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Real phones have real curves: Samsung's bold S7 Edge (pictures)

Bigger screen, beefier build and an edgier Edge. That's what Samsung has done with its brand new Galaxy S7 Edge.

Nic Healey
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
Nic Healey
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1 of 33 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Samsung's top-notch Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge? For fans of bigger screens, the curved-screen Edge is what you're after.

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Dangerous curves ahead

Sold in the premium price bracket, the S7 Edge is available now, starting at $799, AU$1,249 or £639.

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Marshmallow

The S7 Edge ships with the latest version of Android Marshmallow (6.0.1).

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Edgy

Samsung's edge screen has gotten more sophisticated since it first appeared.

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Generation Edge

In the beginning it looked a little like a gimmick.

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Generation Edge

From left to right: Galaxy Note Edge, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus and the S7 Edge.

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Edge sizing

Samsung has packed a lot of functionality into the Edge's erm...edge.

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Contacts Edge

The Contacts Edge lets you group together your most called or messaged contacts.

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Contacts Edge

Contacts can be pulled from the Contacts Edge for easy access to call, email or messaging details.

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Edge notifications

A little more practically, you can also get your Calendar listings.

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Apps Edge

Apps Edge is a handy, customisable secondary launcher.

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Edge customisation

And yes, you can tell the S7 Edge which side you want to the edge function to appear on and even customise size and transparency.

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Edge customisation

You can customise the order of the different Edges and what appears as you swipe.

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Edge weather

You can call up local weather information...

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Edge compass

...and a compass...

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Edge measurements

...or even a ruler.

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Ticker

Another Edge use scrolls a news ticker with headlines that display even when the screen is off. Notifications also appear here.

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Meet the family

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge alongside the iPhone 6S Plus and Google Nexus 6P.

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Bored by black?

If black is too sedate for you, you can get the Edge in gold or silver. Oh I'm sorry: that's "gold platinum" and "silver titanium".

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Stand out

In fairness, that gold does stand out compared to the black.

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Bright spot

Like the S7 pictured here, the Edge's rear camera has 12 megapixels and is terrific.

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Sticking with Micro-USB

No upgrade to USB-C for either of the phones this time around, so if you're moving from a recent Lumia or Nexus, you can mothball that cable for a while.

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Expandable memory

You might not be taking the battery out any time soon, but expandable memory makes a return to the S7 family with a microSD slot.

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Biometrics

The fingerprint scanner is built into the home button, same as earlier Galaxy models.

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Waterproof

And also returning is the waterproofing that made the S5 such a popular phone for being out and about.

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Whip-quick autofocus

A super-quick autofocus makes capturing unexpected photo-ops even easier.

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Grime doesn't pay

Both the S7 and the S7 Edge suffer from SSD: shiny surface disorder. The rear gets covered in fingerprints insanely quickly.

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Shiny

But when clean, it's an impressively slick look.

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Game Launcher

The Game Launcher brings all of your mobile games together.

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Game Launcher

It also adds some battery saving features and allows you to easily switch off alerts while gaming.

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Selfie shot

The 5-megapixel has enough beautification modes to ensure no one will ever recognise you from your online dating profile photo.

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Selfie edits

You can edit and share the image immediately afterwards.

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Future Edge

If Samsung follows last year's pattern, we should see another Note Edge this year and maybe an Edge Plus. Find out why the Edge is our number-one phone splurge.

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