Samsung impresses at Mobile World Congress

This past week, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) convened for the eighth year in a row, meeting in Barcelona, Spain. This annual event is the largest mobile phone exhibition, where electronic companies including Samsung, LG and HTC showcase their soon-to-be-released smartphones. One big name is missing from this list every year — Apple is noticeably absent from this event because the company hosts its own reveal events.

Samsung Electronics, the company with the biggest market share of Android phones, did not disappoint critics at this year’s MWC. Samsung revealed its new flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S7, with a 5.1-inch screen, alongside the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, with a 5.5-inch screen, using a virtual reality presentation.

The Galaxy S7 is similar to the Galaxy S6, but Samsung decided to bring back two features users wanted from the S5 that were not in the S6 — water resistance and the microSD card slot for additional memory. Despite these updates, they stuck with the non-removable battery that many critics had complained about.

Otherwise, the most noticeable changes to the Galaxy S7 were to the camera, whose megapixel count was reduced from 16 to 12. Samsung says that this was an attempt to improve camera performance in low-light environments. The front-facing camera kept the same five-megapixel resolution as the S6.

The Galaxy S7 Edge features the introduction of water resistance and a microSD card slot to the Edge line, which started last year with the S6 Edge. Like the S6 Edge, the S7 Edge has the same screen that bends around the sides of the phone, keeping favorite apps or contacts easily accessible. Both Samsung phones will be available on March 11.

LG Electronics drew favorable reviews with its new flagship phone, the LG G5, which has a 5.3-inch screen. The biggest new feature of this phone includes a design that lets users attach various accessories to the phones. The G5 also has two rear cameras, a feature that is unique to this model, and, unlike the more recent Samsung Galaxies, the battery in the G5 is removable. The G5 is expected to be released in early April, although no official date has been set.

Apart from Samsung and LG, the other major electronic companies’ smartphones failed to impress reviewers. HTC recently released the 5.5-inch HTC One X9 in January, so most of the excitement surrounding this product had already gone away. Sony introduced two phones, the Sony Xperia X and the Xperix X Performance. Both of these phones’ major selling point was their 23-megapixel camera. The main difference comes in the processor — the Xperia X uses a Snapdragon 650, with a CPU that operates up to 1.8 GHz, while the Performance uses a Snapdragon 820, which has a CPU that can run as high as 2.2 GHz. However, this phone is still months away from release, as it is scheduled for release in the summer of this year.

The other piece of technology that stole the spotlight was the use of virtual reality. Samsung’s entire presentation of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge took place through a virtual reality headset. Recently, virtual reality has been one of the biggest developments in gaming and image-viewing technology. However, the user is very limited in what he or she can see; Most of the virtual reality devices that are in development can only view one side.

Samsung is looking to capitalize and expand on this market by introducing the Samsung Gear 360. The Gear 360, a ball-like structure, is able to capture spherical images with its design, which consists of two lenses on each side of the phone. Each lens covers a view of 195 degrees, so by combining the image from each side together, Gear 360 can capture a full 360-degree image.

Overall, many considered Samsung to be the dominant player during the MWC, impressing critics with their two new phones and a piece of virtual reality technology that has elevated the standard for competing electronic companies.