According to reports from Asia, Samsung has some interesting ideas under development for the Galaxy S7. Reports from Samsung’s native continent suggest that the corporation is currently toying with the idea of equipping the next generation Galaxy S7 smartphone with a heat pipe. This would serve the purpose of ensuring that the flagship handset does not overheat significantly.
Qualcomm issues abound
There are still debates regarding what chipset Samsung will include in the Galaxy S7, but it is increasingly suggested that Qualcomm will play a significant role in the handset. The Snapdragon series manufactured by Qualcomm had previously been abandoned by Samsung in favour of its own Exynos technology, but it now seems that the Korean company is ready to welcome Qualcomm back into the fold.
This will mean that the forthcoming Snapdragon 820 chipset could be included in the Galaxy S7. The decision to consider the reported heat pipe is very much influenced by the inclusion of this chipset, with existing rumors suggesting that this particular Snapdragon variant is susceptible to overheating issues.
Qualcomm has already addressed this suggestion, indicating that the Snapdragon 820 is extremely reliable. But there is some scepticism about suggestions that the chipset is as reliable as other comparable technology, and it seems that Samsung is indeed preparing for this eventuality.
So Samsung is reportedly experimenting with a wide variety of heat pipe types and shapes, with the manufacturer said to be debating whether or not this particular solution will be integrated with the Galaxy S7 for the first time. It is notable that the Samsung flagship handset would not be the first smartphone to include such technology, with the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, and the OnePlus 2 all having included similar systems previously.
It is also worth noting that each of these smartphones integrated the technology in order to deal with overheating problems related to the Snapdragon 810. This would support the idea that Samsung will need to work on the technology ahead of the release of the Galaxy S7, and indeed both analysts and critical community have generally been sceptical of the claims of Qualcomm that it has solved Snapdragon overheating issues.
Galaxy S7 Model debate
There are still debates regarding how many versions of the Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone will be released. There have been suggestions in some quarters that the Korean manufacturer may decide to release as many as three models of the Galaxy S7 when it hits the stores next year. However, more recent reports have settled on the idea that there will be two versions of the Samson premium smartphone, and that there will also be an increasing emphasis on the curved screen variant of the smartphone.
Rumors about the heat pipe are nothing new, and in fact originated back in October when of overheating issues related to the Snapdragon 820 first emerged. It was suggested initially that Samsung may work closely with Qualcomm in order to help the corporation find a solution to the heating problems. But it seems now that the Korean corporation has decided upon a heat pipe solution that would enable any heating issues to be completely negated.
Reports from Asia indicate that Samsung is still ruminating over whether or not it will indeed include the heat pipe in the Galaxy S7. It is expected that the Korean corporation will finalize plans for the Galaxy S7 by the end of 2015, with the ultimate release of the device now firmly tipped to take place in February of next year.
Meanwhile, another report also from Samsung in its native Asia suggests that the corporation will be very conservative with the design for the Galaxy S7. The respected newspaper the Korean Times has reported that Samsung will make minimal changes to the Galaxy S7 design when the next generation smartphone is released.
“As the S6 and S6 Edge represented progress, the S7 will have improvements both in picture quality, performance and other some new features. But because smartphones have already been commoditized, you don’t need to spend more on a surface overhaul,” the newspaper reports.
This could be viewed as a slightly risky strategy considering that the Galaxy S6 design was not universally praised when it was released. Certain critics have suggested that even though the Galaxy S7 made significant improvements to the build quality of Samsung’s flagship smartphone series, there were still issues related to the construction of the handset.
Glass back debate
In particular, the glass back of the device was considered impractical and unattractive by many, particularly in terms of its slippery nature. Its inclusion also led to Samsung being forced to kill off its expandable storage and removable battery, and this double-whammy ensured that the glass back is one of the more reviled features including in the Galaxy series.
Some reports have suggested that Samsung would reintroduce micro SD with the Galaxy S7, and this would certainly be welcome considering that the Apple iPhone series now offers superior storage to its great rival. But the suggestions of the Korean Times are that Samsung will not make this significant changes to the Galaxy S7’s make up, and will instead continue to consign consumers to a maximum storage capacity of 64 GB.
In other news, Samsung has also announced the release of the new Galaxy A range. The Galaxy A7, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A3 will replace the Galaxy Mini line, as the Korean company looks to shake up its product range. This series is indicative of the fact that Samsung will probably not update the Galaxy S7 design significantly, as the new Galaxy A devices feature a glass back design with micro SD removed.
This suggests that the rumors from Asia should be heeded, as the Galaxy S7 will probably follow the lead from this Galaxy A announcement.
