Should I buy an iPhone 7 or a Note 7?
Samsung stumbled out of the gate with the in a way that may permanently damage the Note brand, but that doesn't change our thoughts on the phone itself. The Note 7 represents unprecedented polish from Samsung, and a well-tuned feature set that can't be easily replicated. It's the best Android phone you can buy today if price isn't a concern, which makes it the perfect phone to compare to Apple's .
Samsung and Apple have both placed a premium on quality camera experiences, the fastest, most accurate fingerprint systems, and an external design that reinforces brand recognition. Here's what happens when you put the two side by side.
Hardware
Apple and Samsung have done their level best to release exquisitely polished rounded rectangles with cameras on the back and home buttons on the front. On both phones, the display takes up a significant portion of the front, and whatever color you choose to buy dominates an otherwise featureless rear.
That all may sound generic, but it makes a solid point: the two phones look more similar than ever before. We're comparing Apple's Black iPhone 7 Plus to Samsung's Black Onyx Note 7, and it's genuinely difficult to tell them apart from across a room when they are sitting face up. If we had somehow been able to secure a Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus, a feat that is at the time of writing close to impossible, the differences would be even less obvious. This point is interesting for two reasons. One, it's unusual for Apple to release a phone outside of the S cycle that doesn't have a significant external redesign; and two, Samsung's industrial design really is that damn good nowadays.
When you pick up the Note 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the differences become a lot clearer. The matte black iPhone offers a textured surface with a little grip, while Samsung's glass back encourages you to firmly grasp the sides to prevent slipping. This detail is more important for the noticeably larger iPhone 7 Plus, whose body makes it difficult to reach all the way across the screen with a thumb. Apple has done nothing to improve screen-to-body ratio on the 7 series which produces a device that is larger than the Note 7 despite a smaller display.
The display isn't just smaller, it's also packing a lower resolution — 1080p vs 1440p — and is a full 118ppi less dense. There's simply no contest between these two displays. Samsung offers a brighter panel with sharper text, and the curved AMOLED design means images simply fall off the edge of this phone. Both displays even make us of the new, 26% wider DCI-P3 Color Gamut, which means you're seeing true-to-life colors more akin to a human eye. Reds are redder, and yellows more sunny.
Earlier I referred to the iconic indented circle on the front of iPhone 7 Plus as a button, but that's no longer accurate. There's no physical button there anymore, just pressure-sensitive glass and a fingerprint sensor. This is Apple's "Taptic Engine", similar to what you'll find in an Apple Watch or a MacBook trackpad. In Apple's other experiences, this new vibration motor offers a unique experience that not only accurately simulates a button press, but delivers enjoyable tactile feedback in a non-disruptive way.
That these phones are the only two that sit on this very expensive pedestal as truly premium experiences is significant.
On the iPhone 7 Plus, this experience doesn't quite mimic the press of a button. You feel the click all the way through the body of the phone, which is a little disorienting for the first day or two that you use it. One thing it does not do is negatively impact the performance of Touch ID, which is still one of the best fingerprint sensor experiences available today. It's no more or less convenient than it was before, which means it still offers something nearly identical to what you get on the Galaxy Note 7. The only real benefit to this new design will be found over time, with no need to get the home button replaced after two years of aggressive use.
It wouldn't be a Note without the S Pen, and as with every previous year Samsung has improved pressure sensitivity and made some mild ergonomic changes. You either rely on that pen every day and love that it exists or you pull it out once to confirm it exists and never use it again, and that's fine. It's a great tool for those who want the feature, and that's what Samsung is all about right now. Samsung also continues to include a 3.5mm headphone jack, removable storage, and wireless charging. None of these features can currently be found on the latest iPhone, and whether any of these features needs to exist continues to be a heated topic of debate.
Both of these phones look and feel excellent from the moment you pick them up in the morning to the moment you set them down to charge at night. The build quality for both is exceptional, and that these phones are among the only two that sit on this very expensive pedestal as truly premium experiences is significant.
Software
It doesn't usually make a lot of sense to compare iOS to Android. Google and Apple focus on entirely different things, and at the end of the day you either place value in polished singularity or unified diversity. Android connects as many aspect of your apps to each other for a great overall experience. For iOS, each app is its own special playground that only talks occasionally to a handful of other apps, but it's a really nice playground. In short, this section is not about to debate the merits of iOS and Android.
This iPhone 7 Plus regularly takes the Note 7's lunch money when it comes to performance.
Instead it's important to credit Apple for such an incredibly polished software experience on iOS 10, due in no small part to the amount of control Apple has over its processor. Put simply, the iPhone 7 is the fastest phone in existence today. Downloading apps from the App Store happens in the blink of an eye, and opening those apps has never been faster. This iPhone 7 Plus regularly takes the Note 7's lunch money when it comes to performance, from the smoothness of rotating from portrait to landscape to the sub-second launching of the camera app. It's more than a little impressive, and you can feel it in every aspect of the software.
That being said, it's time for Apple to catch up with some much needed features. It doesn't do the user any good to make the camera launch this fast if you still have to jump through hoops to get to it in the first place. Samsung's home button double tap means I can reach into my pocket and have the camera app loaded before I'm even ready to line up the shot I want to take. Apple needs an equivalent, and it doesn't exist yet because they're only just now figuring out that people want a clear all button for their notifications.
If Apple can be dinged for moving too slowly on obvious features, Samsung needs to be held accountable for stuffing everything but the kitchen sink into their version of Android. Between carrier bloatware, a retina scanner than only works occasionally, and an entirely separate apps store with its own rules, it's easy to be overwhelmed by Samsung's offerings. Some of it is well hidden, like the Virtual Reality platform that only activates when you connect your phone to the , but not everything treats the user with the same level of respect.
If Apple can be criticized for moving too slowly on adding features, Samsung needs to be held accountable for stuffing everything but the kitchen sink into their version of Android.
Samsung and Apple both face interesting software challenges this year. Apple is polishing themselves into a corner, creating UI experiences where there are back buttons in the notification tray and design guidelines that lead to frequent accidental taps. Samsung still lacks overall optimization, and has a nasty habit of pushing things on the user. Neither experience is "the right way" for everyone, but it's not hard to see how so many would see Apple's offering as the more palatable choice.
Camera
Few places in the smartphone world have been as competitive and engaging as the camera. For years Apple was the name when it came to the best phone camera, but the last two years Samsung and others have stepped up in truly significant ways. Apple furthered that conversation with the addition of a second sensor and lens in the iPhone 7 Plus, which offers 2X optical zoom (a 56mm equivalent focal distance) without needing to rely on digital zoom.
That slight difference in aperture turns out to mean there's a difference in low light photography, and it usually works in Samsung's favor.
Samsung's focus this year is on a single great 12MP camera with an f/1.7 aperture and OIS. On paper it's very similar to Apple's 12MP sensor, paired with lenses at f/1.8 or f/2.8 depending on whether you're activating the zoomre shooting in. Both phones capture plenty of detail and fantastic colors, but Apple also takes photos in the same DCI-P3 Wide Color Gamut as on the iPhone 7 Plus display, which means those colors are more true to life. Samsung's Note 7 sensor will capture lots of amazing color, but it can occasionally appear artificially saturated.