Android

Galaxy S8+ vs Galaxy S7 Edge: Worth the Upgrade?

Published

7 years ago

04/03/2017

Galaxy S8+ vs S7 Edge: Specs

Being a year newer means the specifications are improved. But how much, and is it enough to warrant an upgrade? We're not sure. The Galaxy S8 is certainly the most powerful smartphone of 2017 so far, and the best Galaxy, but see for yourself below.

Samsung is using a new 10nm fabrication for the quad-core processor making it extremely small, battery efficient and powerful. However, they took all the Snapdragon 835 chips for the first half of the year, so no phone will match its performance until this summer.

Galaxy S8 Specifications

5.8 and 6.2-inch 2960 x 1440 Quad-HD AMOLED Curved Displays
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or Samsung Exynos Processor (outside US)
64GB of internal storage (Micro-SD slot included) and 4GB RAM
Android 7.0 Nougat with Samsung TouchWiz
12 Dualpixel Rear Camera - OIS, phase detection auto-focus, f/1.7 aperture
8 megapixel front camera with auto focus, f/1.7 aperture
Fingerprint & Iris Scanner, facial scanner for unlocking
IP68 dust & water resistance
3,000 and 3,500 mAh battery with Fast & Wireless Charging
Improved Always-On Display
Samsung Pay
Bixby Virtual Assistant
USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, more

The screen is huge but the battery is actually smaller than the Galaxy S7 Edge, but more on that in a minute. The storage was doubled from 32 to 64GB, which is nice. Adding an SD means owners can have over 300GB of storage in total.

Overall it isn't a huge increase over the flagship Galaxy S7 Edge from 2016, but its a marked improvement in enough places than many want Samsung's new phone.

Galaxy S7 Edge Specs

5.5-inch 2560 x 1440 Quad-HD AMOLED Display
Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM (Or Exynos)
32GB of storage and a microSD slot
Android 6.0 Marshmallow (Now on Android 7.0 Nougat)
12 DualPixel Camera with OIS, f/1.7 aperture and more
5MP front camera
Fingerprint scanner on front
IP68 dust and water resistant
3,600 mAh battery with fast and wireless charging
Always-On Display
Micro-USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, more

As you can see the Galaxy S7 Edge is still a powerhouse device. It has plenty to offer, fast performance, but doesn't have as big of a screen or as much storage. It's worth stating that both have essentially the same camera, although Samsung reportedly made some software changes and improved processing. So the S8 should technically have a slightly better camera experience.

At the end of the day the S7 Edge is still a phone many will enjoy for years to come. There's nothing major that is a "must-have" with the S8+, except for maybe Bixby and the bigger screen. S7 Edge owners aren't missing out on much if they don't upgrade.