Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Galaxy S7 Edge

Price

The Samsung Galaxy S7 (above left) is cheaper than the Galaxy S7 Edge (above left), available to buy at £569 and £639 respectively.

Colour

There’s an extra colour option for the Samsung S7 Edge, which comes in Silver Titanium. Both are available in Black Onyx and Gold Platinum.

Display

The key difference between the S7 and S7 Edge is that the S7 Edge has a larger, dual-edge screen. While both feature Quad-HD (2560x1440) Super AMOLED panels, with new always-on technology that makes it easier to see notifications or the time at a glance, the 5.1in S7 is smaller than the 5.5in S7 Edge. This means the S7 has the higher pixel density, with 577ppi against the Edge’s 534ppi, though both are very high.

The dual-edge screen on the Galaxy S7 Edge is used to display notifications and provide shortcuts to your most frequently used apps.

Dimensions

Unsurprisingly, given the differences in screen size, the 150.9x72.6x7.7mm, 157g Galaxy S7 Edge is larger and heavier than the 142.4x69.6x7.9mm, 152g Samsung Galaxy S7.

Battery

Extra room inside the case allows for a larger battery for the S7 Edge. Fans were disappointed by the non-removable battery in the Galaxy S6 and, while it’s still fixed inside the S7’s metal and glass body, the capacity has seen a useful bump. You’ll find a 3000mAh battery inside the S7, and 3600mAh in the Edge. Both support fast- and WPC/PMA wireless charging, and use Micro-USB rather than USB-C.

Similarities

Everything else is the same for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, from the core processor and storage to the cameras and connectivity features.

We’ll start with one of the highlights: 32GB of internal storage, plus microSD support up to 200GB. This feature was removed (to much dismay) from the Galaxy S6, but here it returns to both the S7 and S7 Edge, along with another sought after feature: IP68 dust- and waterproof protection. Samsung’s latest Galaxy S-series smartphones will survive up to half an hour at depths of up to 1.5m.

Which processor powers the S7 and S7 Edge depends on your region, but you’ll find one of two chips: the quad-core (2x 2.15GHz and 2x 1.6GHz) Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, which comes with Adreno 530 graphics, or Samsung’s own octacore (4x 2.3GHz and 4x 1.6GHz) Exynos 8890. This is paired with 4GB of LP-DDR4 RAM in both smartphones.

The 12Mp primary camera on paper looks like a downgrade over the 16Mp snapper in the Galaxy S6, but Samsung uses larger pixels and an f/1.7 aperture to allow in 95 percent more light. This f/1.7 aperture is also used for the 5Mp selfie camera.

Both phones run Android 6.0 Marshmallow with TouchWiz and support LTE Cat 9 networks (depending on your region), dualband 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC (Samsung Pay is coming to the UK in 2016), GPS and the usual array of sensors, including the fingerprint sensor and heart-rate sensor seen in the S6 and S6 Edge.

Verdict

So there you have it: the S7 Edge differs from the standard Galaxy S7 with its larger, dual-edge screen, higher-capacity battery and extra colour option. It sounds great, but the cheaper price and smaller dimensions of the standard Samsung Galaxy S7 may make the Edge your second-best. Marie Brewis

Specifications

Samsung Galaxy S7 5.1in Quad HD IPS (1440x2560) Android 6.0 Marshmallow Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor 4GB RAM 32GB storage MicroSD card slot (up to 200GB) 12Mp rear camera with f/1.7 5Mp front camera 11ac dual-band Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO Bluetooth 4.2