[Samsung Galaxy S7 Real Life Review] jstoner:
my thoughts on S7 video recording

Over the last 2+ years, I had an S5+ (G901F). The one with SD805 and the IMX240 (same sensor powering Note 4). Recently, due to an accident which resulted in destroying my S5+, I bought an S7 (Exynos version...and quite possibly an ISOcell sensor or whatever Sammy calls it these days) I don't think I ve got the IMX260 powering my unit, so I can't make any comments regarding the hardware...

OS wise - it was 4.4.4 and 6.0.1 on my S5+ and Android N (pre-installed) on my S7.

Since I am a hardcore video shooter with my phone, I can share my impressions of the S7. In short, I was rather disappointed.

Video rec modes remain the same for both i.e. 4K, 1080p 30/60, 720p...don't care

I was expecting similar output (if not better) from my S7 compared to my S5+. But no. After triple-checking on the camera/video/photo settings, I was still recording videos where compression artifacts are clearly visible. Usually in darker areas (but not always the case) - sometimes even in areas that you d believe the camera is focusing on. I m not saying that this is a sensor issue, but rather more of a post-processing / compression issue. If I freeze the video at certain parts, I can see in a frame, compression artifacts such as the ones you d get from a highly-compressed JPEG. Which makes me wonder why didn't I see any of those whilst I was checking on the video quality produced by the S7, compared to other flagship models.

I am not sure if that quality drop between the two flagships is justified by the fact Samsung decided to move from 16MP -> 12MP, or the software i.e. Nougat vs Marshmallow (...or both). For all I know, frame quality under video recording, has significantly dropped in the S7, compared to the much older S5+. (don't know what the case was for S6, never actually tested it...) Just to clarify - this is definately not a stabilization issue (phone position is fixed whilst shooting).

The good parts - obviously - the S7 is very good under low light conditions (both video rec and photo shoting). Focus and photo shooting is amazingly fast. Two areas that it clearly smokes the S5+ as far as the camera is concerned. But that's about it really. And I d rather have the 'slower' S5+, rather than the heavily grained videos the S7 produces. Being able to shot better in the dark is always a bonus, but not so important to me. I m usually shooting 1080@30. Sometimes 4K, but under good light only (due to lack of HDR whilst at 2160p). 1080@60 video shooting quality seems like a 'tie' between the S7 / S5+. Both very smooth and similar amount of details preserved in the video. But yet again, I m not shooting high-speed moving objects so as to justify shooting at 60fps. But I m expecting better quality per-frame whilst at 30fps. And at 30fps, the S5+ produces better results.

Also, the video trimmer under S7/Nougat seems to lack the Rotate feature. Don't know if it was moved under the Movie Maker app (which I haven't yet downloaded). Video processing seems to be much slower now. Trimming under 4.4.4 was at least twice as fast compared to what it is now! I am really curious if trimming under more recent versions of Android actually re-compresses the output file. If that's the case, that would be discraseful to say the least...can anyone confirm this? I will at some point test this myself and post the results.

Just to clarify. I m not saying that recorded videos using the S7 are bad - I m saying that it lacks the quality per-frame of the ones shot by the S5. I very rarely recall seeing compression artifacts in videos captured by my older S5+ and that is why is pretty obvious to me now. And I can't explain it. If it's not a sensor issue, could it be that the compression ratio has been increased? If that's the case - it's a good thing - as it could be fixed in a later release. Has anyone witnessed video quality degredation from Marshmallow ->> Nougat?

Please share your thoughts.