Yesterday Samsung unveiled its first flagship phones for 2016:
the Galaxy S7
and
Galaxy S7 Edge
.Aside from major upgrades to the internal components of the device, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge also boast IP68 water resistance ratings. But that's not all; the phones are packed with lots of little things you might see at Samsung's official handset unveiling missed.
Some of these changes are good, some are not. But what are these changes, you ask? Read below and see for yourself.
#5 No IR blaster
A feature that most consumers won't miss, but the exclusion of which will definitely annoy power users. With an IR blaster in a phone, you can control any electronic device around you that can be controlled via a remote control. For inexplicable reasons However, Samsung has decided to ditch the IR blaster on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. The company itself removed the IR blaster from the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ last year, so it's not as if the company has these made a decision in no time.
To me it looks like the IR blaster didn't turn out to be a feature that most regular Galaxy owners use on their device).
https://youtu.be/cyohHyQl-kc
#4 Option to toggle app drawer
Late last week, a report claimed that
Google could change the app drawer in Android N. give up
.Although this news has not yet been confirmed, it seems likely that Google intends to abandon the app drawer in a future version of Android. This is because Samsung has an option under "Galaxy Labs" on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge added to toggle the app drawer on/off. The app drawer is enabled by default so as not to confuse long-time Galaxy users. Samsung likely included this option to prepare its users for this inevitable change.
Disabling the app drawer makes the home screen on the Galaxy S7 similar to the launcher in iOS, where the shortcuts of the installed apps are spread across multiple pages.
#3 Exynos and Snapdragon variants
Samsung has typically launched two variants of its flagship Galaxy devices: one with a Qualcomm chip and another with its own Exynos chipset the Snapdragon 810 decided to use its Exynos 7420 chipset for all of its flagship devices. This year, however, things are back on track as Samsung launches the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge with two different chipsets: Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820. The former is an octa-core chip and is Samsung's first Exynos chip to feature custom design ARM M1 cores, while the latter is Qualcomm's first custom 64-bit quad-core chip .
In most markets around the world, Samsung intends to sell the Exynos 8890 variant of the handsets, with only the United States getting the Snapdragon 820-powered Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
#2 IP68 waterproof
The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge might not look that different from their predecessors, but they have a major upgrade up their sleeve: IP68 water resistance. Instead of sealing the phone from the outside, Samsung decided to make the handsets' internal components water and dust resistant to seal without introducing any flaps that hamper usability as was the case with the Galaxy S5.
The IP68 certification means that the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge can be submerged in up to 1-1.5m of water for extended periods without being damaged.
#1 camera
Don't be fooled by the lower megapixel count of the Galaxy S7's rear camera, as it has probably received the biggest upgrade of any component in the device. While the sensor has a lower 12-MP compared to the Galaxy S6's 16-MP rear shooter, MP resolution, it now comes with larger 1.4u pixels. Combined with OIS, this means the Galaxy S7 has a camera that can keep up with point 'n' shooting in low light. But that's not all ;Samsung has also used a wider f/1.7 aperture lens on the handset, which lets more light through to the camera. It also helps when capturing Crips Bokeh photos with the handset. However, the larger aperture can cause blurring and Loss of quality at the edges of a photo.
Read:
Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Galaxy S6: What's the difference?
And as if these improvements weren't enough, Samsung also introduced Dual Pixel technology to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, which uses the information received from two pixels for almost instantaneous autofocus times. The camera uses almost all of the sensor's pixels in this way and doesn't rely on a few pixels to speed up autofocus times.
Samsung already surpassed the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s in terms of camera performance with the Note 5 last year, and with this year's improvements the company seems to have shot the competition out of the water.
Did you know these five features of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge?What do you think of the phones?
Read
Samsung Galaxy Note 7: 5 things to know about Samsung's latest Note
Will the Galaxy Note 7 come with an IR blaster?
