[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Guides, News, & Disc] Sim-X:
I never thought I would be writing anything like this but wanted to share my initial thoughts of this device. I have been extremely loyal to HTC over the years with my first real smart phone being the Touch Pro 1, TP2, evo4G wimax, evo3D wimax, evo LTE, M7, M8 & M9. With rumors of the M10 ditching boomsound this year, I had enough. I firmly believed HTC designed and manufactured superior products over Samsung for many years but could never get ahead due to poor leadership at HTC such as messing up the camera & marketing to name a few. That said I don't think that is the case anymore. I saw the build quality jump on the S6 & now with the release of the S7 I don't see how HTC can keep running if the leaked M10 renders are true. I have worked and setup many Samsung phones over the years but this is my first real hands on for myself and wanted to share my initial thoughts on what stood out.

Build Quality: My M9 still feels more solid & premium over the S7 edge. That said the S7 edge certainly looks the part of premium and still a huge step up in build quality over previous S5 and below models.

Bloat/UI: I have always not liked TouchWiz and always preferred sense. While this is certainly more feature packed, many things on the phones are worthless and it still feels pretty bloated. I really miss the big HTC weather clock I have been using since the touch pro.

Boomsound: One of my favorite features of the M9 which rumors of ditching it on M10 caused me to be done. While the speaker sounds decent on this phone, covering it up while watching videos is annoying and you just can't replace front facing stereo speakers.

Rooting: I have been rooting for years, HTC has also been fairly root friendly with the exception of the evo3D and encrypted boot loader. M7, M8 & M9 I have all S-OFF for full control which I love. With Samsung having Knox, I have to choose between a warranty void or locked down phone. Yes HTC voided the warranty as well but if you had S-OFF you could reverse everything there is no e-fuse. Xposed on touchwiz roms from what I know isn't as friendly on Samsung devices having to use custom versions to get it to work.

Those things I already was well aware of, so the things I like so far that have stood out to me.

The screen: Higher resolution, always on display and colors have more pop. Screen is very nice, especially with a little bigger display. The edge I find pretty cool as well.

Notification Light: Much bigger and noticeable light on the Galaxy the my HTC. Might not be a big deal to some, but I like it.

Thin: Feels thinner and lighter than my M9 while still having a bigger screen.

Gear VR: While this is super cool and pretty wild, the resolution on the Gear VR sucks. Feels like watching 240P youtube videos. That said it's still pretty cool, it's cheap and I'm sure future versions are going to be insane.

Buttons: While I find a finger print scanner worthless, have a physical home button I like along with back lit back and recent apps keys vs having them on screen. I highly prefer this layout over on screen which means more usable screen. The M7 had this and the M8 they moved to on screen while still have the HTC black bar which I thought was just stupid and wasted screen space. I like how Samsung has it layed out.

I haven't had the device that long but this is my initial reaction after a short period of time with the phone. I wouldn't be oppose to going back to HTC in the coming years (if they are even around) if they can get there act together as I do prefer a lot of things on the HTC. There are a lot of other features other people might value more than me that I didn't even mention. My biggest concern at this point in time is if I want to trip knox or not as you can't go back. I'm leaning towards yes even if it breaks Samsung Pay as I really like having xposed assuming it works on this phone and of course full root access which I have become dependent on.