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S7 or iPhone 7?

heycal

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2014
206
6
I used to use Android, but for the last 5 years or so, I've been on iphone, most recently the iphone 6. This phone is dying, and I'm tempted to come back to Android because the iphone is so maddening in so many ways. Because I believe the Galaxy can increase font size in my text mesages without increasing the size of everything else (a problem with iphone since my iphone 4), and because I'm intrigued by a SLIGHTLY bigger phone, the S7 is the one I'm considering.

Anyone care to share any insights on this possible switch? One appeal of the iphone 7 is that siri will apparently work when not plugged in, which is enticing to me. Is it true The S7 does not offer this feature?
 
When you ask about using Siri "when not plugged in" I assume you mean without a data connection? Because of course you can use these assistant apps without the phone being connected to a charger. Of course on an Android phone you can't use Siri (Apple-only), but you can use Google Now, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana or whatever. Personally I'm not into these things at all: the only one I've used is Assistant on my Pixel 2, and then only for a week before I turned it off as I didn't really have a use for it. It did have some offline functionality, finding things that are already on the phone and some voice-activated settings, but I never explored it deeply, and I've no experience of it on the S7. A quick web search suggests that on the S7 it won't listen for the "OK Google" hotword when the screen is off, if that is important to you.

Otherwise, well this is an Android forum so naturally most people will favour the Android phone. And I'd do the same, because the inflexibility of iOS is not for me (I like to set my phone up to work the way that makes sense to me, rather than have to work the way that the manufacturer thinks I should work). And I kinda like the S7 for being the last Galaxy to have a flat screen, rather than the curved edges Samsung have settled on (form over function in my opinion).
 
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My wife has the S7 Edge (the curved screen version) and she just loves the thing. we've never been fans of iPhones for many reasons, but it really comes down to preferences and both platforms get the job done.

@Hardon, I use assistant all the time and am using more now that I have a Google Home (Came free with my LG G6) and a couple of home mini's i got for Christmas. My biggest gripe now is if i am in my office which has a mini in it and I say "hey google", depending which way i'm facing, either the mini, my G6 or my smart watch will respond. Mind you it's all tied into the same account and will ultimately do what I ask, but it does get quite comical while I'm trying to figure out which inanimate object I'm talking to. ;)
 
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I will choose iphone7 because of its performance and camera.

Camera is not important to me. Performance in what area?

A quick web search suggests that on the S7 it won't listen for the "OK Google" hotword when the screen is off, if that is important to you.

This would be an attractive feature, yes. To be able to say to my phone "set alarm for 9am" or "call Bob" without having to touch it or have it be plugged in would be nice. I can't do it now with iphone 6, but I'm under the impression I can with iphone 7.
 
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Any drawbacks or unexpected aspects of the always on feature? Being able to see the time and whether there are any notifications without touching the phone is a very attractive feature. (Though I guess there is a notification light that also alerts you if you've received messages?)
 
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The s7 does have a notification LED. I don't know how much control Samsung give you over it, but many third party apps let you customise how it is used in their notifications (e.g. I have different colours on my Pixel for calendar, sms, WhatsApp and email, in each case set within the corresponding app's settings, and there are 3rd party apps dedicated to customising notifications if this isn't enough).

I don't use an always on display myself (I have mine set to only show when I tap the screen), but many people like it a lot and I think most owners of devices with it use it, so it can't have any major problems or more would turn it off. It will drain a little more power when you use it, but shouldn't be huge. And it should move around the screen a bit to reduce the risk of burn-in (it originally used to jump around, but I think Samsung changed it so that it mainly moves more gradually). Hopefully someone with more experience of Samsung's implementation will be able to give more detail on this.
 
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Does the notification light still go on when "always on" is on? As an iphone user, the idea of a notification light I can see from across the room when there is a message is very appealing to me. Ideally, one could use always on and the notification light. Will they work together?
 
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I believe the Pixel can have Google Assistant (the "ok Google" thing) permanently listening. Mine is a Pixel 2, so you can also trigger it by squeezing the phone. But I actually don't use the voice assistant - believe it or not I actually turn that off completely - which is why I'm giving a slightly qualified answer. That and the fact that I'm not quite sure what you mean by "plugged in".
 
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By plugged in I mean attached to the charger. On my iphone 6, I must be plugged in for Siri to respond hands-free, but I'm told iphone 7's Siri will work hands-free even when not plugged in. I'd like a phone that offers that feature ideally, be it Sir or some Android version of it.
 
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By plugged in I mean attached to the charger. On my iphone 6, I must be plugged in for Siri to respond hands-free, but I'm told iphone 7's Siri will work hands-free even when not plugged in. I'd like a phone that offers that feature ideally, be it Sir or some Android version of it.
Hmm, I guess it means that the "always listening" hardware isn't well optimised on the iPhone 6 (i.e. uses too much power). It's not something I've heard of before.

I just turned it on on my Pixel, and it certainly does listen with the screen off and unplugged. You do have to enable "voice unlock" if you want it to respond though (a weaker security method, using voice recognition). Otherwise it just wakes and waits for you to enter a PIN or fingerprint. I guess that's a security feature: you don't want it to read your calendar out to a stranger, for example. And after one failed attempt it will turn that off (security again) - I had to retrain it to my voice because it was doing this constantly, but after that it seemed reliable.

