Galaxy S7 vs. Galaxy S6: Should You Really Upgrade?

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Samsung Galaxy S7 sales are off to an impressive start. The company seems to have listened to consumers and brought back the microSD card slot and waterproofing capabilities. It is indeed a stunning device that delivers powerful performance. However, do you really need to upgrade to the S7 if you own the last year’s Galaxy S6? Let’s take a look at what you’ll get by upgrading to Galaxy S7.

 

What’s new in Galaxy S7?

From the outside, the S7 looks identical to its predecessor. But there are a few changes, mostly internal ones. The Galaxy S7’s metal frame is more rounded than the slightly angular S6. Samsung’s new phone is waterproof and dustproof to IP68 standards. That means it can survive 30 minutes in 1.5m of water.

Next, the S7 has a bigger, but nonremovable battery. It comes with a 3,000mAh battery, which is 17% bigger than the 2,550mAh battery pack in the S6. A microSD slot means you can upgrade the internal storage from the default 32GB or 64GB.

In terms of performance, the Galaxy S7 comes with a Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890 SoC. Samsung claims its latest smartphone is 30% faster than the last year’s Galaxy S6 that was equipped with an octa-core Exynos 7420 processor.

The Galaxy S7 also features always-on display so you can check time and notifications while the screen is turned off. Among other things, it brings you slightly better images in low light conditions, faster wireless charging, faster fingerprint recognition, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

 What’s the same?

Both devices have the same 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with the same 577ppi pixel density. Both boast of the same aluminum chassis with glass front and back panels. In fact, your current Galaxy S6 is slightly thinner and lighter (132g) than the Galaxy S7 (152g).

As you can see, there are small improvements in the Galaxy S7, but none gives you a strong reason to choose it over the S6. Stick to your current Galaxy S6 unless you need expandable storage or slightly more processing power for virtual reality applications.

 

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