Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Sony Xperia X Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is an amazing phone with two basic flaws. It did not come with a microSD card slot and it was not water resistant (S5 had these features). When Samsung announced the Galaxy S7 with Snapdragon 820, water/dust resistance and expandable storage, we realized that Samsung has won the 2016 Android flagship before before the war horns were sounded. But then came the announcement from Sony, the Xperia X Performance powered by Snapdragon 820 chip and we cannot resist to compare these two. Do note that our analysis is based on paper specifications only and we will add more analysis once we get to test/review both these phones. For detailed comparison between Sony Xperia X:performance, Galaxy S7 and LG G5, head to http://www.gadgetdetail.com/comparison/gs7-vs-xperiaxp-vs-lgg5/.
Sony was the only brand that was able to match the aesthetics of the Galaxy S6 last year (with Xperia Z5 and Z5 premium) and they had a clear upper hand, thanks to IP68 certified dust/water resistance and amazing battery life. But this year, Samsung managed to break free from Sony, thanks to the elegant fine tuning to the design, IP68 certification, bigger battery and Sony took few steps back with the new design of X series. Even though Galaxy S7 has a slightly bigger display (5.1” vs 5”), the phone is smaller than the Xperia X:P in every dimension and is also lighter. This clearly shows the advances Samsung had made in display tech.
The Quad-HD AMOLED display of Galaxy S7 is the best out there and Sony could only provide a 1080p IPS display. There is no difference in raw power as both are powered by SnapDragon 820 or equivalent chip (Exynos 8890 Octa). The GS7 comes with an extra gigabyte of RAM and will also be available in 64GB storage options. Both the phones come with microSD card slots so storage will not be a worry at all.
Sony X Performance comes with a far better camera setup. The 23mp rear camera 13mp front camera are at a different level (atleast on paper) when compared to the 12mp rear camera and 5mp front facing camera on GS7.
Coming to Operating System, both come with Android 6 but Sony’s user interface is minimalist when compared to Touchwiz and it lags less and is also easier on battery. Sony has a better track record when compared to Samsung in pushing Android updates to their devices.
But, There are these things that Sony does, that do not make any sense. Ever since the first Galaxy S phone came out, Samsung remained the clear leader in smartphone marketshare/sales. Sony on the other is not even in top 5 in any region (probably except Japan and UK) and still, when Sony announced the pricing of the Xperia Performance (700 euros), we were shocked and the worst part is that phones will not be shipped before Summer while Samsung is going to be shipping the Galaxy S7 in March (yet to reveal the pricing).
When put to vote, though X:P was able to match GS7 in many areas, all the votes went to GS7 and it is because of the uncertainty that clouds Sony Mobile devices unit and Samsung being able to elevate the areas where it matters most (display, battery etc).
