Galaxy S7 as fast as S8?

[Light-Yagami]

Hi guys.

 

As we all know, today was the all so expected Samsung event, where they unveiled their new flagship, the Galaxy S8. This new phone comes with all new design, new CPU architecture and everything that we, tech nerds love to talk about. Speaking of CPU architecture, one thing that crossed my mind in the middle of the stream was: "But is this new device actually faster then the last year's flagship, the Galaxy S7?"

 

S8 packs so many new features, I should also mention that it comes with Android Nougat out of the box. Previous flagships also recently received the latest update, including the galaxy S6, keeping it somewhat in the game for another year. When S7 was released, it was days better than it's predecessor, the S6. It had a better GPU, a better CPU and battery performance, camera was improved.. My point is, I didn't get the feeling they achieved/focused on that this year. They focused our attention on new features that they included on top of stock android. New screen is amazing and the design is probably the best we'll se in 2017. (except if Apple pulls sth off..) CPU performance is 10% faster and GPU performance is 21% faster. And we all know that CPUs get better slower than GPUs (but we care for GPU the most). This year, the new screen has roughly 500.000 pixels more than S7 (4.26mil vs 3.68mil), which means the new screen has around 14% more pixels that the GPU has to push. In theory, that adds up to total of 6% GPU improvement, when it comes to daily use. And that's why they didn't elaborate on that. My speculation is that the new S8 won't run faster enough for us to notice a difference. Furthermore, since both the S7 and S8 now run the same version of android system, they should apart from different visual design and features that S8 offers preform pretty much the same. Nougat brings better battery performance as well and if you don't care for Bixby, DeX and a few minor changes (since screen is the main selling factor), you should probably stick with S7 if you have one. As for the camera, S8 has some edge in selfie camera (8MP, autofocus), but the rear camera is the same, apart from post processing, which is supposed to bring better low light performance via multi picture technology (combining multiple pictures into one to make a single good one - a feature that Apple used since.. 2014?)

 

To sum this up, I think S8 is a fantastic device from a design standpoint and I'll probably buy one since I currently own an S6, but I wouldn't recommend anybody with anything newer (SD 820,821) to buy it for performance improvement. You're buying the new screen (which is just ohh.. I can't even). We'll see how it stacks up to the competition.

 

To clear a few things up - I'm writing this to hear your opinion as well, what do you think of this new flagship? I'm just a bit disappointed about the new SoC, since last year's S7 was such an improvement.

This is the link of the live stream (you might have to fast forward to the second half, where the S8 part begins):

Thanks for reading, your answers are always appreciated

[Daniel644]

the odd number Samsungs usually are the better ones, the S6 lost a bunch of stuff the S5 had, most of which got restored and improved on the S7.

 

as for speed, until we see benchmarks who knows. they could have focused on features simply because ALL MODERN PHONES are fast enough that speed isn't the main sell.

[The Sloth]

i disagree s6 to s7 or s8 i would say is a huge jump because of battery life, sd card slot and water resistant, . 

[Light-Yagami]

3 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

the odd number Samsungs usually are the better ones

 

ALL MODERN PHONES are fast enough that speed isn't the main sell.

Your first point - I'm not sure is valid, but okay. You have a point

As for the second point, I couldn't agree more. We've reached the point where phones can't get any faster, unless they open apps before we touch the screen. I was talking about raw performance though and I stand by my point. (from that perspective, but I hear you. And I agree)

[Light-Yagami]

5 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

s6 to s7 or s8 i would say is a huge improvement because of battery life. 

With Nougat, S6 gets more screen on time. Up to an hour. I've checked on my phone, I couldn't believe it. I think this is the reason they didn't include a bigger battery. That and the fact that they got the Note fiasco and didn't want to risk anything with bigger batteries.

[The Sloth]

Just now, Light-Yagami said:

With Nougat, S6 gets more screen on time. Up to an hour. I've checked on my phone, I couldn't believe it. I think this is the reason they didn't include a bigger battery. That and the fact that they got the Note fiasco and didn't want to risk anything with bigger batteries.

 

that's still not enough, s7 doesn't have any problem with the battery so that's a invalid point. 

