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Mobile Expert ,

What’s the difference between the S7 and Note 7?

No more Note 6 and with the S series and Note range now in sync, we can now comfortably compare the two flagships from different class. Are they that far apart?

note 7 and s7 differences

Size – The Huge Difference

A quick look at both the S7 and the Note 7, even the untrained eye or the non-fanboy will say that they are made by the same company. Just with the glass and aluminum construction, they are but separated by one factor: size.

  • 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 7 – 153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9 mm / 169g
  • 5.1-inch Galaxy S7 – 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm / 152g
note 7 s7 back
Back design is almost the same.
note 7 s7 front
The curved edge is now a standard for Samsung’s flagships.

Amazing and common features includes:

  • IP68 water resistance (surviving for up to an hour in 1.5m of water)
  • microSD expandable storage

Displays – Gorilla Glass 4 and 5

Both the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and S7 have the standard edge displays. This trim finish even made the Note 7 slimmer than the Note 5.

The Galaxy Note 7 also has obviously a bigger display than the Galaxy S7:

  • Galaxy Note 7 – 5.7-inch curved panel, 2560 x 1440 pixels (518 ppi), Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 5
  • Galaxy S7 – 5.1-inch flat panel, 2560 x 1440 pixels (577 ppi), Super AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 4

The Gorilla Glass 5 makes the Note 7 sturdier than that of the Gorilla Glass 4 of the Galaxy S7. In terms of the pixel density, the S7 have a slight bump in number but it is totally negligible.

Performance – Same Same?

Both the Galaxy Note 7 and Galaxy S7 share identical internals:

  • Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Note 7 – US Version: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo CPUs, Adreno 530 GPU), 4GB RAM
  • Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Note 7 – International Version: Exynos 8890 (quad-core 2.3 GHz + quad-core 1.6 GHz CPUs, Mali-T880 MP12 GPU), 4GB RAM

The disappointing part of this is that the Note 7 was rumored to have an even bigger ram capacity and a more modern chipset. In terms of the spec sheets, sadly, the Note 7 was just a bigger S7.

But then again the Galaxy Note 7 does have one key performance advantage over the Galaxy S7: security. Samsung claims the new Iris scanner in the Galaxy Note 7 is up to 100x more secure than the fingerprint sensor in the Galaxy S7 or any other smartphone.

Software – The Note Domination

The Note 7 has totally different software particularly because it has the iconic S-Pen stylus.

Yes, the S7 can do what the Note 7 can but the features like quick translations, creating gifs and writing on the aforementioned Always-on Display is totally out of the smaller S7’s league. Added to the Note 7’s arsenal of features is the Edge software due to it having the slightly curved edge displays. So widgets and shortcuts are just a swipe away from either edge.