It’s still early days, but the Samsung Galaxy S7 rumour mill has already started turning.
Samsung’s next flagship smartphone is already being tested under the codename “jungfrau”, according to a new report.
Oddly, that’s the German word for “virgin”. Yeah, we’ve got no idea either.
Nevertheless, it’s leaked out courtesy of a post on Chinese social media site Weibo (via GForGames) that contains purported internal Samsung documents.
These documents specifically mention a “Hero” device on a document that relates to Samsung’s Android M upgrade program.
Android M is Google’s next major mobile operating system upgrade, and is due to arrive this autumn, well ahead of a prospective S7 launch.
One of the “leaked” documents
The document also makes reference to an “MSM8996”, which has already been widely rumoured to be the model number for Qualcomm’s upcoming top-end Snapdragon 820 chip.
The 820 hasn’t been officially unveiled yet, but rumours suggest Qualcomm has opted for a quad-core architecture using custom-built “Hydra” processor cores.
The fact that these documents point to a device using the Snapdragon 820 lends credence to the theory that this is the Galaxy S7, because only a high-end handset would use that sort of chip.
It should be noted, however, that we have no way of verifying any of these documents.
It’s also very early for Galaxy S7 details to be leaking out, so we’d take this report with a pinch of salt.
Also, don’t forget that Samsung eschewed Qualcomm chips for its own in-house Exynos series processors on this year’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. We’re not sure how likely Samsung is to return to Qualcomm wares.
Related: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 release date
Interestingly, this isn’t the first Samsung Galaxy S7 rumour we’ve seen.
Over the weekend, a report emerged that suggested the Galaxy S7 development process could be finished one to two months early.
That’s purportedly thanks to a new modular approach to smartphone development, codenamed “Agile”.
Apparently, it could mean the Galaxy S7 may be ready as soon as December this year, well ahead of the previously expected Q2 2016 release window.
Let us know what you’d like to see from Samsung’s next flagship smartphone in the comments.
Check out our smartphone group test video below:
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.