Samsung’s Galaxy S-series flagships are amongst one of the most anticipated phones every year. And there’s good reason too. The S-series flagship feature the best of what Samsung can offer in a mass-producible, consumer-friendly package.
Apart from the mid-year Note lineup, there are no other competitors coming out from the Samsung stables.
Last year was a bit of a shocker though for fans of the Galaxy S-series lineup. The Samsung Galaxy S6 took a leap from the tried and tested, incorporating a design change that was unseen for Samsung beforehand. In the process, the S6 lost its appeal to the more hardcore fans of the S-series lineup, most of whom bemoaned the loss of features that gave the S-series its edge over other flagships in the first place. There was no user-removable battery to be found on the device, nor microSD expansion. The S6 also lost the IP67 certification for dust and water resistance that featured on the S5. All in all, while the Galaxy S6 was an upgrade over the Galaxy S5, it had a few cons that were previously features taken for granted in the Samsung mobile hardware ecosystem.
However, things may be changing around for the good, again. According to fresh reports from Venturebeat, authored by notable leaker Evan Blass aka @evleaks, it seems that long time favorite features are making their way back to the S lineup.
Disclaimer: These are still reports, and not confirmed news. Things can change between now and the official Samsung announcement. So do take these with a slight pinch of salt.
For starters, 2016’s flagship duo from Samsung, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge will feature microSD card slots for expansion up to 200GB. This is great news for a lot of users as it essentially opens up the base storage variants to users who would not mind offloading their data (usually media) to a micro sd card, and in turn, not have to pay inflated prices for higher storage variants. The S7 Duo will come in 32GB and 64GB storage variants, which should be good for a vast majority of consumers.
Along with this, the report mentions the return of the IP67 certification on both the models, meaning that the new flagship duo will feature water and dust resistance.
Removable battery, however, is a feature that will not be making its way back in early 2016. Instead, the S7 flagship duo will feature larger batteries, tipped to be 3000 mAh for the Galaxy S7 (up from 2550 mAh on the S6) and 3600 mAh for the Galaxy S7 Edge (up from 2600 mAh on the S6 Edge). The massive increase in battery capacity on the S7 Edge when compared to the S7 comes from the increased display size for the S7 Edge. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge will feature a larger 5.5″ curved display, while the Galaxy S7 will retain the 5.1″ flat display. Screen resolution is expected to stay the same at QHD 1440×2560, with Super AMOLED being Samsung’s obvious choice for display tech. The devices will also reportedly feature an Always-On Display functionality, said to consume about 1% battery per hour.
For the internals, the Samsung S7 flagship duo will most likely be seen sporting the new Exynos 8 Octa 8890, featuring 4x high-performance cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and 4x power-efficient cores clocked at 1.6 GHz. Venturebeat and Evan Blass do not entirely disregard the possibility of different CPU’s for different regions, and as such, the Snapdragon 820 can make its way for the North American region.
Moving on to the camera, the S7 Duo will feature a 12 MP camera, albeit with a f/1.7 aperture (up from the f/1.9 aperture found on the S6 Duo). The camera hump on the devices will also disappear, as the camera lens is expected to be flush with the back.
To wrap up, here is a brief summary of all that we know about the S7 Duo at this point based on rumors, leaks and reports:
- Galaxy S7: 5.2″ QHD Super Amoled Display, 3000 mAh battery with wireless charging time reported as 2 hrs
- Galaxy S7 Edge: 5.5″ QHD Super Amoled Curved Display, 3600 mAh battery with wireless charging time reported as 2.2 hrs
- Always-On Display
- IP67 certification for water and dust resistance
- 4GB RAM
- 32GB and 64GB storage variants, with microsd card slot for expansion upto 200GB
- Rear camera: 12MP, f/1.7 aperture; flush with back (No camera hump)
- Front camera: 5MP
- Same Design Language from the S6
- USB Type C
- Exynos 8890 / Snapdragon 820
- Pressure Sensitive Display
The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will follow along Samsung’s usual unveil schedule, being unveiled prior to MWC 2016, with global rollout expected to begin in March.
At this point, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Duo are shaping up to be devices that we longed to see in 2015, and more. So far, they do pack in a vast majority of features that flagships do pack in. This 2016 should be interesting, to say the least.
What are your thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, based on the information so far? Will this be THE device of 2016? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Venturebeat
Image Credits: Ars Technica
Read on for related content:
- Samsung Expects 2016 to be Challenging from an Increase in Competition
- Pressure-Sensitive Display, USB Type C To Feature on Samsung Galaxy S7
- Samsung’s Galaxy S7 to Reportedly Use the Snapdragon 820 in Select Markets
- Initial Details of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Surface
- Report Claims the Galaxy S7 & Galaxy S7 Edge will be Different Sizes
- Samsung to Reportedly Start Mass Producing the Exynos 8890 in December
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