Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10

 

Comparison time! It’s the Samsung Galaxy S7 vs. the LG G5 in a video that looks at their specs, designs, differences, and more. Full reviews will be along shortly.

The Galaxy S7 and the LG G5, two South Korean companies go head-to-head once again this year. Samsung went for a familiar design to the S6 and S6 edge with the S7 and S7 edge making a couple of refinements, while LG opted for a redesign for the G5. But which one is better is still hard to say. And there is another smartphone from Asia, the HTC 10 from Taiwan companies, joined this competition. The Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 and Huawei P9 have all been excellent devices and now it’s the turn of HTC.

 

First of all, we have put Samsung’s Galaxy S7 up against LG’s G5 to see what features the two devices offer. Read on to see LG G5 VS Samsung Galaxy S7.

 

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10 Specs
	HTC 10	Samsung Galaxy S7	HTC 10
PRICE
64G	$799.00	$670.00	$649.99
NETWORK
Technology	GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE	GSM / HSPA / LTE	GSM / CDMA / HSPA / LTE
LAUNCH
Announced	2016, April	2016, February	2016, February
BODY
Dimensions	145.9 x 71.9 x 9 mm (5.74 x 2.83 x 0.35 in)	142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm (5.61 x 2.74 x 0.31 in)	149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm (5.88 x 2.91 x 0.30 in)
Weight	161 g (5.68 oz)	152 g (5.36 oz)	159 g (5.61 oz)
DISPLAY
Type	Super LCD5 capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size	5.2 inches (~71.1% screen-to-body ratio)	5.1 inches (~72.1% screen-to-body ratio)	5.3 inches (~70.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels (~565 ppi pixel density)	1440 x 2560 pixels (~577 ppi pixel density)	1440 x 2560 pixels (~554 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch	Yes	Yes	Yes
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 4	Corning Gorilla Glass 4	Corning Gorilla Glass 4
PLATFORM
OS	Android OS, v6.0.1 (Marshmallow)	Android OS, v6.0 (Marshmallow)	Android OS, v6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820	Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820
CPU	Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo	Exynos 8890 Octa	Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo
		Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo
		Quad-core 2.3 GHz Mongoose + quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU	Adreno 530	Adreno 530	Adreno 530
MEMORY
Card slot	microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot)	microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot) – single-SIM model	microSD, up to 256 GB (dedicated slot)
		microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) – dual-SIM model
Internal	32/64 GB, 4 GB RAM	32/64 GB, 4 GB RAM	32 GB, 4 GB RAM
CAMERA
Features	1/2.3” sensor size, 1.55µm pixel size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama	1/2.6″ sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, geo-tagging, simultaneous 4K video and 9MP image recording, touch focus, face/smile detection, Auto HDR, panorama	Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR
Video	2160p@30fps, 720p@120fps, HDR, stereo sound rec., check quality	2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps, HDR, dual-video rec., check quality	2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, HDR, stereo sound rec., check quality
COMMS
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
Bluetooth	v4.2, A2DP, aptX	v4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX	v4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS/ BDS (region dependent)	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
NFC	Yes	Yes	Yes
Radio	No	No	FM radio
USB	v3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector	microUSB v2.0, USB Host	v3.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
	– Fast battery charging: 50% in 30 min (Quick Charge 3.0)	– Fast battery charging: 60% in 30 min (Quick Charge 2.0)	– Fast battery charging: 83% in 30 min (Quick Charge 3.0)
BATTERY		– Qi/PMA wireless charging (market dependent)
	Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery	Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery	Removable Li-Ion 2800 mAh battery
Stand-by	Up to 456 h (3G)	Up to 22 h (3G)	Up to 400 h (3G)
Talk time	Up to 27 h (3G)	Up to 62 h	Up to 20 h (3G)
Colors	Carbon Gray, Topaz Gold, Glacier Silver	Black, White, Gold, Silver, Pink Gold	Silver, Titan, Gold, Pink
TESTS
Performance	Basemark OS II: 1965 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 1839	Basemark OS II: 2004 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 2128	Basemark OS II: 2425 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 2314
	Basemark X: 28882	Basemark X: 32345	Basemark X: 27577

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10: Design

 

The Galaxy S7 measures 142.4 x 69.9 x 7.9mm and weighs 152g so a little thicker and heavier than its predecessor, but like the S6, the S7 offers a lovely design with a great build quality. The glass back is still prone to fingerprints but the S7 introduces IP68-certification for dust and waterproofing, which is a good feature to have even if you don’t realise it straight away.

