Samsung was looking forward to a great year considering how well its Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were performing in the market. The company has established its position as one of the world's premium smartphone manufacturers, next to Apple. And then the Galaxy Note 7 happened, and things went downhill from there.
It was not all bad news for Samsung though. The company still managed to come up with great tech products that are worth looking into if you're looking for something to gift yourself with now that the holidays are over.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
The fact that Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were not able to capitalize on Samsung's fiasco over the Note 7 speaks volumes about the quality of Samsung's other high-end phones. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge still came out on top on most "Best Phones of 2016" list, and with good reason.
The phone's brilliantly curved edges are sheer eye candy. Combine the phone's visual appeal with amazing power and performance, a Quad HD display resolution, great camera, and decent battery life, and you've got yourself a real winner.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2
This is the best tablet that Samsung has produced. Its thin and light design makes it a delight to carry around with you. It is great and effortless to use, and its Super AMOLED screen makes it the perfect accessory to use, whether you want to read ebooks or surf the web.
Samsung Gear S3
This premium wearable is packed with a lot of features. Both the Classic and the Frontier versions are water-resistant and have been ruggedized. You can use the smartwatch's rotating bezels to answer or reject incoming calls, and now that Samsung has allowed third-party developers to use this function, you can also use this for a variety of other things as well.
For instance, Nest is one of the first companies to get on board with the Samsung Gear S3, allowing you to control the thermostat inside your home simply by rotating the bezel of your smartwatch.
There are also plenty of fitness trackers packed inside the watch, such as an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, heart rate monitor, altimeter, barometer, and speedometer.
Samsung Gear VR
If you want to experience VR firsthand, then Samsung's Gear VR is the gadget for you. This is a great entry-level headset for the world of virtual reality gaming and entertainment. The VR headset is designed for everyday consumers. You can get this for only $99, as long as you have a compatible Samsung phone.
This wearable is very comfortable to wear, and allows you to play VR games and watch 360-degree movies. The downside to the VR headset is that it only works with the newest Samsung models, and playing with it will drain a lot of your phone's battery life.
Hopefully, Samsung has learned its lesson with the Note 7 disaster as it gears up for the launch of the Galaxy S8 next year. The company is expected to release a full report later this January regarding the results of its investigation on what went wrong with the Note 7.
