KUALA LUMPUR: Less than a month after unveiling the Galaxy S7 edge in Barcelona, Spain, the Samsung flagship Android smartphone goes on sale nationwide today.

At the local launch yesterday in KLCC, a crowd of nearly 1,000 went wild as South Korean heartthrob Lee Kwang-soo came to town to herald the arrival of the smartphone.

“When I heard that Samsung is launching the Galaxy S7 edge in Malaysia, I knew I had to be part of the launch,” said the Running Man star.

“It’s the perfect combination of style, performance and entertainment, and being able to pick mine up in a very welcoming country where I also get to visit my fans is quite the experience.”

The S7 edge, the latest in the South Korean electronics giant’s highly-regarded smartphones, features a display that goes all the way to the sides of the screen.

The curved display allows users to slide out a menu to access shortcuts to contacts, apps and even specific functions within some apps.

For example, if you like taking selfies, you can add a shortcut to launch the front facing camera right on this menu.

The S7 edge is the world’s first smartphone to feature Dual Pixel technology previously seen on DSLRs and offers “lightning fast” autofocus, says Samsung Malaysia Electronics’ vice-president for mobile and IT business, Lee Jui Siang.

The smartphone, which has a 12-megapixel rear camera and five-megapixel front-facing camera, meets the IP68 standard for dust- and water-resistance. It can be immersed in water for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1.5m.

Based on customer feedback, Samsung has also reintroduced the microSD card slot, allowing users to add up to 200GB of storage. The device comes with 32GB of memory built-in.

Interestingly, the microSD card slot also doubles as a SIM card tray, so frequent travellers who don’t need the extra storage can choose to use two phone lines instead.

The Galaxy S7 edge is priced at RM3,099 (inclusive of GST) and comes in three colours – Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and Gold Platinum.