The Nexus is dead, long live the Pixel!

But where does that leave 2016's other big hitters? In terms of glowing reviews and strong sales, it's hard to look past the Samsung Galaxy S7. Is Samsung's flagship going to be crushed by Google? Let's find out…

Screen

That said, on paper, Samsung clearly has the upper hand here.

As mentioned above, the Galaxy S7's screen is marginally (0.1 inch) bigger than the Pixel's, but the resolution difference is huge: 1440 x 2560 to Google's 1080 x 1920. That means that while the S7 is packing 557 pixels per inch, the Pixel has just 424.

Now it's important not to overstate that, given most people will find a 1080p display fine on a screen of that size – hell, most of our TV sets are still 1080p and we cope fine with those. However, if you're interested in VR – either with the Samsung Galaxy Gear VR or Google's upcoming Daydream – then this stuff matters a lot more. In short: virtual reality involves having a screen magnified very close to your eyes, and under this kind of scrutiny, every pixel matters.

That means that this round goes decisively to Samsung unless Google really manages to surprise us when we get our review Pixels in. But given Samsung make some of the best screens in the business, colour me doubtful.

WINNER: Samsung Galaxy S7

Performance

The Google Pixel gets a slight boost on the latter chipset, packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor that promises a 10 percent boost on its predecessor. As we haven't had any handsets with this chipset in yet, it's hard to validate these claims, but it's likely the Pixel will be very snappy indeed.

Both handsets are backed up with 4GB RAM, so a dead-heat there.

If I were a betting man, I'd give the Google Pixel the slight edge: not just because of the advances of the Snapdragon chipset, but because Google hardware combined with Google software is a recipe for buttery-smooth operation. But we won't know for sure until we get one down in the labs.

WINNER: Google Pixel

Battery

We could look at the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Google Pixel batteries side by side and say objectively that the S7's is larger. And that's true: it's 3000mAh to 2770mAh – but it doesn't tell the full story.

There are two reasons to think that day to day use will see the Google Pixel bettering the Samsung Galaxy S7's already strong battery life: resolution and software. The resolution one is simple: all those extra pixels in the Samsung Galaxy S7 have to be powered, so whenever your screen is on, the battery is working harder than the Google Pixel's.

Software is a little bit more speculation based, but basically the argument goes like this: Google makes Android, and therefore any hardware it makes can naturally take advantage of the (newer) version of the operating system.

Given the Google Pixel uses a newer version of the S7's (American) chip, it's very likely that it'll have similar, if not slightly better, battery life. But as this is speculation for the moment, I'll hedge my bets.

WINNER: DRAW

Android version

The Samsung Galaxy S7, however, is stuck on Android Marshmallow, with no current ETA on that sweet Android Nougat patch. Historically, Samsung isn't the fastest to update their myriad handsets, so we're betting on spring 2017.

Either way, the S7 doesn't have Android N right now, so Google wins out of the box.

WINNER: Google Pixel

Price

Six months after release, the Samsung Galaxy S7 now sells at a starting price of $1,148 for the 32GB model. Pixel on the other hand starts at $1,079 for its 32GB phone.

WINNER: Google Pixel

Verdict

There are reasons to hang on for the Google Pixel, of course – especially if you're the kind of person who wants the latest version of Android first. It's also going to be the first phone to run Google Daydream – the company's dedicated virtual reality application. It requires dedicated hardware, so the S7 will never get it – although it does, of course, have the Gear VR if you want to get hands on with virtual worlds. This article originally appeared at alphr.com