Alternatively, Samsung’s phone has dual-pixel technology, meaning it can focus rapidly.
Both phones have front facing cameras too, though Apple has stepped up its game significantly – the selfie snapper on the iPhone 7 is a 7 megapixel sensor, whereas the Galaxy S7’s is 5mp.
Performance, battery life and hardware
This year’s new iPhone gets an all-new chipset. Called the A10 Fusion, Apple claims that it’s 40 per cent faster than the A9 you’ll find in the iPhone 6S and that it’s also more efficient. The A10 is a quad core processor. Two of the cores deal with low power tasks like refreshing apps in the background and receiving messages, while the other two come to life for more demanding tasks.
As such, Apple claims that this new iPhone has better battery life than its predecessor by around two hours – that’s 14 hours of talk time and about 40 hours of music.
In the UK, Samsung’s phone uses an octa-core Exynos 8890 chip mated to 4GB RAM. On paper, it means that the Galaxy S7 is an immensely powerful smartphone, though as [3] Expert Reviews points out, Apple’s phones are usually highly optimised. On paper, the S7 is stronger, but the iPhone’s efficiency could win out.
The S7 will probably last longer though – Samsung claims a 22-hour talk time for its top end smartphone. Unlike older Samsung phones, the battery is not removable.
Both phones have fingerprint scanners embedded in their home buttons and come equipped with NFC chips for Apple Pay and Android Pay abilities.
In terms of storage, Apple’s new iPhone is offered with 32GB, 128GB, or 256GB of on board memory. The Galaxy S7 can be bought with 32GB or 64GB, though there’s a Micro SD card slot that accepts memory cards up to 256GB in size.
One of the most controversial hardware omissions on the new iPhone is the headphone jack. You can either use Lightning port ready headphones or the adaptor bundled with the phone to listen to music.
Prices
Samsung’s phone has been on the market for six months now and is priced from £569, cheaper than the iPhone 7, which starts at £599 for the basic handset with 32GB storage.
A £30 difference isn’t that much when both phones are priced comfortably towards £600, but ramping up the specs on your iPhone 7 could make it a very expensive proposition indeed - the 256GB version is priced from £799. A Galaxy S7 with a separate 256GB Micro SD card works out a lot cheaper.