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It may be the first week of the year, but the rumour mills are already on hyperdrive for Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone. With over a month away before its expected launch, Evan Blass (aka @evleaks) has given an almost complete breakdown of the Samsung Galaxy S7.

Samsung appears to be hard at work at rejuvenating the brand, after a successful 2015 with its flagship smartphones. For the Galaxy S7, the Korean company has taken in user feedback considerably, addressing some of the areas where the community has been most critical. In casual conversations with Samsung Malaysia representatives recently, we heard a similar tone – that the S7 will feature the “things users want the most” that was missing in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge.

Separate microSD and SIM card slots on the Samsung Galaxy E7

For starters, the Galaxy S7 will likely feature a microSD card slot. VentureBeat cites people close to the project that the slot will support up to 200GB cards, which will satisfy even the most demanding of users.

Next – and this move will surely be worrying for Sony – the Galaxy S7 is said to be IP67-rated for dust and water resistance. This means there won’t be a “Galaxy S7 Active” (which was previously carrier-exclusive devices), but instead the entire Galaxy S7 series will be designed to this standard – and still retain a similar design to last year’s models.

And yes, the Galaxy S7 will again come in standard and Edge screen variants, though with a slight twist. Where the standard version will have a 5.1-inch display, the S7 Edge is said to be larger with a 5.5-inch display (though smaller than the S6 edge+’s 5.7-inch). Both models will sport Super AMOLED QHD (2,560 x 1,440) displays, and may feature an always-on display to show notifications and other relevant information without unlocking the device. Because the screens are Super AMOLED, battery consumption is minimal – said to only be 1% per hour.

One aspect that we really did not enjoy with the Galaxy S6 was the poor battery life. This will be another area that Samsung will address, opting for larger 3,000mAh and 3,600mAh batteries for the S7 and S7 Edge models – significantly larger than last year’s 2,600mAh and 2,550mAh respectively.

This will likely also explain why the Galaxy S7 will not have a camera hump like on the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6/6s. This shouldn’t be an issue for the majority of users, who will gladly trade a few milimiters of thickness for, say, several extra hours of battery life.

Speaking of cameras, Blass confirms an earlier rumour that the S7 – which will initially come in black, white and gold colours – will pack a smaller 12MP rear camera sensor. However, as we should all know by now, the quality of a camera is not judged simply by how many megapixels it has; to put things in perspective, a Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080) only equates to 2MP. Blass notes that the S7 camera is set to sport a f/1.7 aperture – large even for most point and shoot cameras – that will allow it to perform exceptionally well in low-light conditions.

Finally, there’s the question of processor. Samsung is known for releasing different models for different regions that use different chipsets; the Galaxy Note 4, for example, ran on either Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 or Samsung’s own Exynos chips. The S7 will likely take a similar route, powered by either a Snapdragon 820 or its own Exynos 8890 octa core (2.3GHz + 1.6GHz) chipset. Both variants – if there are indeed two – will have 4GB of RAM, and storage options of 32GB or 64GB.

As for availability, Samsung seems to be gearing up for a very aggressive rollout. SamMobile reports that the Samsung Unpacked launch event will take place on 20 February, two days before MWC 2016 kicks off. Blass claims that Samsung will initiate a global rollout of the Galaxy S7 starting in March, a move that is challenging even for a giant of Samsung’s size…though not entirely impossible.

As far as rumours go, this set of information appears to be too detailed to be passed off as mere gossip. Plus, Blass has had a stellar success rate in his time as the notorious @evleaks. But with over six weeks to go before MWC 2016 kicks off, there will likely be some last-minute changes – though if everything we hear about the Galaxy S7 right now is true, Samsung may have another winner in its hands for 2016.

(Source: VentureBeat)