Samsung is preparing another duo of Samsung Galaxy S7 flagships
Oh, mobile tech launch cycle, for all the advanced, progressive technology you produce you are such a predictable old fuddy-duddy. It more-or-less goes like this every year folks; September sees IFA happen in Berlin where Sony and Samsung launch new devices, notably including the Galaxy Note, then Apple launches the new iPhones. Google is a little later than expected this year launching new Nexus hardware, but that's coming at the end of the month rather than during June/July as it normally does. Then we'll get some more new iPads in October/November...then pretty much nothing will happen until January, when CES will happen quickly followed by MWC in February/early March and THAT is when, as with most years, Samsung will launch a new Galaxy S flagship. Or probably two, as seems to be its MO these days.
Yes it's that time again. We've had the debut of the Galaxy Note 5 just ahead of September and Apple's new crop of iPhones inside September itself, so now apart from eagerly awaiting the next Nexus from Google it's time to start looking forward to early 2016 - and that means a new
Samsung Galaxy S flagship! Let's do it all over again!
Samsung Galaxy S flagship! Let's do it all over again!
The rambunctious rumour mill seems to often pipe up very early these days; we're frequently seeing rumours of next-gen devices appear before a new generation of that model is even released. We've been seeing murmurs of the iPhone 7 months ahead of the recent iPhone 6s launch, for example. A similar thing happened with the Galaxy S7 too.
The UK is not getting the Galaxy Note 5 for the foreseeable. But there is some good news on the horizon, as it looks like Samsung will launch its Galaxy S7 handset earlier than expected.
“Samsung could launch its new Galaxy S7 smartphone in January, bringing it forward a month compared to its usual launch date in an effort to get the jump on Apple, its competitor in the high-end smartphone market,” reports The Independent. “As reported by South Korea's Electronic Times, insiders in mobile phone component industries have said that Samsung is planning to launch the new flagship phone in January.”
This is a move no doubt intended to counter the HUGE effect Apple’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are wreaking on the mobile space at large. Apple has sold in excess of 15 million handsets in a very short period of time and no one looks like it can stop the company. Can Samsung do what it did a few years ago and topple Apple once again?
Samsung has had a pretty turbulent couple of years. Back in 2012/13 it looked unstoppable but in 2015, largely due to the success of the iPhone 6, Samsung’s sales and profits and market share began to tumble. The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 EDGE were designed to correct this but failed to deliver the goods with respect to overall sales. Apple’s iPhone 6 dwarfed Samsung’s flagships throughout 2015 and resulted in Samsung experiencing a HUGE 38% drop in operating profit for mobile in Q2.
The Korea Times reported that Samsung is looking to further reduce its workforce before the end of the year in order to cut costs.
“Samsung’s top priority is to save costs. Average workers with mediocre performance are being advised to leave the company with a sizable compensation,” one official told the outlet.
"This isn’t the first major round of layoffs Samsung has had to suffer through in 2015 either. In fact, just last month on the day before Apple unveiled its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung announced that nearly 10,000 employees would have to be let go from the company’s headquarters in South Korea," notes BGR. "But it appears that the situation has not improved appreciably, because in the latest report, industry watchers claim that Samsung is now looking to cut its staff by a whopping 30%, singling out employees in the finance, human resources and marketing divisions of the company."
Despite coming to the marketplace with two very compelling handsets in the form of the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 EDGE, Samsung failed once again to give Apple any real trouble. Handset sales were worse than expected, leading to yet another drop in profits for the once-great Korean handset maker.
“Samsung flagged a second-quarter drop in operating profit on Tuesday that missed analyst estimates after sales of its newest flagship smartphonefailed to meet expectations,” report The Telegraph. “The earnings forecast came as a South Korean court ruled in Samsung's favour against a US hedge fund's efforts to block the proposed merger of two major affiliates. The giant smartphone and memory-chip maker predicted operating profit of around 6.9 trillion won (£4 billion) for the April-June period, down more than 4 per cent from a year earlier.”
Samsung blamed the lacklustre sales on not being able to produce enough Galaxy S6 EDGE units. Analysts, however, had other ideas and pointed towards a more sinister problem: long standing Android users defecting to iPhone. Throw in China for good measure, a market Apple smashed in 2015, and you have a recipe for bad earnings calls. With all this in mind, it’s no wonder Samsung has fast-tracked development of the Galaxy S7, the handset that will do battle with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
The Galaxy S7 has a lot riding on it. Samsung needs to make it a HUGE success after the worse than expected performance of this year's Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 EDGE. In order to do this Samsung will most likley return to the drawing board and vastly recalibrate the overall design, look and finish of the handsets -- because there will almost certainly be two, and both will have curved EDGE displays as standard.
