Barcelona –In the competitive business of smartphone launches, it takes something extraordinary to overshadow the unveiling of the iPhone's biggest rival.
But Samsung's new Galaxy S7 models had the show stolen from them last night at the opening of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, when the company revealed a golf-ball-like camera that could change how we make and view home videos, bringing virtual reality (VR) to the masses.
The modest-looking Gear 360 is a small, spherical video camera with two fisheye lenses facing in opposite directions.
The two lenses capture video simultaneously, which is then transmitted wirelessly to your phone, where software knits the two feeds together into one, wrap-around movie.
The Gear 360, Samsung hopes, will revolutionise the burgeoning VR industry. It is banking on holiday videos becoming more appealing if you can see the sea behind you and the beach in front, just by turning your face while looking at the footage using another clever accessory.
Some VR systems, like the soon-to-be-released Oculus Rift, require a high-end computer attached by wires, but the Samsung Gear VR headset eradicates this by relying on the Galaxy phone and high-resolution screen quality to make it work. The phone simply slots into the contraption to become the screen.
The company showed off the technology with spectacular, vertiginous footage of skiing - offering the choice of scanning the terrain ahead or the sportsperson preparing to set off. Recording wildlife was also radically changed as the viewer seemed to be surrounded by giraffes on safari.
Closer to home, it will be straightforward to shoot a cycle ride with more coverage than a GoPro can currently offer, or film a gig and really feel like you're in the audience.
This year is being hailed as the moment VR will take off, and Samsung's camera can only help with that, though it will need to be priced affordably to succeed. At its best, VR is completely immersive, almost overwhelming, so the prospect of more-personalised content is appealing.
Rival manufacturer LG also announced its own VR camera yesterday, the LG 360 Cam, which offers a smooth way of uploading results to Google Street View. Expect more to follow suit - Apple chief executive Tim Cook's recent hint that VR was exciting may mean Apple will be among them.
As for the phones, the Galaxy S7, and the S7 edge (with a sloping screen that fits around the side of the model, hence its name), are good developments of their forerunners.
Both are waterproof and also introduce handy features like an always-on screen clock, so you don't need to wake the handset to see the time. It won't affect battery life by more than 1 per cent per hour. Samsung's South Korean competitor, LG, announced a similar feature.
Even so, the battery is bigger and charges quickly (from flat to 50 percent in 10 minutes). The phones have 12-megapixel cameras which boast very nippy autofocus and strong, low-light capabilities. – The Independent