Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge to launch in India tomorrow, here’s what you need to know

Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge to launch in India tomorrow, here’s what you need to know

Soon after unveiling the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge at MWC 2016 last month,Samsung is quickly bringing the highly-anticipated flagship smartphones to India. The launch event is set to take place in New Delhi tomorrow at 12PM. Samsung has already sent media invites for the event with a caption that reads “Witness The Next Galaxy Revolution as it unveils its new sensation!” #GalaxyS7 #RethinkWhatAPhoneCanDo.

While the Galaxy S7 is likely to be priced between Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000, the Galaxy S7 Edge could be priced around Rs 55,000 to Rs 60,000. Samsung is battling Apple in India for high-value smartphones. Apple has been aggressively marketing the iPhone 6s and is also offering buyback offers for its iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Samsung reportedly has set aside a marketing budget of Rs 100 crore for the new smartphones. It would be interesting to see if Samsung could also bring buyback offers for existing Galaxy smartphone users as it could not only give users an option to upgrade, but also help Samsung boost sales.

For the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung went for a complete design reboot, moving away from plastic body to metal frame along with front and back glass design. For the latest flagships, Samsung has carried the same design with a few improvements such as the slightly more curved glass.

Responding to demands from users, Samsung has brought back the microSD card slot and IP68 certification for water and dust resistance. Another highlight of both flagships is the new ‘Always On’ display, which enables you to glance at the notifications, calendar alerts and time without having to unlock the screen. As just a part of the display lights up, Samsung says it doesn’t consume much battery. The Galaxy S7 Edge now comes in only one size with a 5.5-inch display and there are no signs of the Edge+ variant.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge specifications and features: The hardware on the smartphones is identical with the only changes being the screen size and battery capacity. The Galaxy S7 sports a 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED display whereas the Edge variant has a slightly larger 5.5-inch QHD dual-edge curved display. Depending on the market, the smartphones will either be powered by Samsung’s homebrew Exynos 8890 chipset or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 quad-core chipset, paired with 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of storage options.

On the photography front, a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture, dual-pixel auto-focus, optical image stabilization and PDAF is present. For video calling and selfies, there’s a 5-megapixel front-facing camera of aperture f/1.7. The Galaxy S7 is armed with a 3,000mAh battery whereas the Edge version comes with slightly larger 3,600mAh battery. While it misses out on Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0, Wireless Fast Charging and Quick Charge 2.0 is still present.

Connectivity options include dual-SIM card slots (hybrid support), 4G LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and GPS. Both smartphones run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with TouchWiz UI running atop. For the Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has added more features and apps that can make use of the edge display.