Here's why the Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ has the edge over iPhone 7, Google Pixel

Samsung on Wednesday unveiled the most awaited smartphone this year, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus smartphones at an event in New York. All eyes were on the Galaxy S8 and the S8 Plus after the Note 7 battery issue last year which took a heavy toll on the company. The flagship Note 7 was brought in to take on competition for Apple who launched the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus smartphones last year.

In a mega even for the launch Samsung launched a smartphone which featured the company's digital assistant Bixby, which is similar to Apple's Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The most striking feature of the smartphones is the 'infinity display' which is an expanded screen that covers almost the entire surface of the phone. The home button too has been removed from the front and is replaced by a pressure sensitive button at the bottom of the screen.

This feature makes the 5.8 inch display of the Galaxy S8 and 6.2 inch display of the Galaxy S8 Plus even much larger than ever. It has a Mobile HDR Display certification and is the first smartphone to have this feature.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+ already being sold for Rs 90,000 on eBay India

While like the previous flagship editions the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus comes is water and dust resistant, the company has also increased the security features which include a iris scanner, finger print scanner and face recognition sensors.

Both the smartphones have a 8 megapixel front camera and a dual 12 megapixel rear camera. The highlight of the camera is that apart from HD video recording, it also has the ability to take 4K videos.

Other specifications of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus includes a Octa-core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.7GHz Quad) 64 bit 10nm processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory which is expandable upto 256 GB via microSD, Android 7.0 Nougat and 3000mAh battery for the Galaxy S8 and 3500mAh battery for the Galaxy S8 Plus and supports fast charging on wired and wireless.

While Samsung did not announce the price of the smartphones, media reports Verizon Wireless and The Verge list price of the Galaxy S8 at $720 (nearly Rs 46,700) and the Galaxy S8 Plus at $840 (nearly Rs 54,500).

However, sellers on eBay have already started advertising to sell the phone for Rs 90,000. The Ebay caveat says that the smartphones will be imported and people will have to wait for 50-55 days. A reason for the high price of the smartphones on the e-commerce portal. This price of the smartphones when launched in India would be expected to be in the Rs 60,000 range.

Also read: Samsung launches flagship Galaxy S8, S8+; available from April 21

In terms of the price the iPhone 7 starts at Rs 60,000, while the Google Pixel starts at Rs 57,000.

In comparison to iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
The features in the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus definitely has much better specifications than the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. For starters, it has a much bigger display as the iPhone 7 is 4.7 inches and the iPhone 7 Plus is only 5.5 inches. While the iPhone 7 has a quad-core 64 bit processor, the Galaxy S8 has a much higher processor as it is Octa-core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.7GHz Quad) 64 bit 10nm processor.

In terms of the camera both seem to have similar features as the iPhone 7 too has 4K video recording and 12 megapixel cameras.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus also trumps the Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in terms of its RAM, and even battery capacity. For instance, the iPhone 7 has a 2GB RAM and the 7 Plus is 3GB. Both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are available in 32GB, 128GB and 256 GB variants. The battery of the iPhone 7 is 1960mAh and the iPhone 7 Plus is 2900 mAh battery, which is much lower the Galaxy S8.

In comparison to Google Pixel and Pixel XL
Google Pixel features include a 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protected super AMOLED display and comes in two sizes – 5.0 and 5.5 inch. This is smaller to the Galaxy S8.

It has fitted with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 821 Quad core (2x 2.15 Ghz and 2x1.6 Ghz) processors and 4GB RAM, similar to the S8 and S8 Plus. It's battery capacity is however smaller with the 5 inch Pixel at 2770 battery while the 5.5-inch device has 3450 mAh battery.

Google Pixel comes with 32GB internal memory and like the iPhone 7 cannot be expanded. It however has 64GB and 128GB internal memory options.

As far as the cameras are concerned, it has 12.3 megapixel rear camera and 8 megapixel front camera. This is similar to the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.