[light-v]

S7 Edge owner here (upgraded from a S6 Edge), I went for the S7 Edge for the fact that Samsung crammed a 5.5" in the size of a 5" phone and solved the terrible battery life issue of the S6 by giving the S7 Edge a 3600mah battery. Waterproofing is a nice bonus. Now the S8 looks gorgeous but I think the improvements are minimal beside the display/bezel ratio. I don't really care about cpu performance in a phone anymore since it's not the limiting factor for how snappy the experience is nowadays (especially for the apps I'm using). Even budget smartphones are smooth as hell and can handle pretty much anything you throw at them. I think innovation is slowing down in the smartphone market these days and I think manufacturers should slow down the upgrade cycle to push more significant innovations between each generation 

[Daniel644]

Just now, Light-Yagami said:

Your first point - I'm not sure is valid, but okay. You have a point

As for the second point, I couldn't agree more. We've reached the point where phones can't get any faster, unless they open apps before we touch the screen. I was talking about raw performance though and I stand by my point. (from that perspective, but I hear you. And I agree)

S5, GREAT phone, S6 loses User Replaceable battery, IP certification and the MicroSD card slot, S7 gets back the IP certification and gets rated HIGHER, the MicroSD slot is also brought back.

[Light-Yagami]

3 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

that's still not enough, s7 doesn't have any problem with the battery so that's a invalid point. 

I should say it different. S6 get's anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5 screen on time in a spam of one day. Before that, anything above 4 hours was impossible. I agree about the low battery size one new devices.

[Light-Yagami]

2 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

S5, GREAT phone, S6 loses User Replaceable battery, IP certification and the MicroSD card slot, S7 gets back the IP certification and gets rated HIGHER, the MicroSD slot is also brought back.

S6 was a big step forward from design perspective. It was like.. Alpha Galaxy S7. Could you say the same for Galaxy S4? You see my point? I think it's not a recurring thing. Unless if you were to go like: S4 was great and S5 made it even better. (but there was nothing wrong with S4 in terms of features, S5 actually eliminated quite a few) and then S6 was much better looking, but lacked quite a few things (as you said). And S7 made it better. And now S8 has everything S7 has, but better. And it brakes the cycle.

[light-v]

I truly believe that we are in a point where phone design do matter more than internal specs. I know a lot of iPhone users upgrade for a different looking model just to attract attention. Also have you guys noticed than phones released in 2016 are either made of glass of aluminum? Even budget models like the Axon 7 or the Honor 8 uses 'premium' material. You don't see plastic all that often unless you go for the cheapest phones out there

[MoonlightSylv]

2 hours ago, Light-Yagami said:

With Nougat, S6 gets more screen on time. Up to an hour. I've checked on my phone, I couldn't believe it. I think this is the reason they didn't include a bigger battery. That and the fact that they got the Note fiasco and didn't want to risk anything with bigger batteries.

The S6 has Nougat? There's hope for me?

[Light-Yagami]

35 minutes ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

The S6 has Nougat? There's hope for me?

Yeah, and it makes the phone snappier, cleaner and all around better preforming. It does get longer screen on time, I speak from experience and I don't use power saving mode, which was also improved but don't quote me on that.

 

See model number under baseband version (G920F), which is galaxy S6

[MoonlightSylv]

11 minutes ago, Light-Yagami said:

Yeah, and it makes the phone snappier, cleaner and all around better preforming. It does get longer screen on time, I speak from experience and I don't use power saving mode, which was also improved but don't quote me on that.

 

See model number under baseband version (G920F), which is galaxy S6

Now I wait until verizon does their thing with the ROM and releases it.

[Daniel644]

14 hours ago, ShadowTechXTS said:

Now I wait until verizon does their thing with the ROM and releases it.

have fun waiting, Verizon only just finally pushed Nougat to the S7 a few weeks ago, they where the LAST major carrier to deliver the Nougat update like a full Month behind some of the others. I can't really properly judge battery life because we got unlimited data like a few weeks prior to the update and so I use my phone a lot more and typically only get 2 days from a charge, it was nice and snappy on day one, especially after I dropped the resolution down to 720p but now it feels about the same as before.