Galaxy S7 Active Confirmed Via Samsung Level Audio App

As you can tell by Dave’s review of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has hit it out of the park with its 2016 smartphone flagships. For those that were disappointed by deprecated features on last year’s Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung delivered in spades this go around with improved performance, a better camera, a microSD slot and waterproofing.

And now, thanks to a leak committed by Samsung itself, we know that a third variant of the Galaxy S7 is on the way: the Galaxy S7 Active. Reference to the smartphone appeared in the description for the Samsung Level audio app on Google Play.

Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge submerged in water.

The big question that remains though is how Samsung will differentiate the Galaxy S7 Active from its lesser siblings. The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge already include IP68 certification which makes them both dust tight and sealed to protect against complete, continuous submersion in water (at a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes). Late last week, serial leaker Evan Blass revealed that SM-G891A, codenamed Poseidon, is now testing on AT&T’s wireless network. Given that Poseidon is the Greek “God of the Sea”, it’s highly possible that the Galaxy S7 Active will be further fortified to protect against water intrusion at greater depths.

That SM-G891A in testing at AT&T is known as the Samsung Poseidon.

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 25, 2016

We can also expect for the Galaxy S7 Active to carry a larger battery (the Galaxy S6 Active featured a 3,500 mAh battery compared to 2,600 mAh for the standard mode) and a rugged housing to protect against drops (the Galaxy S6 Active is MIL-STD-810G rated for shock resistance). And it wouldn’t be out of character to see physical buttons for the App Launcher, Home and Back.

Of course, this is all speculation at this point. But given that Samsung has made such a highly visible slip-up on announcing the smartphone’s existence — and hasn’t yet corrected the “mistake” — we have the feeling that it won’t belong before we see an official announcement.