You can also set it to respond to voice commands when the screen is locked through wired or wireless headsets (separate controls for each), and that setting seems to be accessible even with "voice unlock" disabled, and in fact even with the always listening disabled. I've not tested that, but the settings seem imply that if you want you can have it listen and respond only when using a headset and even with the device locked when using a headset (the settings come with a security warning that doing all of this could give others easier access to your data).
 
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Hmm, I guess it means that the "always listening" hardware isn't well optimised on the iPhone 6 (i.e. uses too much power). It's not something I've heard of before.

I just turned it on on my Pixel, and it certainly does listen with the screen off and unplugged. You do have to enable "voice unlock" if you want it to respond though (a weaker security method, using voice recognition). Otherwise it just wakes and waits for you to enter a PIN or fingerprint. I guess that's a security feature: you don't want it to read your calendar out to a stranger, for example. And after one failed attempt it will turn that off (security again) - I had to retrain it to my voice because it was doing this constantly, but after that it seemed reliable.

You can also set it to respond to voice commands when the screen is locked through wired or wireless headsets (separate controls for each), and that setting seems to be accessible even with "voice unlock" disabled, and in fact even with the always listening disabled. I've not tested that, but the settings seem imply that if you want you can have it listen and respond only when using a headset and even with the device locked when using a headset (the settings come with a security warning that doing all of this could give others easier access to your data).

Can't these phones be trained to respond to your voice only? Assuming that's so, I would like a phone that responds to my voice command whether locked or unlocked, plugged in or not, without having to touch it or do any anthing else and with no headset involved. Just say to my phone on the kitchen counter: "Set alarm for 9am" and such and have it do it. I'm assuming your phone (and iphone 7) can do this?


I am really disappointed with ios11

I don't like how it affected the look of things, among other complaints. What don't you like about IOS 11?
 
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Can't these phones be trained to respond to your voice only? Assuming that's so, I would like a phone that responds to my voice command whether locked or unlocked, plugged in or not, without having to touch it or do any anthing else and with no headset involved. Just say to my phone on the kitchen counter: "Set alarm for 9am" and such and have it do it. I'm assuming your phone (and iphone 7) can do this?
Yes, and that's just what it does. But that's a much weaker identification than a fingerprint, and it seems Google treat it as such.

So you can set it (Google Assistant on the Pixel) to respond without touching the phone, with the screen off and unplugged and without a headset, which I described in the second paragraph of my previous post. But it says that after a "failed attempt" it will revert to requiring a stronger identification. I've not tested with other people to work out what would constitute a "failed attempt" (anyone trying to activate it? Or would it ignore some voices completely but ask for ID if the voice was sufficiently similar to yours but not matching fully? I don't know). The settings seemed to imply that you could set it to respond to any voice at all without unlocking if it was connected to a headset, but I think the voice match was required for the "tabletop scenario".

I did however only test it for a couple of minutes. I decided very quickly when I first got the phone that talking to the phone wasn't a feature that particularly interested me, so I turned it off again after testing this morning.
 
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I guess it's a fine line between security and working when you want it to. I know with Siri, I had to set up my voice for it to recognize me. I've never had a failed attempt that I know of, and I never had someone try and activate it with their voice. I guess I should try that.
 
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Here's a dumb question regarding phones in general: What is external storage all about? An appeal of the iphone 7 is that I get can one with 128gb. This means I can keep tons of songs and videos and photos on my phone, unlike the 16gb version iphone 6 I have now which constantly running out of space.

The Galaxy S7 offers just 32gb. This means I have to insert some card for more storage? Does it stay in the phone, meaning I can access hundreds of songs at any moment, or do you need to swap things in and out?

As may be obvious, my understanding of these things is limited to non-existent:)
 
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It's a micro SD card, a small flash storage card. They come in various capacities, depending on what you want to spend. Android uses them for media storage - you can store some apps (partially) on SD, but internal is IMO better for that (speed and reliability).

Not all android devices use them (I'm typing this on a Pixel, which doesn't, just 128GB internal), but I regard having one as plus: you can extend your storage capacity, you can have more than one if you want (but only one at a time, and not good if you do move apps there), and they are replaceable. But really I usually just buy a big enough one, stick it in the slot and use it to expand media storage (you do have to tell some apps, e.g. camera, to store their data on them rather than internal if that's what you want).
 
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@Hadron, what skill you mean by "not good when you do move apps there", please be extensive..

Thanks.

By the way, you don't like talking to your phone feature, but do bear in mind you still talk to IT in a different matter of communication when ever you are moving your finger tip across the screen and touching it's buttons..just that the voice is the latest way to access to it..per say, touching the screen a decade ago or so then we adapted to it(hell, I had to and didn't want to since I was so in love my my BlackBerry 58 something version and it's fabulous keyboard) but here I am swpying my tips in the screen(not keyboard) to make myself herd..

Do you feel me??
 
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