At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung unveiled the highly talked about Galaxy s7 and s7 edge. This next iteration of Samsung’s galaxy line is a fine polish of the s7’s predecessor the s6. While Samsung hasn’t changed a whole lot design wise, the s7 is certainly more than just a familiar face.

Samsung’s latest flagship phone is a great example of the old saying: “If it Ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Samsung has taken everything good about previous galaxy models and refined it. On the outside, the s7 looks nearly identical to its predecessor. However, once in hand you’ll notice the difference. The s7 has adopted a new curved design so that it fits better in the palm. Samsung has also shaved down the camera hump at the back, which had been a minor complaint of the previous model. Unfortunately, the s7 will collected finger prints just like previous iterations, but the phone still feels like a luxury item with the metal casing and gorilla glass screen.

While the galaxy s7 feels like a luxury item in the hand, it will be far more durable than its predecessor. The Galaxy s7 is essentially waterproof. With an ip68 rating, the s7 can survive within five feet of water for a maximum of thirty minutes. That means if you drop it in the sink or the toilet, you won’t be rushing for a bag of rice to save your phone.

Beneath the surface, the galaxy s7 has been outfitted with a larger battery, carrying 3,000 mAh. While this isn’t too far off from the s6’s 2550 mAh battery, apparently the phone has been optimized to utilize the extra mAh better than the s6. The Galaxy s7 will also come with up to 200 GB of expandable microSD memory. This something that was lost in the s6, and had become a major complaint for consumers. The phone will come loaded with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and will have far less pre-loaded bloatware than previous Galaxy phones.

What has garnered a lot of attention is the Galaxy s7’s new camera. While lowering the pixel amount, from the galaxy s6’s 16 mega-pixels to 12, Samsung promises that the loss in mega-pixels will not mean a loss in quality. With a ½ inch sensor the pixels captured by the camera will be larger, meaning for higher resolution and detail. The new camera also apparently works better in low light than the previous iteration, and the focus speed is faster than before.

Other interesting additions include the promise for wireless charging to be built into the phone. This is a feature that has earned praise the world around. Samsung has also added its trademark: ‘always on display’. This means that while the phone is on and locked, the screen will constantly display: time, date, and other notifications. This new feature has apparently been optimized to drain an insignificant amount of battery, yet we can imagine there will be a function to turn this display off as well.

While far from revolutionary, the new Samsung Galaxy S7 is still a solid and promising phone. Like all of Samsung’s flagship phones, the Galaxy s7 will more than likely be a best seller. It is far from an “iphone killer” and there are many other phones on the market, or coming to the market, that could easily challenge the newest Galaxy model. All this aside, Samsung has designed a polished product by taking the good and the bad of their previous galaxy phones and creating something new and desirable. Listed below is a detailed run through of the specifications. You can expect to see the Samsung galaxy s7 in stores on March 11th of this year.
    
Detailed Specifications:

Expected Price: $699.99
Display size: 5.1 inch; 2.560x1,440
Pixel Display: 576ppi
Dimensions: 5.6x2.7x0.3 in (142.4x69.6x7.9mm)
Weight: 5.4 oz; 152 g
Mobile Software: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
Camera: 12-megapixel
Front-facing: 5-megapixel
Video capture: 4k
Processor 2.15GHz+1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor
Storage: 32 GB, 64 GB (varies by region)
Ram: 4 GB
Expandable 200 GB
Battery 3,000mAh (apparently lasts longer)
Connector: Micro-USB