Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay for Android on the Galaxy S7 remains pretty hefty as the custom skin takes up 8GB of internal storage on the 32GB handset, according to Droid Life . The recently announced Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are supposed to have lighter and less cluttered user interfaces; however, Samsung’s system files still take up a quarter of all storage on the devices.
The preinstalled system on the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge is slightly smaller than the interface on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which had 9GB of internal storage dedicated system files. Like the Galaxy S6, users cannot delete pre-installed files to free up space on the devices. Users can only disable certain system apps they don’t wish to use, but those apps still take up space on the device.
Galaxy S7 System Uses Up 8GB Out of the Box, but You Can Move Apps to SD - https://t.co/nkyVwVXiIk #GalaxyS7 pic.twitter.com/TkUifdhLGT
— Droid Life (@droid_life) March 2, 2016
However, the tech blog has also discovered that with the return of expandable storage, also comes the ability to install or move applications to a microSD card to free up internal storage for other uses. The guys at Droid Life show how the Galaxy S7 handset gives users the option to select internal storage or SD card as their storage location. It is not clear whether users can move preinstalled apps to a microSD, but they can certainly move their own installed apps to a microSD.
With this feature, users will be unable to use the stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow feature, Adoptable Storage , according to XDA Developers . Adoptable Storage allows users to configure a microSD card to be read as if it were no different from internal storage. This feature resolves issues Android has had with expandable storage in the past, where saving apps on a microSD card often limited application performance and security. In 2013, Google severely restricted microSD support on Android 4.4 KitKat , but fully reinstated compatibility in 2015, with the launch of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Samsung announced at the Galaxy S7 launch the devices would support microSD cards up to 200GB. However, the manufacturer announced Galaxy S7 support for microSD card up to 256GB shortly after launch. The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge will hit markets March 11, though many carriers have shipped handsets early to customers who preordered.
