Samsung Unveils Waterproof Galaxy VR Handsets

The new Samsung S7 edge (left) and S7 smartphones

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg teams up with Samsung to push virtual reality - and those who pre-order phones get a free VR headset.

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Samsung is offering free virtual reality headsets to people who pre-order the new Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge phones

Samsung is betting big on virtual reality by offering free headsets to people who pre-order the new Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge phones.

The Gear VR headset was launched in 2015, and works with the new phone models unveiled at the Mobile World Congress on Sunday.

Two new models of the S7 phone, one with a 5.1ins (13cm) screen and the other with a curved 5.5ins (14cm) screen, and both of them waterproof, were shown at the Barcelona event.

At the event, Facebook announced a new partnership with Samsung designed to promote the use of virtual reality on the social network.

The new Samsung S7 edge (left) and S7 smartphones

Its founder Mark Zuckerberg said: "Today, thanks to this partnership between Samsung and Facebook, this is now possible and that day is here and it wouldn't be possible to deliver this experience in this scale and at this price without Samsung's experience and excellence in hardware and systems."

The flagship handset's new features also include a microSD slot to expand memory for pictures and other media, and an improved camera.

Samsung's mobile phone chief, Koh Diong Jin, introduced the new phone models and spoke of the tech giant's values, saying they were "challenging, collaborating and improving".

"It's an honour to be part of this great company as we take the next big step forward to get us to the new experiences", he added.

But some analysts were lukewarm about Samsung's offerings, saying they only featured incremental upgrades.

Despite the fanfare surrounding the launch, Galaxy S7 models have no fundamentally new features and investors and analysts expect growth to slow at Samsung, in line with the smartphone market.

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Last month, the company revealed a 19% decline in annual net profits - with rivals eating into its share of the smartphone market.

(Sky)