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Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge restores expandable storage and water resistant build

By James Lu - on 22 Feb 2016, 3:08am

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge restores expandable storage and waterproof build

On the eve of MWC 2016, Samsung has just launched its latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. The new phones restore a couple of popular features dropped from the previous generation, including expandable storage space, and a water resistant design.

Like last year, two models were released, the S7 and the curved display S7 Edge. Design-wise, the phones look pretty similar to last year. While the Galaxy S7 retains the same 5.1-inch screen size as the S6, the S7 Edge's display has grown from 5.1-inches to 5.5-inches.

Both phones now accept microSD cards, granting expandable storage up to 200GB. The phones also sport fully water resistant builds, something we haven't seen since the S5. The waterproofing is better too - it's now IP68, which means the phones can be safely submerged in 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes. The waterproofing is internal, so there are no fiddly flaps to protect ports.

The most noticeable new feature this year is an "always on display" function that shows notifications and the time without needing to wake the screen up. It remains to be seen whether this will have a big impact on battery life, but fortunately, both models also have larger capacity batteries this year.

On the rear of the phone, the big camera bump is gone, and the new rear camera is much flatter than last year's. Additionally, Samsung has improved the rear camera, giving it a wider aperture of f/1.7 (rather than f/1.9 lens on the S6). The new camera module also boasts larger pixels, which gives it better capabilities in low-light conditions. 

The rear camera is also the first smartphone to feature "dual pixel autofocus". This means each pixel can be used to both record the image and determine focus rather than just one or the other. This enables the phone to lock focus to an object more quickly for stills, and deliver smoother focus tracking in video mode. This technology was first developed by Canon, and as previously only found on DSLRs. While the new camera looks much improved, one consequence of adding the new tech is that the megapixel count has shrunk from 16 to 12.

Both the S7 and S7 Edge will be launched on 11th March 2016. Local availability and pricing is not available yet.

For an in-depth look at both phones, check out our hands-on here.

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