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Camera Lens cases for Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge hands-on

posted by Chris P. / Feb 23, 2016, 12:58 PM

Camera Lens cases for Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge hands-on

The obligatory Galaxy S series entourage has swelled enough to include just about all kinds of official accessories for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, but for the most part, it's just old faces made for the new gadgets. Two cases, however, stand out, for they are no ordinary cases at all—the so-called Lens Cover.

The Lens Cover are really two new cases from Samsung, and serve very different purposes. Since we can't find official information regarding their names, we're guessing that they'll be marketed under a common name. Still, it's important to keep in mind that one features a telephoto lens (so subjects appear closer than without the cover) and the other is a wide-angled one allowing you to fit more into the frame than if shooting without it. Obviously, the two cases are intended for photography buffs, since they're anything but practical for everyday use as you can see from the photos. Snapping that lens off would be way too easy.

In terms of the materials used, we're treated to a plastic cover featuring Samsung's now signature faux leather finish on top, and a snugly textile inside to avoid scratching the back. There are cutouts for all the important jacks and buttons, and from our testing access was easy and pleasant. In all, the usefulness of these cases is still under question, as we haven't had the opportunity yet to really dive in and analyze the quality of stills, but their utility—especially the wide-angled one—is undeniable. Still, given the size of the protrusion at the back, we feel most people will have a hard time keeping these intact, and especially when traveling accidental damage would be a real possibility.

In terms of pricing, release date, and regional availability, we unfortunately have nothing to report, though we've reached out to Samsung and will make sure to update this piece if some information is sent our way. Until then, enjoy the photos and the hands-on video.

Camera Lens cover hands-on

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View Full specs

PhoneArena Rating:

9.0

Read Full Review

User Rating:

8.5

Based on 19 Reviews

Display 5.1" 1440 x 2560 pixels

Camera 12 MP / 5 MP front

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Quad-core, 2200 MHz

Storage 32 GB + microSDXC

Battery 3000 mAh(28h 3G talk time)

View Full specs

PhoneArena Rating:

9.0

Read Full Review

User Rating:

9.3

Based on 33 Reviews

Display 5.5" 1440 x 2560 pixels

Camera 12 MP / 5 MP front

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Quad-core, 2200 MHz

Storage 32 GB + microSDXC

Battery 3600 mAh(36h 3G talk time)

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50 Comments

1. benno

Posts: 94; Member since: Apr 17, 2015

Interesting. I want to see the samples

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 1:05 PM 10

24. QWERTYphone

Posts: 654; Member since: Sep 22, 2014

How come no one is calling out Samsung and their fan bois for BLATANTLY LYING about not being able to combine MicroSD and UFS memory? Anyone who buys a phone from lying scumbag corporations like Samsung (2015+) and Apple who rape their clueless buyers with inferior/fragile/gimped phones that are made of glass and have no removable battery/ microSD with ridiculously inflated prices are complete idiots. After 7 years of being a loyal Samsung customer who bought EVERY new Samsung phone, I am HAPPY to be DUMPING Samsung for the LG G5.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 5:58 PM 7

25. DRS1977

Posts: 679; Member since: May 27, 2015

Wow, you have issues. You sound like a really angry person. You must be an absolutely miserable person to be around. Calm down man, they are just huge corporations that are in the business to make money. If you don't want to give them money, there is no need for you to have a mental breakdown over it. Maybe you should go to the doctor for some meds to help with your anger issues. I plan on buying the GS7 outright because I have money to spare and am a successful individual. Just because you may not, doesn't give you the right to call people names.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 6:10 PM 8

28. QWERTYphone

Posts: 654; Member since: Sep 22, 2014

Trying to insult someone personally is a clear admission that you can't refute the points they have made Attacking someone from behind the protection of your computer screen tells us everything we need to know about a coward. I like the tachometer in your avatar. What's the best performing car you actually bought with your own earned money? Why don't you make your avatar a picture of you holding up a piece of paper with your screen name written on it, standing next to that car???? (I already know the answer to my question)

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 6:24 PM 6

32. DRS1977

Posts: 679; Member since: May 27, 2015

Yup and you are that exact coward that you claim someone else is. Why don't you think before you type? Why are you so upset about Samsung and their "fanbois" about something like UFS memory and MicroSD? Seriously? Does your life revolve so much around electronic products that you have to use words like "scumbag" and "rape"? And BTW, this topic has nothing to with the picture in my avatar. I am glad you are happy to dump Samsung for LG, more power to you. The only thing that is sad to me is that you apparently base your buying decisions on anger and rage against mega corporations and "fanbois".

