Apple Iphone 8S vs Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge – Battle of the Giants

Samsung and Apple, two giants in the tech industry are setting the stage for their next great battle. While neither company has formally announced who their chosen champion, we already know who they are. Samsung’s S8 will step into the ring with Apple’s iPhone 8S. This will be the continuation of a long-standing rivalry and both sides will pull no punches as they attempt to outdo their competitor. While neither Apple or Samsung have officially announced the specs for their phones, recent leaks have given us a pretty good idea of what they will look like, so the question is, who will win this battle of the giants? Lets take a look.

Samsung Galaxy S8

The stakes could not be higher for Samsung. The Galaxy Note 7s tendency to burst into flames means that a lot is resting on the success of the S8. Thanks to a pretty huge leak from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, we know quite a bit about Samsung’s new offering,

The Galaxy S8 will come equipped with a huge 5.8-inch display with dimensions of 148.0 X 68.1 X 8.0 weighing in at 151g, an impressive 1g lighter than the smaller S7. It also has a new ultra-wide 18:5:9 aspect ratio, which allows it to have 2690 X 2400 native resolution. For the first time both models will feature curved OLED displays. The physical home button has been removed but the phone will still be dust and water resistant. The fingerprint scanner also appears to have been moved, somewhat intuitively, to the back of the phone. Next to the Camera. Perfect for your fingers to smudge the lens.

The front camera will be getting an upgrade to 8MP and the rear Camera is getting laser auto focus to “capture highly dynamic situations” which means that it is really really fast. Presumably so you can snap a shot of your camera-shy friends before they cover their faces.

Samsung is also improving on the S7s lackluster audio with stereo external speakers, which will route audio through the earpiece, creating a second channel. It also seems that Samsung has opted to keep the 3.5mm jack, perhaps to capitalise on the outrage that apple caused when they removed it from the iPhone 7.

Models sold in the US, Japan and China will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 385 chipset, models sold in Europe and the rest of Asia will use Samsung’s own Exynos 8895. It also looks like the Galaxy S8 will ship with 6 Gig of Ram in China and Korea and only 4 Gig in the rest of the world.

Battery-life may end up being a major downside for the Galaxy S8. Despite having a much larger screen the batteries are no larger than the Galaxy S7, which could lead to significantly shorter times between charges.

The Galaxy S8 ship in Black, Blue, Gold, Orchid Gray and Silver and potentially Rose Gold. It looks like it will cost around $899/949 for a GalaxyS8/Galaxy S8 Plus and Samsung expects the phones to do well. They hope to ship 40-45M units in 2017.

iPhone 8S

With the iPhone’s tenth anniversary looming, expectations for Apple are high. Apple products are often regarded as the benchmark against which all others are measured. The pressure is even higher than usual. 2016 was the first year that their annual revenue has dropped since 2001 and iPhone sales have began to slip. Apple will hope that the iPhone 8s can turn this around. Much like the Galaxy 8S the iPhone 8 has not yet been announced but there is plenty we can gleam from recent leaks and rumors.

It looks like Apple will be releasing 3 iPhone 8 models. There is no information about the exact dimensions but we can say that it will feature an edge-to-edge design and will likely be similar in size to a 4.7 inch phone with a display size of a 5.8 inch phone. The physical home button will also be removed in favor of virtual buttons. Rumors suggest that the phone itself will be made with Glass rather than the aluminum used in recent models. The iPhone 8 will feature an OLED display that will allow Apple to make the iPhone 8 even slimmer than previous models. The phone will probably feature a lightening port, but some rumors suggest it could adopt a USB-C port instead.

The iPhone 8 will likely feature a dual-lens rear camera but there is not yet any information about its size. There are also rumors that it will include the ability to use both wide-angle and telephoto lenses and it might even feature support for 3D photography effects. The front facing camera also looks like it is going to be pretty revolutionary, it will consist of three modules that give it 3D sensing capabilities. This means that the camera could be used for facial and iris recognition as well as giving it a whole host of Augmented Reality capabilities.

The iPhone 8 will likely use Apple’s A11 chip, which will likely be one of the most powerful processors on the market. It is hoped that the A11 will not only be more power efficient than the current A10 but that it will also greatly improve battery-life, potentially reducing power usage by up to 40%. Sadly, for those of us who like to keep 20+ tabs open, it looks like the iPhone 8 will only ship with 3 gig of ram.

The improvements made by the A11 chipset may help account for the rumors that the iPhone 8 will have significantly improved battery life compared with previous models. There are no numbers yet but at the very least, an iPhone 8 will be able to offer comparable battery-life to previous models.

There is very little information about pricing yet, but based on previous iPhone releases and the improvements that are going to be made I would judge that the high end model will set you back between $900 and $1,100.

Whose Champion will prevail?

This is a difficult one to call. Samsung’s Galaxy S8 looks like it is going to be a huge step forward for the company but it might not go far enough to encourage people to trade in their S7 phones for an upgrade. There is also the concern that a lingering sour taste from the Galaxy Note 7 will taint the release.

The iPhone 8 on the other hand looks like it is going to be revolutionary step forward for apple. Apple is introducing a number of first-time features that will feel fresh to iPhone users.  Android users might not be swayed by familiar features like wireless charging or an edgeless display these changes will fresh to Apples primary demographic, iPhone users. These changes could prompt a lot of users to upgrade to the new model.

It looks like Apple have the edge over Samsung for now but in the end, the truth will be in the numbers.