Samsung Galaxy S8+ vs Apple iPhone 7 Plus: Which is Better?

Lets face it, Samsung’s upcoming flagships, the S8 and S8+ look gorgeous (from the front at least) compared to most other phones in the market.

The only direct competition in terms of specifications, price and sales is offered by Apple’s own iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The bigger phones from both companies offer the best in specifications so a comparison between the two is warranted.

Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S8+ and the Apple iPhone 7 Plus compare:

Design

Design wise the winner is obvious, as the Galaxy S8 Plus’ looks are far better than the iPhone 7 Plus. It features an edge to edge infinity display that melds with the glass back which looks stunning to say the least. Couple this with the tiny top and bottom bezels on the front and the result is a much more appealing design.

Check Product: Samsung S8 Plus

Apple rarely tinkers with a winning formula and it hasn’t changed the iPhone 7 Plus’ looks since the original iPhone 6 Plus which was announced more than two years ago. The overall design is very similar with minor changes like the antenna bands moving towards the frame of the phone instead of covering the top and bottom of the iPhone’s back.

One interesting point to note is that the Galaxy S8+ is 4.5mm smaller in terms of width, compared to the iPhone 7 Plus, despite sporting a 0.7-inch larger display. The rest of the dimensions are nearly the same despite such a huge difference in screen size.

You also get an iris scanner alongside water and dust resistance in the S8+ (the latter is available in the iPhone 7 Plus). Galaxy S8+ gets an IP68 rating while the iPhone 7 Plus has an IP67 rating. The digital assistant could be a mixed bag for the S8+ as Apple’s Siri is old and well worn compared to the new and untested Bixby.

Another major difference between the two is the inclusion of a headphone jack in the S8 Plus.

Display

With the S8+, you get a 6.2 inch Quad HD+ (1440 x 2960) Super AMOLED screen with 529 ppi pixel density. iPhone 7 Plus on the other hand features a 5.5 inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LCD Retina display with 401 ppi pixel density.

For those who don’t know a “retina” display has just enough pixel density so that the individual pixels are indistinguishable with the naked eye over a certain distance.

Samsung has the advantage on the display side due to a Super AMOLED screen which features deeper blacks and more vibrant colors. It comes down to personal preference for AMOLED and IPS LCD screens, however, it doesn’t end here. The S8 and S8+ also feature 10-bit HDR support allowing Samsung to have a leg up in terms of colors and shadow definition on screen.

Internals and Storage

For the iPhone 7 Plus you get a Quad-core 2.34 GHz (2x Hurricane + 2x Zephyr) Apple A10 Fusion chip with 3 GB of RAM. On the storage side of things you have the option of 32/128/256 GB sans expandable storage.

The Galaxy S8+ will have two different SoC options:

  • Octa-core (4x 2.35 GHz Kryo & 4x 1.9 GHz Kryo) Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (US model)
  • Octa-core (4x 2.3 GHz & 4x 1.7 GHz) Exynos 8895 Octa (international model)

It will have 4 GB RAM with 64 GB of UFS 2.1 internal storage as well as expandable storage of up to 256 GB via a microSD card or a faster UFS memory card. Some markets will also get 6 GB RAM variants with 128 GB of storage.

Raw performance-wise you can count on Samsung’s phone to deliver better results compared with the iPhone 7 Plus. Day to day performance on the other hand will not be very different thanks to optimizations for the iOS in the Apple phone.

Detailed comparison will be available after the Galaxy S8+ is released.

Camera

Samsung skipped on a newer/better image sensor for the S8 and S8 Plus’ cameras. They feature the same image sensor used in last year’s S7 and S7 Edge – a 12 MP, f/1.7 unit with optical image stabilization and dual-pixel phase detection auto focus. The improvements were made to the camera software and post processing of images.

The iPhone 7 Plus has a dual camera setup offering 2x optical zoom and bokeh effect in portrait mode. Overall the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus’ cameras don’t have any major differences except for the zoom offered in the latter.

Samsung has the lead here as well because last year’s S7 Edge offered better camera quality/performance compared to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Add the minor improvements made to the camera software for the S8 and S8+ this year, and we have ourselves a winner in the camera department.

Battery and Release Price

The iPhone 7 Plus has a 2,900 mAh battery which is pretty good for a phone with a 5.5 inch 1080p screen. Samsung Galaxy S8+ on the other hand has a 3,500 mAh battery which seems kind of small for a 6.2 inch QHD+ screen. Comparing it the Galaxy S7 Edge which featured a 3,600 mAh unit with a 5.5 inch QHD display, it could be mean a smaller overall battery life for the S8+, however, the new phone uses newer processor chips built using a 10 nm process, which should consume less power.

