Samsung's new Galaxy S7 flagships are here. But which is the best?

Samsung's new Galaxy S7 flagships are here. But which is the best?

This year seems to be Samsung's year so far, the firm launched its new flagships just ahead of Mobile World Congress in February, and as expected from the earlier rumours there was a duo of Galaxy S7 series handsets just like the previous Galaxy S6 series from 2015. These phones have gone on to break Samsung out of its two-year downward funk and have sold like proverbial hot-cakes, particularly the Galaxy S7 edge model with a curved display, according to Samsung's statements. Analysts are now recalculating their projections for Samsung's performance in 2016, expecting big things from the company. At the same time, we're sure the Korean firm's execs are popping Champagne corks at the news that Apple's first quarter figures are comparably poor, in fact it's the first time in as long as anyone can remember that Apple actually lost market share and saw a drop in sales.

With the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, as before with the Galaxy S6 series, both devices share more or less the same specs and hardware, including waterproofing, processing power, camera, and onboard storage. However, there are important differences, most notably that the Galaxy S7 edge has a curved display, and unlike last year's S6 generation (which were the same size) is a larger model. Like last year, however, it carries a higher price tag, but that's because curved OLED tech is more complex and expensive to produce.

But is it worth the extra cash?

A lot has already been said about Samsung’s 2016 flagships. General word on the street is positive; the phones have been updated in all the right places. But is this enough? KYM’s Richard argued, no, in his piece on why the LG G5 and not Samsung’s Galaxy S7 was the runaway success of MWC 2016, as well as potentially THE Android handset to beat in 2016.

Samsung is a big deal. Very big, if you’re talking about gross phone shipments. But it has alienated a lot of the users by implementing changes (sealing the battery in, removing SD-support) that kind of ran contrary to what people wanted. Samsung became obsessed with becoming more like Apple and, somewhere along the way, its handsets lost some of their charm and utility.

And because there is so much choice in the Android space, a lot of users simply went elsewhere -- or waited for the Galaxy Note which launches the following quarter after the Galaxy S. LG, for one, made a lot of friends in the past couple of years and the company looks set to make a whole load more in 2016 with the release of its LG G5 handset.

The Galaxy S7 series may indeed have been the winning ticket Samsung needed to pull it out of a two-year decline in flagship sales, as reports from analysts in Asia claim the firm has shipped as many as 10 million units during March, in the one month since the phones hit the market. The reports don't distinguish between the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, but analysts say shipments are far higher than the expected 7 million previously predicted by industry watchers. Analysts are now shifting their sales predictions for 2016, although it's important to note the new estimates are not based on sales and shipping figures from Samsung, as the firm is yet to reveal anything other than initial pre-order figures. Previously Samsung execs had stated that pre-orders had been better than expected, and that based on this it expects to sell more Galaxy S7 series units than previous models.

But how do Samsung’s flagship phones compare against each other? We took a look at the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge to find out.

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: Storage, RAM, and CPU

Here’s the specs for the Galaxy S7:

• Display: 5.1-inch display with a 2560×1440-pixel resolution at 577ppi
• Dimensions: 142.4mm  x 69.6 mm x 7.9 mm
• Weight: 152 grams
• Storage: 32 or 64, plus support for microSD cards up to 200GB
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Processors: Samsung Exynos 8890
• Front camera: 5 MP
• Rear camera: 12 MP, f/1.7 aperture, 4K video
• Battery life: 3000 mAh
• Colors: Dark Grey or Gold

And here’s the specs for the Galaxy S7 Edge:

• Display: 5.5-inch display with a 2560×1440-pixel resolution at 534 ppi
• Dimensions: 150.9mm  x 72.6 mm x 7.7 mm
• Weight: 157 grams
• Storage: 32 or 64, plus support for microSD cards up to 200GB
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Processors: Samsung Exynos 8890
• Front camera: 5 MP
• Rear camera: 12 MP, f/1.7 aperture, 4K video
• Battery life: 3600 mAh
• Colors: Dark Grey, Silver, or Gold

When it comes to the storage, RAM, and CPU of each phone—they are exactly the same! The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge both feature 4GB of RAM and the custom Samsung Exynos 8890 chipset. As for as storage goes, both phones come in a 32GB and 64GB model, though the latter will be difficult to track down in  the US and Europe, and each of those models also both feature a new high-capacity micro SD card slot, which can take cards up to 200GB in size.

That makes things easy so far, doesn’t it?

As a cool little side note, both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge feature something a little different - a first for smartphones in fact. Samsung has decided to tackle the issue of processor heat build-up by taking inspiration from conventional PCs and fitting a liquid-cooled "heat pipe" or "thermal spreader" in combination with a heatsink. What this does is essentially allow the processor heat to evaporate a liquid contained inside the heat-pipe, the vapour then moves to another part of the pipe next to a heatsink and cools down, dissipating the heat into other parts of the handset and away from components impacted by higher temperatures.

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