"Unlike the Galaxy S6 which launched in both regular and curved screen Edge variants, the Galaxy S7 will reportedly launch with the curved screen as standard, ditching the regular display altogether," reports Stuff. "The report, courtesy of Vietnamese site Samsung Viet, also claims that the S7 will land in both 5.2in and 5.7in models. If true, then these handsets are likely to be called the Galaxy S7 Edge and S7 Edge Plus respectively."
Initial rumours of the Samsung Galaxy S7 emerged far too early to be all that believeable (although the idea of a new model being worked on at that time was entirely plausible and, in fact, likely), surfacing very soon after the announcement of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. Those devices have been around for a while now though, and as we head towards Christmas and the new year, Samsung's usual flagship bracket inside Q1 is also nearing at a pace. Meaning, of course, that Galaxy S7 rumours from here on out could carry a bit more weight.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Release Date
Long-time readers may remember way back, a few years ago, Samsung showed up at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with several flexible OLED smartphone prototypes that wowed onlookers with promises of a foldable touchscreen smartphone future. Thus far, that future has failed to materialise, but things might be set to change in early 2016 and Samsung may be leading it, according to new reports.
Samsung has made no bones about the fact that it has been working on flexible display panel technology for some considerable time, even occasionally publishing concept videos, such as the one embedded below, showcasing what a working product might look like and how it will change our relationships with our tech.
Most recently that technology has manifested in commercially released products; the Galaxy S6 edge, for example, except in these instances the application has been implemented in the only way anyone (mostly LG and Samsung) has been able to get it to work so far -- a flexible display curved into the desired shape (ie: curved edges) but then fixed in place with a rigid (though also curved) glass display panel on top. In other words, it doesn't actually flex, it just has a fixed, curved shape.
Samsung Sweet Talks Sony Over Xperia Z5 Camera - Wants It For The Galaxy S7
This is interesting. It's well-documented that Samsung has been working on its own camera tech for some time, producing its own ISOCELL sensors which have been fairly well-received so far, but, according to new reports, if Samsung gets its way it may not be using its own sensors inside the Galaxy S7, or at least not exclusively.
Word on the grapevine is that Samsung is chatting up Sony about whether or not it can use Sony's IMX300 23MP sensor seen inside the Sony Xperia Z5 flagship. The gossip comes via sources on Chinese social network Weibo, althought what isn't known at this point is whether Samsung will only use either the Sony sensor or its own ISOCELL hardware, or if, as with its use of Snapdragon and Exynos processors, it will use different sensors in different models for different regions.
However, Samsung may have a lot of work to do and a lot of money to spend, as it's thought Sony wants to keep the IMX300 sensor - which has topped several independent camera ranking reports - exclusive to its own Xperia line-up. That said, if Samsung is prepared to stump up a sizeable chunk of cash, Sony could perhaps be persauded, considering its own mobile business isn't doing too well right now.
Samsung WILL Use Snapdragon 820 Inside Galaxy S7
Samsung ditched Qualcomm chips for its high-end devices in 2015. This was a HUGE move and it took A LOT of people by surprise -- including Qualcomm. Samsung wanted to use its own Exynos chipsets and wasn’t too impressed with the Snapdragon 810’s alleged overheating issues.
BUT -- in 2016 ALL of this will change because Samsung will once again use Qualcomm chipsets inside its Galaxy S7 handsets. According to reports, Samsung wants to use the Snapdragon 820 is is so keen to do so it is doing its on R&D on the chipset in order to ensure there will be ZERO overheating issues.
"Samsung is making every effort to fix heating issues in the Snapdragon 820 chipset and trying to optimize it. The company is trying to release a patch before the end of this month by modifying the microprocessor control program. If this step doesn’t solve the issue, the company is planning to use heat radiating pipes to improve heat dissipation, which means that Samsung is hell bent on using the Snapdragon 820 in the Galaxy S7 at all costs," reports Sam Mobile.
