Hey guys Trisha Hershberger here and no there is nothing wrong with your video.
This the
footage that I captured at the waterpark testing out the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active.
Well what’s
left of it anyway.
Yeah I destroyed it.
Kerplewy gonezo officially no mas.
Let’s start off by saying
I loved both the S5 and S6 Actives and I had really high hopes for the S7 Active.
On paper it’s
got a great camera wireless charging huge battery expandable memory display and military
grade ruggedness.
Well what’s on paper doesn’t matter if it doesn’t actually deliver in real life.
Each year I get together with a bunch of my tech friends and we take the newest Active
device
to a waterpark to do our worst.
We do this to specifically test the water resistance of the phone
and since AT&T is kind enough to lend us phones for testing purposes we really go for it.
Out of
the six phones tested that day only one bit the big one and it just happened to be mine.
So
here’s an accurate report of what happened after this quick message from our sponsor.
This
episode is sponsored by Graphic Stock.
The place I like to get my royalty free photos some of
which are used in this very video.
They have over 300,000 photos vectors and illustrations
available and instead of charging per picture they charge a one time annual fee.
Usually $99 for
the year which isn’t bad.
What’s way better is going to graphicstock.com/holidays or clicking the
link in the description to get $50 off a one year subscription to Graphic Stock.
Sweet.
Which isn’t
sweet is how I destroyed my S7 Active.
Seriously though check out Graphic Stock.
This is a
really good offer and I use them all the time.
Thanks so much for supporting my content Graphic
Stock.
Okay back to business.
The day started as normal.
We got to the park unboxed our test
phones and got to work.
Not going to lie it’s a good day at the office.
After a few water slides I
realized that dual mode one of my favorite camera modes normally featured on Samsung
phones wasn’t present.
I love to use this mode to capture moments like going down a waterslide
because it makes use of both the front and rear facing cameras simultaneously.
No worries I
quickly found I could download the mode but it didn’t work on the Galaxy S7 Active.
It would
appear as if it were recording correctly but the video file that saved would only be the
rear facing
camera footage.
Odd.
I’m hoping Samsung will be able to fix this with an update for anyone out
there like me who really likes this mode.
It’s okay I thought.
Lets keep going.
I set out to the
wave pool to get some underwater swimming shots filming myself with my S7 Active and
having
my friend film me from further away with my S6 Active.
When I emerged from the pool my S7
Active kept force closing out of the camera.
Again odd.
I let it rest for a while and when we
returned to take a funnel cake break.
This right here is a very important part of the review
process.
It was all over.
The phone kept restarting on its own and asking me to give a pin to
start up the device then giving me an error saying process system isn’t responding.
Do you want
to close it?
I answered my pin and all I got for the rest of the day was a spinning wheel around a
pad lock.
Upon moving the phone around to show everyone else what I was seeing a bunch of
water poured out the USB port.
Well that’s not good.
Now the Galaxy S7 boasts an ingress
protection rating of 6.8.
That means it’s got the maximum protection against dust and other
solids but more importantly that the phone should be able to be immersed beyond 1 meter
for
about a half hour.
Samsung states water resistant in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes.
Normally this means the phone is sealed meaning no water can get in because it’s sealed
tight.
But in certain cases it could also mean that the water could enter but in a way that doesn’t
harm
the phone.
I found that the water definitely entered and harmed the phone.
That being said I
was exposing the phone to jet streams of water coming from all different angles which is
not
what these phones claim to withstand.
But I will say that the Galaxy S6 Active went through the
exact same testing for the second year and came out just fine.
Leading me to believe they just
aren’t made like they used to be.
This paired with the recent Note 7 recall makes me wonder
what the hell Samsung?
Long story short I brought the phone home sat it in a bowl of rice
waited a week and tried again with the same results.
I factory reset the device and it won’t even
make it through the setup process without freezing and auto restarting.
RIP Samsung S7 Active
I knew ye briefly.
Samsung does offer a limited one year warranty on the device but it expressly
states that it does not cover damage or defects resulting from exposure to liquid.
I was not the
only one that found the S7 Active’s water resistance to be disappointing.
Consumer reports had
2 out of 2 S7 Active phones fail a simple immersion test and I found countless stories
of other
users who say their phones suffered water damage and are no longer functioning.
Because of
all this I’m sad to say I cannot recommend this phone.
Again what the hell is going on over there
Samsung?
I will say that I still love and use my Galaxy S6 Active on the regular and I highly
recommend that.
But I’m sticking with last gen until Samsung’s manufacturing quality comes
back up to what it used to be.
I feel like a burned lover at this point and I only hope Samsung is
standing outside my bedroom window holding a boombox sooner rather than later please.
So
what phone are you most excited for and why?
Let me know in the comments.
I’m seriously
looking forward to getting my hands on the LG V20 next.
It’s lacking a few features I really want
like wireless charging and water resistance but I’m interested in the higher quality
audio and
video recording.
I’ll put up a video as soon as I get one for testing.
Much love everyone and
thanks for watching.