Samsung’s Galaxy S7 is called ‘Project Lucky,’ claims report, with first specs teased
Now that we know all about the iPhone 6s, let's ramp up the S7 rumour engine...
We’re plenty happy with the Samsung Galaxy S6, which continues to dominate our list of the top smartphones in the world months after release. But Samsung’s declining earnings might force a sooner launch for its successor.
That’s what we heard last month, at least, with purportedly leaked documents showing a rapid production cycle on the seventh core Galaxy device – and a planned launch by December. It’s supposedly due to a new “Agile” development methodology that pumps out phones at a more rapid pace; maybe that’s why the Galaxy Note 5 launched earlier than usual this year.
In any case, new details have popped up today on the Galaxy S7 via SamMobile, which notes that a device named “Lucky-LTE” popped up on Geekbench’s benchmark database. The site’s sources say that the Galaxy S7 is indeed called “Project Lucky” internally, given seven’s status as a lucky number and the company’s need for a bounce-back smash hit.
Supposedly, the test phone is packing an Exynos 8890 chip (also known as the M1 Mongoose), which seems like a big step up from the Exynos 7420 powering the current model. Earlier tests showed a nearly 50% improvement in benchmark scores for both single-core and multi-core usage, but the recently tested model was apparently tuned to a lower CPU frequency, and thus delivered less impressive numbers.
SamMobile says that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 could power some international variants instead, so long as the 810’s overheating issues don’t reemerge, and that there’s some hint of Samsung exploring microSD card usage again. However, that seems unlikely, given the success of the closed-off Galaxy S6 design.
Finally, the site hears that a 20-megapixel ISOCELL camera is being tested for the device, along with an "all lens cover" – which it speculates could be a system for mounting additional lenses, but that’s purely a guess.
In any case, Samsung’s recent devices have been its best to date, and we’re excited to see more. Then again, it’s only been five months since the release of the Galaxy S6. Can’t the S7 wait a bit longer?
[Source: SamMobile]
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
