Samsung today announced its new flagship handsets for 2016: the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge. Compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge sport almost the same design, with some minor tweaks here and there to make them less slippery and more ergonomic friendly.
The new color palette that Samsung will be offering the phones in will also help in differentiating them from their predecessors. The Galaxy S7 will be available in black and gold, with the Galaxy S7 edge coming in black, gold and silver colors.
While the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge might not look different from their predecessor, they do feature completely overhauled internals. First, while the Galaxy S7 continues to sport a 5.1-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display found on its predecessor, it can now reach higher brightness levels. As for the Galaxy S7 edge, it now features a larger 5.5-inch curved display to better differentiate itself from the regular S7. Both phones also come with an Always-On display that will lit up only a certain part of the display to show the time and date and other relevant notifications.
Read: Samsung Galaxy S7 specs
Like it has done in the past, Samsung will be offering the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge in two different chipset configurations: one powered by a Snapdragon 820 chipset, with the other being powered by its own in-house Exynos 8890 chipset.
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Aside from the chipset, both variants of the Galaxy S7 (and S7 edge) will feature the same key components. This includes 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 32/64GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot (yes, its back) and a fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button. The Galaxy S7 will come with a 3,000mAh non-removable battery, while the larger display on the S7 edge allows space for a 3600mAh non-removable one.
At the rear, the Galaxy S7’s come with a 12MP shooter. Don’t be fooled by the lower resolution count though, as there is a lot going behind the scene. The 12MP shooter comes with ‘dual pixels’ technology that combines information received by two pixels for faster autofocus times. This technology has until now only been found on DSLRs. Plus, it also comes with larger 1.4u pixels, OIS and a wider f/1.7 aperture that should improve its low-light performance. A new software camera feature on the new Galaxy handsets is called ‘Motion Panorama.’ It essentially captures motion in a panorama thereby bringing them to life. The resolution of the front camera remains unchanged at 5MP, though it now also sports an f/1.7 aperture.
Coming to the software, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge run on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box. The TouchWiz UI on the handsets look similar to how it does on the Galaxy S6 running Marshmallow, including the new white system theme. Samsung has also added new software features like Game Launcher that allows hardcore gamers to manage the battery consumption of the device while gaming, recording their gameplay, reducing the game resolution to increase the runtime of the phone, and more. The edge variant of the handset also comes with new ‘edge UX’ related features that further increase its usefulness.
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will go on pre-order in most markets from February 23, with the handset hitting the retail stores on March 11. More details about the availability and pricing of the Galaxy S7 can be found here.
