Samsung Galaxy S7 will be available for purchase beginning March 11; this is according to the dates announced following the unveiling of the device at last month’s MWC.
Being the next in line with respect to the Galaxy S series, there are some obvious similarities and differences between this year’s flagship and last year’s flagship. In essence, a clear establishment of these lines of similarities and differences is very crucial when deciding whether to upgrade from Samsung Galaxy S6 to the latest Samsung Galaxy S7.
Similarities between Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7
Samsung maintained a larger part of the Galaxy S6’s design language with respect to this year’s Galaxy S7. This can be reflected in the phone’s display and size, where it retained last year’s 5.1-inch screen as well as the 2K QHD display. As opposed to earlier rumors that had pointed out to a 4K display, the S7’s resolution will ensure better battery performance. Furthermore, the build materials used in the earlier sibling – glass and metal – were retained, which means this year’s model still retains the sleek and premium look of last year’s flagship.
Despite the fact that Samsung Galaxy S7 will come with expandable storage, the company has retained the storage options it availed in its previous versions. The base model has 32GB onboard storage while there is also a 64GB variant available, but the latter has not been listed among the models shipping to the U.S. This time round, Samsung ditched the 128GB model, which was available in last year’s S6.
Differences between Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7
From a distance, it is very easy to confuse the Galaxy S7 and S6 smartphones. However, these phones have their own set of differences. For starters, Samsung amped the battery capacity of the new phone, moving from last year’s 2550mAh to a massive 3000mAh unit. With this new unit, expect to enjoy more hours with your Galaxy S7 as opposed to Galaxy S6.
Another change regards the hardware used in the new device. Unlike last year where all models of Samsung Galaxy S6 shipped with an Exynos 7 chipset and 3GB RAM, this year will see Samsung Galaxy S7 come in with Snapdragon 820 (for U.S. users) and Exynos 8890 (for Europe and other regions) with a RAM of 4GB. What this means is that multitasking abilities of this phone have been greatly improved.
Samsung went for a totally new camera for the Galaxy S7. Ditching the 16MP snapper used on the S6, the new 12MP camera features Dual Pixel and BRITECELL technologies as well as a f/1.7 aperture that promise the best shots even when in poor lighting conditions.
Last year Samsung dropped water resistance, dust proof as well as expandable storage features for the Galaxy S6. This is no more with respect to Galaxy S7. The phone comes with an IP68 rating, which means that phone can survive a dive of up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. There is nothing to worry about as far as dust is concerned. It even gets better as Samsung Galaxy S7 users can get to expand their 32GB of onboard storage to 200GB using a microSD card.
So, which will it be? The cheaper Samsung Galaxy S6 or the newer Samsung Galaxy S7?