Google Pixel vs Apple iPhone 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S7: Price, specifications, features compared

The Google Pixel smartphone is official. But how does it compare against its immediate rivals in the premium segment? We find out.

Last night, Google took the wraps of the Pixel smartphone at its event in San Francisco. Google’s flagship smartphone comes with top-of-the-line specs and preloaded Google Assistant that sets it apart from the competition. Speaking of which, the Pixel will have to compete against the likes of the Apple iPhone 7 as well as the popular Samsung Galaxy S7. To get an idea of how Google’s Pixel might fare, we pit the smartphone against its rivals based on their price, specifications and features.

Price and availability: Google’s Pixel smartphones will be going on sale in India later this month, with preorders kicking off as early as October 13. The Pixel will be available in two storage variants — 32GB priced at Rs 57,000 and 128GB variant priced at Rs 66,000. Apple’s iPhone 7 is set to go on sale in India later this week with prices starting from Rs 60,000. It will be available in three storage variants — 32GB priced at Rs 60,000, 128GB variant priced at Rs 70,000, and 256GB variant priced at Rs 80,000. Lastly, Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is already on sale in India, and is currently available online for around Rs 43,400.

Display: The three smartphones are almost similar in size with screen size between 4.7-inch and 5.1-inch. The Pixel flaunts a 5-inch full HD (1080p) AMOLED display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The Galaxy S7 flaunts a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display protected by Gorilla Glass 4 as well. The iPhone 7 features the smallest screen of the three with a 4.7-inch full HD (1080p) Retina HD display.

Processor and RAM: There is plenty of power at hand for these smartphones to handle any and every task thrown at them. Google’s smartphone is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 quad-core chipset clocked at 2.15GHz. Samsung’s smartphone too is powered by Qualcomm chipset, but a Snapdragon 820 clocked at 2.15GHz. Apple’s flagship smartphone is powered by its latest A10 Fusion chipset, which the company says is almost 40 percent faster than last year’s processor. The processors on the Pixel and Galaxy S7 are paired with 4GB of RAM. The iPhone 7, on the other hand, features 2GB of RAM.

Storage: All three smartphones offer at least 32GB onboard memory. The Pixel offers an additional 128GB variant, while the iPhone 7 offers 128GB and 256GB variants. There is however no microSD card slot on either of these two phones. While the Galaxy S7 is only available in 32GB variant, it does come with a microSD card slot that lets users expand the internal memory up to 256GB.

Photography: To say all three have the best smartphone cameras out there would be an understatement. Samsung Galaxy S7′s 12-megapixel snapper with f/1.7 aperture, smart OIS and dual-pixel technology was the best camera on a smartphone at the time of its launch. Its camera performance was matched (if not bettered) by Apple’s iPhone 7 that comes with a 12-megapixel snapper with f/1.8 aperture, PDAF, OIS and quad-LED dual-tone flash.

With the launch of the Pixel, Google says a lot of focus is on the camera bit, and even went on to boast that it is the best available on a smartphone. The Pixel features a 12.3-megapixel snapper with f/2.0 aperture, 1.55µm pixel size and the ability to shoot 4K videos. The company for one is quite bullish about the camera and says that it scored an impressive 89 in DxOMark test.

For selfie lovers, the Pixel features an 8-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.4 aperture, and 1.4µm pixel size, while the iPhone 7 comes with a 7-megapixel selfie camera. The Galaxy S7, on paper, lags behind a bit with a 5-megapixel selfie snapper.

Battery: The Galaxy S7 has the biggest battery of the lot — 3,000mAh. It also supports Quick Charging, and wireless fast charging as well. The Pixel smartphone follows with a 2,770mAh battery that Google claims is good enough for 26 hours of talktime and up to 19 days on standby mode. The battery also supports Quick Charge, where Google says that 15 minutes of charging can provide up to seven hours of battery life. The iPhone 7, on paper, may only show a 1,960mAh battery, but it is optimized for the hardware and software and is good enough to last an entire day on a single charge.

Misc: All three smartphones come with a fingerprint scanner onboard. The Pixel has the scanner placed at the back, while the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 have the scanner embedded into the home button up front. Samsung’s smartphone also has a heart-rate monitor placed below the rear camera. Both the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 are also resistant to water and dust.

Connectivity: Needless to say, all three smartphones boast 4G LTE, and NFC support. The Galaxy S7 is the only device offering dual-SIM card slots (hybrid setup), while the iPhone 7′s talking point is the missing 3.5mm audio jack. Instead it uses the Lightning connector for charging and audio.

Software: This is the one aspect which plays a huge role in shaping consumer choice. Apple’s iOS is completely different from Android, and is optimized to work smoothly on the iPhone 7 hardware. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 runs on Android Marshmallow out-of-the-box wrapped under TouchWiz UI. It is also slated to get an update to Android Nougat. The Google Pixel runs on Nougat out-of-the-box wrapped under Pixel UI. The UI is built around Google Assistant that not only makes it easy for users to interact with their smartphones, but also communicates with other Google products like Home and apps like Allo. You can long press the home button and swipe up on the screen to get Google Assistant to bring additional info from contents on the screen.

All three smartphones are powerhouses, but do have their own pros and cons. At this price range, it takes a lot more than the specifications sheet to shape buyers’ decisions, and that is where the overall user experience comes into play. Apple is already known for one of the best experiences, and now Google is following its rulebook. It is too early to predict how the Google’s Pixel smartphones will be received by the audience, but if our first impressions are anything to go by, we expect them to be positive.

Source: bgr.in

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