MWC 2016: The Samsung Galaxy S7 & S7 Edge Bring The Power

Samsung has unveiled its most powerful smartphones to date, revealing the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge devices in Barcelona tonight.

Described by the company as its “most beautiful” devices to date, the 5.1in S7 and 5.5in S7 Edge feature a day-long battery life and the company’s most powerful hardware yet, along with a redefined camera and waterproofing.

“We believe in a world that is brighter, sharper, more convenient, and more fun. We strive to deliver on that vision with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge by marrying elegant design with functionality and providing a seamless mobile experience,” said DJ Koh, Samsung’s president of mobile.

Raising the stakes

Taking to the stage the day before Mobile World Congress starts, Samsung showed off its latest devices to a packed hall, introducing its latest devices through a Virtual Reality reveal on Oculus headsets provided to the audience.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge weigh in at 152g and 157g respectively, hardly surpising given their 5.1in and 5.5in respective screens. The S7 Edge (pictured left) is actually slightly thinner than its smaller brother, however, at 7.7mm across compared to the vanilla S7 at 7.9mm.

Both devices feature an intelligent always-on display, as seen earlier in the LG G5, which shows important notifications and information such as missed calls and time. This is able to detect when it is face-down or in a pocket and dial down its functions, giving even more battery life to the device.

Both devices will run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, and come with 4GB of RAM. There’s a choice between 32 or 64GB of internal storage, but the big news is Samsung’s introduction of a microSD card, which can offer up to 200GB extra space for whatever you choose.

Inside, there’s Qualcomm’s octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 820 processor clocked at 2.3Ghz containing a CPU that’s 30 percent faster than its predecessor. The Galaxy S7 comes with a slightly smaller, but still hugely impressive 3,000mAh battery, with the S7 Edge coming with a 3,600mAh battery, however Samsung says both are slimmer and smaller than ever, and can contain enough juice to watch a whole television series from one charge.

Samsung was also very keen to emphasise its “redefined” camera, and spent a lot of time talking down the iPhone 6S Plus. This may be warranted, as the S7 and S7 Edge come with the company’s most powerful cameras yet, with some advanced functions that mean it excels in low light condition, and is now able to create “motion panoramas” that fill your whole screen.

Both devices will be on sale in the UK on March 11 in three colour schemes, costing £569 and £639 for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge respectively, with pre-orders starting February 22 with all the major retailers – and those that do pre-order will even receive one of Samsung’s Gear VR headsets free of charge.

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