I currently have a 9.7-inch iPad Pro which I bought in 2016 and I am looking for a new tablet. My main use will be reading PDFs, watching media, and navigating the Internet. Not intended to be a laptop replacement.
My choices were narrowed down to the S6 and S7. The S7+ sounds incredible, but it is not yet available for sale here in Brazil. It is supposed to become available in mid-November, for an initial price of $1,600. The prices of the S6 ($700) and the S7 ($850) are already steep, so I think I will end up settling with one of these, especially considering that I will not edit photos or videos.
The S7 is a superior tablet in nearly every way: a faster processor, more memory, more storage, a larger screen, 120 Hz screen. However, it has an LCD screen instead of AMOLED, which is featured on the S6. However, the S7 screen looks like one of great quality (and much better than the one in the S6 Lite, for instance). The first time I had seen the S7, I had not even notice that it had an LCD screen, as I thought it was great. I only learned it had an LCD screen when I saw it on the Internet.
I tended to turn my nose up at LCD screens, as I thought they were inferior to AMOLED. When I first looked at the iPhone XS and the iPhone XR side-by-side, for instance, I could instantly see the difference. The OLED screen of the iPhone XS looked more vivid and lifelike, with better contrast than the one in the XR. This resulted in turning me away from the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11. However, the screen in the S7 had given me so much of a good impression that left me intrigued, and I had to check for myself.
So, I went to a Samsung store and compared the S6 and the S7, both at maximum brightness, side-by-side for some time. The sellers told me the S7 had an AMOLED display and kept telling me that the screen was better than in the S6 (this was the training that Samsung provided that, as they told me). They were not aware that the S7 had an LCD display until I showed them the specs on the Samsung website (and, to be honest, I had to check in person to see if Samsung's specs were, in fact, correct, or if they were wrongly announcing the S7 as having an LCD screen).
I put the same websites, pictures, and videos on both screens at the same time, so I could compare them both. I have some impressions which I would like to share after looking at both screens. I would also like to check if you have a different view or impressions, as my examination may have been influenced by the units, by calibration, or by the fact that I was standing in a store with no optimal light. Here I go:
Please let me know your thoughts and if you have a different impression. At first, I tended to be biased towards the AMOLED screen, but the LCD in the S7 looks so good that it may not even make a difference after all. I would much appreciate some unbiased opinions, as I am trying to decide between these two devices.
My choices were narrowed down to the S6 and S7. The S7+ sounds incredible, but it is not yet available for sale here in Brazil. It is supposed to become available in mid-November, for an initial price of $1,600. The prices of the S6 ($700) and the S7 ($850) are already steep, so I think I will end up settling with one of these, especially considering that I will not edit photos or videos.
The S7 is a superior tablet in nearly every way: a faster processor, more memory, more storage, a larger screen, 120 Hz screen. However, it has an LCD screen instead of AMOLED, which is featured on the S6. However, the S7 screen looks like one of great quality (and much better than the one in the S6 Lite, for instance). The first time I had seen the S7, I had not even notice that it had an LCD screen, as I thought it was great. I only learned it had an LCD screen when I saw it on the Internet.
I tended to turn my nose up at LCD screens, as I thought they were inferior to AMOLED. When I first looked at the iPhone XS and the iPhone XR side-by-side, for instance, I could instantly see the difference. The OLED screen of the iPhone XS looked more vivid and lifelike, with better contrast than the one in the XR. This resulted in turning me away from the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11. However, the screen in the S7 had given me so much of a good impression that left me intrigued, and I had to check for myself.
So, I went to a Samsung store and compared the S6 and the S7, both at maximum brightness, side-by-side for some time. The sellers told me the S7 had an AMOLED display and kept telling me that the screen was better than in the S6 (this was the training that Samsung provided that, as they told me). They were not aware that the S7 had an LCD display until I showed them the specs on the Samsung website (and, to be honest, I had to check in person to see if Samsung's specs were, in fact, correct, or if they were wrongly announcing the S7 as having an LCD screen).
I put the same websites, pictures, and videos on both screens at the same time, so I could compare them both. I have some impressions which I would like to share after looking at both screens. I would also like to check if you have a different view or impressions, as my examination may have been influenced by the units, by calibration, or by the fact that I was standing in a store with no optimal light. Here I go:
- Both screens had great quality. I was surprised by the quality of the LCD screen of the S7, which was strikingly similar to the AMOLED in the S6. I had to look in more detail to see the differences between them, which were not obvious if I did not put them side-by-side. In the end, it became clear that they use different technologies.
- The screen in the S7 feels significantly larger in my hands, although the difference is only 0.5-inch.
- Scrolling was smooth in the S6 (much more than in Samsung's lower-end devices), and, although the 120 Hz screen of the S7 was even smoother, that was a much closer call than I would imagine.
- On paper, the screen in the S7 is brighter than the one in the S6, but the brightness looked very similar in real life.
- Blacks looked very good on both devices. To my surprise, and despite the fact that I looked carefully at the two devices, I could not notice much difference between black levels in the S6 and the S7. It was not the black color that revealed the LCD screen of the S6.
- Yellow was much more vivid in the S6 than in the S7. It was a saturated yellow, but very pleasing to look at. This was one of the most remarkable differences.
- Red seemed to be better and more accurate in the S7. In the S6, red had a yellowish tone that made it look somewhat orange instead.
- White seemed to be warmer in the S7, and colder (even blueish) in the S6 (and a white screen was the only hint that the S7 might be actually brighter than the S6, which was somewhat compensated by the colder tone).
- I did not notice much difference in the other colors, such as green and blue.
- Contrast was very good in both devices and the difference was nearly unnoticeable. After looking carefully, the S6 seemed to have a little more contrast, but I could not identify the source of my impression (perhaps the yellow color being more vivid).
Please let me know your thoughts and if you have a different impression. At first, I tended to be biased towards the AMOLED screen, but the LCD in the S7 looks so good that it may not even make a difference after all. I would much appreciate some unbiased opinions, as I am trying to decide between these two devices.
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