Samsung Galaxy Note7 review: Thinking Big
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- PedroDNeighbor
- Nyj
- 17 Aug 2016
Anonymous, 17 Aug 2016Could the finger print scanner work when the phone is under... moreGood question. But I don't think so since it is not working when the finger is wet.
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- Anonymous
- ty@
- 17 Aug 2016
Could the finger print scanner work when the phone is under the water ?
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- AnonD-367917
- H3G
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-259899, 17 Aug 2016How much is your pay for the schilling? Just curious.
No... moreIf the long comment awaiting moderation does come through.. let me just add
HDR chipset is a feature,.. and doing HDR correctly is something many screens (especially non OLED ones) will have a hard time doing.
Given this has a colour gamut upscaler for regular files to make use of this HDR chip,.. movies will rock.
As you didn't acknowledge HDR, I think you may have missed, like many will,.. that it is vastly different to HDR shots for camera. Same principle,.. different applications.
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- AnonD-367917
- H3G
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-259899, 17 Aug 2016How much is your pay for the schilling? Just curious.
No... moreIn the scientific world it is true with observe often what we wish to see, or expect to find.
I also have a Note 4 (note edge, but for comparisons, fair enough)..
I see enough here to warrant an 'upgrade', though not at the prices of these phones if we assume they hold no resale value, and 'spec sheet' is all we are comparing.
Let me first start with the price.. in my market the Note 7 has a vastly higher 'effective' price than what you list.
Samsung cannot just lower the prices on new units (they can, but), as carriers often replace units that were sold previously.. Myself as an example,.. my Note Edge was a $1450 phone on release.. the Note 7 is a $1350 on release (Australian dollars). The Aussie dollar may have even been stronger when the Note Edge was released... I argued with sales people for my telco that the new models plans should not in fact be 'higher' (they are by a considerable amount).
This is what happens when fashion creeps into 'high end'.
I have always had $1500 'business' phones. (yes, Australian dollars).. not always $1500, true, but the price point north of $1000 is what I am talking about.. So things like Nokia Communicators ( I had three), in fact my Psion 5MX required an infrared modem attachment to a 'cheap' Sony Ericcson so I could get on the internet (GPRS being the 'awesome' thing at the time..).
I expect for 'flagship prices' to get flagship technology.
A lot of what is built into this phone isn't listed on the spec sheet.
Samsung are not so silly as to advertise what is now a fashion item (as well as a functional item) to techheads.
They can garner many more sales by selling it based on cool ad campaigns that make the audience laugh (thankyou Christoph Waltz)...
What improvements would I get it for....
At a software level (things you can easily dismiss, as ideally these WILL make it down the food chain), are RAW mode photos (no software mismanagement of the capture), Spen translate and 'gif', Grace UX, and a rapid deployment of Nougat (Samsung having moved many usual apps to the store).
Hardware; well for the Spen,.. the digitiser is at 340hz; wicked!
4096 level of sensitivity. And a refinement in the Pen (not breaking if upside down, waterproofed, and a finer 'nib')
The screen brightness might just be Samsung being willing to not attempt longevity of the OLED, or perhaps they didn't get enough complaints about screen etching/dimming on last couple of models, so they are pushing the screen a bit harder (this might be a case of 'wait and tell')
Gamut on DCi being 95% is insane.. and having a front and back camera assess light for screen auto optimisation is a clever piece of tech, not implemented in a phone previously to the best of my, or 'displaymate', knowledge.
I am into photography and audio.. so, having acknowledged the camera (being a massive improvement over the Note 4, the autofocus tech coming from CANON, and the lens being vastly faster, and a better sensor, which is impressive cause I like the SonyIMX240 on the Note 4s),.. lets look to audio...
The snapdragon gets an offboard DAC. This is unusual. .only a couple of phones have done this previously,.. (Sony Z3/HTC 10/Axon 7 to as quick examples),.. this should prove great, as my Note variant had the snapdragon chip and my old voodoo modded Nexus S (with Wolfson dac) chews it up and spits it out. Just an 800mhz, 8Gb of slow storage that cannot easily play FLAC files, just doesn't quite cut it for me; I want 'one box to rule them all'.
I get an Exynos variant in my local market. That is usually paired with an outboard Cirrus DAC. Cirrus bought out Wolfson, and documents I was reading, quite awhile ago, suggested that Sammy had something awesome in store for us,. and that didn't make it into the S7s so I am excited for this one....
Case...
I like the Note 4 'faux leather' back. It feels nice. My Note Edge is quite wide and unwieldly.
Most reviewers are stating that the new Note 7 is the NICEST SAMSUNG MOBILE they have EVER touched. (Not shouting, promise)
It is svelte in the hand in a way that a phone with a screen this big does not normally feel.
This is a biggy.
Coming from a PC/IT background, miniaturisation is a costly thing to do well.
What about other improvements? There are plenty more.. we only have to look around at what each user is acknowledging about this handset.. there IS/ARE a lot of compliments being made.
As I started this 'rant' with; just because you don't see them doesn't mean they are not there...
Now,.. as for whether it is value..
That is for any given user to decide.
Samsung throwing in a state of the art high capacity micro SD card is a nice bonus for early adopters who are buying based on 'trust' that the phone will be 'ALL THAT'.
I take that card, as it bests my very expensive top of the line Sandisk in a few areas (and is four times my present capacity).
