The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge Review: Part 2

Video Performance

Of course, the other part of the overall camera equation is video performance, which provides unique challenges for OEMs as things like encoder performance may have to run for a theoretically infinite amount of time as opposed to the burst workload that a single photo represents. Frames also have to be committed by a hard deadline rather than completing at some point in the future which means that there is a hard limit on the number of clock cycles that can be spent before moving on to the next frame.

Other than these basic challenges, it’s also important to be able to handle things like hand shake and other types of motion as people use their smartphones in dashcam applications or simply just walking around. As a result a good camera should be able to properly stabilize the video in all of these situations. In order to test this we rely on a simple side by side camera rig that holds both cameras pointed at the same object in order to see how the same subject looks on two different cameras simultaneously.

To start with the basics we can look at the encodings used by Samsung for the Galaxy S7. For the most part there's nothing too interesting here other than the 720p240 encoding, which uses AVC's baseline profile rather than the high profile. I suspect we’re looking at a limitation of the Snapdragon 820’s encode blocks here rather than a deliberate decision by Samsung to use the baseline profile, as the high profile provides better quality compression in every scenario. Given that the Snapdragon 820 version of the Galaxy S7 also has a time limit for 4K video recording that the Exynos version doesn’t I suspect that Qualcomm’s encode blocks are just not as capable as those shipping in the Exynos 8890 and Apple’s A9 SoC, which is interesting given how hard Qualcomm has pushed for a focus on parts outside of the CPU or GPU on an SoC.

Regardless of SoC, it seems that Samsung has chosen fairly sane encode settings for their video, so we can move on to 1080p30 output. Samsung continues to have issues with stabilization here, which is weird when you consider the fact that the HTC 10 actually has zero problems with the sort of jerky OIS reset behavior that I’ve come to associate with Android phones. However, the HTC 10 has less dynamic range here and less detail, although it doesn’t have very obvious sharpening halos the way the Galaxy S7 does. In fairness to Samsung, they are clearly ahead of the LG G5 here in terms of overall detail and dynamic range, as well as better wind noise removal.

Relative to the iPhone 6s Plus, the Galaxy S7 actually maintains its detail lead, but the iPhone 6s Plus is just clearly better at stabilizing the camera properly, which seems to be a combination of OIS and EIS. The Galaxy S7 does have a video stabilization setting toggle, but it doesn’t really help here and it’s turned off by default.

Moving on to the 4K30 output we see some interesting changes, likely brought on by the previously mentioned Snapdragon 820’s image processing deficiencies. The HTC 10 seems to have smooth motion by using EIS and OIS together for 1080p30, but when recording 4K30 it goes away and we’re left with the familiar jerky behavior that occurs when OIS hits its travel stop. However for some reason in 4K the HTC 10 has noticeably better dynamic range and resolved detail becomes on par with the Galaxy S7. Colors are also slightly more realistic as the Galaxy S7 overemphasizes the effect of the sunset resulting in a bit too much yellow in the sky and in general. The G5 might have slightly better detail than the GS7 here, but in general it just does worse in terms of color reproduction and dynamic range, as well as stabilization. There’s also a lot more wind noise that can be heard.

Relative to the iPhone 6s Plus, the superior stabilization of the iPhone 6s Plus is evident, and next to the iPhone 6s Plus it becomes pretty obvious that Samsung is just oversaturating some colors to try and get higher contrast. However, detail on the Galaxy S7 is slightly better when you look at a video frame by frame, but not really enough to notice in general. Wind noise is also better suppressed on the iPhone 6s Plus.

In slow motion the Galaxy S7 does have better detail and higher frame rate than the HTC 10, but still over-emphasizes the effects of the sunset on lighting. Relative to the iPhone 6s Plus detail is better, but again colors are more natural.

In video performance overall, the Galaxy S7 is respectable for an Android device, but next to the iPhone 6s Plus it’s not really the greatest. Even the HTC 10 has better color reproduction, better stabilization in 1080p30, and better audio. Overall I’m not really blown away by the camera on the Galaxy S7. I’m not sure how most people came to their conclusion that the Galaxy S7 is the best Android camera, but I suspect that the logic behind it may not be a sound heuristic. The Galaxy S7 is the fastest Android camera by far, but the results it puts out are not necessarily the greatest. The HTC 10 is actually better than the Galaxy S7 in a number of cases, although not necessarily all the time and is let down by its focus and capture latency. The G5 is just flat-out better in still photography, but worse in video. Like the HTC 10 it's somewhat slow as well, but only when compared to the Galaxy S7. If I had to weigh everything together I would argue that the HTC 10 and LG G5 are at least the equal of the Galaxy S7, although this is after both devices have had numerous OTA updates through the months since release. I suspect that at launch there may have been bigger deltas, but after release everything has basically evened out. The iPhone 6s Plus is still the most well-rounded, but this is basically on the basis of video performance in 4K and 1080p60. If these things don't matter the HTC 10 is the next best thing in my eyes due to the more natural post-processing, but if you don't worry about these things the Galaxy S7 is fine.