Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. S6: A Step Up in Specs

At present that the Galaxy S7 is official, the question for most Android lovers will be whether to spend the big bucks on a make new phone, or get/stick with last year's Milky way S6, which will likely get a price drop. Let's take a await at each phone to see what stands out.

Size and Shape

In general, the Galaxy S7 is an iterative upgrade from the S6, more of a refinement than an overhaul. Both phones characteristic sleek, glass-bodied designs. The new Milky way S7 is about the same size as the S6, merely slightly thicker and about a half-ounce heavier: 0.31 inches and 5.36 ounces to the S6'southward 0.27 inches and iv.87 ounces.

Power

For internals, Samsung relied on its own Exynos 7420 chips for the Milky way S6, but inverse it upwards in the Galaxy S7 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor—the newest and fastest flake on the market—paired with an Adreno 530 GPU. The Galaxy S7 too gets a boost in RAM, bumping up to 4GB from the S6's 3GB. The newer phone also comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow right out of the box, so yous won't have to expect to upgrade. The S7's battery is, sadly, still non-removable, only it got an upgrade to 3,000mAh compared with the S6's 2,550mAh battery. Nosotros'll run into if that translates into longer life for the S7 when we get it into PC Labs.

Brandish

When it comes to the screen, y'all're non really getting annihilation unlike; both phones take 5.1-inch Super AMOLED that offer the same sharp QHD (2,560 by 1,440) resolution. However, the S7 does sport an always-on brandish, showing you the time, appointment, calendar, and notifications, as y'all tin run into the Vine beneath.

Camera

One of the big improvements Samsung's been pushing for the Galaxy S7 would exist the camera. The Galaxy S6's camera is no slouch—a sixteen-megapixel shooter. In the Galaxy S7, Samsung put in a lower-resolution 12-megapixel camera, which could translate into better depression-calorie-free performance thanks to larger pixels on the sensor, especially when paired with a brighter f/1.vii lens. Some other small improvement: microSD support, which was a no-testify in the S6 and Note v.

The Verdict
The Samsung Milky way S7 is a solid pace up from the S6. That'southward no surprise. It has the same screen and a lower-resolution photographic camera, only it boasts a more powerful CPU, and the camera could potentially perform better in depression light than the S6. And that microSD is handy. If yous want to save some cash, though, the S6 is still a more-than-acceptable smartphone to have in your pocket.

For more, check out Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. LG G5: Flagships Compared.

This commodity originally appeared on PCMag.com.

Almost Ben Radding

Ben Radding

Raised in the Midwest, Ben considers himself a generally prissy guy. He went to NYU to study journalism and comparative literature, and went on to captain the NYU Fencing Team. Sabre, since you asked. He came to PCMag after a stint at Men'south Fitness magazine, where he tried to get totally jacked. He didn't. Simply he did find some time to review plenty of fettle trackers, tablets, and other cool gadgets. Outside of the office, you tin can observe him at the concluding seat at the bar, where he'll exist commenting anonymously on an Indianapolis Colts blog.