# New phone: iPhone 6S or Samsung Galaxy S7? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 17, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608 "2016-06-17T15:10:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/21 "2016-06-17T19:10:39Z")
Whatever phone you buy. Be sure it has turbo charge. My moto X can recharge from empty to full in an hour. I charged it one time with a standard USB charger. It took 6 hours. I won’t do that again . ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/22 "2016-06-20T17:17:09Z")
Thanks for all the answers. I’m not leaning either way yet but I think I will be if I can get clarification on some follow up questions: > [@DCnDC](#): > > Battery life has been excellent, no issues at all so far. Still lasts a full day+ on a full charge with regular use. Haven’t noticed any degeneration so far. How’s the battery life in comparison? I saw this commercial about the Samsung S7 Edge and it has wireless charging. I thought that technology was still a ways off! And it has something called uh, boost charging? So it fully charges in like an hour instead of several hours. I’d want something like that. I heard the iPhone is notorious for having shorter batteries > [@aceplace57](#): > > I recently transitioned to a smart phone. I choose an Android phone because there’s less restrictions. What kind of restrictions are you talking about? > [@scr4](#): > > Cortana is a Microsoft service & app that recently became available on Android. I haven’t tried it yet. Android does come with [Google Now](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Now) as standard. Its voice interaction & hands-free features aren’t very powerful though I know about apps but I’ve never had the opportunity to get one. Does Cortana cost money? Is this Google Now thing free? > [@Eliahna](#): > > On Android phones, you can say “OK Google” to access the voice activated helper that’s similar to Siri. Can you have conversations with it or is it strictly an interface for apps? I’m thinking conversations like a Joaquin Phoenix in Her sort of thing > [@AngelSoft](#): > > S7 all the way for no other reason than expandable memory. That’s one thing that’s always driven me away from iphones as it seems to be just another excuse to ask for more money from the consumer. Since I’ve never had a smartphone yet, can you tell me what’s a “good” sized memory to have? Right now you could tell me 1GB or 100GB and I’d have no idea what’s a decent size or how long it’d take me to fill it up. For my digital camera, I use about 1GB per year and typically every few months I’ll download everything on my computer so I can clear out the memory. > [@heartsplayer](#): > > If you don’t want to use iTunes, then you might run into ifficulties on the iPhone? I can’t confirm whether you will run into problems or not (you should still be able to drag and drop files/folders using a PC), but Apple products are designed to work with Apple services, such as iTunes. The same goes for Android devices; Android devices work best with Google Services (such as Google Play, and Google Music, though you don’t have to use Google Music on an Android). > > Hope all of this is helpful! Thank you, all of that was very helpful. A follow up on this. I won’t be using iTunes, but I’m not against playing music. I might start playing it if I had this portable music device with me. Right now, to listen to music, I do the typical download as a .mpg from a video on Youtube and convert it to an MP3 or .WAV file so I can burn it onto a CD in my car. My car is too old to have a thing that connects it to bluetooth or an iPod/iPhone jack, so CDs are the only way I can listen to my music in the car. Suppose I want to just copy an MP3 onto my phone’s harddrive and play it like that, can I do that with both? I’ve heard bad things about how Apple purges illegal music from people’s phones and all I have is illegal-looking MP3 files > [@aceplace57](#): > > Whatever phone you buy. Be sure it has turbo charge. My moto X can recharge from empty to full in an hour. > > I charged it one time with a standard USB charger. It took 6 hours. I won’t do that again . Is this a special feature I have to ask for or does it come with these newer phones? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/23 "2016-06-20T18:46:06Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > I know about apps but I’ve never had the opportunity to get one. Does Cortana cost money? Is this Google Now thing free? It appears the [Cortana app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.cortana) is free. Google Now is free, and I think is pre-installed on Android phones. > [@](#): > > Can you have conversations with it or is it strictly an interface for apps? I’m thinking conversations like a Joaquin Phoenix in Her sort of thing Google Now does not do conversations. Best to think of it as voice commands for the phone. > [@](#): > > Since I’ve never had a smartphone yet, can you tell me what’s a “good” sized memory to have? Right now you could tell me 1GB or 100GB and I’d have no idea what’s a decent size or how long it’d take me to fill it up. For my digital camera, I use about 1GB per year and typically every few months I’ll download everything on my computer so I can clear out the memory. YMMV, but if you have a few