Android

Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S7: What Buyers Need to Know

Published

7 years ago

03/31/2017

Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S7: Specs

An important thing for many buyers is the spec sheet. Of course being a year newer means it is more powerful, but that isn't all.

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 probably this summer. It's the best Android available. Here's the numbers.

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 bigger yet the battery is the same size as last years S7. Although with Nougat, the screen and software we should get similar or better battery performance. 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 from 2016, but its a marked improvement in enough spaces to warrant an upgrade for some. Myself included.

Galaxy S7 Specs

5.1-inch 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
3,000 mAh battery with fast and wireless charging
Always-On Display
Micro-USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, more

As you can see the Galaxy S7 is still great. It has plenty to offer, fast performance, but just doesn't have as big of a screen or as much storage. And although both have the same rear camera the S8 has a better front shooter, and improved software that should make the camera experience better on the new phone.

Don't get me wrong, the Galaxy S7 is still worth having. But getting the big new Galaxy S8 is probably the best choice.