Samsung debuts its first VR camera, the Gear 360

“The Samsung Galaxy S7 has a 5.1″ Quad HD Super AMOLED 2560 X 1440 (577ppi) display while the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge boasts a 5.5” Quad HD Super AMOLED 2560 X 1440 (534ppi) Edge Screen.

Facebook is setting up a dedicated social virtual reality team, and has announced plans to launch its 360-degree video streaming technology on Samsung Gear VR headsets.

The 5.1in screen on the new Edge also has an expanded side menu, meaning two rows of apps can now be shown, and third party apps can now use the space to show images and news stories, Samsung said.

At the event, Gadgets 360 was informed by a Samsung executive that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820-based Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will be limited only to US, China, and Japan, while variants powered by the home-grown Exynos 8890 SoC will be available in rest of the markets including India.

South Korea’s handset maker LG on Sunday unveiled its first modular smartphone, the G5, in Barcelona in a bid to counter competition from its major rival Samsung. The Gear 360 has a removable 1350mAh battery and sports 1GB of RAM with a micro SD card support for 128GB. With IP68 certified, Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, you can immerse the phones up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. The new flagship Galaxy smartphones will be available in 32GB and 64GB internal storage options.

“These new devices combined with the Samsung VR bundle and a year of Netflix on us are a win for consumers who want the hottest new Samsung superphone”, said T-Mobile president and CEO John Legere. As for its bigger sibling, the Galaxy S7 Edge, it will cost users $26.50/month.

The Samsung Gear 360 camera will also launch in Australia later this year.

The new dual pixel camera in the Galaxy S7 is a first in smartphones.

No price and availability dates were announced.

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge will go on sale in the Ireland on 11 March and customers can pre order them from tomorrow. The company has also not opted for the USB Type-C port and is going ahead with the micro USB port. The reason is the traditional microUSB is compatible with its Gear VR headset and the USB C isn’t quite ready to go mainstream.