large apps, some music & podcasts, and photos, you can quickly fill up a 16GB phone. You probably won’t fill up 32GB unless you download a bunch of movies, take a lot of video, download your entire music collection, etc. > [@](#): > > Thank you, all of that was very helpful. A follow up on this. I won’t be using iTunes, but I’m not against playing music. I might start playing it if I had this portable music device with me. Right now, to listen to music, I do the typical download as a .mpg from a video on Youtube and convert it to an MP3 or .WAV file so I can burn it onto a CD in my car. My car is too old to have a thing that connects it to bluetooth or an iPod/iPhone jack, so CDs are the only way I can listen to my music in the car. Suppose I want to just copy an MP3 onto my phone’s harddrive and play it like that, can I do that with both? I’ve heard bad things about how Apple purges illegal music from people’s phones and all I have is illegal-looking MP3 files With Android, you can just connect the phone to your PC, and the phone will appear as an external drive. Just copy the MP3 files to it. With Apple, I think you need to import it to iTunes and sync to the phone. You could also upload the music to Amazon Music, Google Music or Apple Music, and either stream the music, or download it from there. Personally, my entire music collection is on Amazon Music (so I can listen to it using Google Echo), so it’s easier to download music from there to the phone than to use a USB connection. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/24 "2016-06-20T22:38:17Z")
You may want to look at this [Consumer Reports](http://www.consumerreports.org/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s7-smartphones-top-consumer-reports-ratings/) article where they LOVE the Galaxy S7. They describe the camera in some detail. If you have access to the full ratings or the print version of the magazine (March I believe), they rank it above the Apple products. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/25 "2016-06-20T23:11:33Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > I’ve heard bad things about how Apple purges illegal music from people’s phones and all I have is illegal-looking MP3 files If you have links from some reputable sources of Apple purposely deleting music from peoples iPhones because it suspected the songs were pirated, I’d love to see them. If anything, the opposite is true- the iTunes Match service will happily sell you an indulgence like a crooked pope for your entire collection of thousands of poorly encoded Napster/Kazaa/Limewire/YouTube downloads, replacing them with high quality files. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/26 "2016-06-20T23:23:14Z")
YMMV but none of my smart phones have made it to retirement. All of them have met an untimely end from being dropped. When that happens, I replace it with a used model from a generation or two ago. It’s a lot cheaper and you aren’t that far behind the tech curve. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/27 "2016-06-20T23:24:33Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > With Android, you can just connect the phone to your PC, and the phone will appear as an external drive. Just copy the MP3 files to it. With Apple, I think you need to import it to iTunes and sync to the phone. You don’t need to import or sync the song into iTunes if you don’t want to. The iphone shows up in the iTunes window, then just drag and drop the file onto the iPhone; it will leave your iTunes library untouched. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/28 "2016-06-20T23:32:24Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > If you have links from some reputable sources of Apple purposely deleting music from peoples iPhones because it suspected the songs were pirated, I’d love to see them. > > If anything, the opposite is true- the iTunes Match service will happily sell you an indulgence like a crooked pope for your entire collection of thousands of poorly encoded Napster/Kazaa/Limewire/YouTube downloads, replacing them with high quality files. Yeah, iTunes Match was like money laundering for me. It instantly legitimized gigabytes of questionable files. Apple doesn’t delete stuff for you; the most recent case you might be thinking of was due to an obscure bug in the OS compounded with the user’s failure to run backups. > **[Apple acknowledges reports of personal music files being deleted, iTunes...](https://9to5mac.com/2016/05/13/apple-officially-acknowledges-reports-of-personal-music-files-being-deleted-itunes-update-coming-next-week-to-hopefully-fix-the-bug/)** > > Apple has officially acknowledged community reports of inadvertently deleted music, with users left with missing tracks in their libraries that may never be recovered, in... Before anyone calls me out for pirating music, I’m now exclusively using streaming so I don’t have any files at all any more. It’s super liberating not having to deal with file management. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/29 "2016-06-20T23:39:40Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > You don’t need to import or sync the song into iTunes if you don’t want to. The iphone shows up in the iTunes window, then just drag and drop the file onto the iPhone; it will leave your iTunes library untouched. And the phone will find and play the files? (Just curious. The last iOS device I owned was a 1st generation iPad.) ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/30 "2016-06-21T00:27:53Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > And the phone will find and play the files? > > (Just curious. The last iOS device I owned was a 1st generation iPad.) Yes. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/31 "2016-06-21T01:48:24Z")
