Support for microSD memory cards will return to Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

    Welcome to our readers on the iCover Blog Pages ! As a representative of Samsung said in an interview with VentureBeat, the microSD slot, which will support cards up to 200 GB in capacity, will again return to the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge models. Most likely, such a measure was forced, after studying the reaction of Samsung admirers, who generally negatively perceived the lack of a slot and a removable battery in the Galaxy S6-S6 Edge.

    About what else is interesting, according to the version of the VentureBeat portal, Samsung is preparing in new models, the official announcement of which will take place very soon, we will describe below.

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    Question: “Why did Samsung suddenly abandon microSD?” It looks far from idle. The company probably understood quite well how negative the user reaction might be. Nevertheless, the Galaxy S6 came out without a slot, and even with a non-removable battery. The most likely explanation is the refusal in favor of more substantial acquisitions, or more precisely, in favor of freeing up free space, which could be used under the battery, while making the phone thinner.

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    As an option to refuse a microSD slot, as noted on the GSMArena blog pages, one more possible reason can be considered - the use of a new type of UFS 2.0 memory in S6, which was able to provide data transfer speed at the SSD level, exceeding the performance of the absolute leader of the race - eMMC 5.0 memory .

    A comparative advantage was confirmed by the memory test by the AndroBench benchmark, which made it possible to obtain read and write speeds in arbitrary and sequential modes. The obtained values ​​were compared with the performance of the storage devices of smartphones of other manufacturers and the younger representatives of the Galaxy line. According to Samsung, the UFS 2.0 memory that was installed in the Galaxy S6 turned out to be 2.7 times faster than the modification used in the Galaxy S5 solution. The test results showed an even more convincing difference in performance - the speed increased by 3.25 times.

    At the same time, a series of tests of the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S5 smartphones in random read mode with a microSD card installed showed a value 10 times lower than in the case of using UFS 2.0.

    For clarity, we turn to the test results (values ​​are given in megabits per second)

    Sequential reading:

    • Samsung Galaxy S6 - 317.85;
    • LG G3 - 239.68;
    • HTC One M9 - 239.19;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - 212.45;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 - 206.85;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 microSD - 78.41;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 microSD - 43.02.

    Sequential Record:

    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - 126.69;
    • HTC One M9 - 123.97;
    • Samsung Galaxy S6 - 120.70;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 - 56.31;
    • LG G3 - 39.53;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 microSD - 11.25;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 microSD - 10.73.

    Arbitrary reading:

    • Samsung Galaxy S6 - 78.03;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - 22.10;
    • LG G3 - 21.81;
    • HTC One M9 - 20.27;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 - 18.79;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 microSD - 7.62;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 microSD - 7.08.

    Custom Record:

    • Samsung Galaxy S6 - 20.74;
    • HTC One M9 - 13.93;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - 10.71;
    • LG G3 - 9.42;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 - 6.91;
    • Samsung Galaxy S5 microSD - 0.69;
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 4 microSD - 0.67.

    At the same time, it cannot be denied that relatively cheap microSD memory cards are a universal, convenient and affordable tool for data backup. Despite the emerging trend of abandoning the microSD slot in premium smartphones, Samsung has struggled with this trend for a long time. In recent versions, the decision was made in the expectation that the benefits would still outweigh the inconvenience. As compensation to each user of the Galaxy S6, Samsung provided 115 gigabytes of OneDrive cloud storage absolutely free.

    But ... despite the obvious speed increase achieved through the integration of a new type of memory, the absence of a microSD slot in the Galaxy S6, as well as a non-removable battery, was recognized as one of the most unsuccessful innovations of the company, especially since this solution blocked any possibility of using memory cards with increased containers that are now more than available.

    It must be assumed that it was the “work on the bugs” done by Samsung analysts that convinced them of the need to return the slot to its rightful place, as company representatives said in an interview with VentureBeat. And the return of the “prodigal slot," as the latter said in their report, will be timed to coincide with the announcement of the next stellar pair - the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.

    Predictions from VentureBeat


    According to the VentureBeat report , the Galaxy S7 will be equipped with a 5.1-inch display and the older version of the S7 Edge will have a 5.5-inch curved display. Both Super AMOLED screens will come out with the same resolution of Quad HD 2560 x 1440 pixels. An interesting innovation will be the display support of the innovative energy-saving function AOD (Always-on Display), which ensures that the screen consumes no more than 1% of the battery charge per hour without losing image quality.

    Regarding the non-replaceable battery - the second bottleneck in the S6 version, then, according to VentureBeat, it is likely to remain unchanged, but at the same time the battery capacity of both flagships will increase significantly, amounting to 3000 mAh for the Galaxy S7 and 3600 mAh for the Galaxy S7 Edge accordingly. Recall that for predecessors, this figure was 2550 mAh and 2600 mAh, respectively. The time required for wireless charging (supported, as in current versions), respectively, 2 and 2.2 hours for S7 and S7 Edge.

    Both phones will be equipped with a new octa-core Exynos 8 Octa 8890 processor with a frequency of 2.3 GHz, manufactured using FinFET 14-nanometer technology - the first Samsung processor for mobile devices with proprietary computing cores.

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    Exynos 8 Octa 8890 is built on ARMv8 architecture with support for 64-bit instructions and has a big.LITTLE configuration: Samsung cores are combined into a powerful “big” block, while the “LITTLE” module contains a quartet of Cortex-A53 cores.

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    The Heterogeneous Multi-Processing technology implemented in the chip allows the simultaneous use of all eight cores. According to the manufacturer, in comparison with the Exynos 7 Octa 7420 processor, a 30 percent increase in productivity and a 10 percent increase in energy efficiency are achieved. The graphic part is based on the integrated ARM Mali-T880 controller, an accelerator that is 80% faster than the Mali-T760 and can save up to 40% energy, respectively.

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    Another interesting feature of the Exynos 8 Octa 8890 processor is the presence of the built-in LTE Rel.12 modem, which provides data download speeds of up to 600 Mbps and data transfer speeds of up to 150 Mbps.

    However, as VentureBeat notes, given that Samsung often uses different processors to ship to different regions of the planet, and based on the report from Qualcomm’s management, there is a high probability that the S7 and S7 Edge models will ship with North America Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor.

    Both versions of the S7 will receive 4GB of RAM and, depending on the configuration, will be equipped with 32 GB or 64 GB of ROM. Representatives of Samsung have not yet given an unambiguous answer about the preparation of a configuration option with 128 GB of ROM. In addition, both flagships will come out dustproof and waterproof and will receive IP67 certification.

    A somewhat unexpectedly perceived message is that the company intends to cut the number of megapixels of the main CMOS camera from 16 (in S6) to 12. But, as representatives of Samsung explained in an interview, the new models will have a more advanced module with optics f / 1.7 (instead of f / 1.9 in S6), which will significantly improve the quality of shooting in low light conditions. The front-facing Selfie camera will retain its previous values ​​on both versions.

    According to the VentureBeat report, following the annual tradition, Samsung intends to present the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge innovations on the eve of the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​and begin global sales in March, giving their fans a choice of three colors: black, white and gold . The cost of new products has not yet been advertised.

    Source: VentureBeat.com


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