We compare the Samsung Galaxy S7 against Apple’s iPhone 6s at Mobile World Congress 2016.
Whilst this is without question a battle to revisit once we get our hands on a Galaxy S7 for a more reasonable amount of time, we thought you’d like to see how Samsung’s new flagship smartphone stacks up against its biggest rival, the Apple iPhone 6s.
Design-wise Apple is known for leaving aesthetics well alone between numbered and ‘s’ iterations. The 6s looks just like its predecessor – a sliver of smooth metal with heavily rounded edges and corners, the singular Touch ID fingerprint sensor-laden home button and an offset camera bump on the back.
The S7 meanwhile has a few obvious visual tweaks compared to its predecessor, with a curved glass back that makes it easier and more comfortable to hold and a slimmed down camera bump. It too packs a fingerprint sensor for added security and in place of Apple Pay, the S7 comes with Samsung Pay, which technically plays nice with more payment devices and terminals than Apple’s rival mobile payment service. The big asterisk being that presently, Samsung Pay is available in far fewer markets.
Apple’s 4.7-inch Retina LCD packs a comparatively low resolution of 1334×750, which is serviceable and offers nice colour reproduction, but fine detail and vibrancy fall short of the mark when placed alongside the S7’s 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED screen, which also accommodates an always-on mode that displays timely information even when the phone is locked.
iOS 9 is the latest iteration of Apple’s tried and tested user interface and wins out over the S7 for its simplicity and ease of use, with 3D Touch gestures adding an extra element of interactivity into the mix. The TouchWiz interface running atop Android Marshmallow is more arguably more crowded than iOS and even stock Android, with heavy customisation on Samsung’s part to many of the stock experiences. On the flip side, many may appreciate Samsung’s take on Google’s mobile OS and the multi-tasking functionality the S7 boasts.
The bigger phone comes with a significantly larger 3000mAh battery that out-paces the 6s with regards to its fast wireless and wireless charging compatibility, whilst we won’t know if the Snapdragon 820 can take on the rapid performance of Apple’s A9 chipset until full review time.
Contrary to the S6, the S7 actually sports a lower resolution primary camera, but the levels the playing field with the 6s which also rocks a 12-megapixel sensor. Samsung bigged-up its dual pixel technology, which promises faster autofocus and low light performance, whilst Apple has waxed lyrical about its focus pixel-laden sensors for a few generations of iPhone now.
Read next: Samsung Galaxy S7 hands-on review | MWC 2016
Leave a Reply