When comparing Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge vs HTC 10, the Slant community recommends HTC 10 for most people. In the question“What are the best smartphones releasing for Spring/Summer 2016?” HTC 10 is ranked 2nd while Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose HTC 10 is:
The aluminum uni-body design is back, this time with some improvements. The power button has distinguishing ridges, the 'HTC bar" is gone, and they removed the bottom speaker helping it achieve almost 5% higher screen-to-body ratio. On the rear is a massive chamfered edge, which catches light differently and makes holding the phone feel more comfortable.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Amazing display
The S7 Edge has a 5.5" 1440p Super-Amoled display. It has a very high resolution which means blocky text and grainy images are things of the past - it's got enough pixels that it will work great even as a VR (virtual reality) display. The Super-Amoled technology allows individual pixels to turn off, which means that black colors are true black (IPS panels need to keep black pixels illuminated which means that very dark blue glow you'll find on most screens when displaying black). Colors really pop as well.
Pro Great camera, especially in low-light
Samsung has reduced the resolution to 12MP (the S6 had 16MP), but they have changed the way the camera works. Each individual pixel is larger which allows more light to enter - this means brighter looking pictures even in very dark situations. They also use dual-pixel technology, which makes focusing laser fast. The camera also protrudes less from the back than the S6 (it just barely sticks out now).
Pro Excellent performance
This is one of the first phones with the all new Snapdragon 820 system on a chip (SoC - that just means that there's a CPU and GPU bundled in the unit). It has the newest and most advanced CPU and GPU available in early 2016. It's accompanied by 4GB of RAM - that's enough for most laptops, so plenty of RAM as far as phones are concerned.
Pro Comfortable design
The Galaxy S7 Edge has a curved screen on the front, as well as curved glass on the rear. The rear curve makes it groove into your hand better than regular corners on most phones. On the front of the screen, the edge invites you to swipe all the way to the side of the screen, and there are features that take advantage of this. Swiping in from the right edge brings up panels which you can customize - quick one-touch calling contacts, quick launching apps - you can configure it to whatever you want.
Pro Waterproof (with no flaps)
The Galaxy S7 Edge features IP68 dust and water resistance - you can submerge the S7 into 1.5m (5ft) of fresh water for 30 minutes without worrying about it. Just make sure to let the ports dry before using them.
Pro Good battery life
The 3,600mAh battery is large enough to last a full day, and Samsung boasts that you can binge watch an entire season of Game of Thrones without needing to charge (these claims have yet to be tested, but users are reporting 7 hours of screen-on time during mixed use which is still impressive).
Pro VR Compatible
The Galaxy S7 Edge is compatible with Samsung Gear VR. It costs $99, but sometimes can be bundled with the phone for less. It is a great affordable introduction to virtual reality, although it isn't the best solution available.
The phone clips into the headset, and connects via the USB port to act as the brains and display for the unit.
Pro Great build quality and materials
The aluminum uni-body design is back, this time with some improvements. The power button has distinguishing ridges, the 'HTC bar" is gone, and they removed the bottom speaker helping it achieve almost 5% higher screen-to-body ratio. On the rear is a massive chamfered edge, which catches light differently and makes holding the phone feel more comfortable.
Pro Clean, simple UI
HTC's Sense 8 UI borrows heavily from stock Android, making minor additions and revisions instead of a complete re-haul. Instead of including multiple apps (a gallery app from HTC and one from Google for example), they have mostly gone with Google's apps.
Some unique features are the "Freestyle" layout, which almost acts like a personalized wallpaper/homescreen hybrid. You can add stickers that fit the wallpaper's theme, and assign them to a task then touched. These aren't restricted to an app grid either. This helps keep your home screen look clean without removing any functionality.
BlinkFeed is also back, and is the best implementation of 'bite-sized' information. Samsung and others have tried copying it, however HTC continues to excel in this area. BlinkFeed is a feed of information that almost acts like a massive widget on the leftmost home screen. It can pull information from social media, news sites, and make suggestions based on contextual data (such as good places to eat near you around lunchtime).
Pro Amazing audio quality - both speakers and 3.5mm jack output
HTC is using a new strategy when it comes to speakers - they are using a front facing tweeter (focuses on high frequency) in the earpiece and a speaker in the bottom (focusing on the bass). It might not be the dual-front facing stereo speakers of yesteryear, but this provides space for a larger screen without making the body of the phone larger, and also doesn't compromise on audio quality
HTC is also using a DAC, as well as a dedicated amp for each speaker. The phone also supports Hi-Fi audio, putting this in the contest for best current audio experience on any phone.
Pro Great performance
In GFXBench 3.0 onscreen, the HTC 10 scores 52 fps on T-Rex and 29 fps on Manhattan. This is in line with the Galaxy S7, and about 50% better than the Galaxy S6 and Nexus 6P.
For the offscreen GFXBench 3.0, the HTC 10 achieved 90 fps in T-Rex and 47 fps on Manhattan. This is just a hair slower than the US Galaxy S7 variant, but ahead of the international Galaxy S7, Galaxy S6, and Nexus 6P.
In Geekbench 3: single-core, the HTC 10 is just a hair slower than the US Galaxy S7 and slower than the iPhone 6S Plus, but faster than the international Galaxy S7, S6, and Nexus 6P.
