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Report: Galaxy S7 to launch alongside Samsung phone upgrade/rental program

According to a report from ETNews in Korea, Samsung is planning to launch a new purchase scheme similar to Apple’s iPhone upgrade program when it releases the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge this Spring. A rumor from months ago suggested Samsung was planning the move, but wasn’t clear when the company was thinking of launching it.

Although the report doesn’t specify exact prices or details of the upgrade scheme, it does say the consumers will be able to pay a monthly rental fee and hand the phone back in after 12 months, swapping it out for the next model…

It’s suggested that customers will sign a 24 month agreement, pay installments for 12 months, return the used phone and receive a new phone. Like Apple’s iPhone upgrade plan, the idea is to give customers more flexible purchase options, let them get a new phone upgrade every year and — of course — keep them as customers for longer.

It’s claimed that Samsung will launch the upgrade program in March, which is when the company is rumored to be releasing the Galaxy S7. The upgrade plan is expected to launch first in Korea, with a subsequent rollout in the US and abroad.

Samsung is expected to announce the next generation of Galaxy flagships at an event some time next month. It’s been assumed for some time that the Korean tech giant will once again use MWC as its platform to unveil the Galaxy S7, although it could perceivably choose to hold its own separate event at a different time.

Following a string of rumors, we’re fairly confident Samsung will launch a regular version of the S7 alongside the dual-curved ‘Edge’ alternative. As if to confirm those recent rumors, Evan Blass hinted on Twitter this morning that there would only be two versions launched: Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. There’s no mention of a ‘Plus’ model, although it has been speculated previously that the Edge version will have a larger screen than the regular S7.

It’s expected that Samsung will launch both Exynos 8890 and Snapdragon 820-powered models. Both of which have supposedly been benchmarked. A benchmark on Geekbench leaked this morning suggests the AT&T version with the SD820 processor will be incredibly quick. It scored a single-core score of almost 2,300 and a multi-core score of close-to 5,000. Putting that in to perspective, the Samsung-made Exynos 8890 with twice the number of cores seemingly scored lower on the single-core benchmark, but 1000 points higher on the multi-core score. There’s nothing that comes close to those scores currently on the market.

If these benchmarks are genuine, it’ll be interesting to see how real-life performance compares between the US and China-bound Snapdragon-equipped models and the Exynos-powered versions launching internationally.

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