Wolfie's Tech ~ Show and Tell

[Novaer]

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not. Well, I can give you my take on the phone if that's something you really want, my opinion of it if you will. I pretty much have for everything else, so why not? 

I can't be fucked at the moment to do a review, I'll write a moderate length piece on my thoughts with it when I make the post. It will not be an endorsement either - there are few things I want to bitch about with this phone. I'll need time to work out what I will say and such - how best to format it and get my points across.

I will say the last smartphone I had was the iPhone 3GS which never had any signal around here, and the one before that was a Nokia N96 - of which I stopped using after a week because they are a bloody nightmare.  (I had to take it back to the Carphone Warehouse, 30 times!) The Samsung S7 Edge is WAY better than them. But I will go in detail about it when I do the post. 

My point is Android phones and I are pretty new together, sure I had (Gave it to Neppy) the Nexus 10. It's an okay tablet, does what it needs to, but it's gotten very slow as of late. Anyway kinda blithered on longer than necessary. 

TL;DR:- Sure.

[Manni]

Hey mate, I don't think Whoreo is being sarcastic here. I think he is being genuine and really does want to know what you think of the phone. 

[Novaer]

On 07/09/2016 at 13:12, Manni said:

Hey mate, I don't think Whoreo is being sarcastic here. I think he is being genuine and really does want to know what you think of the phone. 

I figured but I just wasn't sure. @Whoreo - As promised here are some pics and stuff:

Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 

This is without the case I got for it and below is with the case I got for it. Click for bigger images.

The Case is a Caseology Case which I picked up from Amazon. Only had it for a little while but it's pretty damn good.

This might as well be a mini-computer, I remember one of my old laptops had similar specs to this phone. Here's the specs of my phone in specific (According to: CPU-Z, Sensors Tools and another application):

Phone
	Brand	Samsung
	Make	Galaxy S7 Edge (UK)
	Model	SM-G935F
	Dimensions	150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7 mm
	Weight	157g
	Single/Dual Sim	Single
	External SD Expansion	Yes In my case: Sandisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10, UHS 1 [Encrypted]
	Manufactured	25th April 2016
Screen
	Size	5.5 Inches
	Resoultion	1440 x 2560 px
	Density	534 DPI
	Type	AMOLED
	Touchscreen	Multitouch Capacitive Screen
	Colours	16-Million
	Glass	Gorilla Glass 4
CPU
	CPU	Samsung Exynos Octa 8890
	Architecture	4x Samsung Exynos M1 @ 2.60 GHz 4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.59GHz
	Cores	8
	Revision	r1p1
	Process	14nm
	Clock Speed	728 MHz - 2.60 GHz
GPU
	Vendor	ARM
	Model	Mali-T880
RAM
	Type	LPDDR4
	Capacity	4GB (3562MB, Usable)
	Make (Suspected)	SK-Hynix
	Chip Number (Suspected)	H9HKNNNCTUMU BRNMH 601A
Storage
	Type	MLC Universal Flash Storage 2.0
	Capacity	32GB (29.79GB Before OS, 24.81GB Usable)
	Make	Samsung
	Chip Number (Suspected)	KLUBG4G1CE-B0B1
Camera
	Rear Camera Make	Sony
	Rear Camera Model	IMX260
	Rear Camera MP	12
	Front Camera Make	SLSI
	Front Camera Model	S5K4E6
	Front Camera MP	5
Other Hardware
	Soundchip	Lucky CS47L91 Sound
	Modem	SHANNON335
	Battery Capacity	3600 mAh
Sensors
	Accelerometer	STM - Accelerometer Sensor - K6DS3TR (v1)
	Gyroscope	STM - Gyroscope Sensor K6DS3TR (v2)
	Magnetic Sensor	Yamaha - YAS537 (v1)
	Barometer	STM - LPS25H (v1)
	Proximity Sensor	AMS, Inc - TMD4903 (v1)
	Light Sensor	AMS, Inc - TMD4903 (v1)
	Step Counting	Samsung Step Counter (v1)
	Rotation Vector Sensor	Samsung Rotation Vector (v1)
	Gravity Sensor	Samsung Gravity Sensor (v3)
	Linear Acceleration Sensor	Samsung Linear Acceleration Sensor (v3)

