Galaxy S7 vs. iPhone 6s: Real-world speed test leaves one phone shamed

BGR ^ | March 16, 2016 | Zack Eppstien

[Swordmaker]

Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge flagship phones are now six days old. Apple’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are six months old. Is it fair to pit these two smartphones against each other in performance tests? After all, things progress so quickly in the tech world that the passing of six months can seem like six years… unless of course you’re talking about battery technology, in which case progress comes at a snail’s pace.

Regardless of age, a new video published on YouTube offers what is likely the best real-world performance testing we’ve seen so far for these two flagship phones, and the results may surprise you.

YouTube user “PhoneBuff” has created a model that has become one of the better methods for testing real-world performance. It’s in no way scientific and we’ve explained the various issues with this methodology in the past, but it’s a good way to get a feel for the experience users can expect from a phone during actual everyday usage. As we all know by now, benchmark testing isn’t always a good representation of real-world performance.

In his new test, the vlogger pits the reigning champion iPhone 6s Plus against Samsung’s latest and greatest, the Galaxy S7 edge, which is my new favorite phone in the world despite the fact that I’ll never ditch my iPhone for one.

Since Samsung is one of the world’s top component makers in addition to being a smartphone vendor, its devices often are the first to feature exciting technological advancements across a number of key areas. Does all that great new tech add up to killer performance? Can the cutting-edge Snapdragon chipset make up for the fact that the S7 edge has far more pixels to power?

You’ll have to watch the video to find out, and I bet you’re going to be surprised at the results.

Speedtest Youtube

[goodnesswins]

Ha...I bought an S4 a while back...the Verizon employee advised me NOT to buy S5 or S6

[CurlyDave]

All manner of electronic devices have been made virtually waterproof for marine use for over 50 years.

Your example is not valid. Marine-grade electronics are very expensive, compared to consumer-grade electronics with the same function. And, because of the high design costs are updated far less frequently.

In the cell phone world, you can get a waterproof case for most high-end phones for less than $100. This fulfills your desire for far less money than a marine-grade phone would cost.

If you don't like that, you are free to continue using a land line (which have been around far longer than cell phones, but are not waterproof either).

[ELS]

Have you looked at the BlackBerry Priv? It uses Android now.

[minnesota_bound]

#6 It is under 10% share.

[chaosagent]

I’ve never had to replace a battery on an iPhone in more than 7 years...

---

So when I Google “iphone battery problems” and get this -

“About 13,900,000 results (0.42 seconds)”

and then see these first four listings:

iPhone 5 Battery Replacement Program - Apple Support
https://www.apple.com/support/iphone5-battery/
Apple
Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently.

iPhone Battery Life Bug Confirmed by Apple | BGR
bgr.com/2016/01/.../iphone-battery-life-bug-confirme...
Boy Genius Report
Jan 18, 2016 - Just in case the iPhone’s battery life wasn’t annoying enough, Apple has confirmed a newly uncovered bug that causes some iPhones to ...

How to Fix Bad iOS 9 Battery Life - GottaBeMobile
www.gottabemobile.com/2016/02/.../how-to-fix-bad-ios-9-battery-life-2/
Feb 8, 2016 - Apple’s iOS 9 update continues to cause battery life problems for many iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. With those problems in mind, we ...

Why Does My iPhone Battery Die So Fast? Here’s The Real ...
www.payetteforward.com › Tech Blog › iPhone
Sep 7, 2015 - A lot of battery drain issues occur when an app is supposed to close, but doesn’t. Instead, the app crashes in the background and your iPhone .

I can only assume you only keep your iPhones for a few months each.

Every iPhone owner I know has had some form of battery problem.

I’ve had my Galaxy S5 since 6/14. When my battery life started to suffer a little in September 2015, I bought a new Samsung battery on Amazon for $8.72, and took about 30 seconds to pop the back off and change out the battery.

My iPhone friends only wish it was that easy.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I can only assume you only keep your iPhones for a few months each.

Nope, but my wife is using my old one and it is still going strong.

[Swordmaker]

I have an iPhone 6 and love it.

Apple makes great products. Yes they are expensive up front, but that’s it.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is $695

The Apple iPhone 6S Plus is $749

On computers, the total cost of ownership, you are absolutely correct.

[Swordmaker]

If Apple was so great, why after all of these years are they not able to take more than 20% market share?

One company against ALL 500 other companies in the world making 1200 different Android and/or Windows phones, and it takes 20% of the market with just three models? And it takes 46% of the cellular phone market in the USA? 33% in South Korea, Samsung's and LG's home market, 26% in China. Last year Apple took home 94% of the cellular phone market profits and Samsung took home only 11%. Are you kidding? That is the epitome of great.

The SHEEP you refer to are those who have been following the crowd, buying what everyone else was buying simply because everyone else was buying it.

