Both Apple and Samsung have taken over the smartphone industry. As far as phone makers go, these companies are the only ones that can sell millions of their smartphones in their given price range. With Apple having recently released their latest flagships, the iPhone 7/7 Plus, journalists have pitted the larger of the two [7 Plus] against Samsung's latest and greatest phablet, the Galaxy Note 7. Both devices are attractive and functional, but which one is better? When comparing smartphones, the main aspects consumers look at are: design, features, performance, and most importantly, prices. These two are going to go head to head and hopefully the decision is easier in the end.
The first thing noticed when picking up a cell phone is its design, and needless to say, both of these devices are gorgeous. The iPhone 7 Plus is crafted of glass and aluminum, with a smooth and rounded form factor, similar to the past two iPhone generations. Samsung has also decided to keep a similar design to its predecessor, the Note 7 has both front and back glass panels made of Gorilla Glass 5 with a metal band sandwiching them together. Where the iPhone sports a dual 12-megapixel camera setup with a quad LED flash on the back, its competitor comes with a single camera and flash. This year, Apple decided to level the playing field with its competitor by making their latest iPhone water and dust resistant, receiving an IP67 rating, just a hair under the Note 7's IP68 rating ("Samsung GalaxyTitans" 2). An author at ZDnet claims that the 7 Plus's stereo speakers deliver loud and crisp sound compared to their mono speakers on their older phones (Miller 4). There are a few characteristics missing from the 7 Plus that have caused some controversy though, and that's the removal of a physical home button as well as the 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, there's a solid-state surface that uses the phones taptic engine that provides three different levels of vibration to feel like a genuine click.
