Samsung Galaxy S7: 5 things you might not know about Samsung
Yesterday Samsung unveiled its first flagship phones for 2016:
the Galaxy S7
and
Edge of the Galaxy S7
.Besides major upgrades to the internals of the device, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge also feature IP68 water resistance capabilities. you might have missed during Samsung's official unveiling of the handset.
Some of these changes are good, some are not. But what are these changes, you wonder? Read below and find out for yourself.
#5 No IR Blaster
A feature that most consumers won't miss, but the exclusion of which will certainly burn power users. Having an IR blaster in a phone allows you to control all the electronics around you that can be controlled via a remote. However , for some inexplicable reason, Samsung decided to discontinue the IR blaster on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. The company had removed the IR blaster from the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ last year, so this is not It's not like the company made that decision in a jiffy.
To me it looks like the IR blaster hasn't turned out to be a feature that most normal Galaxy owners use on their device, so Samsung thought it would be a good idea to remove it from their devices, reducing its nomenclature (nomenclatures).
https://youtu.be/cyohHyQl-kc
#4 Option to toggle app drawer
Late last week, a report claimed that
Google could abandon the app drawer in Android N
.Although this news has still not been confirmed, it seems likely that Google intends to abandon the app drawer in a future version of Android.Indeed, on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung has included an option under "Galaxy Labs" to enable/disable the app drawer. The app drawer is enabled by default, to avoid confusing long-time Galaxy users. Samsung probably included this option to prepare its users for this inevitable change.
Disabling the app drawer turns the Galaxy S7 home screen into an iOS launcher where shortcuts to installed apps are spread across multiple pages.
#3 Exynos and Snapdragon variants
Samsung has typically launched two variants of its flagship Galaxy devices: one powered by a Qualcomm chip and another featuring its own Exynos chipset. The Galaxy S6 and Note 5 were an exception last year, where due to overheating with the Snapdragon 810, Samsung has decided to use its Exynos 7420 chipset on all its flagship devices. This year however, things pick up again with Samsung launching the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge with two different chipsets: Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820 The first is an octa-core chip and is Samsung's first Exynos chip to feature its 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 US getting the Snapdragon 820-powered Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.
#2 IP68 water resistant
The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge might not be 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 has decided to seal the internals of the handsets to make them water and dust resistant without introducing flaps that hinder usability, as it did with the Galaxy S5.
IP68 certification means the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge can be submerged in up to 1-1.5m of water for a long time without being damaged in any way.
#1 Camera
Don't be fooled by the lower megapixel count of the Galaxy S7's rear camera, as it's probably received the biggest upgrade of any component on the device. While the sensor has a lower 12MP resolution at that of the 16MP rear shooter found on the Galaxy S6, it now comes with larger 1.4u pixels. When combined with OIS, this results in the Galaxy S7 having a camera which can rival point 'n' shoot in low light situations. But that's not all though; Samsung has also used a wider f/1.7 aperture lens on the handset which allows more light through to the camera. Additionally, it will also help in capturing bokeh photos with the handset. The wider aperture, however, can lead to 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 those improvements weren't enough, Samsung has also introduced "dual pixel" technology to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge which takes information received by two pixels for nearly instantaneous autofocus times. The camera uses thus nearly every pixel in the sensor rather than relying on a few pixels to reduce autofocus times.
Samsung had already surpassed the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s last year with the Note 5 in terms of camera performance, and with the improvements it has made this year, the company seems to have brought down the competition out of the water.
Do you know these five features of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge? What do you think of the handsets?
Read
Samsung Galaxy Note 7: 5 things to know about Samsung's latest Note
Does the Galaxy Note 7 come with an IR Blaster?