Apple users know more than Windows users because they know both Windows and Mac, generally either having had to use Windows in their work, or having owned Windows computers before, and have made an informed choice to not do that any more.

Apple doesn't play in the bargain basement computer market. They don't compete on price and as a result are not chasing the other makers in a caucus race to the bottom and therefore are taking close to 50% of all profits in the PC market.

[Swordmaker]

This is why I’ve never owned an apple product. I have a billionaire relative that has the apple tv system in their homes, yachts and even their private net. They abandoned iTunes for limewire (they use torrents now) because the files were not portable.

You buy or access a file on iTunes from one Apple device you own, it's available on EVERY Apple device you own. What are you blithering about "not portable?" You can also share that content you've purchased with your family using their AppleIDs. . . again, what do you mean "not portable?" All he'd have to do is buy it once and all of his AppleTVs would have the same content on each one.

So you are basically saying this "billionaire" relative is STEALING his content via torrents when it is totally unnecessary?

[Swordmaker]

AAPL has a larger market cap that all but one or two companies in the world, not just MS.

Apple is the largest publicly traded non-government supported company in the world. There are a couple of Chinese Companies (banks) that have a larger valuation than Apple, but that's because the Chinese Government puts their money in them. Alphabet/Google had a larger market cap for less than 48 hours this year.

[Swordmaker]

That’s not because Apples software is magical , in fact it has as many holes as MS Windows... it’s just that the hacker community goes after the bigger target.

There are as many, if not more, vulnerabilities in OS X / iOS than there are in Windows. That is because Apple includes in the distribution of OS X, most of the packages that go along with UNIX™, and when there are vulnerabilities found and patches made for those components of UNIX™, Apple reports them as well as the vulnerabilities/patches for OS X. Apple also included an entire suite of software with every distribution of OS X. Any vulnerability/patch that is found is also included when reported as an OS X vulnerability. That increases the total number for OS X.

Windows is only counted for the OS distribution. However, the total number of CRITICAL vulnerabilities/Exploits actually in the wild is far lower. . . And the number of computers actually exploited is usually under 100 for the OS X exploits. . . And often in the ZERO to 50 category. In the iOS category, it is even smaller than that.

[Swordmaker]

I’ve never had to replace a battery on an iPhone in more than 7 years...

My original iPhone, purchased on the day the iPhone was first put on the market on June 29, 2007, was finally retired as a phone after several hand-me-downs among family members in 2014, seven years after being put into service as a phone, and the original battery still held an 80% charge for 24 hours and was usable. We handed it to my three year old granddaughter to use as an iPod touch, which she still uses to play games on. It now takes a 50% charge nine years after being put in service! That is far beyond the expected lifespan of that battery.

[cuban leaf]

I was talking about this with an office mate yesterday. He uses iTunes and hates the non portability issue too. For him it is the need to play them on non-apple devices. He now just uses bit torrent for most stuff.

[Swordmaker]

The fact that cell phones have NOT been water resistant/proof for as long as they have been around is very telling to me.

Test Suggest That The New iPhone 6S Is Water Resistant! — ZDNet - September 15, 2015

The video shows both an iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus both surviving over an hour under water.

Apple did not put the water resistance in their spec sheet, probably because they don't want to have to be defending law suits from idiotic people who think it's a dive-phone, capable of withstanding any depth immersion for any length of time. There is no such thing as "waterproof," there is only degrees of "water resistant" ratings. Since that is the case, it will get down to a question of how deep and how long was the iPhone submerged. If Apple doesn't make it a spec sheet item, and merely has it protected from incidental submerging, they don't have to worry about such nuisance suits and end a problem with people who DO drop their iPhones in the toilet, fall in the pool, etc, and then find their phones don't work any more.

[Swordmaker]

#6 It is under 10% share.

Your comment is not responsive. You are talking about ONE COMPANY competing against every other company in the world and making a spectacular showing.

From the Motley Fool several months ago: (Emphasis in bold mine)

Apple's Mac Market Share Could be a Lot Higher Than You Think

Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Macs are not as popular as Windows-powered PCs. Apple's share of the traditional PC market has risen in recent years, but by most metrics it continues to hover in the single digits. Apple sold 5.7 million Macs in the third quarter, while Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) hardware partners shipped more than 60 million traditional PCs, according to research firm Gartner.

But Apple's Phil Schiller has a different take on the Mac. In a recent interview with Mashable, the Apple marketing chief argued that Apple's share of the traditional PC market may be quite a bit higher.

Approaching 25%

Here's Schiller speaking to Mashable's Lance Ulanoff:

"There are endless numbers of stats out there, you can quote any of them to tell any story, but the number that closet reflects what we all experience and see as we travel around is actually a U.S. market share approaching 25%...That closer reflects what we see when we go to the airport, when we go to the coffee shop, when we go to schools. You increasingly are seeing more Macs than PCs."

