Tag Archives: Samsung Galaxy S7

Samsung Galaxy S7 – The Best Themes

July 22, 2016Android, Tech NewsBest Themes, Samsung Galaxy S7Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Samsung’s latest devices come with the option to change the theme. The themes offer skin deep changes and even theme apps like the clock and messages.

I have ploughed through hundreds of themes, both free and paid. The best ones so far are –

– Android 6.0
– DeluxeGoldBlack
– MIUI Dark
– Black
– Black Marble
– Metal_Silver
– MetalRoyal
– Color Therapy
– Sci-Fi

My all time favourite is Gradient Blue. Screen shot above. Click HERE.

What are your favourite themes for the Samsung flagship phones. If you are using Nova Launcher, you can still have a Samsung Theme as this changes menu and more that are system deep.

Samsung Gear 360 – Editorial – Shooting in 360 and 110 degrees with your phone

July 21, 2016accessories, Android, Tech NewsSamsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Gear 360, Samsung Lens Cover, shots of the weekGavin Fabiani-Laymond

The Samsung Gear 360 is one piece of tech that I absolutely love. Its execution is beautiful and its a joy to use. The downside is that it only works with Samsung’s flagship phones. It also works upside down.

I also have the Samsung Lens Cover which is available for the S7 and S7 Edge. This is the wide angle lens fitted to the S7.

Even without the lenses fitted to the S7 you can obtain some amazing shots. See below.

The bee shot below is taken without any add on lenses. Just used Pro mode, macro and fixed the shutter speed.

But now inside the church and outside here are shots using the wide angle lens attachment. See how the extra width at 110 degrees does make a difference.

So now you can see the difference with the outside view of the church with using the wide angle lens.Looks great.

Anyway back to the Gear 360. This can take some amazing photos. For these to display in 360 degrees, you will need to click on photo and view via a desktop PC. Or make sure you change Chrome or Safari web browser to Desktop Mode and make sure you’re viewing Flickr in desktop mode.

The shot below is of the inside of the church. Here the 360 degree camera shines and is ideal for such a scenario.

I really love the difference photographing makes in 360 degrees. However, shooting in 360 degrees does not work all the time. Sometimes just using the phone without any attachments is the best option, but other times have either the wide or 2 x Telephoto lens changes the end result completely.

Samsung Galaxy S7 – Camera Shots of the Week

July 3, 2016Android, Tech Newscamera shots of the week, Samsung Galaxy S7Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Below are a few photos taken with the Samsung Galaxy S7 which are truly exceptional.

The shots below are macro shots of a bee. For both shots I used the Pro mode, altered the focus to macro and shutter speed too.

With this shot above, I really love the “eyes” and facial features captured.

This shot of the bee looks so cute and cuddly, but I don’t recommend trying to give it a cuddle.

Finally, a weather shot. This was around 5pm. Driving on Dartmoor was a challenge through this!

Samsung Galaxy S7 – Two Months Later + 1 Month with the S7 Edge

June 29, 2016accessories, Android, Tech News3 months later, Samsung Galaxy S7Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

I have now had a Samsung S7/Edge for 3 months with a few other phones in review within this time period.

I started with the Samsung S7 Edge but migrated to the S7 Standard. Why? Same phone in a more practical shell, that as slightly smaller, also easier to fit, hold, use, grip and more.

So what makes using the Samsung S7 so special and such a great user experience.

Well, one of the reasons is the accessories. The Lens Cover case is fantastic. My review is HERE. I also have the S7 Wireless Battery Back Pack. My review click HERE. Then there is the Samsung Gear VR and Gear 360, the Samsung Level One Pro headphones and more. Click HERE. for my thoughts on the S7 Edge.

My S7 is always kept in the Lens Cover case. It is worth getting the Lens Cover just for the case alone. The case feels like leather, its not, reassuringly grippy and has a slightly raised section to help with more grip when taking photos. Then you can add either a wide angle or 2 x telephoto lens. I use these lenses all the time now. I also use the Gear 360. The other accessories like the Gear VR, Level One Pro headphones and Gear S2 don’t get used that much.

Continuing with the camera, the S7 just snaps a great shot nearly every time. Being water resistant means I am not worried about if its raining either. Between the S7 and S7 Edge I now have nearly 300 shots in my Flickr albums. That is a record number over every previous smartphone.

S7 Edge Flickr Album

Samsung S7 Flickr Album

Then the rest of the phone is all superb. Fast charging, Qi charging, an amazing QHD screen, great battery life, a proper gaming mode with options to remove disturbances and improve battery life. I even use Touchwiz on my S7 and love changing themes. The loudspeaker isn’t the loudest or clearest, but its usable for podcasts. The audio output via headphones is only good when matched with easy to drive headphones. Luckily using bluetooth headphones and HiFiMan Edition S headphones I have superb audio via headphones, although I do miss the HTC 10 for headphone audio.

But overall, the S7 package and experience is second to none. There are phones available that are better than the S7 in particular fields, but nobody beats Samsung for the whole package.

Some shots from the camera below and aboe –

Samsung Galaxy S7 – Waterproof matters & Using the Video Editor

June 19, 2016Android, Reviews, Tech NewsS7 edge, Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Video Editor, waterproof testGavin Fabiani-Laymond

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 are waterproof and dust proof and on a day like today on Dartmoor, it really is the only phone I would want to use outdoors currently.