The competition here, between the S8+and the iPhone 7 Plus, could be close as the Apple phone does feature a good battery for its screen size and resolution.

At release the iPhone 7 Plus cost:

  • $769 for the 32 GB model
  • $869 for 128 GB
  • $969 for 256 GB

The S8+ will cost $850 and will come in a 64 GB variant only (128GB in certain markets). Comparing the price of the 128 GB iPhone 7 Plus is fair as you get expandable storage on the S8 Plus. The S8 Plus wins here by a hair’s breadth. If you want to know about all the Apple mobiles, here’s a list of the latest Apple mobiles price in Pakistan and their specs.

Apple iPhone 7 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S8+

For Galaxy S8+

  • Better design (edge to edge display with tiny bezels)
  • Better display (QHD+ with Mobile HDR Premium vs FHD Retina)
  • More RAM (4 GB vs 3 GB)
  • Better in raw performance
  • Better camera
  • Better storage option (expandable vs no memory card slot)
  • IP 68 water and dust resistance (IP 67 in iPhone 7 Plus)

For iPhone 7 Plus

  • Better optimizations for iOS compared with Android
  • Siri better than Bixby
  • Cheaper variant available compared to S8+
  • Smooth day to day performance

A techie, gamer, and Senior Editor at ProPakistani.


  • at one point this article says 32/64/128Gs of storage options for iPhone 7+!!!? & then in next para it says 256Gs!! YEH KHULLA TAZAD KIS LIYE?? & also.. Samdung WINS every test! Even the Camera one????? #Taahhhaaaaaaa

  • But you forgot to add the most important point… iphone iphone hai ?? its a status symbol and there is nothing samsung can do about it.

  • > Siri better than Bixby

    And you know this how?

    > Smooth day to day performance

    Implying the Samsung phone isn’t smooth.

    Apple fanboy detected

    • It isn’t bias, it is logic. If standards of one thing surpass anothers’ then of course it’s better.

      • > Siri better than Bixby

        At this point, without having any experience whatsoever with the latter, this statement is a total fallacy.

        I’m sure there are going to be lots of comparisons between the voice assistants once reviewers get their hands on the device. But for now, saying one is better than the other is absolutely absurd. Just from the demonstrations, it looks like Bixby does a lot of things Siri can’t.

      • Logic depends on facts and facts are based on evidence (actual observations and experiments). So the question is what evidence has been presented in this article which leads to the two conclusions about Siri and the day to day performance?

    • So you’re saying you ignored everything else and read the last bit about iPhone 7 Plus? ok

      • Actually I did. Just wasn’t sure if I was supposed to take anything you said in the body seriously when you’re making contradicting remarks at the end.

        Jumping from “The digital assistant could be a mixed bag for the S8+ as Apple’s Siri is old and well worn compared to the new and untested Bixby.” to conclusively declaring Siri to be better is quite a leap don’t you think?

        Also “smooth day to day performance” isn’t an advantage of iPhone over the Galaxy, so it shouldn’t even be on the list.

        Good effort but try harder. I’ll suggest getting rid of that bias first and foremost. As a reviewer, you should be completely objective, rather than be driven by your emotions.

        • This isn’t a review, its a general comparison based on what is known about the two phones.

          Siri is, as i said, tried and tested. Bixby hasn’t been fully tested and is very limited at this point (works with 10 or so apps for now) so its obvious why i would declare Siri to be the winner. Bixby can however be better than Siri, but I can only tell when the phone is released.

          Smooth day to day performance is again only until the S8 is tested over 2-3 months to see if its day to day performance deteriorates over time (happens with some Samsung phones). The iPhone 7’s performance however (at least in my experience) doesn’t get worse with time.

          • To give you guys an overview of the situation because people want to know. We don’t cater specifically to a certain “Mr. Viscous” now do we?

      • It seems that you cannot endure any valid criticism of the stuff you have written, based on your comment directed at @tahanajam:disqus.

        I also think that it does not make sense at all that you have declared ‘smooth day to day performance’ as an advantage of the Iphone even though the S8+ has not been released to the public yet. It would have made some sense if you had been somehow present at the S8+ unveiling in New York, brought an Iphone 7 plus along with you, compared it to the S8+ side by side and then discovered that the iphone performed better. But even then the statement would have been wrong since ‘day to day’ performance can be compared only through use over the course of atleast several days.

        So basically the argument is how you came to this particular conclusion without actually using and comparing the phones side by side.

