Expect to see the next Samsung Galaxy device on February 21, when it is unveiled at a Samsung event at MWC in Barcelona. In fact, expect two: a Galaxy S7 and a Galaxy S7 Edge. Last year’s hit success, and a plethora of online rumors, suggest we’ll see a return of the flat/curved duo in 2016.
Both devices are pegged for an early/mid March release.
What will they look like?
Some possible designs have surfaced recently, with a few reportedly-leaked (via Venturebeat) press images of the pair, showing a smaller, flat GS7 and a larger GS7 Edge.
Display
Last year we saw both the flat Galaxy S6 and the curved S6 Edge rock a 5.1 inch screen. This year the flat version will reportedly have the same 5.1 inch diagonal, but the Edge will be larger at 5.5 inches.
As for 4K vs Quad-HD, it'll probably be the same QHD (2560x1440) res we saw last year. That's a good thing. 4K is a bit of a waste of battery power at the moment. It's difficult for most users to tell the difference between two such high resolutions, so it's better to err on the side of a longer charge life.
This makes perfect sense.
In 2015, there was little to tempt the buyer to fork out the extra cash for a curved screen over the flat, especially considering that the devices were otherwise identical, with some minor and relatively useless differences in UI.
Reserving a larger screen size for the S7 Edge, but not so large as it contends directly with the 5.7 inch Galaxy Note series, reinforces that this is the ‘premium’ product when comparing the two, and could very well be the reason some folk pick the Edge over its flat sibling.
Then again, it could very well mean the opposite. 5.5 inches is a pretty hefty strain on most pockets.
Camera
So far pretty much anything from 12MP to upwards of 20MP. Hope for the earlier, rather than the latter. Fewer MP means that more light can be captured, which makes for better low-light photography. It also often means that the manufacturer has focused on important things like imaging software and a lensing system, rather than cramming in more megapixels so that it can win the “wow, bigger numbers” marketing war.
MicroSD?
It seems highly unlikely that Samsung would start featuring a microSD slot in its phones again, after infamously ditching them last year in favor of a shiny new glass design. The new construction materials were a hit, and while the outspoken online community of phone fans leans heavily towards loving microSD slots, speaking to the average person on the street paints a very different picture.
Despite this, VentureBeat has reported a microSD slot for each phone is on the way. It would be nice to see, but don’t hold your breath.
Water resistance?
Speaking of holding your breath, that same VB article predicts a return to IP67 water resistance. This was a design feature of the surprisingly-unpopular Galaxy S5, and was ditched for the more-popular S6.
With this move, Samsung appeared to have made up its mind about the usefulness of making its phones water resistant, vs focusing on general shininess. The market spoke: shininess won, but perhaps there’s a way for us to have our cake and eat it too.
Power
It’ll probably be a Snapdragon 820 processor, but that means nothing if Samsung doesn’t focus on cutting back on bloatware and trimming down its UI. The most powerful CPU is easily shackled by a heavy user interface.
We’d prefer to see more attention paid to minimising the strain Samsung’s software puts on a CPU, rather than making sure the next Galaxy device has the most powerful chipset possible.
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