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Samsung Galaxy S7: what we know so far

A woman looks at Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note5 at the company's showroom in Seoul on January 28, 2016. Slowing global demand for smartphones as well as memory chips dealt a blow to Samsung Electronics as it reported a 40 percent on-year drop in fourth-quarter net profit.  AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE / AFP / JUNG YEON-JE        (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

A woman looks at Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note5 at the company's showroom in Seoul on January 28, 2016. Slowing global demand for smartphones as well as memory chips dealt a blow to Samsung Electronics as it reported a 40 percent on-year drop in fourth-quarter net profit. AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE / AFP / JUNG YEON-JE (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

Samsung is poised to announce the next upgrade to its successful Galaxy line of smartphones within a matter of weeks.

The new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge handsets – as well as a variety of other, smaller handsets – will be revealed at the company’s UNPACKED event on February 21 (GMT), in Barcelona.

Along with small upgrades to components and design, we will also see the return of a few features missing from the previous Galaxy smartphones.

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Even though Samsung has dominated the global smartphone market for roughly three years, the company’s Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge+ failed to save the manufacturer losing 3 per cent of its global market share in the final quarter of 2015.

A woman looks at Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note5 at the company's showroom in Seoul on January 28, 2016. Slowing global demand for smartphones as well as memory chips dealt a blow to Samsung Electronics as it reported a 40 percent on-year drop in fourth-quarter net profit. AFP PHOTO / JUNG YEON-JE / AFP / JUNG YEON-JE (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

The countdown to the big launch has begun. Photo: Getty

There can be no doubt the company will be looking to the Galaxy S7 to plug this leak and stabilise sales.

As we get closer to the announcement, product information leaks have been rife – some surprising, some predictable.

Samsung even confirmed the existence of the Galaxy S7 Edge after its name was made public on a Samsung developer website. The details have since been removed, but not before being screen-captured and shotgunned across the internet.

In addition to this almost bulletproof piece of information, here are the strongest rumours telling us what to expect from Samsung’s next Galaxy smartphone.

Memory expansion

One of the biggest bones of contention with the Galaxy S6 for many Galaxy users was the removal of the smartphone’s memory expansion slot, which could be used to expand the handset’s memory by simply inserting a microSD memory card.

Samsung obviously heard these grumbles, because the new Galaxy handsets are rumoured to feature the return of the SD memory card slot, with expansion support up to 2Tb.

Cue high-fiving and fist pumping.

Two-day battery life

Thanks to increased battery size, the handset may yield a full two days of usage from a single charge, according to tests carried out by Russian blogger, Eldar Murtazin, who has more than a decade’s track record of mostly accurate smartphone predictions.

A Samsung Galaxy S6 edge smartphone is on display at the booth of South Korean electronics giant Samsung ahead of the opening of the 55th IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung) electronics trade fair in Berlin on September 3, 2015. IFA, Europe's largest consumer electronics and home appliances fair opens from September 4 to September 9, 2015. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL (Photo credit should read JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Many Samsung fans were unhappy with the non-removable battery of the S6 model. Photo: Getty

If true, this ability will also please those disgruntled with the Galaxy S6’s non-removable battery.

An attractive feature of previous Galaxy models was the ability to easily swap out a flat battery for a charged one. Two days of power will go a long way to encourage old users to upgrade.

As well, the S7’s rumoured shift to a USB-C connector would give the handset superior fast-charging capability, juicing up a full day’s charge in 30 minutes.

Pressure sensing screen

While the handset’s display will be a glorious 2K Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen, the most exciting rumour to date is the addition of pressure-sensitive display technology.

In a Wall Street Journal article from December 2015, the newspaper reports the Galaxy S7 will respond to varying degrees of touch, functioning in much the same way as Apple’s new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.

It is expected that the handset size will remain the same.

Retina scanner

Extreme close up of laser scanning hazel eye

Retina scans sound cool, but could become an inconvenience. Photo: Getty

Prepare to play out all your spy fantasies. One of the most fanciful rumours is the inclusion of a new retina scanner, which will scan a user’s eye for authentication purposes.

Though innovative, the practicality of this feature is debatable. Imagine swinging your phone up to your eye socket every time you authorise a Samsung Pay payment (arriving this year in Australia), or to unlock your smartphone.

Improved camera

No smartphone upgrade is complete without the addition of an improved camera. The new Galaxy S7’s 12-megapixel back camera will feature improved low-light functionality, which should offer an overall improvement in picture quality.

Yes, we know what you’re thinking. The Galaxy S6 sports a 16-megepixel camera, so why the downgrade? The S7 will use Samsung’s own Britecell camera sensor – unveiled late 2015 – improved low-light technology that features an aperture of f1.7 (the S6 aperture is f1.9).

With advanced sensor technology and imaging software, it is highly possible Samsung has achieved an improvement in image quality despite a drop in pixel count.

Along with these upgraded and new features, users can also expect improved weatherproofing (water and dust), improved graphics processing and memory (4Gig RAM), along with more energy-efficient software performance.

Stay tuned to The New Daily for all the details on the official Samsung Galaxy S7 announcement.

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