[Samsung Galaxy S7 Guides, News, & Discussion] the Doctor:
I know, this seems like a no-brainer: Two-year old Chinese upstart’s first device vs. the 7th generation Samsung Galaxy flagship phone. But here’s why: I sold my S4 and skipped the S5 & S6 because the OnePlus was

that good

, and back then the motto “Flagship Killer” was no exaggeration. And after having the S7 for a week now, I realize that I could have been pretty content pressing on with my OPO—it’s still that good. But I wouldn’t go back, and here’s why:

DESIGN

When I unboxed the OPO it blew me away. The unboxing experience was amazing for a $350 Chinese device, from the quality of the packaging materials, quality of the accessories (even the SIM tray ejector tool!) and the device itself looked amazing. I had unboxed the S3 and S4—this was better by 100 miles! The S7 unboxing experience wasn’t nearly as good as the OPO, just meh... another typical Samsung box with a cool flap that has a magnetic lock.

But when I put the two devices side-by-side, the OPO feels well... merely good whereas before it felt amazing. The S7 takes it up several notches and is absolutely stunning to look at and stunning to touch! If they made a Braille version for blind people, I know they’d love it!

S7

clearly

wins over the OPO which is saying a lot.

DURABILITY

I don’t use cases, usually don’t use screen protectors and I don’t drop my phones. In two years, my OPO has taken one fall from the seat of my Tacoma onto rough pavement. That fall merely scuffed a corner before the phone landed face-first on the glass with no discernible scratches. If that had happened to the S7... :eek:

In favor of the S7, it has an IP68 rating which the OPO doesn’t. But, since I won’t treat even my S7 like a bath toy, the best moisture protection available is something both devices have—a careful owner.

OPO wins over the S7, which is totally expected.

Don’t drop a glass & metal sandwich expecting great things

!

DISPLAY

I’m fine with anything above 1080P. I have extremely good near-sighted vision and can occasionally discern pixels on the OPO, though it’s not a bother. So the S7 earns a hollow victory on this front if you ask me.

But I’ve missed SuperAMOLED, and the S7 reminds me why—the deep blacks extracted from a nearby black hole, better color saturation, and yawning viewing angles that are tough to beat.

Both are capable of great color accuracy. My July 2014 OPO doesn’t have the yellow band issue found in many early production models.

In favor of the OPO, it does have good enough viewing angles, but the best thing is that there is very little color shift (none?) at even deep viewing angles. As soon as an AMOLED screen goes off-center, the colors shift blue-green. Not so with the LCD on the OPO, though there is a significant drop in brightness.

S7 easily over OPO, though LCD does have its advantages.

AUDIO

A weakness of the OPO but a strength of the S7. The DAC (at least in the Exynos version) of the S7 is great and the speaker is by far better.

S7 over the OPO.

BATTERY LIFE

No contest here: The OPO is better than the S7 by a long-shot (maybe 25-35%) with a similar usage pattern. I know this isn’t very scientific, but I’m on the charger a lot more with the S7. It’s DEFINITELY better than the S3, S4 and Nexus 5 I had before the OPO. Both devices charge really fast, but the S7 is a bit faster.

OPO clearly over the S7, but the S7 is good enough for me.

CAMERA

Absolutely no contest here either. In low light, the S7 absolutely kills and buries the OPO. In high contrast situations, the HDR on the S7 is also miles beyond what the OPO is capable of. The fast focus on the S7 makes the OPO camera seem like jurassic technology. Only in great lighting during the day are the two phones comparable, but even then it's the S7. This is one major reason that I upgraded. I've attached some comparison pictures below. The S7 pictures are the first 4, the OPO the last.

S7 over the OPO in an unfair contest, like pitting the 2007 Dolphins against the 2007 Patriots.

PERFORMANCE

I don't care about benchmarks. I’m also not much of a gamer, so I don’t really care about frame rates, except that something in TouchWiz is crippling games with 2D graphics. I’ve looked under battery saver settings, Game Launcher and Game Tools, enabled “Force GPU rendering” under developer options, installed Samsung Game Tuner, all with no joy. Hopefully a future update will address this issue. The power is there, but something deep in TouchWiz is throttling it.

The S7 loads apps faster. I’ve also noticed that even though encrypted, the S7 runs circles around the OPO in USB transfer speed.

S7 over the OPO.

DEVELOPMENT

Samsung is trying to make it so that we can’t use the words “development” and “Galaxy” in the same sentence. On the other hand, the OPO’s development scene is as prolific as the bacteria culture flourishing on a 1,000 Riel bill that’s been passed around open-air markets in Cambodia for the last 10 years. If that makes no sense to you, let’s just say it’s on par with any Nexus device out there!

Since the only S7 that can be modded is the Exynos version, I may get some custom TouchWiz ROMs in the future.

No contest here, nor will it ever be—only the OPO showed up to this fight.

THEMES

I’m not a huge themer, but being able to apply an AOSP-like Marshmallow theme over TouchWiz is a great bonus. Nova Launcher puts the icing on the cake.

If this is your thing, both are good. Maybe a themer can chime in and add more.

Tie... :confused:

TL;DR

In my non-journalist and non-scientific completely subjective opinion, they both win and I'll be keeping both.

The OPO beats the S7

in unboxing experience, durability, battery life and development, an area which is as close to night (S7) and day (OPO) as possible.

The S7 beats the OPO

in display, audio, camera, design, performance—basically every category relevant to the operation and use of the device except battery life and durability.

The bottom line is that I love the S7 and see myself keeping it for a long, long time. But, neither is the OPO for sale—I’ll be keeping it to satisfy my ROM flashing addiction.

If you’re thinking of moving from the OPO to the S7 and have the coin to do so, I think you should. Just make sure that you have something beside the S7 if you need a platform for flashing/customizing.