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In a VR-fuelled press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that even included a surprised visit from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Samsung finally showed off its new phones (to someone other than a llama).
There were no real surprises in terms of hardware. There’s a 5.1-inch S7 and a 5.5-inch S7 Edge, both of which have Quad HD Super AMOLED displays with a frankly ridiculous 2,560×1,440-pixel resolution. Also heading into ridiculous territory is the price, with the S7 at AU$1,149 and the S7 Edge at AU$1,249.
The new phones look pretty similar to the Galaxy S6, but some of the great features from even earlier generations have made a return. The S7 and S7 Edge are both waterproof and have Micro SD card slots. There’s just one model of each in terms of storage, which will be either 32GB or 64GB “depending on the region.”
Samsung Pay, the company’s mobile payment system, is also going to be available in Australia through the S7 and S7 edge, with the arrival date given as “later in 2016”. American Express is the only currently named partner.
You can see all our detailed hands on with the Samsung Galaxy S7 here and the S7 Edge here.
Samsung has been quick to get Australian launch and pricing details out, which makes sense as it’s not letting the grass grow under its feet with these two phones. Both will be available for pre-order from February 26 and they’re on sale from March 11.
Telstra: There’s a wide range of plans of course, but the 6GB plan gets you unlimited talk and is AU$99 per month for the S7 and AU$105 for the S7 Edge. It’s AU$2,376 over two years for the S7 and AU$2,520 for the Edge.
Virgin Mobile: Because of the cost of the two handsets, the only plans where you won’t pay an additional handset fee is on the top levels of the plans. At the AU$130 a month plan you get the S7 and S7 Edge and a ridiculous 15GB of data month, plus an additional 21GB for the first three months if you switch to Virgin (not including Optus customers, sadly). That’s AU$3,120 for the life of the two-year contract.
If you’re after a more reasonable 6GB of data, that cost you AU$85 and AU$91 per month for the S7 and S7 Edge respectively. There’s a bonus 2GB of data for three months and an additional 6GB if you’re swapping to Virgin, with the same Optus rules as above. All up it’s costing you AU$2,040 or AU$2,184.
Optus: Has a particularly good deal going. On a AU$100 per month plan, the S7 has no additional handset payments, while the Edge has an extra AU$4 per month. Both then get an extra 2GB of data for a solid 12GB per month. That’s AU$2,400 over the contract for S7 and AU$2,496 for the Edge.
Vodafone: You get a pretty decent deal on 6GB of data for the S7: AU$77 a month, which is the AU$70 plan and AU$7 in handset repayments, all for a minimum cost of AU$1,848. It’s not quite as good for the S7 Edge: Still 6GB, but you’re now paying AU$90 a month which makes in AU$2,160 over the 24 months.
Check out all of our coverage from Mobile World Congress 2016 .
Update 3.30 p.m. AEDT: Changed Vodafone’s pricing structure.