 

The G5 offers a full metal body complete with a fingerprint sensor on the rear within the power button.

While the HTC 10 takes the brand’s flagship smartphone in a new design direction, it’s still very familiar. The front is stripped from the One A9, and the back is a tweaked and tuned version of the rear casing from the One M9.

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10: Display

The Samsung Galaxy S7 features a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with a Quad HD resolution, while the LG G5 has a 5.3-inch IPS LCD display, also featuring a 2560 x 1440 resolution.

HTC has grown slightly to 5.2-inches, but the bigger upgrade is the resolution. It’s much more pixel dense now, thanks to the 2560 x 1440 quad-HD resolution, and it covers 99.9% of the sRGB colour gamut.

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10: Hardware

LG has 4GB of RAM on board, as well as 32GB of internal storage, supported by microSD for storage expansion. Samsung also offers 4GB of RAM along with 32GB and 64GB storage options with microSD support reintroduced for this device. Neither the S7 nor the G5 support Marshmallow’s adoptable storage feature though, which is a shame for both handsets.

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10: Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S7 comes with 3000mAh battery under the hood, charged via Micro-USB, while the LG G5 has a slightly smaller 2800mAh capacity that is charged via USB Type-C. The battery life on both devices isn’t amazing, although better on the S7. That said, as we mentioned previously, the G5 has a removable battery thanks to a button on the side of the device that allows you to remove the bottom of the smartphone.

Like internal components, each of this year’s current crop of Android flagships – Galaxy S7, LG G5 and of course the HTC 10 – have a similarly sized battery.

The 3,000mAh cell tucked inside the HTC 10 is exactly the same capacity as the Galaxy S7’s and marginally bigger than the LG G5’s, and in my tests I’ve found that it lasts about the same amount of time as those two.

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10: Software

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and the LG G5 both launch on Android Marshmallow from the box. As you would expect, both companies add their own software overlays so it won’t be a stock Android experience and they won’t offer the same experience as each other.

Samsung users will get a familiar experience with the addition of a couple of features such as the Games Launcher and Samsung Pay. The Galaxy S7 also comes with Samsung’s security software called Knox from the box.

LG users will also get a familiar experience but LG has removed the app launcher for the G5 in a bid to offer a simpler experience. You can read all about the different software experiences in our separate reviews. The LG G5 review can be found here and the Samsung Galaxy S7 review here.

HTC’s Sense overlay was a great addition to Android back when the HTC Hero launched in 2009, but as Android has matured the need for user-friendly overlays has reduced considerably. The company has moved with the times in this regard and – icons aside – the only obvious sign you’re using something different is the presence of Blinkfeed, HTC’s news aggregator, which you can access with a quick swipe to the right from the homescreen.

 

Samsung Galaxy S7 vs LG G5 vs HTC 10: Conclusion

Both the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the LG G5 are great smartphones. The LG G5 is a flagship that’s going to split the crowd because of its module-based design. It’s not as premium-feeling as the S7, but it has some really standout features: the dual-camera is something special, the Quad HD screen looks the part, and with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB RAM and Quick Charge 3.0 to boot, there’s all the power you could need.

HTC has gone to great trouble to correct the weaknesses highlighted by reviewers of its past few handsets, and the results are really impressive. The HTC 10 is a great-looking handset with a superb screen, great performance and good – if not great – battery life. The camera, once a weak spot for HTC, can now compete with the very best of the bunch.

It’s difficult to call one design “better” than the other, but it’s clear just by looking at the two phones that Samsung’s design language has the benefit of an extra year to polish the ideas that help make the phone stand out.