Pro Adaptable SD card storage
You can install apps on the SD card, and use it the exact same as the internal storage. Other flagship phones don't allow this - their SD cards are restricted to media (music, movies, pictures).
Pro Good camera
HTC has tweaked their 'ultrapixel' idea - this time they've gone with a 12MP sensor with large pixels (although they aren't as large at the 4MP camera in the M7 and M8, but considerably larger than the M9's 20MP shooter).
Colors can be muted in daylight shots, but the HTC 10 nails lowlight shots. No doubt the OIS and laser-assisted focusing helps here.
Pro Great multitasking performance
With 4GB of RAM, the HTC 10 can store many apps in the DDR4 RAM without needing to re-load them. This saves a bit of battery life (the processor doesn't need to work hard loading the app back up from scratch), but the more significant benefit is the speed at which users can switch between apps.
Pro Really good screen quality
HTC uses the newest IPS LCD 5 display, which can produce very similar saturated colors that you'd find on Amoled panels, or in the settings you can change it to be more realistic looking - like a traditional LCD panel. The screen also responds faster than any other display out there, however this has never been a problem before.
Pro Lots of storage available
The HTC 10 starts at 32GB of storage and some markets have a 64GB version available - there is no 16GB model. This storage can be expanded through a SD card, adding an additional 256GB. This SD storage can be used for anything including apps - not just media like most Android phones.
Pro Future-ready charging port
USB Type C is the new charging/data transfer standard that has just begun rolling out in 2015. It offers faster data transfer speeds, and a reversible port as well as a more durable connector. It should stick around for the next 5-10 years.
Pro Fast charge times
The HTC 10 is Qualcomm QuickCharge 3 compliant, and comes with a QuickCharge charger in the box. This helps it charge very quickly when the battery is almost dead, however the charging speed decreases the closer it gets to full.
Pro Narrow bezels
The bezels on the HTC 10 are small, which helps it achieve a screen-to-body ratio just over 71%. This helps maximize the screen space, while not increasing the physical body of the phone much.
Pro Fast updates
Pro Great price
Pro Beautiful finish
HTC was one of the first manufacturers (other than Apple) to put effort into making their phones look great - starting 4 years ago with the HTC One M7. This trend has continued with the HTC 10. The aluminum body is only broken by 2 flat antenna lines on the back, and the whole rear edge has a massive chamfered edge which catches light and reflects it. It's a beautifully elegant looking phone.
Pro Great front camera for low light.
The front camera has a large f/1.8 aperture, large 1.34 µm pixels and ois which contribute to a better low light performance than competition. It is also good for vloggers as it is the only flagship device to include ois on the front camera.
Pro Great fingerprint scanner
The fingerprint scanner doubles as the home button, and is located centrally on the bottom chin. It doesn't click - it's just a touch-capacitive pad. Fingerprints are read quickly and extremely accurately, and the button is located on the front where you can press it while it's sitting down on a desk or table.
Pro Well balanced
Cons
Con Bloatware
The Galaxy S7 runs TouchWiz software, which is known for its abundance of bloatware. Bloatware is the term used to describe pre-installed apps that add little to no functionality. Samsung's offerings (S-Voice, Chat-On, Flipboard, Kies, Samsung Hub, and the list goes on) are often inferior to Google's offerings and/or third party apps.
Con Slippery back
While it feels premium, it's more prone to damage than aluminum or plastic backs. Also, it feels fairly slippery meaning it's more likely to slide off surfaces.
Con No USB-C
Samsung opted out of using the next generation USB-C which is quickly becoming the industry standard and is a much more convenient reversible port.
Con Edges reduce usability slightly
Hitting the q and p keys on the keyboard is harder than on flat screens, as about 30% of the key is slanted away. Also, on white screens you can see the slight color distortion on the edges if you look for it, although in regular use you won't notice it.
Con Lack of exciting features
While the LG G5 has it's modular bottom, the Galaxy S7 Edge has that edge with software to enhance it, and the Nexus 6P has pure stock Android and will get the fastest updates. The HTC 10 lacks a single headlining feature, and even the design is a small evolution of the M7's original design 3 years ago.
Con Paintwork on black HTC 10 makes small chips obvious
Black paintwork contrasts with the silver body so the little chips look more obvious than on the silver model
Con Too expensive
You can find cheaper phones with similar specs to this e.g. the galaxy s7
Con New charging port
Old micro USB cables will not work with this device, meaning if you lose or break your cable you will need to buy a new one instead of using an old cable you had lying around. If you need to top up your phone away from home, it will be much harder to find a suitable cable initially.
Con In bright light, the camera can turn colors grey
In very bright settings, the camera mutes colors, turning them grey. With any luck, this can be fixed through a future software update.
Con Screen brightness has limited range
In bright daylight, it can be hard to clearly see the screen. At night (or in dark rooms), the screen is a bit too bright. Other phones offer more range with their brightness than the HTC 10.
Con Unpredictable battery life
A 90 minute full HD video on 100% brightness drained the battery by 22% - a poor result - which is much higher than the ~16% we typically see. However, while web browsing over WiFi it scored 8 hours - a very good result - beating out the Galaxy S7 (7.6 hours), iPhone 6s (7.45 hours), and the Nexus 6P (5.65 hours). This is a new phone, so perhaps a software update can stabilize the battery life.