The HTC 10 is easily HTC's best flagship smartphone in recent years, but does it have what it takes to go up against this year's Android heavyweights? We've already seen how the HTC 10 compares to the LG G5, but now we're going to focus on how it stacks up against the Galaxy S7, Samsung's top flagship for 2016.
To help you decide which phone you should buy, we'll be comparing each phone's design, display, performance, battery life and camera to see which one deserves a place in your pocket. In this article, I'll be focusing on the regular, flat Galaxy S7 rather than its fancier, curved sibling, the Galaxy S7 Edge (see our S7 vs S7 Edge article to see how these two phones differ), but considering how similar the two phones are – bar the size of the screen and its curves – much of what's said here can also be applied to the S7 Edge rather than just the S7.
Design
Materials: On this front, not much has changed since last year. Once again, HTC's gone with an all-metal design for the HTC 10, while Samsung's stuck with its glass and metal combo. As a result, both phones feel equally well-made, and each one has that top-end, premium feel you'd expect from a flagship handset.
However, while the S7 arguably looks more attractive out of the box, its glass rear does mean it's much more prone to picking up grubby fingerprints. This is something HTC 10 owners needn't worry about, as its full-metal chassis stays in pristine condition no matter how much grease or grime happens to be lingering on your fingers.
A glass rear also isn't great when you're using the phone in one hand, especially when you're also having to deal with some rather smooth and rounded edges. Again, this isn't a problem on the HTC 10, as it's large, chamfered edges provide plenty of grip and something to hold on to when you need it most. Unlike the S7, I don't feel like I need a case with the HTC 10 to use it confidently.
Dimensions: Overall, the HTC 10 is noticeably bigger than the Galaxy S7, measuring 146x72x9.0mm and weighing 161g. The S7, meanwhile, only has a footprint of 142x70x7.9mm and weighs 152g. This can be explained by the HTC 10's marginally larger screen, though, and in practice, the difference is minuscule, so you can rest assured that picking the HTC 10 won't feel like you're secretly opting for a giant phablet compared to the svelte S7.
Conclusion: The Samsung Galaxy S7 is a lovely-looking phone, but it soon loses that brand-new shine pretty quickly. As a result, the HTC 10 wins this category by a long-shot, as it's not only more attractive, but it also doesn't need wiping down after every touch of your hand.
Display
Screen size and resolution: Just like the phone's design, the S7's screen is very much in keeping with what came before it on the Galaxy S6. Measuring 5.1in across the diagonal, it has a 2,560x1,440 resolution and uses one of Samsung's Super AMOLED displays. The HTC 10, meanwhile, has a 5.2in screen based around HTC's Super LCD5 technology, and this also comes with a 2,560x1,440 resolution.
As a result, the HTC 10's pixel density isn't quite as high, coming in at 565ppi compared to the S7's 577ppi, but this tiny difference simply isn't visible to the human eye, so you're certainly not missing out on sharpness by choosing one or the other.
Screen quality: Instead, the thing you should be paying attention to is image quality. Samsung's Super AMOLED displays are arguably the best type of screen technology currently available, as they have much higher contrast levels and deeper blacks than LCD screens. Indeed, the S7 was able to produce perfect 0.00cd/m2 blacks and our colour calibrator returned a score of infinity:1 for its contrast ratio. It also covered a full 100% of the sRGB colour gamut, producing bright, rich images that are true to life.
The only downside to AMOLED screens is their low peak brightness. For instance, the S7 could only reach 352.74cd/m2 when we set the brightness to max, which pales in comparison to the HTC 10's 449.22cd/m2. However, Samsung's found a clever way round this problem, as its adaptive light sensor can dramatically bump up the brightness when it detects bright sunlight.
To simulate this, we shone a torch over the light sensor, and our calibrator reading promptly jumped up to 470/m2, putting it on a much more level playing field with its rival. The HTC 10 doesn't have this ability to jump beyond its normal brightness levels, but when you consider it can reach the same level by default anyway, you could argue that it doesn't really need it.
We certainly didn't have any complaints about the rest of the HTC 10's screen, as we measured an impressive 99.8% coverage of the sRGB colour gamut, a black level of 0.25cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 1,793:1. These scores make it one of the best LCD screens we've ever tested – better even than the LG G5– and it's certainly a marked improvement over the One M9, which had one of the poorest flagship displays of last year.
The only thing the HTC 10's lacking is an always-on display. Both Samsung and LG have included one on their top-end handsets this year, and this means you can still see things like the time, date and battery status even when the phone's main screen is turned off. It's incredibly handy, particularly if all you want to do is glance at the time, and once you've lived with it for a while, you'll quickly find it very difficult indeed to go back.