"The company is trying to stabilize the chipset because the Snapdragon 820 is being manufactured using Samsung’s 14nm FinFET process. The better the performance of the Snapdragon 820, the higher the sales of the Galaxy S7 as well as Snapdragon 820 chips. This will in turn be advantageous to Samsung. The South Korean electronics giant is also working on its next-generation chipset, the Exynos 8890, which has custom 64-bit CPU cores."
Samsung Exynos 8890 To Being Mass Production December 2015
Adding further fuel to the fire on the subject of the Galaxy S7 arriving soon-ish (ie: Q1 2016), word from sources inside South Korea claims that Samsung will have full production of the next-gen Exynos 8890 chip, planned for use inside the handset, up-and-running by December this year. The word comes via several reputable outlets, including Business Korea, the Korea Herald, andSamMobile. The chip has previously been rumoured with the codename M1 or Mongoose and is Samsung's first chip using its own custom-built core architecture instead of pre-built ARM hardware.
Flexible OLED Displays On The Way
Now though it seems Samsung is finally making plans to introduce genuine flexible devices inside 2016, January, in fact. The word comes via sources on Chinese network Weibo, which claims a so-called Project V or Project Valley is being tested with an aim to release in January. Samsung has previously released concept videos for flexible devices and during the Spring of 2015 did say it intended to introduce flexible devices to market next year.
Long-time readers may remember way back, a few years ago, Samsung showed up at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas with several flexible OLED smartphone prototypes that wowed onlookers with promises of a foldable touchscreen smartphone future. Thus far, that future has failed to materialise, but things might be set to change in early 2016 and Samsung may be leading it, according to new reports.
Samsung has made no bones about the fact that it has been working on flexible display panel technology for some considerable time, even occasionally publishing concept videos, such as the one embedded below, showcasing what a working product might look like and how it will change our relationships with our tech.
Most recently that technology has manifested in commercially released products; the Galaxy S6 edge, for example, except in these instances the application has been implemented in the only way anyone (mostly LG and Samsung) has been able to get it to work so far -- a flexible display curved into the desired shape (ie: curved edges) but then fixed in place with a rigid (though also curved) glass display panel on top. In other words, it doesn't actually flex, it just has a fixed, curved shape.
Now though it seems Samsung is finally making plans to introduce genuine flexible devices inside 2016, January, in fact. The word comes via sources on Chinese network Weibo, which claims a so-called Project V or Project Valley is being tested with an aim to release in January. Samsung has previously released concept videos for flexible devices and during the Spring of 2015 did say it intended to introduce flexible devices to market next year.
It's indicated as with previous revelations from Samsung's working prototypes that the handset will involve the use of flexible plastic panels over the flexible OLED rather than using glass, which of course makes sense because glass doesn't flex!
It also seems this model sees a genuine practical application of the flexible display as it appears to follow a sort of more traditional flip-phone or clam-shell form factor but with a touch display, meaning it can have a large-ish display panel but a smaller size in the pocket when folded.
How will Project V fit into Samsung's product portfolio? Will it be a new Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship variant like the edge category? We're optimistic that it will. This all has, after all, been a long time ambition of Samsung. Hopefully we'll be hearing a lot more between now and January so stay tuned.
The report claims that several prototypes are being tested with both Snapdragon 620 and Snapdragon 820 processors, but that both have 3GB of RAM, microSD support, and a sealed battery compartment.
As you can see from Samsung's internal desgin documents and some patents unearthed by Patently Mobile for a "a mesh type textile sheet is attached as a cover of a foldable display apparatus. The display sits on top of this material." This was patented back in 2014, so it seems Samsung has carried on developing the tech since then.
How will Project V fit into Samsung's product portfolio? Will it be a new Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship variant like the edge category? We're optimistic that it will. This all has, after all, been a long time ambition of Samsung. Hopefully we'll be hearing a lot more between now and January so stay tuned.
Samsung Galaxy S7 To Feature ClearForce Pressure-Sensitive Display?
Oh, it seems it might be happening. Remember the iPhone 6s? That launch which happened only very recently? If you do then chances are you also recall that a big feature of the iPhone 6s is the pressure-sensitive 3D Touch display panel, which allows users to perform different actions depending on how hard they press the glass.
Well, apparently, Samsung may have a similar trick in store for the Galaxy S7, according to sources on Chinese social network Weibo. It's claimed that Samsung plans to use what's called ClearForce display technology to offer similar pressure-sensitive activation, however, this tech, it's said, may offer even more complex control input than Apple's 3D Touch, including variable speed scrolling and specific touch input tailored for gaming.
