[Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions and Answers] Meshuggahblast:
Hello,

I can't help you with the "Straight Talk version" because I'm in France and I don't know what models you have in USA, so I can't tell you for sure about root and flashing roms (all I know is that it's more difficult on Snapdragon CPU models than on Exynos CPU models and I think in USA you only have Snapdragon CPU models).

But what I can tell you for sure is that the Galaxy S7 is not obsolete. I bought mine last year and I'm still using it everyday and very happy with it. It runs all games even the biggest and latest ones. I shoot photos with it and I'm very satisfied with the quality, even in low light conditions. It has many shooting modes, including pro mode to make your own photo settings, it has a very decent slow motion mode, hyperlapse mode, panorama etc...

It has a good size of 5.1 inches that can almost be used with one hand (and if necessary it has an options to reduce the image in the screen for easy one hand operation). So it's very nice to hold it. The screen itself as an Amoled display is beautiful, very vibrant colors and infinite contrast levels.

The fast wireless charging is really useful and you won't have to plug your phone anymore to charge it (of course, you have to separately buy a wireless charger).

Everything runs smoothly in all the apps I use (GPS with Google maps, Chat with Telegram, video recording (I've recently shot slowmotion videos of lightnings that are super cool), photo shooting (I also bought a set of lenses to shoot macrophotography of insects and everybody I show my pics to just say "wow"), take control of my PC with TeamViewer, use it as a remote control for Kodi with Yatse, play games, watch Youtube videos, and you can even, with the "multi windows" layout, do 2 things at the same time by separating the screen in half, like watching Youtube videos on the top, and chat with any messaging app at the bottom of the screen, or surf the web while chatting, or whatever you want. All of this, without any lag or slowing down.

So, if you buy a newer phone, what will you get?

- Better camera (small improvements every year, but check online for pictures shot with Galaxy S7 and you'll see that it doesn't have to blush in front of newest phones)

- Better CPU and performances (for what? play last games? the S7 already does it. Smooth interface? S7 already has a smooth interface)

- Bigger screen (yeah, that depends on your taste, to my point of view, smaller screen like this one (5.1 inches) is just perfect to hold in my hand and still decent to watch movies once in a while).

So, yes, to me the S7 is far from obsolete, and you can go for it but maybe the matter of difficult root and roms flashing can be a "stay away from it" for you. You should look for "root Galaxy S7 Snapdragon" over XDA forums or on the web and see for yourself if it's easy to do so ; )

I hope I've been able to help you and I'm sorry I can't tell you more about rooting and flashing roms (I personally have 2 years warranty on my S7 and if I root it, warranty is void, so I wait for next year for the end of the warranty period to root it, and debloat it (yeah, like many phones, it has some annoying bloatware, some can be uninstalled, most can be disabled, but some are not able to be disabled or uninstalled, but still, there are "debloat scripts" for the S7 around here on the forums, that doesn't even require rooting the phone).

If you have any other question or want more information about anything I said, just don't hesitate to ask : ) I'm sure some other people will come to answer you about the "root and flash roms" matter for that specific version you're talking about ; )

Have a nice day!

EDIT: I forgot to mention some drawbacks. Well, to me, it doesn't have many (or else I wouldn't have bought it):

- I regret having a Micro-USB charging port when it could have had a USB-C charging port instead (but as I use Fast Wireless Charging, it's not so bad in the end, just a regret as it's a flagship and it should have had all the top of high end techs of its time).

- Speaker sound (for listening to music loudly) isn't that good, but with a headphone, it's good.

- It's easy to find a protective case for it, but it's very difficult to find a screen protector that cover the whole screen till the borders and even the slightly curved parts of the glass (the screen is flat, but the glass that covers it is slightly bent on every sides and every corners), and sometimes when you're happy because you've found a perfectly fitting screen protector, it doesn't stick well on the curved parts. After 3 different brands, I finally found one that covers the screen entirely and which sticks on the curved parts.

- Another bad point is the bloatware, but again, scripts exist to debloat it, just sad it isn't debloated out of the box. It you want to root it, it'll mostly trigger the Knox detector and void your warranty.

That's all I see for now, and if I think about some other things, I'll come back to write them.