The screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 is WQHD (2560*1440). But this does not mean the phone always works on this resolution after you applied the Android Nougat update for Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.
After you got the long-awaited Android Nougat update for Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, you may not notice the default screen resolution is actually Full HD 1080p (1920*1080).
Does it mean Android Nougat cannot handle WQHD?
Of course, not. Samsung scaled down the screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge in Android Nougat update to full HD because most users do not need WQHD for most apps and tasks.
In Android Nougat update for Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, you can actually set the screen resolution to HD 720p, or 1080p (full HD), or 1440p (WQHD).
Some performance modes can also adjust screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge automatically.
But the default screen resolution of 1080p probably is a good start point for most users.
The purpose of scaling down the screen resolution to full HD 1080p in Android Nougat update for Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge is to save battery.
When you have more pixels (i.e., higher resolution) to light up, you need to use more power.
For full HD, it requires about 2 million pixels. For WQHD (1440*2560), it requires about 3.7 million pixels.
So a rough estimation shows scaling back to full HD can save about 45% battery from the screen.
You may wonder whether this affects the “performance” of the screen.
The short answer is that for most owners, they cannot see any difference when the screen resolution was scaled down to full HD.
Human eyes always have a hard limit. Usually, when you hold your device 5 to 10 inches away from your eyes, human eyes cannot differentiate pixel density difference if the pixel density is higher than 300-400 ppi.
For Galaxy S7, the pixel density based on hardware specs, is about 577ppi. Galaxy S7 edge has a pixel density of about 534ppi.
If the screen resolution is scaled down to 1080p, Â even Galaxy S7 edge still has a pixel density of about 400ppi.
This is the reason why most owners of Galaxy S7 and S7 edge did not notice that the screen resolution was scaled down to 1080p after the Android Nougat update.
But sometimes, you may find WQHD 1440p is preferred, for example:
In these scenarios, full HD may be insufficient.
You should then change the screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge to 1440p.
Similarly, you may want to set the screen resolution to 720p if you want to save battery. But this usually not recommended for daily use because you are wasting your gorgeous screen.
Please note, screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and S7 edge can be automatically adjusted when you choose different performance modes.
You can also manually change the default screen resolution settings for each mode in the corresponding mode settings
Anyway, you can always change the screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 in Settings— Display.
As shown below, in the Display settings page, current screen resolution is shown.
In the screenshot below, the default resolution of 1080p is active.
Tap Screen resolution as shown below.
You can now have 3 resolution options: HD, Full HD and WQHD.
Just drag the slider to to the corresponding options to select the resolution.
After selecting the screen resolution, you must tap Apply (marked as 2) as shown below to apply the setting.
Otherwise, the resolution will not be applied.
If you have any questions or encounter any problems on adjusting screen resolution of Galaxy S7 and S7 after Android Nougat update, please let us know your questions or problems in the comment box below.
The community will try to help you.
You can get the official Samsung Galaxy S7 user manual (user guide) in your local language here, and Galaxy S7 edge user manual (user guide) in your local language here.  Official user guide for Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge with Android Nougat update can be found here.
For other guides on using Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, please check Galaxy S7 online manual page.
For detailed Galaxy S7 how-to guides, please check Galaxy S7 how-to guides page.
For Galaxy S7 camera guides, please check Galaxy S7 camera guide page.
If you have any questions on Android update for Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, please check Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge Android Nougat update guide.
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Hello, I just bought this new galaxy s7 and it has the new update however I do not have all of the options on display, I'm trying to check the resolution but I can't find it anywhere.
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