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 6:59 PM 5

44. spin9

Posts: 310; Member since: May 31, 2014

8o HOW CAN'T ANYBODY SEE THAT THOSE LENSES COVER THE FLASH, I WONDER

posted on Feb 24, 2016, 2:54 AM 3

49. geordie8t1

Posts: 287; Member since: Nov 16, 2015

everyone can see, we just dont care....a flash on a wide angle lens isnt that useful on a phone anyhow is it for the types of shots you hope to accomplish? and even if you need a flash you can buy one from ebay which fits into the 3.5mm jack and has multiple bulbs and is way brighter then the generic flash on the phone, and for a telephoto it is even less useful now if there was a macro lens and still covered up you would have a much greater point....but i do understand where your coming from mate...

posted on Feb 24, 2016, 6:42 AM 0

29. BattleBrat

Posts: 1476; Member since: Oct 26, 2011

He's right, the Sammy boys were making that excuse, something about the memory controller not being compatible with SD cards, which was crap. I applaud Sammy on this case, but I'd rather use a Panasonic CM1

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 6:27 PM 4

34. TerryTerius unregistered

To answer your question honestly, it's because no one really cares. Either they lied, or they couldn't figure it out. Either way, it doesn't really matter at this point. Enjoy your G5.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 8:30 PM 1

35. ph00ny

Posts: 2026; Member since: May 26, 2011

Yay one less nerd raging idiot!!!!

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 8:33 PM 1

37. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

The controller for US 2.0 didn't support sdcards. Get over it. I am also sure they wasn't expecting it to be a big deal, considering the iPhone also doesn't have one. Also consider they were trying to take away a bottleneck where you all claim Samsung phones were laggy. You can have it other ways. They simply found a way to make it work because of idiots like you. What makes Android awesome is, you can choose a brand that offered you an option for what you want. It's hit or miss. You don't like it don't buy it. Either they find a way to make it work, or it doesn't sell. People.will still buy them. Just like people bought the iPhone 4 even when the antenna issue was big news and same with the bending 6 Plis. If was Samsung it would have been a PR nughtmare, but since it's Apple it's no big deal. If they would have increased the internal flashnwithout jacking up the price it would have been better. The S is good for 32 and 64GB options, but the Note needs to 64 and 128 if they aren't going to have an sdcard. I complained to wherewithal matters. Coming hear means nothing. I use the website and made it known how I felt about the move. But instill bought the latest items and I have no regrets. If it was a big deal, I would have just gotten another device or kept my Note 4. But unwillingly made a sacrifice because unlike having the latest items and I realize that means adjusting to what is offered. I only needed an sdcard to carry my tunes and video. So I took my wife's old S4 bit a 128GB card in it and it's attached to the Bluetooth in my car. When at work I have my library in my laptop, so having the sdcard offers no true benefit in my case. But there are times I want it on my device when I don't have access to my pc. But I made a choice. I didn't have to do that. But complaining here isn't going to get it done. Not buying sends a message. See unlike Apple fans, who keep buying Apple even though they deal with tons of BS, we Android users have the advantage of taking all.our stuff and putting it in another device and nearly all.of it will work the same. Apple does not offer this. You take it or not. With Android you have a choice. You have to be a complete idiot to complain about a top end phone where Samsung tried to start a new trend with Android top classed phones. SD cards are as useless as floppies. We already know they have the ability to put 256GB of storage in a phone, but they want to feed it slowly like the video game industry did. We almost killed them by not buying their stuff. Where is Atari now Sega? Samsung worked and found a way since it was such a big deal. What the heck do you need a battery you can take out in a phone that can charge in .erected hurs? Charge an iPhone from 0 for 10 minstrel and you may get enough time to make a 30 minute. All. With Samsung 10 minstrel gets me 4 hours. Unless you are in a boat in an ocean Orr in the desert, where in the world are you going to be...

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 8:41 PM 1

38. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

that you are going to have a phone die on you? When I had my S6 Edge 129, I used it for 13 hours at Disney. I was there from opening and it stayed open until 1am because it rained for a couple hours. I had no charger or pack. I took well over 200 photos, I recorded every video in 4 k. The longest being the closing shoe which lasted maybe 45 mins. And when I walked to the car it was beeping at 9%. My Resort was roughly 30 minutes from Disney. When I plugged it in I was at 6%. For 13 hours of usage like that, what more could you be doing? You just sound all angry because you think getting rid of something you like is wrong. When Apple makes stuff no one wants, it dies. Firmware is dead. ScSI is dead. Thunderbolt is just useless for most people. Dude you are to much. I don't care how long my lost is. Read it or dont. But I rather be long and be a voice of reason, than some whiner being pissed about sole petty move. The SD card is wrkable. Buy a phone with one as others did and Samsung surely lost sales for. But Samsung isn't the only OEM who took things away and then put them somewhere else or not have and then bring them back and they won't be the last.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 8:50 PM 1