        • It seems you guys totally lack general technical knowledge about the android phones, android no matter which brand it’s running on has some limitation, it will slow down with time it will hang once in a while after installing a lot of apps, it is not very well optimized for multitasking so you will get out of ram sooner or later and phone will hang, you will face battery issues because the processes in the background fails to close themselves on time.

          I think writer was mentioning the core android issues when comparing performance which every android phone will have no matter what hardware its running on, and Samsung is famous for its bloat ware, and this phone is no different.

          I have used a lot of high end android phones including Samsung, still own huawei mate 9 and love it but when it comes to performance and reliability nothing can beat iPhone 7 plus which is my daily driver.

          • I am well aware of the performance issues of android you are talking about and agree that the Iphone is generally more consistent in its performace as compared to phones running Android. This does not mean however that Iphones are totally immune to these issues. In fact, it has been documented that older versions of the Iphones have had issues especially on newer versions of iOS.

            In android’s case, the problem is because of the phone manufacturers especially Samsung whose bloatware and Touchwiz UI are guaranteed to lead to performance issues. Some exceptions are OnePlus with Oxygen OS and HTC with Sense UI, whose recent phones have almost stock android.

            The phones which do have stock android like the Google Nexus and Pixel phones are definitely the best in terms of performance. The premium Google Pixel phones have been declared by most reviewers as the best android phones and are being considered in the same bracket as the Iphone 7. And its no surprise because you get stock android in a phone directly from Google just like you get iOS in an Iphone from Apple.

        • Its not criticism its biased judgement. He didn’t even read my previous statement comparing Bixby with Siri:
          “The digital assistant could be a mixed bag for the S8+ as Apple’s Siri is old and well worn compared to the new and untested Bixby.”
          Siri only has the advantage until Bixby is fully tested and its limitations are properly gauged.

          As for the day to day performance, the S8+ will need to be tested over the course of 2-3 months to determine whether or not its day to day performance holds up over time or not. I admit it was more of a judgement call and not an objective comparison.

          • He did mention in his other comment about you making a ‘leap’ from that statement to the conclusion. I agree with that opinion and don’t think it is biased at all.

            It is true that Bixby does have limited functionality at this point (like you mentioned in the other comment), but to be fair it has just been released. So I think it makes sense for it to become more mature and start performing to its full potential before being compared to Siri.

            You did not take into consideration the fact that the S8+ also has Google Assistant, which is as good as Siri (if not better). So even if Bixby is not good enough at the moment, users have the option to use Google Assistant. This takes care of the argument that the S8+ does not have as good a virtual assistant as the Iphone.

            I will however give you credit for admitting that the performance comparison was not objective from your side.

            • I compared Siri with Bixby only. Of course if you bring Google Assistant in this argument then Siri would lose, at least in my opinion.

  • currently Samsung is the best but Huawei is just behind Samsung it will overtake samsung very soon.
    Huawei Mate 9 Pro is better than samsung s8+

  • [quote]”For those who don’t know a “retina” display has just enough pixel
    density so that the individual pixels are indistinguishable with the
    naked eye over a certain distance.”[/quote]

    “”” for those who don’t know””” retina is just a moniker! not a technology, early days when iPhone had 300ppi they gave it a name.

  • S8 is revolutionary and comes with a bundle of technological updates both hardware and software. Bezelless infinity display with HDR+ resolution, Snapdragon 835, 64 GB standard with expandable fast storage upto 256 GB, 4GB RAM,4 biometric security features, IP68 certified, 3.5mm Jack, USB Type C, IR blaster, Intelligent image processing (the camera takes multiple shots when you click once and joins the best part of the images and reproduces the best memory), S8 plus 6.2 Inch screen is smaller and lighter than Iphone 7 plus, Fast and Wireless Charging….S8 and S8 plus have much smaller footprints than phones of smaller screen sizes….

    However the IPHONE 7 is a slow laggy phone with no innovation at all, in 2017 giving only Full HD resolution, a much much smaller battery, which takes around 3 hours to charge completely, with ugly DUAL camera design, only 3 GIGS of RAM , No SD card slot, also the 3.5 mm jack removed,
    Any person who says Apples has no lag is a LIAR, i have used Iphone 5, 6 , 6 plus, 7 and 7 Plus, all have lag and unresponsive behavior and above all the durability of these phones is questionable, with a slight fall they break, plus accessories are so expensive that one could buy a separate android phone with 4 gigs of RAM easily… the only thing apple does is that they reproduce the same technology that has already been used by other manufacturers and calls it innovation and apple fans believes them, because trust me if you have money doesnt necessarily mean that you have brains or an eye for tech

    Samsung is striving to provide the best to the customer, however Apple is doing nothing at all and just calling everything as innovation.


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