Rumours circulating as of October 8 indicate that there may be as many as three processor variant models for the Galaxy S7. The word comes via reputable source SamMobile, which claims that there will be Exynos 7422, Exynos 8890 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 variants of the device. The report suggest the 7422 model will retail in India, the 8890 will retail in Asia and Europe, while the Snapdragon 820 model will be in North America.
According to reports from September 14, Samsung may be prepping a new Exynos processor for use inside the Samsung Galaxy S7. However, with that said there are multiple reports of Galaxy S7's being benchmarked with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip, so it appears it is a return to Samsung's old model of a Qualcomm-based version for North America and Europe, while Asia gets the home-grown Exynos hardware.
"The Galaxy S7 is codenamed Project Lucky internally," reports Sam Mobile, "but the company is referring to these devices as Hero and Hero2. It is expected to be released in two variants, one with an Exynos 8890 processor and the other with the Snapdragon 820 SoC. Qualcomm has already shipped a newer prototype of the Snapdragon 820 chipset to Samsung, and it appears that this new chipset has better performance than the previous prototype."
Still, the Exynos hardware has shown up via new Geekbench benchmarks where previously the Snapdragon 820 was spotted in multiple testbeds, including AnTuTu. The database lists a "Project Lucky-LTE" and a plain ol' "Project Lucky", both using the Exynos 8890 chip, codenamed Mongoose. Curiouser and curiouser, it seems the non-LTE model packs 3GB of RAM while the LTE-enabled variant (using one of Samsung's own LTE modems) has 4GB.
Meanhwile, a slightly earlier report from September 11, coming via Korean source MK.co.kr, claims that Samsung will begin ramping up Galaxy S7 production in January 2016 ready for a reveal in February. Lastly this rumour also claims Samsung is toying with the idea of an HTC One M8 style dual-sensor camera, although there are no further details about this at present.
Samsung Exynos 8890 Benchmarked At 2.4GHz Yields Impressive Results - DOUBLES Galaxy S6 Exynos 7420 Score!
The Exynos 8890-equipped Galaxy S7 has already been benchmarked before, but notably at some fairly low clockspeeds. Now, however, it has rocked up in Geekbench clocked at 2.4GHz, the highest speed so far. This was unearthed by a prominent Weibo-based processor-focused leakster and what's really exciting is the result scores, which for both single-core and multi-core tests are pretty much double the scores of the impressively fast last-gen Exynos 7420 found inside the Galaxy S6 and its stable-mates.
Two Samsung Galaxy S7 Devices In The Works
As of September 9 (that's iPhone launch day, for those who didn't know!) a new report has emerged claiming that Samsung is at work on two Galaxy S7 models, one with a 5.2in display, and the other with a 5.8in screen; meaning it's more of a phablet really. The source is quoted by Korean publication Asia Times as having claimed the 5.2in model will be the "standard" Galaxy S7 version, though that's not exactly surprising to be honest.
The other titbit of info mentions a 4K display, however, it isn't specified if this is the 5.2in version, the 5.8in, or both. Either way it seems Samsung is trying to beat Sony's Xperia Z5 Premium at its own game, which, if taken literally, could hint at the phablet being the UltraHD monster as that's certainly the case with Sony's offering as the largest in the group, but even there it's only 5.5in, which isn't really THAT big these days.
Also of note is the claim of 4GB of onboard RAM for the Galaxy S7 (presumably both versions?), meaning Samsung's recently revealed 6GB RAM hardware isn't getting a look-in this time round.
A benchmark for what is claimed to be the larger variant of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 has leaked online. Originally found by Telefoonabonnement, a Dutch webiste, the leaked AnTuTu benchmark appears to detail some key elements of the upcoming Galaxy S7 flagship, as you can see below:
Obviously NONE of this can be taken as gospel, but AnTuTu has proved a pretty reliable source for decent leaks in the past, so we’re prepared to give this one the benefit of the doubt. All in all, the specs are what you’d expect: a slight bump up from the Galaxy S6, though interestingly the handset is labeled as rocking a Snapdragon 820 CPU.
Lastly, there is one snippet from this report which casts the whole thing in a suspicious light, that is the claim that Samsung plans to launch the Galaxy S7 by the end of 2015 rather than waiting for its usual Q1 slot in the new year. Colour us skeptical.
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