Samsung overhauled its design language with the Galaxy S6 series of smartphones. However, it surprised many by coming in with several variants of the flagship.
Last year the company released Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and the phablet S6 Edge+. This year, it seems there is no third model; instead, the company has dropped to two models – Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. It is the latter that is the point of contention in this case.
When pitted against last year’s phablet, the new Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is something else on the inside, but remains with minor changes on the outside, most of which are almost unnoticeable. For starters, this year’s model has found space in between last year’s Galaxy S6 Edge and S6 Edge+, featuring a screen size of 5.5 inches instead of the 5.7 inches that the S6 Edge+ came in with. But there is more…..keep on reading.
Similarities between Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy S7 Edge
As mentioned above, the outside of the Galaxy S7 Edge looks no different from what last year’s Galaxy S6 Edge+ has, however, the latter is slightly larger in size but weighs less. Both devices have the same display quality, but the S7 Edge adds an Always On feature on top of the 2K QHD Super AMOLED screen.
While last year’s S6 Edge+ only uses the Exynos 7, this year has seen Samsung revert to its old traits of using two different chipsets – a Qualcomm-made Snapdragon 820 and another variant with Exynos 8890. Samsung has also maintained the 4GB of RAM installed in last year’s version as well as the amount of onboard storage.
You will enjoy some of the best photos and videos using either of these phones. However, the Galaxy S7 Edge has a larger aperture that also means better photos are achieved in poor lighting conditions than the S6 Edge+ can manage. The company also kept the non-removable battery it introduced last year, in addition to Quick Charge technology. Both devices come with the same connectivity options, among them NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, Samsung Pay, fingerprint sensor and others.
Differences between Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy S7 Edge
As seen, a lot of what Samsung has retained can be seen from the outside. However, digging deeper into these devices will reveal some real differences.
As mentioned at the beginning, the older Galaxy S6 Edge+ has a slightly larger 5.7-inch screen size as compared to the 5.5-inch that comes with the S7 Edge. Despite both phones having the same resolution, they come in with different pixel densities. The larger S6 Edge+ has 518 ppi compared to the 534 ppi the Galaxy S7 Edge manages. This means that the latter device has a sharper display than the former, even though this might not be noticeable using the naked human eye. To top this up, this year’s model also has the Always On feature.
As mentioned, Samsung only used one CPU in all of its 2015 flagships – Exynos 7420. This year is different as the phone receives the latest CPU from Qualcomm as well as an upgraded version from the company’s in-house production team. This year’s Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge also features a microSD card slot, something that is missing on last year’s S6 Edge+.
Camera-wise, the S6 Edge+ has 16MP on the rear with an aperture of f/1.9. On the front is a 5MP snapper, which is basically the same quality available on this year’s Galaxy S7 Edge. However, the rear has 12MP and a much better aperture of f/1.7. Samsung also stepped up the battery size of this device, dropping the 3000mAh used on the S6 Edge+ and replacing it with a 3600mAh unit on the S7 Edge.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has an ingress protection rating of IP68 whereas the S6 Edge+ has none. This means that you are at risk with the latter when it comes to water spills and dusty environments.