The Galaxy S7 has finally been unveiled, marking the next round in Samsung and Apple’s ongoing grudge match for control of the top end market.
On paper the Galaxy S7 is a serious contender for the smartphone crown. Samsung’s loaded the handset with a wealth of new features and tweaked the design in a number of innovative ways based on user feedback.
But, with Apple having unveiled its superb iPhone 6S mere months ago, the new Galaxy has some stiff competition. The iPhone 6S is viewed by many as one of Apple’s better S release iPhones and comes with a wealth of subtle, but important, hardware and software features.
To help you decide which handset is most worthy of your hard earned cash, we’ve done a step by step breakdown detailing how Samsung’s new handset stacks up against Apple’s latest iPhone.
Watch our Galaxy S7 vs iPhone 6S comparison video
SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: DESIGN
The Galaxy S6 was the prettiest phone Samsung’s ever made. It ditched the horrid plastic backs seen on past Galaxy phones, replacing them with a wonderfully luxurious mix of glass and metal. The design made the Galaxy S6 look and feel premium.
However, its design still didn’t completely beat Apple’s. While the iPhone 6S’ design doesn’t radically differ from its predecessors, the iPhone 6, it remains one of, if not the best looking phone on the market, even when compared to the S6.
However, picking between it and the Galaxy S7 is a little trickier as Samsung’s made a number of small, but important design changes to its latest flagship. The camera sensor bump is gone and Samsung’s added a slight curvature to the back, reminiscent of the Galaxy Note 5, that made it wonderfully more comfortable to hold during our hands on.
What’s more, Samsung somehow managed to make the gorgeous looking Galaxy S7 IP68 certified. This means, unlike the iPhone 6S, the Galaxy S7 can survive an accidental aquatic encounter unscathed.
We haven’t had enough time with the Galaxy S7 to definitively say if it’s better designed than the iPhone 6S, but if our opening impressions are anything to go by, it certainly has a chance.
GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: DISPLAY
The Samsung Galaxy S7’s display is on paper all but identical to the S6’s. This means it once again it is radically sharper than the iPhone 6S’ screen, and will once again display deeper blacks, thanks to its Super AMOLED tech.
For those that don’t how AMOLED technology works to help screens display deeper and richer blacks by electrically charging each individual pixel when generating colours, letting them create blacks simply by turning off the relevant pixels. This means in general the Galaxy S7, like the S6, should have a more vibrant and sharp display than the iPhone 6S.
It also has a cool new always on feature. The feature is a low power screen mode that activates when the phone is put to sleep. It offers peek views of incoming notifications and alerts. Meaning you can check who’s messaged you without having to fully power up the display.
However, the Galaxy S7’s screen doesn’t feature a competitor to Apple’s 3D Touch tech. 3D Touch is a nifty feature that lets the iPhone’s screen detect varying amounts of pressure. It can be used to enact a variety of tasks, like previewing emails and websites. For iPhone 6S owners familiar with 3D Touch, the lack of an equivalent feature on the Galaxy S7 could be a sticking point.
GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: PERFORMANCE
The Galaxy S7 is set to be powered by either Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 820, or one of Samsung’s own Exynos processors. Which you get will depend where you live.
Samsung claims both chips will offer radically better performance. Specifically the firm claims they will offer 30% better performance than the Galaxy S6’s Exynos 7420 64-bit octa-core CPU. The phone’s also got a memory upgrade, with Samsung having loaded the Galaxy S7 with a staggering 4GB of RAM.
The iPhone, meanwhile, has the dual-core A9 chip and 2GB of RAM. That combo matched the S6, but Samsung should hold an advantage until the iPhone 7 arrives.
GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: STORAGE
Samsung’s only loaded the Galaxy S7 with 32GB of internal storage. By comparison the iPhone 6S is currently available with 16GB, 64GB or 128GB of internal space.
A couple of years ago this would have meant the iPhone 6S is the clear winner when it comes to storage space. However, with Android Marshmallow in the mix, the round’s a little harder to call.
ndroid Marshmallow is adds support for Adoptable storage – a nifty feature that lets phones treat SD cards like internal memory.
This means you can install directly onto the SD card without having to suffer the usual performance issues associated with expandable storage. In theory this means this means the Galaxy S7 can offer users more storage than the iPhone 6S, without losing any performance.
GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: CAMERA
The iPhone 6S’ is no slow poke when it comes to snapping photos. The phone’s automatic mode is one of the best we’ve seen on a smartphone and makes it quicker and easier to take great photos without having to get bogged down in complex settings.
It’s only drawback is its lack of optical image stabilisation (OIS), a factor that, combined with its lower f/2.2 aperture meant it struggled to compete with the Galaxy S6 in low light.
From what we’ve seen of the Galaxy S7, this may again be the case. Samsung’s tweaked the Galaxy S7’s camera in a variety of ways to help boost its low light performance.
For starters Samsung’s loaded the Galaxy S7 with a new 12-megapixel sensor that’s been designed to capture bigger pixels, and as a consequence more light.
The aperture has also been improved to F/1.7. Samsung claims the combination of factors mean the Galaxy S7 can capture 95% photos than its predecessor.
GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: BATTERY
Neither the Galaxy S6 of iPhone 6S have great battery life. With regular use both phones struggle to last a full day off one charge. Faced with demanding tasks like 3D gaming, GPS services, or video streaming both also outright gush battery charge.
To get round this, Samsung’s loaded the Galaxy S7 with a sizable 3,000 mAh cell battery. The battery dwarfs the 1,715 mAh battery included in the iPhone 6S and hopefully means we’ll finally be able to enjoy a flagship smartphone that can consistently survive a full day’s use off a single charge.
SUMMARY
The Galaxy S7 is an absolute beast of a smartphone that on paper has the chops to compete, if not beat the iPhone 6S.
It features a more robust processor, twice the memory, a higher aperture camera and comes loaded with Google’s oh so sweet Android Marshmallow operating system.
However, this isn’t really a surprise. Apple’s iPhone 6S is already over halfway through its lifecycle as a flagship smartphone. Samsung’s real competition awaits six months down the line.