Apologies if the Table above is wonky I copy and pasted it directly out of Google Sheets. I suspected the chip makes from googling, there's no way in hell I'm opening up this phone until it's out of warranty and something is wrong with it. I had gotten this phone because I've not owned a smartphone for quite some time, and I wanted something that I could test and view EcchiDreams on, as a good mobile. There are so many features with this phone I barely know where to begin. As I alluded to in my previous post, the Google Nexus 10 Tablet was becoming too slow for daily use and it wasn't overly brilliant to start off with. I have some high praises about this phone, and I have some sharp criticisms. All in all I think it's a fantastic phone and definitely well worth the money in my opinion but without a case the chances that you'll brush against the edge of the screen in normal operations is pretty high and can be frustrating - especially in games. If this is something that is likely to piss you off - either get a case, this Caseology one is great IMO, or go for the normal Samsung S7 - with a few trade offs (600mAh less capacity in the battery, smaller screen, etc). I'll separate this into pros and cons from my personal and subjective opinion - as reviews are done to death with this phone. You can encrypt the phone too, as well as the storage card.

Pro: 

• Apparently it's waterproof (IP67) - I'm not fucking testing it though.
• It's extremely fast and snappy - With the RAM and CPU that it is, I'm hardly surprised. Even when encryption is on, it's fast, unlike my old tablet.
• It has quick charge - In my tests; it seems the current goes down whilst the voltage goes up to 9V (Volts). Normal charge is ~5V and the current is higher. This has a con too.
• It can wirelessly charge - Although I don't have a wireless charge unit.
• Always on Screen tells you the time and any notifications, without you needing to wake the phone up.
• Can take upto 200GB MicroSD Expansion, although I've read that some have reported success with Samsung's Evo+ 256GB Card.
• The display is vivid and clear.
• Has a 'Do Not Disturb' mode - Thank fuck.
• Universal Connectors - Standard headphone jack, and micro USB.
• The Camera is pretty customisable especially in PRO mode, like Exposure time can be set up to 10 seconds. 
• Has a fingerprint reader, which you can lock and unlock your phone with.
• Came with - Sim Opening Tool, little manual and warranty information, Earphones (That sound like shit but w/e...) and a USB OTG connector.
• No problems with Media Monkey and FLAC files.
• Seems to come with KNOX. 
  • KNOX also seems to have an eFUSE which will blow if you install Custom Firmware (Which I won't) so I count this as a Pro.
• Seems to have a Text Filter - Bars certain numbers from texting you.
• Camera works fantastic at night!
• Has an insane power-saver mode that to be honest - is fucking awesome.

Con:

• The Edge is an obvious gimmick - There are barely any apps that use it, and the ones given by the Samsung Edge Store - Thing, can easily be counted on one hand. (At least on my phone)
• The Edge can also be very sensitive, picking up screen presses where there aren't any (Negated by a case).
• It's a fucking fingerprint and dust magnet. 
• Battery Life. 
• Quick Charging seems completely unnatural to me. It also seems to quickly discharge too.
  • A slow charge doesn't take that much longer, but the battery lasts longer on the same amount of charge for some reason. :/ 
  • Better yet, when I do a really slow charge, like from my Solar Power Bank the battery lasts so much longer its unbelievable - I must do some comparisons on this at some point complete with volt readings.
• Sometimes you can accidently put someone on hold by pressing the hold button with the side of your ear (the proximity/light sensor doesn't always work properly to stop this from happening). 
• Samsung are apparently notoriously slow at getting updates out (Especially the likes of a new Android OS Version, say... Android 7.0) 
• The Camera is a little shitty with distant objects as things start blurring together.

