If you’ve been keeping track, then you must be seeing lots of debate raging online about Samsung Galaxy S8 vs. Apple iPhone 7 – about which has the better camera, performs faster, gives more bang for the buck and so on. Of course, be sure to read our Part 1 of the article where we discussed aspects such as the basics, specs, design, display, camera and certain other innovations. Its interesting to note that in all of those aspects, except the display (which we feel was almost 50-50), the S8 took the winning prize. So it seems the Apple iPhone 7 has a lot of catching up to do if it has to win the Samsung vs. Apple battle. Let’s continue –
Hardware & Performance –
Last year’s iPhone 7 houses an A10 Fusion chip which honestly was the best performing smartphone CPU beating out all Android top-end offerings in terms of benchmarks. Also the fact that the iPhone 7 bested the iPhone 6s’ CPU scores by 40% was truly astounding. Although the iPhone 7 has a mere 2GB RAM, it never posed a deterrent in terms of pure performance.
Now in comparison, the Galaxy S8 has a Snapdragon 835, a top-of-the-line Qualcomm chip manufactured with the 10-nanometer process. It also has double the RAM of the iPhone 7 at 4GB. The result? We found that the Galaxy S8 to be the fastest performing Android smartphone in the market today – where it beat all competition in the Geekbench 4 Multi-core testing benchmark.
Although it’s difficult to compare the performance here because of different operating systems, we honestly feel the S8 is more future-ready and taking the lead with improvements and upgrades to Android Nougat OS.
Storage & Expandability –
Apple has always been stingy when it comes to offering customers more storage space for less price. The iPhone 7 is no different as you can get any of the three storage options: 32GB, 128GB, 256GB, with each one being priced much higher for essentially the same phone. Also there is no option for storage expansion via microSD as it has been historically with all Apple iPhones. Why aren’t we surprised? The S8 on the other hand just makes it presence with a single version of 64GB model. However you can expand its memory by up to 256GB which is what we love.
Battery –
The S8 offers a 3,000mAh battery, which was the same one offered in last year’s Galaxy S7 flat edition. Compared to that the iPhone 7’s 1,960mAh battery seems paltry and annoying. Having said that, it’s interesting to note that both phones can last a full day of normal use, which is due to the fact that iOS 10 is more power efficient; and also the iPhone 7 has a smaller screen and lower resolution. Where it gets interesting is the Galaxy S8 offers wireless charging as well as fast charging capabilities which the iPhone 7 lacks.
Other Addons –
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The iPhone 7 lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack, but you still get a Lightening to 3.5mm jack so you may use your preferred headphone with it. With the S8, you get a 3.5mm AKG in-ear headphones in the box. The S8 also teases us with their proprietary virtual reality Gear VR; with a new model coming up to take advantage of the S8 and touch remote. There is also the Samsung DeX Station that can turn your S8 into your own personal computer by allowing you to connect it with an external monitor. This is quite impressive as Apple does not currently does not own any such accessory for its iPhone. The S8 also beats the iPhone 7 in terms of water dust/water proof ratings as the S8 has a stronger IP68 rating compared to the IP67 rating of the iPhone 7.
Price –
You can pick up the iPhone 7 starting from $649 for the 32GB variant and going all the way to $849 for the 256GB variant (SIM-free). While the S8 can be had for $726 for the 64GB variant. The similarly priced 64GB variant of the iPhone 7 costs $749, so it’s still cheaper. Although we would have liked a much lower pricing for the Galaxy S8, we believe it still offers a lot better price-performance ratio than the iPhone 7 and wins us over with its innovation and better features. However the real choice comes down to the decision of being absorbed into the Android platform or the iOS platform. People may be hardcore fans of either of those, and we respect their opinions. But when it comes to sheer innovation, design, top-of-the-line performance and being future-proof, the Galaxy S8 has come out a clear winner.
