Samsung Galaxy S7 will make one mean Nexus 2016 flagship – Here’s why

In terms of popularity, Samsung makes the best Android smartphone and the company's new Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are bound to dominate with their gorgeous and solid plus the beastly specs and features. Yet no thanks to TouchWiz, the flagship will likely prove a letdown to purist Android fans. 

In earlier Galaxy devices, the Samsung Android skin was buggy and bogged down by bloat wares. To many, TouchWiz will never hold a candle against stock Android that is clean, smooth and pretty. "It was extremely bloated, cluttered and just plain ugly," 9to5Google said in a new report.

But things changed with the Galaxy S6 last 2015. Samsung thought it wise to render Android Lollipop as lean as possible and adhere to Material Design to the letter. The result: Android fans in love with the premium GS6 that is nearly vanilla Android and is wrapped with the premium case of the melded metal and glass.

The idea was proposed that Samsung can follow up on its first Galaxy Nexus effort.

It didn't happen but it could be with the Galaxy S7 as XDA Developers shared fresh screenshots of a significantly trimmed down .

The gallery can be viewed here.

Clearly, it was a huge leap from the previous TouchWiz generations, prompting the same report to conclude that issues that turned off many Android fans "have effectively vanished in recent years, leaving Samsung's version of Android notably above many of its competitors in this department."

And things only got better with the Galaxy S7. Pointing to the screenshots, 9to5Google declared that "TouchWiz with the custom Material Design theme applied ... (provided) a look at just how close you could get to a pure Nexus experience with the new Galaxy S7 and S7 edge."

Now Samsung as a Nexus partner is not impossible at all. Previously, the South Korean tech giant had produced three Pure Android devices - the Galaxy Nexus phone, the Nexus 10 tablet and a Google Play edition of the Galaxy S4.

As new reports indicate that Nexus 5X maker LG is not into the Nexus circle this 2016, a Samsung branded Nexus should be a welcome treat for stock Android fans. And already, the Galaxy S7 has paved the way for a not too remote Samsung-built Nexus 2016 flagship on release date.