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Samsung event at Mobile World Congress

The South Korean giant will show off its newest smartphone, the Galaxy S7, and may even talk about its big push in virtual reality.

  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:27:27 PM
    Sharp-eyed specs-watchers will notice that the S6's 16-megapixel camera drop down to 12-megapixels. Photographers like CNET photo guru Josh Goldman explains that letting in more light (through larger pixels) improves the image in all lighting condition, and Samsung is especially going after making low light gains (as are its rivals). Read more in my hands-on:
     
     

    New Galaxy S7 brings back the good stuff (hands-on)

    CNETThe 5.1-inch Android phone may seem like a rerun of last year's model, but has all the makings of a brawnier, more capable phone.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:27:37 PM
    Samsung also has tech in the phone's camera that means it's constantly focused
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:27:58 PM
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:28:16 PM
    Here's a new shooting mode called "Motion Panoramic."
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:28:41 PM
    The lightning-fast auto-focus Samsung is describing for its camera really is quite fast. I tried it out in my demo.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:28:41 PM
    It's basically shooting a video in panoramic mode
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:29:24 PM
    "You're getting what's easily the best smartphone camera on the market," Denison says
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:29:38 PM
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:29:41 PM
    Every year, Samsung trots out some new photo modes we're told that "redefine the camera experience", and every year I'm like, "meh." The scenarios are usually outliers, and you have to plan to go into these modes. They typically don't just happen.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:29:43 PM
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:29:50 PM
    We're now talking about the hardware. Guess who made a comeback in the Galaxy S7? Qualcomm.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:29:52 PM
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:29:57 PM
    I also got to demo the new auto-focus. It just happens instantly. No delay. Really impressive stuff.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:30:24 PM
    The San Diego chipmaker was cut out of the Galaxy S6, which hurt its business. But in some regions, Qualcomm's chip will be back. That includes the US. The rest will get a homemade Samsung chip.
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:30:30 PM
    The vast majority of people use automatic mode for everything, then toggle on-screen tools for things like flash. That's why auto-HDR (which already exists on most phones) is a really good tweak.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:30:41 PM
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:30:45 PM
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:31:17 PM
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:31:29 PM
    Samsung's cooling system for the phone touches on the fact that these devices tend to heat up.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:31:47 PM
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:31:52 PM
    Giving a phone liquid cooling is pretty awesome. Means it can push harder in high performance apps.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:32:01 PM
    Samsung put in bigger batteries. Denison said you can binge watch a whole season of "Game of Thrones" on a single charge
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:32:31 PM
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:32:55 PM
    The GS7 has a 3,000 mAh versus 2,550 on the GS6. And GS7 Edge is 3,600 mAh versus 2,600 on the GS6 Edge.
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:32:56 PM
    I've written up a piece specifically looking at the Galaxy S7's gaming credentials. A lot of features to take mobile games seriously.
    www.cnet.com
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:33:17 PM
    Gotta say a lot of the talk about gaming goes right over my head.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:33:20 PM
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:33:24 PM
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:33:26 PM
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:33:45 PM
    Very smart features for gaming -- locking keys and stopping alerts so nothing pushes you out of a game.
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:34:01 PM
    Let's jump back to the battery for a minute. I just want to point out two things. First, S7 battery is 3,000mAh. iPhone 6S is 1,715mAh. Second, battery capacity is just a raw number -- the phones have to draw power efficiently too, which is a software consideration as well as hardware.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:34:04 PM
    Denison is queueing up our next speaker - Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:34:21 PM
    New Vulkan API support won't mean much at first, but will see desktop games arriving on these phones very soon.
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:34:46 PM
    Epic Games running a demo live. And it looks utterly ridiculous. In a good way.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:34:57 PM
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:34:57 PM
    The simulation looks pretty slick from here. It'd be even better in VR :)
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:35:15 PM
    Exactly, Jess. I wonder if we'll be putting those headsets back on.
  • seamus.byrne 2/21/2016 6:35:35 PM
    Vulkan API means games can take advantage of multi-core processing better than ever before, which is a big boost compared to other game developer tools.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:35:48 PM
    "Samsung and Epic Games are committed to working together long term to advance the state of mobile gaming," Sweeney says.
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:35:51 PM
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:36:11 PM
    Denison is back up
  • Sarah Tew 2/21/2016 6:36:15 PM
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:36:30 PM
    "We're really excited about the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, and we think you will be too," he says.
  • Shara Tibken 2/21/2016 6:36:40 PM
    Availability time -
  • Jessica Dolcourt 2/21/2016 6:36:41 PM
    These presenters are killing me with their terrible puns. The air conditioning for phones is "cool," the Epic Games partnership will open up a "galaxy" of possibilities. *Groan*
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