Samsung Galaxy S7 release date, specs &
price rumours – Snapdragon 820 confirmed?
The new iPhones might have just launched, but
let’s talk about something else for a moment. Samsung is apparently already
rather far along in its development process for the new Galaxy S7, which
may even launch months earlier than normal.
Release date
Previous form and a yearly release schedule would suggest that we can expect the phone to go on sale in April 2016. It’s hard to put an exact date on things, as shipment dates can move by a few weeks, but pencil in the first couple of weeks of April as the most likely. That said, we should see the phone before that, as Samsung traditionally announces its new Galaxy phones at MWC in Barcelona, which runs between 22-25th February next year.
Design
To be honest, I’m not expecting many changes on the design front from the Galaxy S7 and expect it to look similar to the existing Galaxy S6. Samsung’s just gone through a massive redesign phase and it makes sense for the company to work with what it’s got at the moment, rather than changing things completely.
 |
| Is it going to look like this? |
The only thing really up in the air is whether there’ll be a flat Galaxy S7 and the curved-edge Galaxy S7 Edge, or just the latter model. Overall sales, manufacturing costs and yields on the curved display are likely to dictate that answer, but we’re too far away to have answers at the moment.
 |
| Similar design to Galaxy S6? |
Display
Samsung uses a 5.1in 2,560x1,440 Super AMOLED screen in the S6 and S6 Edge, and it’s likely that the screen size will continue for the next-generation galaxy. The real question is, will Samsung go for a full 4K (3,840x2,160) resolution for its next phone. It certainly has the technology to do so, but it’s hard to imagine what the benefits are. At this screen size, the extra resolution won’t be that noticeable, but the screen will draw more power and affect battery life.
Sony has just launched the Xperia Z5 Premium, but based on an early hands on it's very difficult to spot any real difference between 4K and 1440p in a handheld device. The Z5 Premium doesn't even render at 4K resolution most of the time anyway, so you only really get the benefit in photos and video. I think we’re going to have to wait a bit longer to answer this question, but Samsung is almost certainly keeping a close eye on the popularity of the Sony handset.
Processor
Although it’s early days yet, some information about an unreleased handset, which could be the Galaxy S7, has already made its way on to the internet. Picked up byGforGames, the documents leaked on the Chinese social networking site Weibo show a new Samsung handset codenamed ‘Jungfrau’, which is allegedly the codename for the Galaxy S7. The document shows that this handset will have the MSM8996 CPU, which is the codename for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.
This has been lent further credence by another report from South Korea's Electronic Times (as reported by Reuters), but this report said that the Snapdragon 820 chip will only be used in Galaxy S7 handsets sold in China and the US. All other regions, on the other hand, will get one of Samsung's own Exynos processors.
Camera
There’s not a lot of information around at the moment, but the odds are that Samsung will stick with a 16-megapixel sensor for its new phone. However, the company announced that it has developed a 1um-pixel sensor, which is smaller than the existing sensor in the Galaxy S6. A smaller sensor could mean that the company could potentially do away with the protruding lens on the back of the phone, making for a slimmer design.
 |
| Samsung Galaxy S7 camera? |
Samsung has stated that its smaller sensor doesn’t introduce more noise (a potential issue, as each pixel effectively gets less light than on a larger sensor), but until some sample shots have been seen it’s impossible to say for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment