2015 is coming to an end, but next year's smartphone wars are only just getting started. Apple may have swooped into the limelight with the iPhone 6s, but 2016 is all to play for. When January arrives Samsung will have plenty to face up to – not only is Google’s excellent Nexus 6P on the scene but there’ll also be premium competition in the shape of new handsets from LG and HTC. After Samsung blew us away with the Galaxy S6, details are beginning to surface about the Next Big Thing: the Samsung Galaxy S7.
According to a report and picture published by Slashgear, a photo taken of an internal presentation given by China Mobile (by some measures the world's largest telecommunications company, with well over 800 million customers) included an image of a slide showing the Galaxy S7 scheduled to go on sale in February 2016--less than one year after the S6 hit the market.
The leak of the release date for the Galaxy S7 is significant; telecommunications providers have been making efforts to get people to upgrade to the S6 (Verizon, for example, announced a new promotion just days ago that would give people the 64GB model at the normal cost of the 32GB model), and an announcement that a newer model may be available in less than two months may deter upgraders. It may also potentially irritate folks who bought new S6s for Christmas or during Black Friday promotions, and have now entered into two-year contracts or rental agreements for devices about to become "older models."
Furthermore, some loyal Samsung customers who have emerged from two-year contracts in the past year have avoided upgrading to the S6 series because it lacks support for expandable memory (it does not accept Micro-SD cards, as prior generations of Galaxy S phones did); the arrival of the S7 in short term may grant these people further incentive to wait to see if that long-time differentiator from the iPhone will be restored, as has been rumored.
There have been many other rumors about the S7--in terms of its technical specifications, in how many variants it will be marketed, and the like. But the leak from China Mobile is the first leak of its sort allegedly coming directly from a major carrier, and, unless it was somehow planted to cause confusion (which is unlikely), it would seem to be reliable information.
Samsung's releasing a new model of one of its flagship offerings after less than a year may indicate an attempt to create or maintain (depending upon whom you ask) a perceived technological lead over the iPhone. Perhaps Samsung wanted its rumored 3-D-touch feature to hit the market as soon as possible. Of course there could have been other reasons to get to market quickly; the entrance into the market and increasing popularity of various significantly-less-expensive but still technologically powerful and feature-rich phones such as those from OnePlus is unlikely to have gone unnoticed.
Here is the image published by Slashgear:
Samsung Galaxy S7 other features
It's also been rumored that the Samsung Galaxy S7 will support USB Type-C, allowing it to charge faster and meaning you can plug the cable in either way round. We'd say this is one rumor that's almost guaranteed to be true, as more and more phones are adding USB Type-C support.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 is bound to have a fingerprint scanner, just like the Galaxy S6.
A new rumor has suggested the Galaxy S7 may come with microSD support - something the Galaxy S6 didn't offer - and it'll have support up to 128GB.
That may mean we see the internal storage options cut down to just 32GB or 64GB though - but the return to microSD is a good step and means you can have much better control over your storage.
Samsung Galaxy S7 cost
There's no word yet on what the Samsung Galaxy S7 will cost but we can tell you right now that it will be very expensive. While a price cut would be nice we'd be surprised if Samsung launched it for any less than it initially charged for the Galaxy S6. If we had to guess we'd say it could start at up to around £600 / $650 / AU$1,100.