This paper aims to assess the performance of linear state estimation (SE) processes of power systems relying on synchrophasor measurements. The performance assessment is conducted with respect to two different families of SE algorithms, i.e., static ones represented by weighted least squares (WLS) and recursive ones represented by Kalman filter (KF). To this end, this paper firstly recalls the analytical formulation of linearWLS state estimator (LWLS-SE) and Discrete KF state estimator (DKF-SE). We formally quantify the differences in the performance of the two algorithms. The validation of this result, together with the comprehensive performance evaluation of the considered state estimators, is carried out using two case studies, representing distribution (IEEE 123-bus test feeder) and transmission (IEEE 39-bus test system) networks. As a further contribution, this paper validates the correctness of the most common process model adopted in DKF-SE of power systems.