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

Camera, Storage & Battery Life

We touched on this a moment ago, but more details should help buyers understand the differences. The Galaxy S7 Edge has 32GB of storage and a micro-SD slot. Many run out of space, even with transferring apps to the SD card and being cautious. It's frustrating. 

With the Galaxy S8 and S8+ you'll get double, with 64GB, and a microSD slot that can extend storage to over 300GB total. This is a move that many will appreciate. 

Last year Samsung made a big change to the camera. Going down from a 16 megapixel camera to a 12 Dual Pixel sensor in the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. It had a larger sensor that captured more light, a fast f/1.7 aperture, and used all the pixels to have one of the fastest auto-focus systems on the market. The results were one of the best smartphone cameras ever released. Often beating out the iPhone in independent tests. 

From what we can tell the Galaxy S8 is using the exact same camera sensor. So the camera experience might not be vastly different, but it will be better. Samsung made a few small changes to improve performance, auto-focus and low light photography. Not to mention made tweaks to the software and processing to deliver better photos. One area that did change is the front selfie camera. It went from 5MP in the S7 to 8MP in the Galaxy S8. It takes better photos and video, has a fast f/1.7 aperture, wide angle and should be one of the best phones for Snapchat. 

The S7 Edge has a 5.5-inch screen and a 3,600 mAh battery. It's one of the best phones I've used in terms of battery life, except for maybe the Pixel XL. 

The 6.2-inch Galaxy S8+ has a smaller 3,500 mAh battery, like the Note 7. Many may be concerned about that, as am I. Samsung states it should get nearly the same battery life, if not more. That's because Android 7.0 Nougat is more efficient, as is the new AMOLED display, the Snapdragon 835 processor, and software tweaks like Doze to put apps in a low sleep state. Not to mention extremely fast USB Type-C charging will have you from 0-80% in 35 minutes. Battery life won't be an issue on the Galaxy S8+. 

However, the 3,000 mAh battery inside the regular S8 has me a little more concerned about using it "all day".