Pictures taken with this phone; EXIF information stripped.  Click to see full image.
From left to right, up to down:

• 1) Stars with Long Exposure, Taken by @Neptune 
• 2) The box the phone came in.
• 3) Noodles.
• 4) Sunsetting shot of sky with silhouette houses also taken by @Neptune

Canon EOS 1100D - DSLR Camera

This was an unexpected but extremely welcomed gift from my exceedingly sweet hearted and generous Father-in-Law as he has several DSLR's and took it up as hobby after my Mother-in-Law passed away a couple of years back. I had expressed a strong desire to start doing some photography myself; it was one of the very few things we actually connected on. I'm fascinated with Space, as in the great expanse beyond our planet.  It's not perfect, sure, but it's an excellent camera to start learning with (I like going into the deep end). One of the quirks with it is when you take a picture (with the flash down) like it is in the above picture, it seems it displays a lot of different coloured pixels in the sea of black (Mainly reds, whites, blues green's and purples.) Which I suspect to be stuck/dead pixels on the CMOS (the 'film' that the image is taken on) - But I do not care. I can correct these faults quite easily in Photoshop now I know where these pixels are.

He gave me a kit that included:-

• Canon EOS 1100D - DSLR Camera Body - with lense cap.
• A Canon EFS 18-55mm Macro Lense (0.25m/0.8ft) - What I think is a standard lense.
  • Markings around the lense itself reads: CANON ZOOM LENS EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 III
  • Another marking reads: ø58mm
• A Canon EFS 55-250mm Macro Lense (1.1m/3.6ft) with Image Stabilizer - Fairly good for taking pictures from long range.
  • Markings around the lense itself reads: CANON ZOOM LENS EF-S 55-250mm 1:4-5.6 IS II 
  • Another marking reads: ø58mm
• 2x 4GB Transcend SDHC - Class 10's
  • I supplied the 32GB one; from my old Raspberry Pi.
• LP-E10 7.4V - 860mAh Li-ion (6.36Wh) Battery Pack
  • And Charger
• Microfibre Cleaning Cloth
• Some kind of Air Douche for Electronics. 
  • With a brush attachment.
• Some Isopropyl Alcohol wipes.
• A very neat carrying case.

Some pictures of all the parts:

 

Some pictures I have taken with this camera:

• In the first image I think I caught my first Galaxy although most of the stars seem to be blue, I have the CR2 file if anyone is interested in cleaning it up (Send me an EcchiText)
• The second image is typical British weather.
• Third; one of my neighbours flowers.
• Fourth; Pokémon GO in HD - Just kidding; it's a flying rat with wings - a Pigeon. 

Other things...

This tablet I picked up from eBuyer for £35 just before Christmas. It's not the fastest thing in the world, but it does work. It seems to be some kind of generic/rip off of the Linx 7. I say because apparently the company that made/supplied them is a company in the UK called Viglen. However when you plug a USB OTG cable into it and put in a keyboard to get into the BIOS to disable their splash screen there is no other mention of it. Infact when I did the hardware inspectaroo on it, 'Viglen' wasn't even mentioned inside the device, or in any of SIW's information, nor in CPU-Z. 

It came with Windows 8.1, which I couldn't get off of there fast enough, whilst it was during the free Windows 10 upgrade I upgraded it. I found Windows 10 to boot very quickly with this device, however it's 1GB of RAM doesn't really allow for much to take place on the device. To be honest it's a very weird little device and has a lot of quirks, it's very slow to respond but it's got an Intel CPU that understands Windows. I'm thinking it will be very helpful with a USB OTG cable to the Camera with the software, as I have been able to control the camera from my PC.

If anyone's interested in me opening this up and taking a look inside and share what I find and take some pictures and try to obtain the datasheets for the chips, let me know! I didn't honestly expect it is overly different to the Linx 7... But I'm not afraid to open this one up again for people who are curious, unlike my phone.