Fast cards are important, and the reason why we lost MicroSD slots for a year..
when users were pairing cheap cards, and Androids capacity to mount them and move media to them.. a lot of people were losing photos and were unable to record 4K video.
Why do you think Nexus devices do not include this feature? (Simply not worth the hassle trying to support unhappy users and taking the flak).
For anyone with a carrier who gets a phone.. this phone is an easy choice.
Given a lot of people skipped the Note 5 (last model) which wasn't available in a lot of the world, many people are ready for an upgrade.
Even if it doesn't appear, by spec sheet, to be much..
Most reviewers are extremely happy, and calling it what it is...
The only Naysayers? People NOT using it!
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- Anonymous
- 4Js
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-259899, 17 Aug 2016For $839 that battery life is subpar, Might as well hold on... moreOh...it's not a whole new device so I can sit hit here and whine and act as if there is nothing good about it like I do on every page
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- Anonymous
- 4Js
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-367917, 17 Aug 2016Damn,.. I really hoped those were the snapdragon chipset (c... moreExynos has also had noticeably better audio.
My note 5 destroys my s7 edge in audio even with viper.
Of course I also listen a very wide array of music with good headphones. Including very powerful vocals
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- Anonymous
- 4Js
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-259899, 17 Aug 2016How much is your pay for the schilling? Just curious. No... moreYawn. Another day....another page....another set of trlling comments from you
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- Anonymous
- 4Js
- 17 Aug 2016
Um display reaches over 1000 nits in auto.
And in real life tasks the exynos wins still
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- Anonymous
- 7Xr
- 17 Aug 2016
It's absolutely a gorgeous phone in and out. The UI is a bit toned down TouchWiz which I prefer, making it simpler and classier. The camera is awesome but the processing is a bit too much! This is the 2nd Samsung phone I want to own aside fr. the S7 Edge.
BTW, twas a nice review!
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- AnonD-259899
- M7r
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-367917, 17 Aug 2016Haters gotta hate.
I do fully agree that the Note 4 (and... moreHow much is your pay for the schilling? Just curious.
Nope $839 is just not worth it for this level of performance, or the lack of, for a so called upgrade. The cost is outrageous especially given there is nothing impressive here to see. Even the camera is S7/Edge-esque at best if we ignore the overtly sharpened images now with the Note 7. My extended battery with note 4 po0ps on this phone in every other area bar camera.
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- Anonymous
- 5MH
- 17 Aug 2016
It should have 6GB RAM, 4000mAh battery and 16MP camera at least.
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- mir
- t7X
- 17 Aug 2016
Glad my country is getting the Exynos version. At least it has a bit better battery life. So excited to get it.
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- DKDude
- qny
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-367917, 17 Aug 2016Damn,.. I really hoped those were the snapdragon chipset (c... moreWell from what I've gathered elsewhere the Snapdragon Note 7 is providing the same performance as the S7 from earlier this year which wasn't good. I haven't been able to find a hard answer from a test explicitly done on it. Just vague comparisons or references. Was hoping for better...
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- AnonD-367917
- H3G
- 17 Aug 2016
DKDude, 17 Aug 2016On the mobile site when selecting the sections of the revie... moreDamn,.. I really hoped those were the snapdragon chipset (cause I am getting the exynos), to be fair, crosstalk on headphones is pretty low... (yay)
The snapdragon version is meant to feature a pretty decent dac setup, though still fairly limited power output; there is a pretty good chance it could be noticably better (certainly, with regards to signal to noise etc, but also 'actually listening to the music' (something benchmarks do not always highlight or reveal).
Given the european version is output limited (to 80db with whichever headphones are supplied), that could affect sound quality output at 'full volume'.
Generally when a phones output power is limited in software, depending on how the equaliser is implemented, raising ALL equaliser channels will raise output power very cleanly.(I have a few sony S-Masters that work this way)
Anyhow should be vastly improved from my Note 4 which is what I had hoped for. Even if benches don't show it,.. my note 4 was snapdragon using the inbuilt DAC,.. which neither if the Note 7s suffer from ;-)
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- AnonD-367917
- H3G
- 17 Aug 2016
AnonD-259899, 17 Aug 2016For $839 that battery life is subpar, Might as well hold on... moreHaters gotta hate.
I do fully agree that the Note 4 (and in fact many modern smartphones) are perfect or 'enough' for a users need.
We generally only consider upgrading when the old doesn't do what we need it to do anymore.
For me, the Ingress Protection is worth the buy in, and, as my carrier gets my money anyway, I might as well be paying off a phone I like.
Like this one.
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- AnonD-259899
- M7r
- 17 Aug 2016
For $839 that battery life is subpar, Might as well hold on to the Note 4. Camera seems good like the S7 and S7 edge but nothing special with the Note 7. Just lame hype.
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- AnonD-77443
- v6J
- 17 Aug 2016
Glad i'm getting the Exynos version. :-)
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- Savor
- PSw
- 17 Aug 2016
Just set it to 1080p. Most people can live with that resolution. Other phones don't have a feature to set it to a lower resolution. No need to stop whining about battery life.
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- SaltandPepper
- tx4
- 17 Aug 2016
ithehappy, 16 Aug 2016All things considered, probably yes, but look at the chart ... moreYeah, the display part rather disappoint me a bit, I thought the Note7 display would be better than the S7 edge.
Lower is better
Note7 2.7 average deltaE & 4.4 max
S7 edge 0.8 average deltaE & 1.5 max
Note5 1.1 average deltaE & 2.2 max