Samsung traditionally rolls out its latest Galaxy S handset every April, but next year’s Galaxy S7 could arrive a lot sooner, according to a new report. The device is expected to offer support for the latest LTE standard, and Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon 820 processor.

A report out of Samsung’s home country of South Korea, quoting sources inside the company, claims the Galaxy S7 will arrive in February, two months earlier than expected.

It’s unclear why Samsung has decided to bring the launch forward, but it could be related to its decision to launch the Galaxy Note 5 earlier. The flagship phablet was announced in August as opposed to October — when Note devices are traditionally unveiled — in an effort to beat Apple’s latest iPhone to market.

The same report claims the Galaxy S7 will boast LTE Cat.12 connectivity, which boasts download speeds of up to 600 Mb/s, and upload speeds of up to 100 Mb/s. Of course, users won’t see these speeds unless their carrier is delivering them, but the Galaxy S7 will at least be capable, apparently.

Other rumors have suggested there will be two different variants of the device — one of which will be powered by Samsung’s next-generation Exynos 8890 chip, and another powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 820, which will reportedly be manufactured in Samsung factories.

Another report has claimed the Galaxy S7 will adopt the Xperia Z5’s camera, which is one of the few that beats out the Galaxy S6 in professional camera tests carried out by DxOMark.

• SourceDigital Times
• ViaPhoneArena