Samsung has officially announced its two newest flagship devices, the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge. The South Korean mobile giant did the unveiling a day before the start of this year’s Mobile World Congress, considered the world’s biggest tech conference focusing mobile technology, held in the city of Barcelona in Spain. On the same day, LG also announced its own flagship device, the LG G5.
First things first -- the specifications. The Galaxy S7 comes with a 5.1 inch Quad HD super AMOLED display screen. With regards to camera specifications, the Galaxy S7 has a 12 megapixel camera on the rear side, plus a 5 megapixel dual pixel camera on the front side. Hardware specs-wise, the Galaxy S7 is powered by either a Snapdragon 820 chip set or an Exynos processor depending on the region. The chip is supported with 4 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM), and onboard storage of 32 gigabytes (no other memory configuration). Samsung may have done well to restore the popular micro SD slot, which allows for storage expansion of up to 200 gigabytes. The Galaxy S7 is IP68 certified water resistant, has a 3,000 mAh battery, and ships with the Android 6.0 Marshmallow mobile operating system.
As for the Galaxy S7 Edge, its 5.5 inch Quad HS super AMOLED display screen (with 1,440 by 2,560 pixel resolution) makes it bigger than its sibling. Like the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S7 Edge is fitted with a 12 megapixel camera on the rear side and a 5 megapixel camera on the front side. It appears that the Galaxy S7 Edge also shares the same processor specs as the Galaxy S7, including the 4 gigabyte RAM, the 32 gigabyte built in memory configuration (no other option), and the micro SD slot for expansion to up to 200 gigabytes. Lastly, the Galaxy S7 Edge has a bigger battery (at 3,600 mAh), ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and has an IP68 water proofing certification.
Now on to the upgrades. Samsung has decided to go for a more balanced approach regarding the camera specs -- instead of going for more megapixels, it decided on 12 megapixels which gets better results in both bright and dark conditions. As for the battery specs, both the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge certainly boast improvements in this department compared to their predecessors (the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge).
The Always On feature of both devices should excite Galaxy fans. This functionality allows users to view the date and time, the calendar, and other stuff on the display screen even while the device is in standby mode, and it only requires minimum battery usage (1 percent). The micro SD slot should be welcome news to users -- even though the devices only come with 32 gigabytes of built in storage, the micro SD slot allows for easy memory expansion. The fingerprint reader has also returned.
Preorders for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge will start on February 23rd of this year, with both devices launching on store shelves on March 11th. Depending on carriers (the Big Four, US Cellular) and retail outlets (Best Buy), full retail pricing ranges from $650 to $695 for the Galaxy S7, and $750 to $795 for the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Want to compare the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge with other Samsung devices? Try browsing more phones and plans from Samsung at Wirefly now.
