Report: Samsung Galaxy S7 to Feature Pressure-Sensitive Display, Type-C Port, SD Card Slot

The Wall Street Journal thinks they have the inside scoop on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 and its brother, the Galaxy S7 Edge. If a report published this morning turns out to be the real deal, then it sounds like we are in for a set of improvements that should remove many of the criticisms of this year’s flagships.

According to the WSJ, the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will jump on Apple’s newly created pressure-sensitive display trend. Apple calls it 3D Touch, so I’m sure Samsung will come up with something clever to give it branding, but the basics will likely be the same as they are with Apple’s implementation. By pressing or tapping with different amounts of pressure, you could access hidden menus, see media in a different light, etc. Users who have managed to figure it out on the new iPhones seem to enjoy it, so it could be a welcome new addition to TouchWiz. 

As for the rest of the phone, today’s report says that we should expect a USB Type-C port in each phone that will provide a full charge in “under” 30 minutes. Hopefully that means they are introducing faster charging and not a smaller battery. The WSJ also says that we should get a microSD card slot once again in the regular S7, new camera (probably this one) that will be sans protruding lens and instead lay flush with the phone’s back, and overall, a similar design to what we saw last year. Think of it like this year’s iPhones which were “S” models and mostly just internal improvements over the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. These new phones could just be a set of feature improvements over the S6 and S6 Edge with very similar overall hardware designs.

We may see a retina scanner in some models as well, though the WSJ doesn’t seem too confident in this feature. A retina scanner could be used for security purposes or other areas that we currently use fingerprints for verification. If I’m being honest, that seems like an expensive add-on that people may be reluctant to use.

As for timing of a launch, even though previous rumors all continue to point at a really early unveiling of some time in late January or early February, this report suggests that we won’t see the new devices until Samsung’s typical Galaxy S launch, which usually ends up around Mobile World Congress, an end of February tech event. The phones could then arrive within a matter of weeks to ride the hype train.

Thoughts?

Via:  Wall Street Journal