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Galaxy S7 Users Are Reporting Problems with Wi-Fi

Numerous Galaxy S7 users in recent days have reported difficulty downloading over Wi-Fi.

Samsung's Galaxy S7 earned rave reviews when it was released earlier this month, but an apparent bug is driving at least some users up a wall.

Several Galaxy S7 users have noted on places like Reddit and Android Central (an Android enthusiast website and message board) that the smartphone frequently has difficulty maintaining a Wi-Fi connection, causing, among other issues, Samsung's flagship smartphone to not reliably sync Gmail when connected to Wi-Fi.

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The connectivity issue does not appear to affect the smartphone's mobile data (4G LTE) connection.

Motherboard's own test unit—well, the one that we didn't accidentally break—also exhibits this behavior, and does not reliably download data, including syncing Gmail, when connected to Wi-Fi—a problem not exhibited by other Android smartphones, including my own 2013 Moto X (I've been testing this issue all weekend).

Customer complaints date back to the launch of the Galaxy S7 on March 11, with some users suggesting disabling Bluetooth, or uninstalling apps that use location in the background, as a temporary workaround.

The Galaxy S7 was officially released in the US on March 11, and won wide acclaim, with critics praising its high-end design (there's no cheap-feeling plastic as in previous models), the return of an SD card slot (which was removed in the Galaxy S6 in 2015), and the relatively inoffensive presence of TouchWiz, Samsung's custom Android skin.

Motherboard has contacted Samsung, and will update this story if and when the company replied with comment.