It is raining along with thick fog. This is Dartmoor for you and of course its the British Summertime!

So after snapping photos and a load of video clips, Samsung has an app called Samsung Video Editor which is downloadable from the Galaxy App store. It offers a way of creating a mini movie. Options from transitions, titles, music, trimming, 3 speed options, filters, microphone audio, and a load more basic items. The app is free. It does have a big limitation. It works really well up to 720p video. It crashes sometimes using 1080p 30fps. But anything higher it does not work. The video editor is not as good as iOS iMovie but it is better than nothing.

To give you an idea, see the video below, with photos and video from the S7 taken this morning and created and edited on the phone to give you an idea of the final output.

Samsung Galaxy S7 – New Firmware OTA – updated

June 11, 2016Android, Tech Newsnew firmware OTA, Samsung Galaxy S7Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Everyday I always manually check for a firmware update on my devices. I had check my Samsung Galaxy S7 first thing this morning, but for some unknown reason, just before I was going to bed, I checked again and voila a 333mb software update was available.

I will update this post later this morning with anything new discovered. It does include the latest security update too which is 1st June 2016.

If you have a S7 and find anything new with this update, leave a note in the comments and I will add your findings to the main post.

My Samsung Galaxy S7 is a UK version, unlocked from Carphone Warehouse.

Update 1 – When sending email in the Samsung email app a banner pops up at the bottom now saying “sending email”.

Samsung Galaxy S7 – More Camera Fun

June 3, 2016Android, Tech NewsCamera samples, lens cover, Samsung Galaxy S7, wide lensGavin Fabiani-Laymond

A few more snaps with the Samsung Galaxy S7. Worth noting that you will see a couple of these scenes in my other post with the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL.

Edited with snapseed HDR scape filter.

Same editing as the first shot. Really vivid.

Sometimes, you just cannot beat the lens cover wide angle lens.

Again, a fab shot with the wide angle lens. Makes all the difference sometimes.

Official Samsung Lens Cover – The Telephoto Lens Put to the Test using Zoom & 4K

June 3, 2016Android, Reviews, Tech News4K video test, lens cover, Samsung Galaxy S7, Telephoto lens testGavin Fabiani-Laymond

I reviewed the Official Samsung Lens cover a few days ago. Click HERE to recap.

I was asked by OneTwelve in the comments to see how much zoom vs loss of quality could be achieved with the telephoto lens. And then try and see what the quality would be like from video frame grabs. If you aren’t aware, if you record a 4K video, you can extract 8mp photos. All the frame grabs were taken from the 4K Telephoto footage shown below.

So below is a photo without any lenses attached. This is to provide a perspective of the whole scene.

And now 4K video with no lens attached.

Attaching the telephoto lens and the clock tower is much closer now, but there is softness around the edge of the photo.

And below is 4K video with the telephoto lens attached. As mentioned above, I extracted 8mp photos from this 4K video.

Before I show some 4K frame grabs, lets see what the telephoto lens can do just snapping normal photos. First up a photo with digital zoom at 4 x zoom.

And now with 8 x zoom with the telephoto lens. Impressive really.

Ok, now to extracting frames from the 4K video with the telephoto lens. This is 2 x digital zoom.

Below is a 4K video frame grab, telephoto lens attached at 4 x digital zoom.

Below is 4K frame grab at 8 x digital zoom with telephoto lens attached. Now the quality has dropped and is not as good as just simply taking a photo rather than frame extract.

Finally just to show what the wide angle lens does. No zoom. Just a photo. Notice how much more of the scene is captured. Refer to the first photo for comparison. The S7 was in exactly the same spot when snapping this wide angle photo.

Overall the telephoto lens does a reasonable job. Photo quality is ok and video reasonable. There is softening on the edges but I am happy with this.

Samsung Galaxy S7 – Camera Fun

June 2, 2016Android, Tech NewsCamera Fun, Lens Cover examples, Samsung Galaxy S7Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Yesterday I published my review of the Official Samsung Lens Cover for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

So today, I thought I would share a selection of shots taken with these lenses. Post processing was done using Snapseed or Camera360. With all the photos below, if you want to see the full size, just click on the photo and select original.

The cow was a long way off in the distance. So I used the telephoto lens and cropped the shot afterwards.

Below is a shot taken with the wide angle lens using the panoramic mode on the S7. I really like this shot. Probably best to view this one a large screen if you can.

Both photos below snapped using the wide angle lens.

The photo below is snapped with the telephoto. Brings the action much closer.

Finally a shot with the wide angle. Quite dramatic too.

Samsung Galaxy S7 – YouTube Live Stream on Dartmoor

May 14, 2016Android, Reviews, Tech NewsLive Stream Camera mode, Samsung Galaxy S7Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

So I am out walking my dogs in the middle of nowhere in a place called Dartmoor.

Dartmoor is a National Park , 328 square miles in size.

Below is the Live Stream showing part of my walk with my 3 labradors and the spectacular views.

Live Broadcast is a camera mode on the Samsung Galaxy S7. It is not available on any of the other flagships by default.

Before you live stream you send SMS messages to those you want to see it. You only get choice of sms messages. The maximum resolution is that shown below. You hit record and wait a few seconds. You then get confirmation the messages have been sent. During the live broadcast you can see who is watching and any messages they live you.

Anyway. Enjoy the live stream now.

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