Samsung Galaxy S7
Verizon Galaxy S7 promo in high demand, free Gear S2 deliveries delayed until May 2016
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge are in high demand, but the promotional deals from carriers has boosted sales even further. In the US, T-Mobile has given away a free year of Netflix. Verizon is called the Cadillac of Carriers (US, that is) and with good reason: instead of offering just a free Gear VR headset with customer pre-orders (initiated by Samsung), Verizon went one step further: it allowed customers to choose between a 1) free Gear VR headset with a 6-game bundle, or 2) a free Gear S2 smartwatch. We’ve been hearing about Gear VR orders in abundance, and have even seen a letter delaying the delivery of Gear VR headsets due to high demand. Now, unfortunately, it’s Verizon’s turn to disappoint customers.
A letter has been sent out today telling customers about the delay in Gear S2shipments: “Hello [name], Congratulations! Your submission has been approved. We will ship your Samsung Gear S2 to the mailing address you provided when registering for this Offer. Please note that due to the high level of interest in the Verizon Offer promotion, delivery times for Gear S2 are now extending into May and potentially Summer 2016. Once shipped, we will send you an email with your tracking number.”
Verizon Gear S2 promo recipients now join the list of free Gear VR customers who are still waiting for their shipments. In the case of free Gear VR recipients, however, Samsung is awarding a choice: you can 1) wait for your free Gear VR or 2) you can take a $100 credit and use it to buy anything in Samsung’s online retail store atSamsung.com.
The Gear S2 is certainly worth the wait. So far, it is Samsung’s best smartwatch to date, boasting a circular body that mimics the look and feel of luxury watches, Samsung’s trademark Super AMOLED display, a Rotary UI with a rotating bezel (a feature that should be imitated by other OEMs). Recently, Samsung has updated the Gear S2 to add a new ESPN watch face, a new World Clock widget, as well as an auto-open app feature that uses eye detection to open the app you want.
Recipients of Verizon’s Gear S2 should know that they are getting a cellular-data version that can be activated with 3G connectivity for just $5 a month by following the steps on the smartwatch itself.
Verizon free Gear S2 recipients, are you disappointed by the new delay in delivery time for your favorite smartwatch? Do you think it’s worth waiting for? Still glad you picked up the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge?
Consumer Reports names the Samsung Galaxy S7 as the best smartphone ever
Did you know that we were the first ones to report that Samsung has codenamed the Galaxy S7 as ‘Lucky’? Well, the device turned out quite lucky for the world’s largest smartphone maker. Initial sales of the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge have exceeded the company’s estimates in various important markets, and they have been named as the best smartphones by experts around the world.
If that wasn’t enough, Consumer Reports has named the Galaxy S7 as the best smartphone ever reviewed. It found the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge to have excellent battery life, great cameras, super-fast processors, and very high-resolution displays. The inclusion of water resistance and microSD card slot was praised as well, and they became one of the reasons that put the devices on top of smartphone rankings.
Mike Gikas, the senior editor of Consumer Reports, wrote, “These new models aren’t just Samsung’s best smartphones, but, perhaps, the best smartphones“. The test goes on to show that getting the basics right (like camera quality and battery life) is the most important thing even though brands continue to add niche features like fingerprint sensors and VR compatibility.
Consumer Reports is a highly regarded American monthly magazine, which started 80 years ago. It publishes reviews of various consumer products and services based on in-house testing. The magazine does not accept any advertising, pays for all the products and services it tests, has an annual testing budget of $21 million, and has around 7.3 million subscribers.
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge’s screen seems to suffer with palm rejection issues
The Galaxy S7 edge is arguably the most beautiful smartphone in the world, and it is the curved display that enhances the smartphone’s beauty. However, it can sometimes cause issues while using the device due to the curved nature of the display. The bezel around the display is far too thin to hold the device properly without your palm or fingers touching the curved part of the screen.
Apparently, some users are facing issues with the display on the Galaxy S7 edgecausing unintentional touches, especially while using the onscreen keyboard and the camera app. This might be due to improper functioning of the palm/finger rejection mechanism. Without proper palm rejection, the shutter button in the camera app might not register a touch. It might also cause problems when you are typing using the onscreen keyboard.
This problem might or might not affect you depending on how you are holding the device. Samsung has released an “urgent software update” for the Edge screen. However, some users who received the update are still affected by the issue, so we are not sure whether the update was to fix the palm rejection or simply to add more features to the Edge screen.
If “you are holding it wrong“, the situation can get extremely frustrating due to accidental touches or app launches. Samsung should fix this issue before the ‘edge-gate’ issue becomes widespread. Are you experiencing a similar problem while using your Galaxy S7 edge? Let us know your thoughts about it in the comments section below.
Here’s what’s inside the ultimate Samsung Galaxy S7 test box
Samsung had unveiled its flagship smartphones for 2016 – the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge – last month. Shortly after the unveiling, the company started sending out review units to press and media around the world. Instead of sending just the Galaxy S7, Samsung Poland sent out complete Galaxy S7 ‘test boxes’ to reviewers. So, what do these test boxes contain? Let’s have a look!
The Galaxy S7 test box is a premium leather-wrapped briefcase with a big Samsung logo. It contains four devices: a Galaxy S7, a Gear S2 classic, a Gear VR, and Level On Wireless headphones. All these devices are one of the best in their categories, and it would be a dream come true for any Samsung enthusiasts to own this test box. Would you be interested in buying such a premium package if Samsung decides to sell them to general consumers?
