract, or the new unlocked price(again, shop around and you’re looking at In Australia, the Galaxy j2 Edge attracts the highest price for a Galaxy yet:.
Samsung Galaxy S2 Edge price: how much will it cost me?
That’s quite a jump from last year’ starting price, showing this is one of the most expensive phones around.
But, in my view, it’s worth every penny.
Design
The Galaxy S7 Edge is a phone that lives and dies by its looks. If you’re only interested in the power then just go for the standard Galaxy S7. The smaller, ’normal’, model has got all the same smarts, but a slightly sharper screen thanks to packing the same amount of pixels into a smaller area.
Even the simple option to double-tap the home button to activate the camera(which is a really nice element, if not as fast as some others on the market) helps the snapper feel more usable and intuitive; Samsung has really thought about the way it’s put this package together.
Pro tip: use the volume down button to take a picture, as the phone will feel a lot steadier in the hand given its slightly less wieldy size.
I’m not getting drawn into the argument of which came first, as both brands can lay claim to doing things a certain way, but there are a lot of similarities between the two. Samsung is certainly leaning towards a simpler camera interface, where Apple is packing in more settings - and the two are meeting somewhere in the middle.
One feature that Samsung has weirdly added is’Motion photo’, which captures a very shot video before taking a photo. It’s just a rubbish feature, producing low-res, silent videos that start way too early and have random lengths - not something I’ll ever be sharing.
Oh, and it’s a little like Live Photos, isn’t it, Samsung? Why aren’t you making a bigger deal of’Sound and Shot’ instead?
You can see the comparison shots on the page after nex
I loathe selfies still(you don’t need to be in every picture, nor is it hard to ask someone else to take a photo of you). But, love or hate them, they’re here to stay - and brands are working hard to pack as many features as possible into their front-facing cameras.
The Galaxy j2 now has a very similar’screen flash’ method of illuminating faces in the front-facing camera to the iPhone - it’s hard not to note the similarity when this feature wasn’t present in the S6 duo and has popped up since Apple introduced it last year.
It’s very similar in function as well, although it actually appears to give a brighter glow than Apple can manage. One thing that is evident is that Samsung’s selfies are a lot smoother, with the processing software cleaning up images well.
And that’s even before sticking on beauty mode, which will smooth over skin, enlarge eyes and adjust the lighting to make you look’your very best’ /’like a weird monster if you push the settings too hard’.
I know it’s perhaps a cultural thing, but I really wish beauty mode would disappear. I don’t mind having a simple option to smooth out images a little, but this is just crazy - and irritating if you forget to turn it off, and wonder why you look a little like a confused alien in the resulting snap.