It’s been a whole year since Samsung won our hearts with the beautiful Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, and now the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are here to impress us again. So what has Samsung changed in a year? We’ve compared the phones to find out.
Refined design
The new Galaxy S7 looks just as good as the Galaxy S6 with a super-slim metal and glass body, but there are a couple of small changes that make a big difference.
The backs of both S7s now curve slightly at the sides, which makes the phones fit more comfortably in your hand. The camera now sits flush with the rest of the phone so it doesn’t rock when you put it on your desk. And the colours have been refined – the black is much darker and the gold is less bling.
Most importantly, the Galaxy S7s are water resistant. It’s a feature the S6 lacked because Samsung was striving for thinness. But the new phones have kept the svelte design and can be submerged in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to half an hour.
A choice of screens
With last year’s Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, you had a choice whether you wanted the 5.1-inch Quad HD screen to be curved or flat. This year, there’s a choice of sizes too.
The flat Galaxy S7 has a 5.1-inch Quad HD screen like the S6, only this one’s been rated as the best screen ever tested, which the S7 edge has a bigger 5.5-inch display. That extra screen size is meant to give a more immersive experience when used with the Samsung Gear VR (which you get free when you pre-order the phone) and will definitely make movies and games more enjoyable.
Whether you go for the extra screen size of the S7 edge or the more pocket-friendly S7, you’ll be getting better picture quality than you would with the S6. Colours feel more lifelike, details are sharper and it’s easier to see what you’re doing in bright light.
Both of the new phones’ screens also have Samsung’s new always-on display feature. This shows notification symbols on your screen, even when the phone’s asleep, so you don’t have to keep unlocking it to stay up to date.
Samsung’s biggest ever mobile batteries
One of the biggest improvements with the new Galaxy S7s is the dramatic jump in battery life.
The S6 and S6 edge worked hard to use their batteries efficiently so you didn’t have to charge too often. Now Samsung’s worked out how to squeeze more power into the same space so the S7 and S7 edge have really high capacity batteries. In fact, the S7’s power pack is almost 20% bigger than the S6’s, while the S7 edge has boosted power an enormous 40% over the S6 edge.
A state-of-the-art camera
The Galaxy S6 has a great camera, so Samsung made big changes to make the Galaxy S7 even better at taking photos.
The most noticeable difference was made to the image sensor. Weighing in at 12MP, it captures lower-resolution photos than the S6’s 16MP one, but it’s the first mobile sensor to use Dual Pixel technology.
This tech means each pixel has two light sensors instead of one, and that lets the S7 focus faster than any current smartphone.
That’s topped off by an ultra-wide f/1.7 aperture lens that lets in more light so you get brighter, more colourful photos.
You can get more detail on the Galaxy S7’s new camera in our dedicated article.
So what do you think? Does the Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 edge take your fancy? You can pre-order them now, or, if you have any more questions on how they compare to the S6, drop us a comment below.