Samsung is gearing up to launch its Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ on August 13. However, the company has already been working on the next year’s flagship smartphone Galaxy S7. Samsung’s profits are sliding and it is losing its market share. The company badly needs a revolutionary device that would set it apart from the crowd. And the Galaxy S7 could be that device.
How the Holographic display works
Patently Mobile has spotted a patent application filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) by Samsung. The patent, filed in the second-half of 2014, details a holographic display that can project 3D objects in mid-air. The patent describes a smartphone that can display images above the screen.
If incorporated in the Galaxy S7, the technology could revolutionize the smartphone industry. Going by Samsung’s historical release cycle, the S7 may not arrive until March 2016. The holographic display has long been a dream of technology giants and consumers. But the technology is far more complex than it appears.
The objects projected above the screen, as described in the patent filing, are just pre-defined icons. Users will be able to select icons by touch, and the 3D projector may use the smartphone’s camera to detect interactions. Samsung uses a special case with a translucent panel to create 3D images. However, achieving the same thing with movies or photos will be a difficult task.
Galaxy S7 may run Snapdragon 820
It is just a patent, so it is too early to say if the technology will eventually make it into the Galaxy S7. Separately, a leaked internal document posted on Chinese microblogging site Weibo revealed that Samsung is testing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor for the Galaxy S7. It has sparked speculations that the Korean company might finally opt for Qualcomm’s chips after using its own Exynos 7420 chipset in the Galaxy S6.
The Galaxy S7 is internally code-named “Jungfrau.” The leaked internal document showed that the Korean company was adding support for Jungfrau and MSM8996 to its Android M software development plan. MSM8996 is the model number for Snapdragon 820 processor that is based on 14nm FinFET technology and offers 35% better performance than Snapdragon 810.
