What Is The Best New Smartphone On The Market?

Well, the new Samsung flagship phone is here. The press event in Barcelona, Spain was filled with impressive specs and surprise appearances that had guests clapping from their seats. The show started with a virtual reality video that audience members got to watch, compliments of the Gear VR headsets in their seats. President of Samsung's Mobile Division, DJ Koh, wasted no time in showing the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge. Crowd members could see the sleek device, with it's smaller and thinner design and 5.1 inch and 5.5 inch screens.

The curved edge makes the Galaxy S7 easier to hold and features the task edge where you can create your own shortcuts for actions you use most when you only have time for one swipe. Source: Samsung

The curved display makes it easier to hold and Senior VP of Product Strategy, Justin Denison, showed just how easily users could get quick access to edge panels with just a swipe of a thumb. The Galaxy S7 is also water resistant and can withstand being submerged in one and a half meters of water for up to 30 minutes. Another nice surprise? Samsung found a way to integrate a microSD card slot without sacrificing battery power. The Galaxy S7 Edge sports 3,600mAH while the S7 has 3,000mAH. The Galaxy S7 beats the battery power of the just announced LG G5, though both flagship phones are featuring the Always-On display. Samsung's discussion of the ability to see the date and time while saving face in a meeting was old news after LG's event earlier in the day.

Another nice surprise? Samsung found a way to integrate a microSD card slot without sacrificing battery power.

But, perhaps the most impressive feature of the Galaxy S7 is the camera design. There was a direct comparison made between the abilities of the new Samsung flagship versus the iPhone 6s Plus. There was a marked difference between the images that were shown side by side on the big screen. Samsung's new Dual Pixel feature uses 100% of pixels to focus. It essentially works like our eyes and it does create higher quality pictures in low-light settings. It has a brighter lens with F1.7 aperture and the 12 mega pixel camera has higher pixel density and lets in more light to create better photos. The phase detection autofocus was demonstrated and proved that the Samsung Galaxy S7 is faster at capturing sharper images. 

There were quite a few minutes that were dedicated to the gaming community since the Galaxy S7 is boasting Vulkan API. The phone is built for intuitive gaming, with a game launcher and game tools. Gamers even have the ability to block out calls and texts while they're playing or make sure that their keys lock so that they don't kick themselves out of the game they are playing. It's adapted for social too, letting gamers record and show the games that they're playing to friends online. With such a big focus on gaming, we knew that Samsung had more up its sleeve. And that's when Mark Zuckerberg took the stage. 

The Galaxy S7 is built for gaming with the new Vulkan API. Source: Samsung

Yep, Zuck himself surprised audience members when he stepped up to talk about the partnership between Facebook and Samsung to bring the next generation of virtual reality to more users. The Facebook founder boasted that "over 1 million hours of video have been watching using Gear VR." The companies will continue to work together to bring what people are calling the "next big thing" to more people at an affordable price. The S7 and the S7 Edge should be available March 11th in black onyx, white pearl, gold platinum and silver. Pre-orders start February 23rd and Samsung has promised a free Gear VR headset with this purchase in select countries. Samsung left the stage today with one thing clear: they're leading the market in more ways than one.