Giving credence to prior rumors surrounding Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy flagship smartphone, The Wall Street Journal on Monday said that the Galaxy S7 will launch in March of next year outfitted with a pressure-sensing screen akin to Apple’s 3D Touch technology on the iPhone 6s.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the publication claims the Galaxy maker is also considering adding a retina scanner “to some versions of the flagship device,” though that feature could change.
Other hardware features mentioned in the report include a USB-C port, a new high-speed charging port that will allow for a full day’s charge in under 30 minutes—“and in some cases significantly faster than that”—and a premium curved-screen version, called the Galaxy S7 Edge.
Claimed camera improvements allegedly include improved lowlight photography and a new design flush with the back of the phone. The regular Galaxy S7 is said to include an external memory card slot, a feature Samsung removed from the current Galaxy S6 lineup much to the dismay of its loyal fan base.
The device will look largely similar to its predecessor and other hardware improvements reportedly “aren’t a major departure” from the Galaxy S6. “In some ways, the changes involving the Galaxy S7 will be less striking than those made earlier this year, when Samsung added the curved-screen companion to the Galaxy S6 and redesigned the look and feel of the handsets,” reads the report.
Samsung should formally announce its next flagship at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona in late-February 2016, ahead of its mid-March 2016 launch in the United States, giving it a six-month lead time on Apple’s iPhone 7, which should hit the market in the fall of 2016.
Faced with second straight year of mobile profit declines, a corporate shake-up at Samsung earlier this month saw the replacement of its longtime mobile chief J.K. Shin with former head of mobile research and development D.J. Koh. J.K. Shin will now oversee mobile R&D, product planning, design, manufacturing and sales and marketing.
Source: The Wall Street Journal