> [@treis](#): > > YMMV but none of my smart phones have made it to retirement. All of them have met an untimely end from being dropped. When that happens, I replace it with a used model from a generation or two ago. It’s a lot cheaper and you aren’t that far behind the tech curve. This (although I’d go for an unsold phone from a generation or two ago personally). Any phone from the last couple of years will do what the OP wants. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/32 "2016-06-21T01:59:18Z")
I will never buy a non-waterproof phone again. There’s no reason for them not to be, and it makes life so much easier. Balance your phone on the edge of your sink to play a podcast while shaving? No problem. Listen to the news while chopping vegetables? Etc… (I’m a bit biased on this as I drive a Wrangler and get rained upon regularly.) ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/33 "2016-06-21T02:40:52Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I bought a Motorola Moto X Pure in April. It’s cheaper than the Samsung. It’s unlocked and works with any carrier. I’ve had one of these for about a month. Totally recommend it. And it also has a Micro SD card slot. I just added another 128 GB for $40 (though if you want to add it as expanded phone memory, get the [UHS speed](https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/index.html) class of card). Amazing how cheap it is these days. Amazon has a the 16 GB Moto X Pure for $296, 32 GB for $349. edit: Added a link that explains the[two ways to set up the SD card](https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/109134). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/34 "2016-06-21T11:18:24Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > Thanks for all the answers. I’m not leaning either way yet but I think I will be if I can get clarification on some follow up questions: > > How’s the battery life in comparison? I saw this commercial about the Samsung S7 Edge and it has wireless charging. I thought that technology was still a ways off! And it has something called uh, boost charging? So it fully charges in like an hour instead of several hours. I’d want something like that. I heard the iPhone is notorious for having shorter batteries > > What kind of restrictions are you talking about? > > I know about apps but I’ve never had the opportunity to get one. Does Cortana cost money? Is this Google Now thing free? > > Can you have conversations with it or is it strictly an interface for apps? I’m thinking conversations like a Joaquin Phoenix in Her sort of thing > > Since I’ve never had a smartphone yet, can you tell me what’s a “good” sized memory to have? Right now you could tell me 1GB or 100GB and I’d have no idea what’s a decent size or how long it’d take me to fill it up. For my digital camera, I use about 1GB per year and typically every few months I’ll download everything on my computer so I can clear out the memory. > > Thank you, all of that was very helpful. A follow up on this. I won’t be using iTunes, but I’m not against playing music. I might start playing it if I had this portable music device with me. Right now, to listen to music, I do the typical download as a .mpg from a video on Youtube and convert it to an MP3 or .WAV file so I can burn it onto a CD in my car. My car is too old to have a thing that connects it to bluetooth or an iPod/iPhone jack, so CDs are the only way I can listen to my music in the car. Suppose I want to just copy an MP3 onto my phone’s harddrive and play it like that, can I do that with both? I’ve heard bad things about how Apple purges illegal music from people’s phones and all I have is illegal-looking MP3 files > > Is this a special feature I have to ask for or does it come with these newer phones? I had mentioned the moto X pure had no restrictions. I meant it can be used with any phone carrier. It’s an unlocked phone. I’m not sure how many other phones have turbocharge. It’s a time saving feature worth seeking out on any new phone you buy. ---
**Author:** ![heartsplayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d9b06d/32.png) [@heartsplayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heartsplayer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/35 "2016-06-21T22:24:43Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > Thanks for all the answers. I’m not leaning either way yet but I think I will be if I can get clarification on some follow up questions: > > Since I’ve never had a smartphone yet, can you tell me what’s a “good” sized memory to have? Right now you could tell me 1GB or 100GB and I’d have no idea what’s a decent size or how long it’d take me to fill it up. For my digital camera, I use about 1GB per year and typically every few months I’ll download everything on my computer so I can clear out the