Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
PROS
- Glorious screen
- Best camera on any phone
- S-Pen is fun
- Water-resistant
- Excellent battery life
CONS
- Very expensive
- Software still a bit ugly
- Pointless iris scanner
KEY FEATURES
- 5.7-inch quad-HD Super AMOLED display
- Octa-core CPU
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB storage + microSD slot
- S Pen stylus
- Android 6.0.1
- Fingerprint and Iris scanner
- USB-C
- Fast and wireless charging
- 3,500mAh battery
- IP68 water resistance
- 12MP camera, f1.7 aperture
- 153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9mm, 169g
- Manufacturer: Samsung
- Review Price: £749.00/8000MAD.
WHAT IS THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7?
Big phones weren’t big until the original Samsung Galaxy Note came along. Its radical resizing of the smartphone was bonkers to some, but a revelation to others.
The phablet was born, people criticised it, but now every manufacturer makes one – even Apple with its iPhone 6S Plus and upcoming iPhone 7 Plus.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 proves that Samsung still makes big phones properly, rather than just stretching a smaller phone to a bigger size.
It’s got stiff competition from the HTC 10, incoming Nexus devices and the Galaxy S7 Edge, but the Note 7 is the one to beat – even if its price can only be described as eye-watering.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7 – DESIGN AND BUILD
While the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 might look like a minor tweaking of the design formula started with the Galaxy Note 5 and improved with the Galaxy S7 earlier in 2016, it’s actually a big signal of intent.
For the first time, Samsung has released a phone with only the option of a dual-curved-edge screen. This isn’t like the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, nor the Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. Samsung is giving you one curvaceous option and saying that the curved-edge ‘experiment’ is now complete. This is the path the Korean company wants to take.
The curved display is the headline trait, but even that’s come a long way since it was first used on the ill-fated Galaxy Note Edge. It’s even been improved over the one on the Galaxy S7 Edge, as the curve is less obvious and, well, less curvy. It juts down at a steeper angle and takes less screen real estate away, but it’s just as eye-catching as ever.
Following the curve on the front is a similar roundedness to the back, which was a small design alteration introduced on the Galaxy Note 5. The biggest achievement here is just how comfortable the phone feels, considering it has a 5.7-inch screen.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7 – DISPLAY
And while the Note’s display has grown to 5.7 inches, it’s no longer the differentiator. Other phones, such as the Nexus 6P, are the same size, and while the iPhone 6S Plus has a smaller display, it has a bigger footprint.
Like all of Samsung’s flagships, and even some of its cheaper phones like the Galaxy J3, the starting point is the Super AMOLED panel. It might not have the viewing angles you get with an IPS LCD, but the oomph and joyous colours more than make up for that. Samsung’s honed this display technology over time and it’s now the best it's ever been.
Colours are strong and vibrant, blacks are dark and there’s no muddiness in the whites. It’s a joy to look at, and its brightness means it’s perfectly viewable even in direct sunlight. There are some minor reflections if you look very closely near the edge of the display, but it doesn’t affect use.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7 – PERFORMANCE
The Galaxy Note 7 has the same CPU and GPU as the six-month old Samsung Galaxy S7, but that's no bad thing. The 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and Exynos 8890 CPU is a potent combination that can handle intensive and day-to-day tasks with ease.
There’s also 64GB of extremely speedy UFS 2.0 internal storage. Samsung isn't offering any other storage options, but there’s a microSD card slot that can be used to add a further 256GB of space.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7 – S PEN AND IRIS SCANNER
Without the S Pen, the Note 7 is just a refined S7 Edge with steeper curved sides. This year's digital stylus has a fine, precise point and senses 4,096 levels of pressure, double last year's model.
Here's what's good about the new S Pen:
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7 – CAMERA
Another part plucked straight from the Galaxy S7 is the 12-megapixel rear camera. This is far from a bad thing, though.
It’s got everything you want in a smartphone camera – it’s super-fast to open, simple to operate and has a wide f/1.7 aperture for better low-light performance. There’s optical image stabilisation too, for keeping everything steady.
These also help the auto-focus work fantastically well. The sensor has two ‘photobodies’ instead of one and this means the camera can focus much quicker, and more accurately than before.
The camera app is also excellent. Too many phones have fallen by the wayside because of their awful, unintuitive camera apps, but Samsung avoids this. Double-tapping the home button takes you straight into shooting mode and then it’s a case of swiping to the left for manual options and to the right for live filters. A ‘Pro’ mode lets you alter the focus points, ISO, white balance and so on while the ‘Live Broadcast’ option lets you beam videos straight to YouTube.
Pictures look absolutely fantastic. They’re packed full of detail, colours are vibrant yet accurate and you can get lovely blurry background when taking macro shots. Results are almost indistinguishable from Galaxy S7.
The auto-HDR mode has developed into something, because its reliability has increased with every release. It manages to keep all the colours accurate, but give great contrast and better black-levels than the regular shooting mode. The mode is turned on by default, which shows just how confident Samsung is about it.
The wide aperture, OIS and larger pixels all combine to create great low-light, night time shots. Noise is kept to a minimum and photos don’t look over processed.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 7 – BATTERY
The 3,500 mAh – still non-removable – cell tucked inside the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has impressive stamina, but it’s not going to redefine how long a smartphone can last for. The Galaxy S7 Edge has a 100 mAh bigger battery, but I didn't see any discernible differences between the stamina of the two phones.
Thankfully, there’s Fast Charging on board – both wired and wireless – and this is the first Samsung phone to utilise USB-C, which was a surprising omission from the Galaxy S7.
Fully charging the phone with the included block and cable takes 92 minutes. Using a charger that doesn’t support Quick Charge 2 takes twice as long. It’s a similar story with wireless chargers. Samsung’s own Fast Wireless Charging juiced the Note 7 from 0-100% in about 110 minutes.
OVERALL SCORE
SCORES IN DETAIL
- Battery Life9
- Calls & Sound7
- Camera10
- Design10
- Performance9
- Software8
- Value7
Samsung answers burning Note 7 questions, vows better batteries :
Sure, blame the batteries. But it's not quite that simple.
During a press conference , Samsung said two separate battery defects caused both the original batch of Galaxy Note 7 phones and the replacement units to overheat.
The first battery, it said, suffered from a design flaw. The battery's external casing was too small for the components inside, causing it to short-circuit and ignite.
The second battery, which came from another supplier, didn't have the same flaw, Justin Denison, head of product strategy and marketing for Samsung's US arm, said in an interview ahead of the press conference. In the rush to pump out enough batteries for the replacement units, though, the supplier introduced a manufacturing defect that led to the same result, he said.
Samsung is now taking the precaution of sourcing its battery cells from a new supplier; reports state the firm will bring in fellow Korean OEM LG, or at least its subsidiary, LG Chem, to produce battery cells for the Galaxy Note 8. As far as we are aware, LG hasn't produced an exploding battery smartphone to date, so this SHOULD mean the Galaxy Note 8 will be a safe device for consumers.
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