Which of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Rumours Should We Believe?

There are a few whispers on the breeze that seem questionable. A recent leak from a Russian source claimed that the S7 would have 17 hours of video playback at full brightness. Although that kind of battery life isn't impossible, it does seem far too good to be true.

It's nearly upon us. Next in line for the Samsung throne is the newest incarnation of the hugely popular Galaxy S series, and its unveiling will take place at the 2016 Mobile World Congress on Sunday 21 February.

As is traditional with releases of this kind, rumours abound. It seems that Samsung has done a pretty good job of drumming up excitement without giving too much away. There are few reports amid the speculation that anyone has managed to confirm.

We've done our best to sort the fact from the fiction so phone fans everywhere know what to expect.

The Galaxy S7 will come alongside the S7 Edge (but no Edge+ - Samsung are apparently planning push the giant Galaxy Note 6 as their flagship phablet instead) in a semi-sophisticated set of gold, silver, white and black.

Rose Gold enthusiasts will be saddened to see the suavest of hues gone from the Galaxy spectrum, particularly given last year's S6 came in green and blue - 'Topaz Blue' to true devotees.

Samsung has also confirmed the simultaneous release of its Gear 360 Virtual Reality camera, which will sync with compatible smartphones via Bluetooth. Its fish eye lenses allow users to capture 360-degree photographs.

There are a few whispers on the breeze that seem questionable. A recent leak from a Russian source claimed that the S7 would have 17 hours of video playback at full brightness. Although that kind of battery life isn't impossible, it does seem far too good to be true.

The phone's processor remains cloaked in mystery, too. It's a toss up between Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 (which is news in itself, given the Snapdragon 810's overheating issues caused friction with Samsung last year) and Samsung's own Exyonos 8890 12MP Britecell, which showed up on slides leaked from an internal presentation.

Rumours that the Qualcomm chip performed better in test devices suggest the Exyonos might be a preferable option, giving Samsung the chance to adapt their product for the S7 specifically.

But one thing we can be sure of is an exciting new camera with an f/1.7 lens aperture and top-of-the-range low light photography - the holy grail of smartphone manufacture. The megapixel downgrade from 16 to 12 might seem odd, but both the iPhone 6 and 6s cameras use 12 megapixels, and they certainly seem to go down well.

Fingers crossed that they'll throw in super fast USB Type-C charging, a replication of Apple's 3D Touch and Samsung Pay, all of which are looking increasingly likely.

Unless Samsung has a spectacular secret up its sleeve, rumours thus far don't suggest Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will be iPhone killers. If they're anything like the S6 models, though, they'll present a credible alternative to the newest iPhones, and will finally allow us to take photographs in the flattering glow of fading light. #NoFilter.

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