Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Electronics Inc. both unveiled their 2016 flagship smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday: Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge while LG showed off the LG G5.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge do not look all that much different from their predecessors, the S6 and S6 edge, but Samsung has made a few small changes such as a curved back that make the phones easier to pick up from flat surfaces and removed the camera bulge. Under the hood, there are more powerful processors, new camera tech, the micosSD slot is back, and more.

As for the G5, LG has redesigned its flagship with an all-metal unibody and modular components to enhance the user experience beyond what smartphones tend to offer.  

Below we take a look at how 2016’s first flagship smartphone’s stack up against each other and highlight some of the standout features of each.

Galaxy S7 vs. S7 edge vs. LG G5: Tech specs

Design and display

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge feature a metal and 3D glass design with a curved back to make it fit better in a user’s hand and make it easier to pick up off flat surfaces. Both devices feature an Always-On display for notifications while the S7 edge has Edge UX to display shortcuts to functions such as email, selfie mode, panorama mode or third party applications, just like on the S6 edge.

The LG G5, despite not having an AMOLED display, features the same 2560 x 1440 quad-HD resolution as found on the Galaxy devices. Similarly, LG has included a new Always-On feature that displays the time and notifications, even when the G5 is in sleep mode.

As for design, the G5 has an all-metal unibody and 3D Arc glass combo with a Slide-out battery and a “Modular Type” design that allows for interchangeable modules (digital camera and Hi-Fi sound modules for now) to be added via an expansion slot (same slot as the battery).

Internal components

Under the hood, all three devices are powered by the same quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, Adreno 530 and 4GB of RAM. (Note: outside the U.S., the S7 and S7 edge will ship with Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 Octa-Core SoC.)

Storage options on the S7 and S7 edge include 32GB and 64GB options while the G5 only comes in a 32GB version. Samsung has brought back the microSD slot (integrated into a microSIM tray) and storage can be expanded up to 200GB. The G5 one-ups the Galaxy’s in this department as it offers expandable storage up to 2TB.

All three devices are equipped with fingerprint readers to for device security as well as mobile payment authorizations.

Cameras

Despite a drop in megapixels — down to 12-megapixels from 16 — the rear cameras on the S7 and S7 edge feature what Samsung calls “the first Dual Pixel camera on a smartphone.”

The Dual Pixel tech supposedly  has a brighter lens with wider aperture, bigger pixels, faster shutter speeds, and more accurate autofocus. What this equates to, claims Samsung, is brighter, sharper images, even in low light.

There’s also a new camera mode, called Motion Panorama, that “brings movement to traditional panoramic photos, giving the user a completely immersive visual experience.”

The LG G5 sports not one but two rear cameras. The first is a standard 16-megapixel unit and the second is an 8-megapixel, 135-degree wide-angle lens for shooting panoramas, tall buildings and large groups of people without having to move further away from the subject.

The LG G5’s extras

As a flagship smartphone, the standalone G5 handset stacks up well against the S7 and S7 edge, but LG hasn’t stopped at building just a smartphone. The company also unveiled two modules that can be attached to the G5. The first of these is the CAM Plus module and is basically a digital camera unit that adds controls for autofocus, exposure lock, physical buttons for power, shutter, record, and zoom, and also adds a battery with a 1,200mAh capacity.

The second module, the Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play module, is a Hi-Fi audio player developed in conjunction with Bang & Olufsen that supports 32-bit, 384KHz high-definition audio playback. It can be used as a module attached to the LG G5 or as a stand-alone Hi-Fi digital audio chip (DAC) connected to any PC or smartphone. 

In addition to this, LG has also developed a range of gadgets that can be connected to and controlled using the G5 and a dedicated app (see infographic below).

Images via Samsung, LG