iPhone 7 vs Samsung Galaxy S7: The Biggest & Best Phones of 2016 Compared

Yes, none of these phones are out yet, but so what? The rumour mill is such a far reaching, thorough and accurate beastie these days that we already know so much about both the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7. The Samsung Galaxy S7 will arrive first of course, it'll come out next month, February, just ahead of Mobile World Congress. Meanwhile, Apple's next iPhone, the iPhone 7, won't arrive until the tail end of the year - but that hasn't stopped there being a ton of leaks about it, so we've already got a pretty good picture of how things will be!

But it’s not just the iPhone 7 destined for release in 2016. Nope. Apple is also readying the launch of a new 4in handset thought to be known as the iPhone 5se. Pitched as a sort of reboot to 2013’s iPhone 5c, the iPhone 5se will be a mix of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5, bundled into one non-plastic chassis. The handset will be available in three colour schemes (rose gold, silver, space gray) and feature TouchID for Apple Pay.

The iPhone 5c is often viewed as a failure. But this really couldn’t be further from the case; analysts reckon Apple has shifted upwards of 24 million iPhone 5c units since launch. That is a very impressive figure whichever way you look at it -- did Sony, LG or HTC sell that many phones during the same period? You bet your ASS they didn’t and it is for this reason that a return of the 4in iPhone range makes a lot of sense. It WAS a popular handset.

Samsung has now confirmed that the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 EDGE will launch on February 21, confirming previous rumours that suggested the handsets would launch in and around MWC 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. The Galaxy S7 will be joined by the LG G5, a few new handsets from Sony, and a bunch of other releases from Google’s huge pile of Android partners. HTC is apparently NOT launching its One M10 at the expo, however, in order to avoid any clashing with Samsung’s big reveal, which always grabs headlines.

You can see what other handsets are coming in the new year in our Guide To 2016’s Most Exciting Phones. Some are pretty speculative — Nokia’s Android phone, for instance — while others, the OnePlus 3, more Android BlackBerry handsets, and the Moto X 2016, are all definitely on the agenda for 2016.