Samsung Galaxy S7 vs iPhone 6S: Which is best for you?

iPhone 6S vs Galaxy S7: Apple vs Samsung fight it out for mobile domination

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is now on the market, declaring the next round in the ongoing Samsung vs Apple smartphone grudge match.

Now that our evaluation is in, we can verify that the Galaxy S7 is a serious contender for the leading smartphone crown. It may pack a familiar design, but a much faster CPU, enhanced battery, and a stunning-looking video camera might well be providing Apple more cold sweats than the FBI.

Naturally, it wasn’t too long ago that Apple launched its iPhone 6S flagship. Numerous saw that phone as one of Apple’s best ever ‘S’ devices, so it’s not like Samsung has the market all sown up right up until the launch of the iPhone 7.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of Samsung’s brand-new handset and how it compares to Apple’s existing iPhone.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: DESIGN

Samsung Galaxy S7: 7.9 mm thick, 152g, metal alloy, glass front and back, IP68 certified, Black/Gold

iPhone 6S: 7.1 mm thick, 143g, Series 7000 anodised aluminium back, Space Gray/Silver/Gold/ Rose Gold

The Galaxy S6 was the prettiest phone Samsung’s ever made by rather some margin. It ditched the horrid plastic backs seen on past Galaxy phones, changing them with an incredibly glamorous mix of glass and metal. The design made the Galaxy S6 look and feel premium.

Samsung Galaxy S7
Choosing between the iPhone 6S and the Galaxy S7 is tricky, as Samsung’s made a number of small but crucial design changes to its most current flagship.

However, its design still didn’t entirely beat Apple’s. While the iPhone 6S’s design doesn’t radically differ from its predecessor, the iPhone 6, it remains among, if not the best created phones on the marketplace. true, it might not be as renowned as the iPhone 4 or iPhone 5, but it’s a lot more pleasant phone to use everyday.

It’s curvier and in some way warmer than previous iPhones. What’s more, with Apple’s use of Series 7000 aluminium, it’s also tougher than previously.

Nevertheless, picking in between it and the Galaxy S7 is tricky, as Samsung’s made a number of small but crucial design changes to its newest flagship. The camera sensing unit bump is gone and Samsung’s added a few millimetres to the thickness by including a small curvature to the back, similar to the Galaxy Note 5.

This thickening is in fact a significant improvement, making it far more comfortable to hold and less prone to slipping out of your hand. It also suggests that the Galaxy S7 is a lot simpler to get from a flat surface, which is a crucial characteristic.

What’s more, Samsung somehow managed to make the stunning looking Galaxy S7 IP68 licensed. This suggests that, unlike the iPhone 6S, the Galaxy S7 can endure an unintentional aquatic encounter untouched. That this has been accomplished with no external signs of ‘ruggedisation’ – flaps, a thicker display and so on – is impressive.

iPhone-6S
The iPhone 6S is no slow poke when it comes to snapping pictures. The phone’s automated mode is among the best we’ve seen on a smartphone and makes it quicker and simpler to take fantastic pictures without having to get bogged down in intricate settings.

Samsung’s design hasn’t actually gotten any prettier this year, then, however it has become a lot more practically sound. That’s just as important as visual considerations, if not more so, and it’s sufficient to give the Galaxy S7 a win over the iPhone 6S in this area.

GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: DISPLAY

Samsung Galaxy S7: 5.1-inch Super AMOLED, 2,560 x 1,440, 577ppi

iPhone 6S: 4.7-inch IPS LCD, 1334 x 750, 326ppi, 3D Touch

The Samsung Galaxy S7’s display screen is really similar undoubtedly to the S6’s. This indicates that as soon as again it is radically sharper than the iPhone 6S’s screen, and as soon as again displays much deeper blacks thanks to its Super AMOLED tech.

For those that do not know, AMOLED screens display much deeper and richer blacks by electrically charging each specific pixel when generating colours, letting them create blacks simply by turning off the relevant pixels. LCD technology brighten all pixels, even when they’re displaying black, producing a somewhat washed out grey look. This suggests that the Galaxy S7, like the S6, has a more dynamic and sharp display screen than the iPhone 6S.

That Galaxy S7 screen likewise has a cool brand-new always-on function. The feature is a low power screen mode that triggers when the phone is put to sleep. It offers peek views of incoming notifications and signals from specific services, suggesting you can check who’s messaged you without having to totally power up the display screen.

Nevertheless, we felt that this always-on feature was a little half-baked, with restricted functionality and bad app support. It’s a great idea, but it isn’t really genuinely useful yet.

GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: PERFORMANCE

Samsung Galaxy S7: Exynos 8890 octa-core/Snapdragon 820 quad-core CPU, Adreno 530/Mali-T 880 MP12 GPU, 4GB RAM

iPhone 6S: Apple A9 64-bit dual-core CPU, 2GB RAM

The Galaxy S7 is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 processor in many territories, including here in the UK. Our United States cousins get the more general, off-the-shelf (however still highly capable) Snapdragon 820.

Silver iPhone 6S

Whichever chip you get, it will offer radically much better performance than the Galaxy S6. Samsung declares that both will offer 30% better efficiency 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 an incredible 4GB of RAM.

GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: CAMERA

Samsung Galaxy S7: 12-megapixel, stage detection, Dual Pixels, OIS, f/1.7 lens, 1/2.6″ sensor, 1.4 µm pixel, 4K video, 5-megapixel front camera

iPhone 6S: 12-megapixel rear video camera, f/2.2 aperture, dual LED flash, 4K video recording, 5-megapixel front electronic camera

The iPhone 6S is no slow poke when it concerns snapping photos. The phone’s automated mode is one of the best we’ve seen on a smartphone and makes it quicker and simpler to take fantastic photos without needing to get slowed down in complicated settings.

It’s only drawback is its absence of optical image stabilization (OIS), an element that, combined with its lower f/2.2 aperture meant it struggled to take on the Galaxy S6 in low light.

The Galaxy S7 widens the gulf in that respect, using a number of techniques to assist enhance its low light efficiency.

GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: STORAGE

Samsung Galaxy S7: 32GB, microSD

iPhone 6S: 16GB/ 64GB/ 128GB

Samsung’s only loaded the Galaxy S7 with 32GB of internal storage. By comparison the iPhone 6S is currently offered with 16GB, 64GB or 128GB of internal area.

So, a win to the iPhone, right? Not.

While the extra alternatives are nice, and we want Samsung had done the same and provided more, the entry-level Apple offering is practically hopeless. 16GB is entirely inadequate for a modern-day flagship phone.

Also, unlike last year’s Galaxy S6, the Galaxy S7 enables you to reinforce its fixed storage with a microSD slot. Unfortunately, Samsung has actually shot itself in the foot rather by refusing to use up Google’s Adoptable Storage facility.

GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: SOFTWARE

Samsung Galaxy S7: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, TouchWiz UI

iPhone 6S: iOS 9.3

Traditionally Samsung’s persistence on packing Android smartphones with Touchwiz has been a vital issue obstructing their capability to take on Apple iPhones.

samsung galaxy s7 black

Along with making Android’s UI feel a little cluttered, the skin packed previous Galaxies with more bloatware than might easily be counted. What’s more, the skin also radically delayed how quickly Samsung’s phones could be upgraded to brand-new versions of Android. This is since Samsung has to fine-tune Touchwiz to work with Google’s code with every new release, according to whattdw.com.

To this day lots of Galaxy S6 smartphones have not been updated to Google’s most current Android Marshmallow running system.

State way you like about Apple’s closed management of iOS, but it has let the company guarantee device owners are constantly able to get software updates – so long as the iPhone, or iPad’s hardware has the ability to run it. It also produces a much cleaner, smoother, more constant experience than Samsung can achieve with TouchWiz on the S7.

Samsung’s handled to do great work fixing the bloatware issue on the Galaxy S7 and must be applauded for preloading it with Android Marshmallow. However, we’re certain the upgrade concerns will continue. From a pure software application point of view, the iPhone SIX remains the better phone.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 VS IPHONE 6S: PRICE COMPARISON

Samsung Galaxy S7: $563 (₤569)

iPhone 6S: $710+ (₤539 – ₤ 699)

Initially glance, it looks like the iPhone 6S is cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S7, which plays against expectations somewhat. Costs for Apple’s phone start from $709, while Samsung’s most current will start from $563.

Bottom line

The Galaxy S7 is an outright beast of a smartphone that aces the smartphone holy trinity of design, performance, and cam. As such, it’s a more than worthwhile rival to the iPhone 6S.

Samsung’s phone features a far better screen, an usually more capable processor, two times the memory, and a better video camera. We ‘d still take iOS over Samsung’s picky TouchWiz UI any day of the week, but in most other aspects we ‘d have to give the nod to the Galaxy S7.

Nevertheless, this isn’t truly a surprise. Apple’s iPhone 6S is currently over midway through its lifecycle as a flagship smartphone. Samsung’s genuine competitors awaits six months down the line.