memory. On a smartphone, it would be a wise idea to get one that is 32GB or higher. There are not many smartphones sold (certainly high end smartphones) nowadays with less than 16GB, and 16GB would be reasonably adequate if you got a phone with a microSD card slot (so you could then boost the storage with the SD card). My S4 is 16GB, and I have a 16GB card as well, so total 32GB. That’s perfectly adequate for me. If you want a lot of music, videos pr photos to be stored on the phone, you might want the 64GB iPhone, or adding an additional 32GB microSD card to the Galaxy S7. > [@YogSothoth](#): > > Thank you, all of that was very helpful. A follow up on this. I won’t be using iTunes, but I’m not against playing music. I might start playing it if I had this portable music device with me. Right now, to listen to music, I do the typical download as a .mpg from a video on Youtube and convert it to an MP3 or .WAV file so I can burn it onto a CD in my car. My car is too old to have a thing that connects it to bluetooth or an iPod/iPhone jack, so CDs are the only way I can listen to my music in the car. Suppose I want to just copy an MP3 onto my phone’s harddrive and play it like that, can I do that with both? I’ve heard bad things about how Apple purges illegal music from people’s phones and all I have is illegal-looking MP3 files I haven’t used an iOS device, so I don’t know how Apple would react to having Youtube-MP3 style MP3’s on an iPhone. With Android devices, it’s absolutely fine; I have a couple of youtube-MP3 style MP3’s on my phone (most of the MP3s I have, were bought from legitimate stores, like iTunes or Google Play) and have not ran into any issues. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/36 "2016-06-22T16:30:03Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I had mentioned the moto X pure had no restrictions. I meant it can be used with any phone carrier. It’s an unlocked phone. I’ve heard about this “jailbreaking” thing where phones are locked into a company, but we use a big company, I think Time Warner or Verizon, for our phones. They’ve gotta have a Samsung or iPhone plan right? Since I’ve never had to worry about phones before, I’m not sure how this whole “locked in plan” thing works. You mean that I can buy a smartphone, and my phone company won’t support it? And examples I’ve heard about in the past is with Apple, since they like to control every aspect of their devices. Also, I was reading something about how Apple is going to remove the standard headphone jack from their phones for something they call Lightning? What’s that about? Samsung isn’t going to do that right? Because that might be enough to get me off the iPhone ---
**Author:** ![heartsplayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d9b06d/32.png) [@heartsplayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heartsplayer)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/37 "2016-06-22T18:22:49Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > I’ve heard about this “jailbreaking” thing where phones are locked into a company, but we use a big company, I think Time Warner or Verizon, for our phones. They’ve gotta have a Samsung or iPhone plan right? Since I’ve never had to worry about phones before, I’m not sure how this whole “locked in plan” thing works. You mean that I can buy a smartphone, and my phone company won’t support it? And examples I’ve heard about in the past is with Apple, since they like to control every aspect of their devices. > Also, I was reading something about how **Apple is going to remove the standard headphone jack from their phones for something they call Lightning?** What’s that about? Samsung isn’t going to do that right? Because that might be enough to get me off the iPhone Lightning is the connector that is already used for charging the modern day iPhones. It’s the connector that replaced the old 30 pin connector from the iPhone 5 and onwards. I’d be surprised if Apple did remove the 3.5mm headphone jack; however I don’t think it’d be a wise idea as people want to use headphones that work from device to device. They may have bought an expensive pair of headphones, that then can’t work on their latest iPhone. I’m guessing that, if the iPhone did lose its 3.5mm jack, they’d probably go along the route of Bluetooth headsets instead. Would be better as there are more Bluetooth headsets about for sale, but still not a good idea just yet. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/38 "2016-06-22T20:36:01Z")
I think you should just get a Galaxy 7 already. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/39 "2016-06-28T16:24:43Z")
I think I’m going with the Samsung Galaxy Edge 7. Thank you all for your contributions. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608/40 "2016-06-28T19:02:51Z")
> [@heartsplayer](#): > > In the UK, the iPhonV 6 and newer have access to 4G Calling, or Voice Over LTE. Android devices have to fall back to 3G for calls, unless bought from the mobile operator. (Don’t know how this works in the US, do any phone carriers in the US have 4G Calling?) Yes, AT&T, Verizon, and T Mobile have VoLTE. Sprint is also working on upgrading its LTE network to offer VoLTE. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-phone-iphone-6s-or-samsung-galaxy-s7/757608.md?page=3)