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Samsung Galaxy S7 Active vs Galaxy S7 edge vs Galaxy S7: battle royale

posted by Peter K. / Jun 07, 2016, 3:17 AM

Samsung Galaxy S7 Active vs Galaxy S7 edge vs Galaxy S7: battle royale

The arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active could have easily skipped your attention. It's okay, we will fill you in! Announced yesterday as an AT&T-exclusive, the S7 Active is the latest rugged phone to join the ranks.

With a durable body and shatter-proof Gorilla Glass 4 screen, the new device can certainly take a beating before succumbing its soul to the Happy hunting grounds. It's also IP68-certified, meaning it can survive for up to 30 minutes in a couple of feet of water and live to tell the tale. Oh, and it also has a new, customizable hardware button on the right side - useful for launching a certain app while you're in a hurry or an emergency.

It's also improving the specs sheet. Apart from boasting a Snapdragon 820, 4GB RAM, and 12MP f/1.7 camera, the S7 Active also has a 4,000mAh in its belly - that sounds really promising and suggests that it will certainly lap the regular S7 and S7 edge in any battery life test.

But how do these three stack up? Here's how:

Samsung Galaxy S7 Active vs Samsung Galaxy S7 edge vs Samsung Galaxy S7

Display

Display size

5.1 inches

5.5 inches

5.1 inches

Resolution

1440 x 2560 pixels

Pixel density

576 ppi

534 ppi

576 ppi

Technology

Super AMOLED

Screen-to-body ratio

64.29 %

76.09 %

72.30 %

Peak brightness

500 cd/m2 (nit)

Camera

Rear

Single camera

Main camera

12 megapixels

Hardware Features

Optical image stabilization, Phase detection autofocus

Specifications

Aperture size: F1.7; Pixel size: 1.4 μm

Aperture size: F1.7; Focal length: 26 mm; Sensor size: 1/2.5"; Pixel size: 1.4 μm

Video recording

3840x2160 (4K UHD) (30 fps), 1920x1080 (Full HD) (60 fps), 1280x720 (HD)

3840x2160 (4K UHD) (30 fps), 1920x1080 (Full HD) (60 fps), 1280x720 (HD) (240 fps)

Features

High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Picture-taking during video recording, Video calling, Video sharing

Front

5 megapixels

Design

Dimensions

5.86 x 2.95 x 0.39 inches (148.8 x 75.0 x 9.9 mm)

5.94 x 2.86 x 0.30 inches (150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7 mm)

5.61 x 2.74 x 0.31 inches (142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9 mm)

Weight

6.53 oz (185 g)

5.54 oz (157 g)

5.36 oz (152 g)

Materials

Back: Plastic

Back: Glass (Corning Gorilla Glass 4); Frame: Aluminum

Resistance

Water, Dust, Shock, Temperature; IP 68; MIL-STD-810 certified

Water, Dust; IP 68

Biometrics

Fingerprint (touch)

Features

Touch sensitive control keys

Hardware & Performance

System chip

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996

Processor

Quad-core, 2150 MHz, Kryo, 64-bit, 14 nm

Quad-core, 2200 MHz, Kryo, 64-bit, 14 nm

GPU

Adreno 530

RAM

4 GB LPDDR4

OS

Android (8.0 Oreo, 7.0 Nougat, 6.0 Marshmallow), Samsung TouchWiz UI

Battery

Capacity

4000 mAh

3600 mAh

3000 mAh

Charging

Yes

Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0

Talk time (3G)

36.00 hours

28.00 hours

Internet use

3G: 13 hours; LTE: 15 hours; Wi-Fi: 15 hours

3G: 11 hours; LTE: 13 hours; Wi-Fi: 14 hours

Music playback

66.00 hours

55.00 hours

Video playback

19.00 hours

16.00 hours

Shopping information

MSRP price

$ 795

$ 799

$ 699

Samsung Galaxy S7 Active

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14 Comments

1. xondk

Posts: 1904; Member since: Mar 25, 2014

I always wonder how these military specs are made, I mean like the screen would seem to be exactly as big a weak point as rest of modules, so has always seemed a bit odd to me? or does the screen have extra protection that just isn't noted down here?

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 3:22 AM 0

3. ibend

Posts: 6747; Member since: Sep 30, 2014

the screen is shatterproof.. and I guess that certification doesnt care about weak point, as long as the device still working after all those torture test, it will get that certification checkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-STD-810 for list of test method

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 3:46 AM 0

9. xondk

Well shatter proof in the sense that it has been further improved over normal gorilla glass 4?

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 9:54 AM 0

2. ibend

Octacore kryo? seriously?

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 3:39 AM 1

4. TerryTerius unregistered

I'm going to call it right now. Samsung wins this hands down. Yeah that's right, I said it! No contest.

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 3:54 AM 5

5. DomSanity

Posts: 28; Member since: Dec 13, 2012

No headphone jack at the bottom? Moved in the top I guess.

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 4:26 AM 0

6. Ruturaj

Posts: 1484; Member since: Oct 16, 2014

@PA Can you do comparision between S6 Active and S7 Active, see what's improved, battery life and functionality wise.

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 9:32 AM 0

8. TechieXP1969

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=8004&idPhone2=7114 With the difference just being battery size and bumps in hardware, the phones are basically identical between the S6 Active and S7 Active.

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 9:47 AM 0

12. Ruturaj

Since the SOC is different, the battery life might be more on S6A than S7A. PS I can do specs comparison here on phonearena or any websites, I was more interested in hand on and actual tests.

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 2:32 PM 0

7. TechieXP1969

I would just buy one of the other models and buy a Rock or Otterbox case which will offer 100% identical protection as the Active offers. I don't see a battle. They are all 99% identical. The Active has a larger battery, but you lose Samsung Pay. if you just use an Otterbox on the other 2 models, you get the same protection when you need it, and when you don't you can take the phone out the rugged case and drop it into a flip cover or some other case so you can still have a sexy phone, when stronger protection isn't needed.

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 9:44 AM 0

11. Clars123

Posts: 1078; Member since: Mar 16, 2015

Dude the main new feature of the S7 Active is the fingerprint sensor WITH samsung pay. You dont like the phone cool..but dont make up stuff

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 12:06 PM 0

13. TechieXP1969

Huh? What you aid makes no sense. All I said was you can just get the standard models and but a Otterbox case and have the same protection as the Active. And then when you don't need that, you can take it out and have your very nice looking phone. What are you on right now?!

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 3:54 PM 0

14. Clars123

you said the active has a larger battery but you "lose" Samsung Pay...funny how you dont even remember your own dribble

posted on Jun 07, 2016, 4:19 PM 0

10. godwhomismike

Posts: 22; Member since: Nov 01, 2013

Why would they cheap out on the internal memory on the Active? Isn't this phone target audience active types that might want to take a ton of pics along the hiking trail? Yes, it's got an SD card slot, but don't you want to move things off manually from the internal memory to SDcard to free up space?