In the past few years my wife and I went from Note 2 (Verizon) to Note 4 (ATT) and now back to Verizon on this S7. We simply got tired of carrying around the behemoth phablet so we were looking to downsize to either S7 Edge or the S7, Verizon offered BOGO deal with both our Note 4 trade in, they also gave us two free Samsung S2 watch ($350 retail each), extra $100 visa credit per line, and more data for less (16GB for $80 vs 15GB for $100 from ATT), can also claim the free VR gear from samsung, too good of a deal to past up! LOL I heard the Edge screen is super sensitive (saw quite a few complaints on S7 Edge forum) and there's no getting around it yet, and some people had the curve screen scratch too easily. After playing around with both phones at the store we found the Edge wasn't much of a downsize anyway but the S7 is just perfect.
Performance:
The camera from S7 is leap and bound above the Note 4, it focus instantly, it is significantly more responsive than our Note 4, which had some focusing bugs issues, the Note 4 simply would not focus until we shoke the phones a few times, I've went through two new Note 4 with the same focusing problem, odin new rom or factory reset did not help either, it happened on 4.4 Kitkat and 5.01 Lolipop so it seems like a hardware issue. Overall we love our new S7, it feels much more responsive navigating and opening multiple apps, didn't notice lag like we often do with Note 4, no delay in keyboard. Battery life seems fine to us, it last us all day so no complaint there, though the phone does run warmer than Note 4, during charge or heavy usage in cpu/gpu intensive apps or games. Usually we upgrade our phones in 2 years cycle so the non-removable battery never bothers us at all, we have never needed to replace the battery on Note 2 or Note 4.
Case:
We bought several different cases for the S7, the $20 VRS Design High Pro shield feels cheap and the shell is too thin and inadequate to protect from drop, volume and power buttons are free floating and clicky, they are easily fell off as well. 2nd one we ried was the $40 Otterbox Defender, unfortunately the built-in screen protector on both unit we bought have too much gap and don't sit flush to the screen, the buttons for volume and power are extremely stiff and hard to press in, for whatever reason Otterbox mess this one up for the S7, this is a complete garbage comparing to the Defender we had on our Note 4, won't even pay $20 for this junk so we returned it. 3rd one we tried was the SUPCASE Full-body Rugged Holster Case with Built-in Screen Protector for $18, it is slightly slimmer than the Otterbox Defender but fits like a glove, the screen protector sits flush to the screen with zero gap or rainbow effect, my wife can't even tell there's a screen protector in place, volume and power buttons are responsive and easy to press, overall the SUPCASE feel as rugged as the defender from our Note 4, it is what the S7 Defender should have been. I would gladly pay $40 for it, feels like I ripped them off for paying only $18 from Amazon. If you want a rugged case for the S7 the SUPCASE is the one to get!
