Samsung pleased smartphone fans when it brought back the microSD expansion slot in the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. A Samsung executive has explained why it was removed from last year's Galaxy S6 and S6 edge and how it was brought back.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will be officially released worldwide on March 11 but some lucky T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T customers have already reported receiving their devices early. Reports are claiming the pair have shattered preorder records and one of the main reasons why can be attributed to the return of microSD expansion.
When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge last year, the company was widely criticized for removing two popular features that had been included in previous flagship Galaxy S smartphones; a user replaceable battery and microSD expansion slot.
It was presumed that the features were removed due to the new metal and glass design of the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge.
Now, Samsung's head of technology, content, and launch management, Kyle Brown has revealed why the company removed microSD expansion in the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge and how it made its way back to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge.
"At the time we launched the S6, we upgraded all the performance within the device. We upgraded to UFS 2.0, we upgraded to DDR4 RAM... we believed that having a memory card slot would slow down the performance of the device," said Brown.
The move to use UFS 2.0 memory allowed the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge to perform up to almost three times faster than smartphones using eMMC 5.0 chips. In essence, Samsung is claiming it removed microSD expansion because of the new technology used in the S6 and S6 edge, and not because of the metal and glass case.
Since the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are evolutions of the S6 and S6 edge, Samsung was able to focus on how to bring back microSD expansion, in addition to adding an IP68 water resistant case.
"A lot of people were very disappointed we didn't have a [memory card] slot in the S6, and [its return] has been one of the most positive reactions to the S7. We're really proud of what managed to achieve, adding a microSD slot and water resistive IP68 rating. It's a really massive achievement for engineers," explained Brown.