Conclusion: There's no denying that both phones have excellent screens, but for us, the S7 is the clear winner. The HTC 10 certainly has one of the best LCD screens currently available, but it just can't match the extra convenience provided by Samsung's always-on display.
Performance
Processor: The HTC 10 has a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip this year, while the Galaxy S7 is powered by one of Samsung's proprietary octa-core 2.3GHz Exynos 8890 chipsets. Both come with 4GB of RAM, but Samsung's extra cores definitely gave the S7 the edge when it came to running our benchmark tests.
In Geekbench 3, for instance, the S7 scored an impressive 2,115 in the single core test and a massive 6,437 in the multicore test, sailing past the HTC 10's respective scores of 2,022 and 5,091. Both are exceedingly quick, though, so you're only likely to notice the difference when you're running multiple apps simultaneously and constantly switching between them – and even then the difference is likely to be pretty tiny.
The S7 might have the faster CPU, then, but Qualcomm's GPU proved superior in our graphics tests. In the offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test in GFX Bench GL, for instance, the HTC 10 produced 2,946 frames, equating to an ultra-smooth 48fps, but the S7 only managed 2,236 frames, which works out at just 38fps. This is still more than enough to play everything in the Google Play Store, but the HTC 10 should be able to run more demanding games at both higher detail levels and faster speeds.
Storage: The HTC 10 and Galaxy S7 both come in 32GB variations, but the S7 is also available with 64GB of storage by default. However, when each one also comes with a microSD card slot that can expand your phone's storage up to 2TB, it seems silly to pay more for the phone when you could spend the difference on a high capacity microSD card.
Battery Life: Each phone has a large 3,000mAh battery this year, but the difference in our battery life results was astonishing. The HTC 10, for instance, lasted a respectable 12h 08m in our continuous video playback test with the screen set to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2, but the S7 managed an incredible 17h 48m under the same conditions.
Conclusion: There's no denying the HTC 10 is a powerful phone, but the S7 wins this round thanks to its faster CPU speeds and longer-lasting battery.
Camera
The One M9 had one of the worst flagship cameras we'd ever seen last year, but thankfully this isn't the case with the HTC 10. Instead, its 12-megapixel sensor can produce some wonderful shots under the right lighting conditions, and it also has the ability to shoot in RAW as well as JPG. It has very large 1.55um pixels, too, which means each individual pixel should receive more light, helping it perform better in low lighting conditions.
The S7 also has a 12-megapixel sensor, but its pixels only measure 1.4um. This is still quite large, though – the S6 only had 1.12um pixels, for instance – and it certainly didn't affect the S7's ability to capture some truly excellent photos.
In our test shots, for instance, which were taken at exactly the same time, the HTC 10 captured more cloud detail than the S7, but its overall shots were darker as a result. The S7's photos, on the other hand, had brighter and more vivid colours, but they come at the cost of an overexposed sky. However, switch on HDR mode for each phone and you'll quickly start to see improvements, particularly on the S7. In fact, the HTC 10's HDR shot almost looked worse than the one we took on Auto, giving the S7 a small advantage when it comes to overall flexibility.
^ These photos were taken at the same time, but the HTC 10 (below) was able to capture more cloud detail than the Galaxy S7 (above)
^ Switch to HDR mode, though, and the Galaxy S7 (above) has a fraction more contrast compared to the HTC 10 (below)
Indoors, the S7 once again proved to have the more capable camera, as the HTC 10's shots were noticeably drab and lacking in punch compared to those we took on the S7. The HTC 10 is by no means awful, but it pales by comparison, as the S7 both has richer colours and higher contrast levels.
^ The HTC 10 (above) produced reasonable indoors shots, but the Galaxy S7's photos (below) had a lot more punch and contrast
Conclusion: The HTC 10's camera is a vast improvement on the One M9's rear snapper, but when the S7 has a better HDR mode and performs much better in challenging lighting conditions, this one's another win for Samsung.
Price and conclusion
There's a lot to like about both phones from Samsung and HTC this year, but when we rack up which phone won most of our test categories, the S7 comes out the undisputed winner. The HTC 10 might have a better design and be better for playing games, but even its excellent screen and CPU can't quite match those on the S7.
It wouldn't have been so bad if the HTC 10 was a little cheaper, but when both phones cost the same SIM-free (£569) and around £40-per-month on contract, you're getting a lot more for your money by going with Samsung.
