Should you upgrade? Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Samsung Galaxy S7

Today, Samsung officially unveiled the glorious new Galaxy S8, which brings froth a stunning design and a slew of attractive new features and accessories. At this moment Galaxy S7 owners are probably wondering – should they make an investment and buy the new device or should they hold on to Samsung’s now previous-gen flagship for a while longer?

The big question is  – does the Galaxy S8 bring enough to the table to make you shout “Shut up and take my money” wholeheartedly? We hope this article gives you an idea of whether you should buy or skip the Galaxy S8.

Design

With the Galaxy S8, Samsung has completely overhauled the Galaxy S design language you were accustomed to. For starters, the Galaxy S8 comes with a dual curved display in the vein of the Galaxy S7 edge. Secondly, the phone ditches the well known physical home button of Samsung flagships. It also has almost nonexistent bezels on the side, while the top and bottom ones have been slimmed down considerably.

However, because it has removed the physical home button, Samsung has now positioned the fingerprint scanner on the back of the device – specifically to the right side of the main camera. But this detail might not fly with a lot of customers, because the positioning of the fingerprint authentication system is simply quite awkward.

The Galaxy S7 is a tad wider and slimmer than the Galaxy S8, coming in at 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm, while the Galaxy S8’s measurements are 148.9 x 68.1 x 8.0 mm. The new phone is a bit also a bit heavier (155 g) than its predecessor (152 g).

Display

5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with 2560 x 1440 resolution vs 5.8-inch Super AMOLED “Infinity Display” with 2960 x 1440 resolution

16:9 vs 18.5:9

577ppi vs 570ppi

Certainly one of the most appealing features of the Galaxy S8 is the edge-to-edge Infinity Display. Samsung squeezed a 5.8-inch display into a phone chassis smaller to the Galaxy S7 (a phone with a 5.1-inch display). With the bizarre 18:5:9 aspect ratio onboard, the Galaxy S8’s display is visibly taller than the 16:8 screen of the Galaxy S7. Samsung says the Galaxy S8 has a screen-to-body ratio of 83%, while the LG G6 only has an 80% ratio. The combination of impressive screen-to-body ratio, minimal bezels and lack of home button means that Galaxy S8 customers will get more screen real-estate to run their apps on.

Unlike the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S8 has an on-screen home button with a pressure-sensitive panel and haptic feedback in the vein of Apple’s 3D Touch that can be found in the iPhone 6s and 7. Another selling point of the Galaxy S8 is that it supports HDR10 playback (like the Galaxy Note7 used to have). Even if the format  is not widely available yet, it’s still something nice to have, especially since it will probably go mainstream soon.

So if you’re looking for a phone with a great display, the Galaxy S8 certainly looks more appealing than the Galaxy S7. However, if you’re not a fan of curved displays you’re out of luck this year, as Samsung won’t be releasing a flat Galaxy S8.

Performance

Snapdragon 835 vs Exynos 8890

Adreno540 vs Mali-T880 MP12

4GB of RAM vs 4GB of RAM

64GB of internal storage vs 32GB/64GB of internal storage

The Sony Xperia XZ Premium is practically the first smartphone announced with Snapdragon 835 onboard. However, it seems at this point that the Galaxy S8 will make it out on the market before the Sony Xperia phone which is expected to land in retail on June 1.

So basically, as this moment the Galaxy S8 is the fastest phone you’ll be able to find around. Interestingly enough, Samsung hasn’t upgraded RAM capacity, so the Galaxy S8 relies on the same 4GB of RAM as its predecessor. However standard built-in storage has been upgraded to 64GB. Both the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S7 feature microSD card slots which allow for memory expansion up to 256GB.

Cameras

12MP main camera with f/1.7, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash vs 12MP main camera with f/1.7, phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash

8MP selfie camera with f/1.7, autofocus, auto HDR vs 5MP with f/1.7, auto HDR

As for photography, the Galaxy S8 doesn’t bring a lot of improvements, which is not necessarily a bad thing, given that the Galaxy S7 had one of the most advanced shooters on the market, but it would have been nice to see Samsung strive for evolution in this department. Since the Galaxy S7 launched, other phones like the Google Pixel have managed to take the smartphone photography crown.

Still Samsung has bumped up the selfie camera on the Galaxy S8 from 5MP to 8MP and added autofocus in the process as well.

Software

Android 7.0 Nougat with Samsung Experience vs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with TouchWiz UI

With the Galaxy S8, Samsung brings a redesigned, cleaner and sleeker-looking TouchWiz which was renamed to Samsung Experience. Since the physical button has been removed, Samsung has added three on-screen buttons on the Galaxy S8 which feature custom designs – which you will either love or hate. It’s that simple, as it all boils down to personal aesthetic preference. But the good news is that if you are among the displeased, you will be able to reverse the layout of the navigation buttons to Google’s stock.

The Samsung Experience UI on the Galaxy S8 is based on Android 7.0 Nougat and the Galaxy S7 is also upgradable to Nougat.

Other features

The Galaxy S8 comes with the virtual assistant Bixby – which is a first for a Samsung device. The phone even comes with button dedicated to Bixby, so customers can launch it more easily. For the time being Bixby is pretty limited, but Samsung has promised users they will be able to do everything they normally do via voice commands.

The Galaxy S8 is also compatible with an impressive slew of accessories including a Samsung Gear VR headset, Gear 360 (2017) camera, DeX dock which turns the phone into a desktop and high-performance earphones offered by AKG by Harman. The Galaxy S7 is also compatible with a Gear VR headset.

The Galaxy S8 relies on a 3,000 mAh battery with Fast Charging on wired and wireless Wireless Charging compatible with WPC and PMA, while the Galaxy S7 relies on a power box of the same capacity.

The Galaxy S8 has an iris scanner, fingerprint and face authentication systems, while the Galaxy S7 relies on only on a fingerprint sensor. Both handsets are IP68 certified.

Conclusion

The novelty factor might be the first thing that draws you to the Galaxy S8. Then there’s the beautiful design, elongated display and all new Snapdragon 835 processor. However, the handset does retain the same amount of RAM and has basically the same camera setup. Still if you want the virtual assistant experience on your phone, you’ll get a Galaxy S8. If you want to turn your phone into a desktop computer, you’ll also get the Galaxy S8.

Nevertheless, Galaxy S8 pricing specifications might give you a bad case of cold feet. Although yet to be announced, the Galaxy S8 pricing should easily jump over the $800 margin. As for the Galaxy S7 this is actually a very good time to purchase one, as the handset is on sale. If you’re lucky you might be able to get it with a big discount.