40. QWERTYphone

Posts: 654; Member since: Sep 22, 2014

TechieXP: No one reads your worthless posts.You're one of the fan bois I was referring to. Samsung were caught in a blatant lie and they are pathetic.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 10:18 PM 2

45. Plutonium239

Posts: 1199; Member since: Mar 17, 2015

I read his posts.

posted on Feb 24, 2016, 3:19 AM 0

46. belovedson

Posts: 1060; Member since: Nov 30, 2010

i read his post and alot of what he is saying makes a whole lot of sense. he could have approached his defense in a different manner but again a portion of his posts makes sense when it comes to flash, most people dont use it because alot of people are learning to save on cloud. there are many alternative to not using an ir sensor on a phone. for example the remote. most people still dont even use 16gbs worth of combined picture and audio on their devices. people generally don't listen to 128gb's worth of music unless its encoded in 320kbit mp3 or higher. at that point its really not worth listening to on any mobile phone at the moment minus the lg v10 and now the new g series. if you really do have 64gb's of mp3s i am confident you listen to about 5gbs at most if encoded at the highest bitrate optimized for mobile phones. if somehow people are listening to more than 5gbs of music frequently you probably are rare and makes less than two percent of the population. as many of today's youth are turning to streaming instead. microsd is really dead. the market should be dead especially when the public smartens up and demands 64gb as a standard internal standard.memory for premium phones

posted on Feb 24, 2016, 3:22 AM 0

43. dmakun

Posts: 382; Member since: Jun 06, 2011

@Techie, you are quite relentless in your hypocrisy! Mr UFS 2.0! Samsung messed up by removing a feature (microsd support) that many users loved with the galaxy phones of 2015 and they have done a full turn on that decision and I'm sure the poor sales is the best reflection of that poor decision. You were a nasty propagator of that mistake from Samsung and I sincerely got fed up with your consistent kissing of the Samsung brand when many complained about the lousy move from Samsung. Anyway I'm thankful common sense prevailed in the end. Pls cut down on the long essays

posted on Feb 24, 2016, 2:09 AM 0

39. BattleBrat

Posts: 1476; Member since: Oct 26, 2011

I had a Note 3, loved the performance, hated the chrome plastic bezel that cracked and chipped EVEN in an otterbox commuter. Got a Note 4, loved it to death, semimetal build beautiful design but I loaned it to someone for a few months so they could try it and didn't trust it when I got it back. And it came time to jump on T Mobile, and they came out with the note 5, non removable storage isn't necessarily a deal breaker, not offering a 128 gigabyte model is. They also removed the IR blaster which I used to set my DSLR off. They essentially turned it into an iPhone without offering 128 gigabyte option or an SD card. Had they offered a 128 gig model I would have a note 5 in my hand instead of an iPhone 6s plus. Sammy has seen the light, but I feel LG finally nailed it, premium build without sacrificing anything. That and the Audio add on they make has me very interested. And Samsung phones are not laggy, they just are very poorly optimized. Pick up an HTC m8, it is smooth well optimized, pick up an iPhone pick up a high-end Sony phone, all well optimized. I've played with a galaxy s6 for about a week, same old poor optimization. Nothing an update wouldn't fix though.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 8:58 PM 0

47. MySchizoBuddy

Posts: 159; Member since: Aug 23, 2011

Apple has never sold a phone with sd card and removable batteries. I don't what are you complaining about

posted on Feb 24, 2016, 5:46 AM 0

2. CX3NT3_713

Posts: 2349; Member since: Apr 18, 2011

That's awesome! Include fisheye lens

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 1:13 PM 7

3. maxnooze

Posts: 31; Member since: Apr 02, 2013

wonder how the flash works...

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 1:16 PM 9

7. KillTheKardashians

Posts: 93; Member since: Feb 19, 2016

with love

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 1:41 PM 3

9. Landon

Posts: 1244; Member since: May 07, 2015

You need to add &KanyeWest to your name. :D

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 2:06 PM 1

20. catze86

Posts: 731; Member since: Dec 07, 2015

kill the kanyes

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 4:52 PM 0

4. Landon

Posts: 1244; Member since: May 07, 2015

Samsung should have made a case and the lens as two separate pieces, that way you can lock in the lens when in use (and use multiple lenses), and take it off when you want to put it back in your pocket.

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 1:21 PM 2

5. wildfiregt

Posts: 179; Member since: Jun 10, 2013

They are separated. One case can hold both lenses (and more if there are)

posted on Feb 23, 2016, 1:31 PM 7

21. bur60

Posts: 981; Member since: Jul 07, 2014

Wow. There goes LG's second camera. This is waaay better and is definitly on my list. If this and the S7 in silver come before end of April, i'll win the next picture contest with this hehe.