Every six months we either get a new Samsung flagship or a new iPhone, and right on time, the Samsung Galaxy S7 is here to challenge Apple's iPhone 6S.
It's the smartphone comparison that never changes the minds of iOS and Android diehards, but I know plenty of curious fence sitters who wonder what the other side is like.
Tempted to make the switch? I don't blame you, especially given the last two years. Samsung began to design higher-end phones at the same time Apple finally increased its screen size.
What we have here are two phones that increasingly look alike, but are different underneath. There are enough unique hardware features and software perks on each to sway you back and forth and back again until you become dizzy.
Design
No one will mistake your Samsung Galaxy S7 or iPhone 6S for a cheap phone made of plastic. These two handsets define "premium" among smartphones with the best build materials around.
Metal and glass come together to form the Galaxy S7, and both the front and back hold up with strong Gorilla Glass 4. Ex-iPhone 4 and 4S owners shouldn't fear another glass-backed phone.
The S7 measures 142.4 x 69.6 x 7.9mm and weighs in at 152g. Even with its 0.4 inches of extra space, its dimensions are only marginally bigger than Apple's: 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1mm and 143g.
Aluminum envelopes the entire iPhone 6S, not just its frame, and it has this polished feel look and feel that's only unconvincing when it slips out of my hand. It's best outfit this one in a case.
I felt like I was able to hold onto and operate this smaller iPhone a little better in my palm, which made one-handed operation a cinch. You really don't need to wait for the iPhone SE.
Apple includes more bezel and less screen space vs the S7, yet Samsung managed to squeeze in a microSD card slot and waterproofing (up to 30 minutes, 1.5 meters down) into its design.
The Galaxy S7 has a larger screen at 5.1-inches, and it's much, much higher resolution at QHD, where Apple's got the smaller 4.7-inch choice but has a rather low-res 720p pixel count - the difference is marked between these two when it comes to the display.
Screen
Both the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S have brilliant displays, even with their markedly different screen technologies and resolutions.
Apple's 4.7-inch display is an LED-backlit IPS LCD with a 750 x 1334 resolution. In other words, it has a few more pixels than your old 720p HDTV, but not as many as newer full HD 1080p sets.
Samsung's 5.1-inch panel is the company's own Super AMOLED tech, and it has double the pixels found in a 1080p HDTV, with a 1440 x 2560 resolution. It's the best smartphone display available.
The Galaxy S7 also has a nifty always-on display. It lights up just a few pixels when the phone is put to sleep, showing the time, date, battery percentage and notification icons.
The larger size, higher resolution and always-on display make Samsung's screen superior to Apple's in every way. That said, you won't be spotting individual pixels on the iPhone 6S either; clarity and brightness are top-notch on both phones.
