When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S7 Edge, they also showed off some official accessories. Some of them we’d seen before, while others have been redesigned to fit the Galaxy S7 Edge. I decided to check out the new S-View Cover, keyboard case and wireless charger built by Samsung specifically for its newer devices.
Of all the official accessories on offer, the wireless charging base is undoubtedly the most useful. Unlike most Qi-standard chargers, this one is equipped with fast-charging technology. The box is a pretty standard affair, featuring a transparent plastic lid, with just the wireless charging base and a quick start guide.
There’s no USB cable or power adapter with it, but the idea is that you use the adaptive fast-charging one that comes with the phone.
Samsung’s fast charge wireless charging base kind of looks like a plastic UFO with a transparent rim around the edges. The model we were sent is the older-style version that lies flat on your desk or bedside table, but there is a newer stand version which only hit the market very recently.
Using it is simple: just plug it in and you’ll see the LED strip light up, place your phone in the center and it’ll charge. What I really like on first impressions is that the phone doesn’t slide off. There’s a nice grippy ring around the top of the base which solves a common wireless charging problem. I’ve lost count of the number of chargers I’ve used that are either the wrong size, texture or shape, and phones just fall off them. This grippy ring solves that issue.
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On to the S-View case, which is essentially a transparent plastic hard shell with a soft cover attached that covers the front and back, and opens like a book. Thanks to the clever use of magnets and an NFC chip, the phone knows when the case is attached, and when it’s open or shut.
When closed, the lockscreen appears through the square window in cropped form, where you can still swipe notifications, launch apps and drop down the notification shade. Open it, and you get your regular lock screen, or your phone is unlocked.
You can change the S-View window lock screen wallpaper from within the regular wallpaper settings too. Just press and hold on any home screen, hit ‘wallpaper’ and select ‘S-View Cover’ from the drop-down options.
On the design front, it fits the phone really well and has a nice soft texture, it’s pretty subtle, but it’s hardly the most premium object in the world. Still, I quite like it.
As for the keyboard case, if you were hoping for something to soothe your BlackBerry withdrawals, this is not it. It’s packaged in the same way as the other accessories, and like the S-View cover, uses an NFC chip to tell your phone when it’s attached.
It’s a four row keyboard with buttons for home, back and multitasking. Sadly, on initial testing, the keys seemed way too cramped and spongey. They’re not nice at all, some keys had to be pressed so purposefully and slowly that it would have been easier to use software keys.
By default, the keyboard is clipped on to the back of a hard plastic case which has a textured finish. Flip it over to the front, and the screen adjusts to fit in to the top half, shrinking some of the onscreen content in the process. Sadly, this adjusted resolution doesn’t play nice with custom themes, and so mine reset the theme completely to the default. It’s also worth noting that the keyboard itself isn’t permanently attached to the case, so you can remove it completely if you want to.
We’ll test them further and bring your full thoughts at a later date, if they impress us enough during long term use. In the mean time, you can get hold of them from Mobile Fun in the UK, or from Amazon in the US. Prices and links are below.
UK – Mobile Fun
Wireless Charger – £34.99
S-View Cover – £29.99
Keyboard Case – £42.99
US – Amazon
Wireless charger – $50
S-View Cover – $30
Keyboard Case – $55
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