Quick Specs According to CPU-Z and SIW:

• Manufacturer: Connect
• Family: Not Available
• Product Name: Tablet, 7 Inch
• Model: Tablet, 7 Inch
• CPU: Intel Atom CPU Z3735G @ 1.33GHz (22nm - Quad Core)
  • Socket: 1380 BGA
  • Max CPU Speed: 2,400 MHz (Questionable Value)
• RAM: 1GB DDR3 (962.0 MB Usable due to GPU)
  • Seem's to have Multi-bit ECC too.
  • According to SIW this is upgradable to 4GB but I seriously doubt it. Seriously.
• Disk: 32GB Toshiba 032GE4
• WIFI: Realtek RTL8723BS Wireless LAN 802.11n SDIO Network Adapter
• Battery: 12950 mWh (Mmm...)

My Logitech Mouse packed up and I had to replace my mouse; I picked up this, the Corsair M65 RGB mouse to match my keyboard. It was a surprisingly good deal for a mouse of this build quality - £19.99 (~£15 off) and it was new. The mouse is pretty solid, and you can customise the weight by removing one, two, or all three weights on the bottom. I don't have any complaints about this mouse at all. 

[Whoreo]

I had heard that IP67 or w/e wasn't actually water proofing, can you confirm this at all? like should I be worried about exploding phones? what happens if this 'efuse' blows, am I not actually allowed to jailbreak/root it? what is the camera like in low level light conditions? how does the front camera operate (I'm a bit of a selfie bitch) what can the edge of the Edge actually do? that sort of stuff.  otherwise it seems nice and simple enough however I do want to know more. don't get me wrong I think your subjective opinion is interesting on this subject but I think you kinda rushed this. so any info you can bring from your perspective will be interestin'. thanks and sorry..... I know you're a busy guy mate.

[Novaer]

Okay. Well yeah I was in a rush, because I didn't want it to be a wall of text. LOL According to this website (http://www.dsmt.com/resources/ip-rating-chart/): 

IP|6|7|

• IP = Ingress Protection
• 6 (First Digit) = Solid protection, in this case: Dust Tight ~ No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact.
• 7 (Second Digit) = Liquid Protection, in this case: Immersion up to 1 metre ~ Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 metre of submersion).

This implies waterproof - to a degree, but not complete and total waterproofing. I think it's fair to say that it's water resistant certainly. Water-proof; depends on specification, perspective and literalness of the phrase.  This said - I am still not testing it, I'm pretty sure my insurance company doesn't cover being a stupid cunt about it. 😄

As far as I am aware the exploding Samsung's at the moment are a small amount of Galaxy Note 7's, (Source: https://www.samsung.com/uk/note7exchange/) S7 and S7 Edge don't seem to be affected. 

The 'E-Fuse' thing, is not something I know all too well, I'm not sure if it prevents you from rooting your device, but if you do that could essentially by your warranty gone. For the average user rooting the device nowerdays just isn't recommended (At least from me) unless you know what you're doing. Like with Cynogen you don't get Google Services or anything like that, so if you want apps from the play-store, then good luck. You'll have to use a third party solution or something. We tried this with the Nexus 10 and Neppy's old ass phone - Cynogen has more problems with it than the stock ROM's at least in my experience. I fully expect someone's going to yell at me and curse me to the fiery depths of hell Windows for saying that, but that's genuinely what I've found. For more information see: https://www2.samsungknox.com/en/faq/what-knox-warranty-bit-and-how-it-triggered

As for poor lighting conditions; the Camera seems to work really well. In Pro-Mode you can control the timing of the cameras 'shutter' speed, much like a DSLR. However if you're trying to take a picture of something whilst holding it in your hands on a 10 second shutter speed, prepared to be disappointed. The pictures will not come out great. I've not tested this really other than taking pictures of stars; like Neppy. We set the phone down on the table and have the camera pointed up to take a picture of space but that's about it. We're not very camera friendly so guess what? I've never taken a Selfie, and I don't intend to. Ever.

When faced down (Yes... Faced down) the edges light up to a specific colour when someone is calling you. The edges also have a few little mini-features; compass, RSS feeds, notification feed, etc, etc. Unfortunately it's otherwise not very useful, in my opinion but this guy shows a shit load of features: 

I hope that's more helpful. Don't apologise either it's all good, man.