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Did you get a Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge for Christmas? If so, you may want to look away now…
China Mobile, the world’s largest telecommunications company (it has over 800M subscribers), appears to have let the cat out of the bag after images leaked from a major internal presentation. Picked up by Slashgear, the slide reveals an accelerated release for the Galaxy S7 (and therefore presumably the Galaxy S7 Edge and huge Galaxy S7 Plus) going on sale in February.
This would represent a significant change from last year where Samsung announced the Galaxy S6 in March and it went on sale in April. It would also mean the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge had just a 10 month lifecycle.
Galaxy S7 concept. Image credit: igalaxys7.com
How credible is this? I’d say very, since it actually fits in with growing rumours that Samsung wants a bigger head start on new iPhone generations.
In fact Samsung has already implemented this approach with the Galaxy Note 5 which launched in August 2015 – just 10 months after the Galaxy Note 4. This gave the phablet a one month head start on the iPhone 6S Plus whereas the Galaxy Note 4 launched a month after the iPhone 6 Plus. Similarly a February launch of the Galaxy S7 would give it a 7 month head start over the expected September release of the radical iPhone 7.
Interestingly Samsung also looks set to be stockpiling for the February 2016 launch with no less than three different Galaxy S7 designs. Whether this inspires customers or creates confusion remains to be seen. Especially if the Galaxy S7 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 6 further complicate things later in the year.
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China Mobile presentation leak reveals Galaxy S7 release. Image credit: Slashgear
Were there any other nuggets of information to be gleaned from the China Mobile leak? Some. Fans of Huawei (which wowed me with the Nexus 6P – my phone of the year) will be pleased to hear the exciting Mate 8 will launch in late December/early January as will the less interesting ZTE Axon Mini.
So if you did find a Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge under your Christmas tree, it might be a good idea to trade it in before prices crash on the arrival of the S7. Of course they remain excellent handsets, but if the S7 does indeed get its most controversial feature these 2015 handsets may start to feel dated rather quickly.
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