Two variants of the unannounced Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship have reportedly been the subject of tests performed by U.S. Carrier AT&T. This information is courtesy of Evan Blass, owner of the "@evleaks" handle on Twitter, a renowned source of mostly reliable leaks on mobile devices.
Blass claims that the telecom company has started testing Samsung handsets with model numbers SM-G930A and SM-G935A which might turn out to be the regular Galaxy S7 and the curved Galaxy S7 Edge variants. He said that these tests add weight to the rumors that the said smartphone will receive an early 2016 launch.
When the South Korean tech giant released its current flagships, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, it diverged from its usual plastic design and opted for a more premium metal and glass build. The device maker will likely pursue this design principle for the next iteration of its flagship lineup with the addition of a rumored magnesium build for added durability.
For the upcoming model's specifications, earlier reports suggested that it will sport 3D Touch features along with a new USB Type-C port. Galaxy S7 units are said to come in two versions based on the types of processor powering them. One will be equipped with Samsung's in-house Exynos 8890 system-on-chip (SoC) and the other will be powered by the new Snapdragon 820 chipset made by Qualcomm.
The Exynos version will be comprised of the South Korean company's Mongoose M1 cores partnered with four Cortex design from ARM, as well as a 14-core GPU (graphics processing unit). Meanwhile, the Snapdragon version will likely be supported by an Adreno 530 GPU.
Aside from the regular and Edge models, a source from China also indicated that a third "Premium" model is also in the works. It will reportedly feature a crisp 4K display, a dual-lens camera module made by Sony, and will be run by the aforementioned Exynos 8890 chipset. Furthermore, another "foldable" S7 variant codenamed Project Valley is also rumored to come along with these models in 2016.
These reports all point to a possible February 21 release next year. Samsung has a history of unveiling its new flagships during its Unpacked event which it usually set one day before the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC). The MWC 2016 will take place in Barcelona, Spain on February 22. If Samsung sticks to its recent trend, then the Galaxy S7 will probably unveiled several days earlier than expected.
