While the rumour mill is yet to agree on whether Samsung will be pushing forward the traditional Galaxy S launch date from pre-Mobile World Congress to an even earlier date, it seems to agree on one thing: features that Samsung had done away with last year on the Galaxy S6 like expandable storage capability, will be making a big comeback on the upcoming Galaxy S7.
According to online tech publication Venturebeat, Samsung’s 2016 flagship smartphone, which is tipped to arrive in several models including “flat”/normal and “edge” models, will pack a microSD card slot for allowing memory expansion (up to 200 gigabytes) and even more. Samsung is reportedly bringing back waterproofing to its premium device lineup. The Galaxy S7, according to the latest leaks, will, like the Galaxy S5 from two years ago, survive a slight drop in the sink thanks to its IP67 rating.
A shocker in the latest details on the Galaxy S7 to surface is the decrease in the main camera’s megapixel count. The Galaxy S7 is said to pack a 12-megapixel shooter at the back, a decrease from the 16-megapixel sensor on the Galaxy S6. However, since image quality is not dictated explicitly by the megapixel count, Samsung is said to be going for more quality over quantity. For instance, the lens aperture will be decreasing further to f/1.7 from the current f/1.9 on the Galaxy S6. This means better low-light photos. The infamous “hump” at the back of the phone as a result of the Galaxy S6’s camera module is also gone as a result. The selfie-shooter is said to remain unchanged at 5-megapixels.
Other specifications of the upcoming device are what we’ve had earlier save for the size of the display which no one seems to be sure of. While there seems to be a general consensus amongst the various “leaks” on the edge version of the Galaxy S7 packing a bigger display, opinion is still split on the “flat” model’s display size. It is, however, not expected to be upgraded with Samsung said to be sticking with the 1440p Super AMOLED panel albeit with a few improvements. It looks like the Koreans won’t be responding to Sony’s crazy 4K Z5 Premium anytime soon.
While it is almost assured that the new Exynos 8 Octa processor will power the Galaxy S7, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 820 chipset may still ship in some models of the device targeted at specific markets.
One of the biggest criticisms the Galaxy S6 and other members of its family faced was the battery life. This was despite the many software tweaks by Samsung in order to better manage power consumption including the use of a more power-efficient chip and display. While the Galaxy S7 is not expected to bring back the old Galaxy S glory days of swappable batteries, it is expected to ship with beefier battery units. The smaller and flat Galaxy S7 will pack a 3,000mAh battery unit while the bigger and edgier Galaxy S7 Edge will have a 3,600mAh battery unit.
Venturebeat’s tip-off misses a couple of features we had heard previously that will also be packed in the Galaxy S7. There is no mention of that pressure-sensitive display and a retina scanner. Rivals Huawei and Apple already have smartphones with pressure-sensitive displays in the Huawei Mate S Premium and the iPhone 6S/6S Plus respectively. Another smartphone maker, ZTE, already has smartphones with iris and retina scanners in its Axon lineup unveiled in 2015.