It’s emoji galore on the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge
Samsung’s new flagship handsets come with 159 new emojis as well as a number of additional emoji font changes. This is the first time that Samsung has added a new set of emoji since it released the Galaxy S5 back in 2014. Most of the additions come from Unicode 7.0 and Unicode 8.9 releases, however as we’ve seen on other platforms, some previous Unicode characters given emoji status retroactively have also been added.
Some of the new emoji that can be found in the Galaxy S7 include the robot face, hot dog, burrito, nerd face and even the middle finger. The entire list of new additions can be viewed here. The Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge come with the new emoji right out of the box and existing Galaxy devices that get the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update will get the new emojis as well
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New press render of Samsung Galaxy S7 edge leaks in grey
A couple of live images of the Galaxy S7 duo were leaked yesterday showing the devices in black, which also highlighted the almost flush camera module on the device. Later, the Galaxy S7 edge’s 3,600 mAh battery was confirmed through an FCC filing. Now, a new press render of the yet unannounced Galaxy S7 edge has surfaced the Internet.
The seasoned leakster Evan Blass has tweeted the press render of the Galaxy S7 edge, which shows the device in grey color (though it could also be silver). The new image shows the device with the same wallpaper that leaked through our forums yesterday. The image also confirms February 21 as the official launch date of the device.
As of now, the device has been leaked in three colors; black, gold and silver/grey, but the final list of color options can only be confirmed after the official announcement of the device, which is bound to happen at Samsung’s Unpacked 2016 press conference just a day before MWC 2016.
Samsung Galaxy S7 release date for the US rumored
Even though it hasn’t made it official yet
Samsung is most likely going to unveil its next flagship at the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona next month. We’ll only come to know at the event when it intends to actually release the Galaxy S7 but a new rumor has surfaced claiming to pinpoint the Galaxy S7 release date for the United States.
Samsung unveiled
the Galaxy S6 at Mobile World Congress 2015 which took place between March 2 and March 5, 2015. The new flagship was actually released on April 10, 2015, and that too in only 20 countries initially. The rumor suggests that while Samsung might unveil the Galaxy S7 variants at MWC 2016 on February 21, 2016, it may release them in the United States on March 11, 2016. The US is almost always on the list of initial launch markets so even though this rumor mentions the release date only for one country, it’s likely that the handset may also arrive in other countries on or around March 11. Since this information comes from an unofficial source it’s best to not believe it to be completely true, rumors aren’t always spot on, but it’s plausible because it wouldn’t make any sense for Samsung to make customers wait for a very long time once it has unveiled its next flagship Galaxy S series smartphones.
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge screen sizes confirmed! Here are the details
Samsung
There has been a lot of confusion regarding the screen size of the upcoming flagship smartphones from Samsung – the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge – as the South Korean smartphone giant has been testing a lot of prototypes with varied specifications. A variant of the Galaxy S7 was revealed through Geekbench yesterday, which hinted towards a 5.1-inch QHD display. Now, the screen sizes of the Galaxy S7 and its edge sibling have been revealed through the import listings on Zauba.
Based on the listings, the SM-G930R4 (Galaxy S7) is equipped with a 5.1-inch display, while the SM-G935R (Galaxy S7 edge) sports a 5.5-inch display. This falls in line with display size in the recently leaked AnTuTu benchmark test. According to the import database, two units of these smartphones were imported into India with valid IMEI numbers. There is also a possibility for the existence of the Galaxy S7 edge+, which could have a 5.7-inch display. There was also a report which suggested that Samsung could release as many as four members in the Galaxy S7 family – the Galaxy S7, the Galaxy S7 Plus, the Galaxy S7 edge, and the Galaxy S7 edge Plus – this year, but you should take that with a pinch of salt.
According to most leaks and reports
According to most leaks and reports (including our exclusive report), the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge should have QHD Super AMOLED displays with pressure sensitivity, Exynos 8890 processors with Samsung’s custom CPU cores, 4GB RAM, 32/64/128GB internal storage, a microSD card slot (yes, at least on the Galaxy S7), a 12-megapixel BRITECELL primary camera with larger-sized pixels, a 5-megapixel secondary camera, possibly an iris scanner, Cat.12/13 LTE connectivity, and a USB Type-C port. These smartphones will most probably be released with Android 6.0.1 out of the box.
Galaxy S7 specs appear on Geekbench
Galaxy S7
Another model of the Galaxy S7 appears to have made its way to the benchmarks, the Galaxy S7 (SM-G930W8) has been spotted on Geekbench, possibly revealing some specs of the Galaxy S7. The benchmark result shows that this model is also powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 processor instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820,which is being manufactured by Samsung, and features 4GB of RAM. Last month one Snapdragon 820-powered model of the Galaxy S7 was spotted on Geekbench and just yesterday the Galaxy S7 with Exynos 8890 also appeared on AnTuTu benchmark.
Additional
Galaxy S7 specs mentioned in this latest benchmark include a 5.1-inch display with 1440 x 2560 Quad HD resolution, 12-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera as well as Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. We have already exclusively confirmed the different screen sizes for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge aside from the fact thatboth handsets will feature a microSD card slot as well. It’s common for us to see different benchmarks and conflicting reports about specifications and features that are expected in an upcoming flagship, that’s usually because all of this unofficial information is often based on different prototypes, and that means there’s always the possibility of the final product turning out a bit different than what everybody expected. Samsung is likely going to unveil the Galaxy S7 at Mobile World Congress 2016 next month.
















