Samsung Galaxy S7 Active (Unlocked, Used)

Product Description

It’s often too easy to simply right off smartphones that advertise themselves as “tough”. More and more models now incorporate toughened glass and water/dust resistance, and yet dropping one onto a hard floor can still be catastrophic. The screen of a smartphone is still the biggest weakness, by far, even with toughened glass. With the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active, though, Samsung has again brought real protection to their flagship range.

If you’re sensible, the first thing you do with a new smartphone is to put on a phone case for extra protection. In effect, that’s what you get with the S7 Active, but with the advantage that it’s a custom, built-in cover. You do lose some of the delicate finesse of the standard S7, but that’s kind of the point. The S7 Active isn’t a “Look what I’ve got” kind of smartphone, although it does have the quality to back it up. Instead, it’s just meant to get on with the job of taking whatever comes along and walking away.

The durability of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active

The display on the S7 Active is shatterproof by design. Whereas previously, a drop of a foot or less onto a tiled floor would be devastating, the S7 will survive a drop of 5 feet onto any flat surface. It is dustproof, and waterproof to a depth of 6 feet for up to 30 minutes.

The cover itself feels amazingly solid. It does genuinely feel armor-plated, with reinforced corners and all-around protection.

The sheer strength of the S7 Active makes it feel as solid as any mobile phone we’ve ever used, but without too much in the way of increased size. It is a little bigger, obviously, because of the cover, and weighs a little more because of it. If you do use a cover on your smartphone anyway, the increased weight will barely be noticeable. Even if this is your first cover – built-in or otherwise, it will only take a day or two to adapt.

Under The Armor of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active

That shatterproof display is 2560 x 1440px, which is about 4x that of 1080p Full HD. The display size is 5.1″, and is of the Super AMOLED type that is standard on higher-end Samsung smartphones today. All this adds up to a beautiful display of bright colors, great contrast, and ultra-sharp and smooth graphics.

The 12MP rear camera and 5MP front camera are exceptional, as you’d expect from Samsung, and can record 4K video. Still, images are possible whilst capturing video, without interrupting the video recording. The battery is 4000mAh, which is about 33% larger than the average for similar devices. The S7 Active can also play just about any audio or video format you can chuck at it.

Connectivity-wise,4G with 3G fallback is present, as is Wi-Fi up to 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, and NFC.

The front-mounted fingerprint sensor is built into the home button, and both fast and wireless charging make up the package.

All In All

The Samsung Galaxy S range is already one of the kings of the genre. Add the extra protection of the Active and you suddenly have a smartphone designed to last. And last.

Nothing on the technical side has been compromised to get to the level of toughness displayed here. All the great stuff from the standard Galaxy S7 is here. A tough life needs a tough smartphone, and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active is it.