This weekend during the Mobile World Congress event, held in scenic Barcelona, Spain, Samsung shocked many with its next great leap in mobile technology: the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
The company has a long history of creating mobile gaming friendly phones, but what makes the S7/Edge S7 so special is that Samsung designed these phones specifically with gaming as the driving factor.
To accommodate the amount of processing that it takes for phones to play heavy duty, AAA games, Samsung designers went out of their way to outfit the S7 series with a water cooling system (the likes of which are similar to those used in large desktop computers).
Samsung also developed “No Alerts,” a feature meant to ensure that Back and Recent buttons will not impede on users gameplay experience while in game. Users will also be able to record gaming sessions and take screenshots while in play. These, plus the added support for Vulkan API, are a part of Samsung’s gungho attempts to get the S7 in on the “Let’s Play” movement.
The phones are also water and dust resistant!
Specs for the phone include:
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow software
- 5.1-inch screen
- 2,560×1,440-pixel resolution
- 32 OR 64GB of built in storage
- MicroSD card slot for storage (200GB)
- 12-megapixel camera
- 3,000 mAh battery
The phones will be available in black onyx, or gold platinum (sorry, no rose gold!).
To cap off the weekend, Epic Games launched an awesome new trailer to display what will become of the future of mobile games–and it looks amazing. The trailer was made using Unreal Engine 4, and is an accurate representation of how Samsung will similarly utilize the Vulkan API for graphics such as these.
When asked for a statment, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has this to say:
The new industry-standard Vulkan API brings key elements of high-end console graphics technology to mobile devices, and Samsung is leading the way with the amazing new Galaxy S7. As the first engine supporting Vulkan, Unreal Engine 4 provides a solid foundation for developers joining in the mobile graphics revolution.
The phone is currently available for preorder, and will ship starting March 11th.
However, the future of mobile gaming comes at a hefty price:
The Galaxy S7 is priced at $699.99.
The Galaxy S7 Edge will be offered at $799.99.
To soften the sucker punch to your bank account, Samsung is attempting to entice would-be consumers with an interesting offer: pre order a phone, and Samsung will throw in a Gear VR headset for free.
Will you be purchasing one of these bad boys?