Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Sony Xperia Z5 – which is best?

Performance

Processor: In the UK, the Galaxy S7 has one of Samsung’s custom-made octa-core 2.3GHz Exynos 8890 chipsets along with 4GB of RAM. Samsung says this is 30% faster than the S6’s octa-core 2.1GHz Exynos 7420 processor, and the results of our benchmarks certainly showed a huge amount of improvement. For instance, in Geekbench 3, the S7 scored an impressive 2,115 in the single core test and a massive 6,437 in the multicore test.

The Xperia Z5, on the other hand, which has an octa-core 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM, only managed 1,236 and 3,943 respectively. This is still great compared to other Snapdragon 810-based phones, but the S7’s Exynos processor is clearly several steps ahead in this department.

The S7 is also a more competent games machine, as it produced a super smooth 2,336 frames (38fps) in GFX Bench GL’s offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test. The Z5 only managed 1,606 frames, which equates to roughly 26fps. Both are still more than capable of playing all the latest games on the Google Play Store, but the S7 will be able to render games at higher detail settings if the game allows for it.

Storage: Having taken it away on the Galaxy S6, the S7 finally has a microSD slot again, allowing you to expand the phone’s default 32GB or 64GB of storage up to 200GB. The Z5 also has a microSD slot that can be used with cards up to 200GB, but only comes in 32GB configurations. Either way, both handsets provide plenty of flexibility, so you shouldn’t be running out of space any time soon.

Battery Life: Both phones have very similar-sized batteries, as the S7 has a 3,000mAh battery while the Z5’s comes in at 2,900mAh. However, in our continuous video playback test, the S7 steamed ahead, lasting an incredible 17h 48m, beating the Z5’s 11h 29m by more than six whole hours.

Conclusion: It’s another win for the S7, as it’s not only much faster and more reliable over the course of the day, but the added flexibility of having 64GB of storage instead of just 32GB out of the box means you can cram even more apps and photos on it over the course of its lifetime.

Camera

It’s been good to see manufacturers abandon the meaningless megapixels arms race. With the Galaxy S7, Samsung has actually reduced the megapixel count from 16 megapixels down to 12 megapixels. The pixel size has increased, however, from 1.12um to 1.4um, meaning each pixel gets more light as a result, which should mean cleaner, sharper images.

The aperture of the lens has also increased from f/1.9 to f/1.7 meaning even more light is able to reach the sensor, which should in theory improve low-light performance with faster shutter speeds. A new dual-pixel sensor gives 100% phase detection making autofocus that much faster, too.

The Sony Xperia Z5, on the other hand, has a 23-megapixel sensor. This doesn’t guarantee it will have better quality images, but you will be able to make very large prints should you wish. The camera combines phase and contrast detection for quick autofocus and in testing we found the autofocus to be super fast.

^ The Galaxy S7’s indoor shots (above) had much richer colours and better contrast levels than the Z5 (below)

When it comes to overall quality, though, the S7 wins by a comfortable country mile. Images were not only crisper across the entire frame, but colours and the amount of contrast on show were also much better on the S7. The same goes for indoor photography as well. While the Z5 coped very well with our indoor still life arrangement, the S7 produced much more accurate-looking photos, particularly in low light.

Conclusion: Sony’s camera might have more megapixels, but in this case, Samsung shows that numbers aren’t important when it comes to making a great smartphone camera.

Price and conclusion

As much as we love both phones here at Expert Reviews, the Galaxy S7 pulls ahead in almost every category, making it the best value Android flagship to buy right now. It doesn’t help that the Xperia Z5 is almost just as expensive now as it was when it first launched at the end of last year, as it still costs around £500 SIM-free or at least £37.50-per-month on a contract. The S7, meanwhile, costs £569 SIM-free and £36-per-month if you’re willing to pay £80 upfront. That makes the Z5 a little cheaper, but it’s simply not enough to tempt us away from the newer, shinier Galaxy S7.