Schiller qualifies his market share claim with two important distinctions: first, he's only taking about U.S. market share, and second, he's only speaking about the sort of PCs one is likely to encounter among consumers -- not the many machines sitting in the cubicles of Fortune 500 workers.

Apple's Macs are certainly more popular in the U.S. than in other markets. According to research firm IDC, Apple's share of the global PC market was 7.8% in the second quarter, but its U.S. market share was higher -- 13.5%. In total, Americans purchased about half the Macs Apple sold in the second quarter. IDC doesn't draw a distinction between consumers and business users, but NPD confirmed to Mashable that, among consumers, the Mac's U.S. market share is near 25%. The importance of the Mac business Apple derives around two-thirds of its revenue from the iPhone, but the Mac is its second-largest business. Last quarter, the Mac generated about 13% of Apple's revenue -- $6.9 billion.

The Mac also serves an increasingly important strategic role in Apple's broader ecosystem. Last year, Apple introduced Handoff, a new feature included in OS X Yosemite. Apple's Macs function well as stand-alone devices, but serve their owners better when paired with Apple's smartphone. iPhone owners can answer calls through their Mac, and in certain apps -- including Safari and Mail -- pick up where they left off. This appears to be a long-term strategic aim for the company, as Apple's latest OS X update, El Capitan, pushed the concept further. "The best thing about El Capitan is that it makes iOS better," declared The Next Web's Nate Swanner.

Microsoft targets the Mac Schiller's comments come on the heels of unprecedented aggression from Microsoft. Early in October, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Book, the first laptop from the Windows-maker. Microsoft has marketed the Surface Book as a MacBook Pro killer, explicitly encouraging Mac owners to ditch their machines for its new PC. The Surface Book remains fundamentally a Windows computer, with all the issues and complications that entails, but it sports top-notch hardware and has received strong reviews.

Microsoft's hardware partners have long offered a wide variety of machines, but haven't been able to stop the Mac's steady march. Free of the bloatware that often plagues Windows PCs, and sporting a unique design, the Surface Book may be the first computer that poses a risk.

But for the time being, Apple's Mac business is in great shape. Mac unit sales rose 3% on an annual basis last quarter, while the broader PC market fell almost 11%.

[Swordmaker]

So when I Google “iphone battery problems” and get this -

“About 13,900,000 results (0.42 seconds)”

ROTFLMAO!

So when I Google “Android battery problems” and get this -

I can only assume you only keep your Android for a few months each. Every iPhone owner I know has had ZERO battery problems. Most of their batteries have lasted far longer than they've owned their iPhones.

[Swordmaker]

I was talking about this with an office mate yesterday. He uses iTunes and hates the non portability issue too. For him it is the need to play them on non-apple devices. He now just uses bit torrent for most stuff.

Please explain what you mean about "non-portability." You can save your music, out of iTunes in any format you choose. Videos and movies, no. Those ARE digital rights managed because of copyright and rightfully so. . . but they can be watched on any Apple device owned by the user, so exactly WHAT is his problem? If he wants to watch it on his big screen TV, no problem. Want to watch it on his iPad, iPhone, Mac, iPod touch, no problem. But if he wants to give a copy to a friend, he's got a problem. That's illegal and he can't do it. That is NOT portability, that's theft.

[cuban leaf]

I don’t use it. Everything i say about iTunes is second hand. I’ve had a lot.of conversations over the years with people that used it nd hated the grip apple keeps on your usage.

[chaosagent]

Considering I’ve seen figures saying that Android phones have 70% to 90% of the phone market worldwide, and only have about 17% more battery problems according to your figures, I’d say the Android wins in a landslide.

And again, for $8.72 and 30 seconds, my battery problems are fixed.

How’s that work on an iPhone?

[TXnMA]

"If Apple was so great, why after all of these years are they not able to take more than 20% market share?"

Market share is a function of sales -- often repeated -- sales.

Just this week, I ported the files from the ca 2002 Mac Powerbook G4 that I, and then, my wife, have been using continually since I bought it used -- sight unseen -- from a fellow FReeper.

Until this year, I bought only one other computer: a 17", 2008 Macbook Pro for doing cartography. It, too, is never turned off, is used 8-12 hours per day -- and it may well outlast me.

IOW, since 2002, I bought only two computers -- both Mac laptops, and they have served my wife and me superbly well.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Since 2002, how many computers have you bought?
~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, do you understand that reliability and well-designed functionality (read, "customer satisfaction") are a huge factor in "market share" figures?

Premium quality products will never appeal to those with a "Trash it -- I want a new gimmick!" mentality.

Apple understands that -- and Apple and its customers laugh all the way to the bank -- and are happy to do so.