Samsung Galaxy S7 Rumors: Two Variants, Gear VR, Possible Release Date This Winter
Earlier this year, in mid-April, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge released to great fanfare. And while Samsung has failed to reach the critical acclaim and sales numbers they wanted, it’s still been a very solid addition to Samsung’s lineup.
That being said, five months later, rumors already abound about the next Samsung Galaxy: the Samsung Galaxy S7, and they’re pretty interesting.
To address the most exciting news first: Tech Gadget Central is reporting that the highly-credible Korean publication EToday is indicating that the Samsung Galaxy S7 will be released this winter. For a little while, rumor had it that the S7 would be coming in March, 2016, but now EToday is saying that it will actually be released in January, only nine months after the release of the Galaxy S6. That’s pretty surprising, considering that most major smartphone players follow an annual release schedule, but Samsung’s flagging sales and relatively poor projected performance in the later half of the year may be motivating Samsung to release the Galaxy S7 earlier than usual.
It’s also worth noting that the Samsung Gear VR virtual reality headset is scheduled to release in Q4 this year, and according to Gizmodo, Samsung has just announced a new $100 version of the headset. Cheap enough to package with a new Galaxy smartphone designed to take advantage of it, perhaps? An early release wouldn’t be surprising if Samsung was intending to use the release of the Gear VR headset to push phone sales, and we certainly know that Samsung’s next phone will be VR-ready.
Meanwhile, Valuewalk is reporting that the Galaxy S7 will, like the S6, have two variants. The S7 has been internally-coded by Samsung as SM-G930 and SM-G935, suggesting two different release models. While not necessarily the case, this suggests that the Galaxy S7 will, like the S6, have an Edge variant with a curved screen. That being said, the Edge wasn’t especially well-received by critics, so Samsung may have something else in mind — perhaps now that Samsung almost entirely dominates the American Android market, they will be releasing tiered versions of their flagship device?
Rumors also suggest that the Galaxy S7 may see the return of the MicroSD slot, a feature that was sorely-missed on the S6. While internal storage is generally up to most tasks, those who take (or carry) a lot of video on the go appreciate the ability to swap storage on the fly.
Hopefully if the release date is just around the corner, we will have more solid information on the Samsung Galaxy S7 soon.
[Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Samsung]
