Samsung is now testing Galaxy Note7 prototypes running Android 7.0 Nougat

One of the big mysteries regarding Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Note7 phablet is what exact version of Android it will launch running. Obviously, that could be Marshmallow, but many are hoping that the early start for Android 7.0 Nougat developer builds this year is somehow connected to the Note7's release. That would mean Samsung's next flagship would, for the first time ever, launch alongside a new Android iteration and run that from day one.

It might all turn out to have been a nice dream in the end, but today some evidence has been uncovered that might just support this theory. You see, Samsung has begun testing Note7 prototypes running Android 7.0. One such device was put through the paces of Geekbench, and that means there's a public result page listing a couple of its specs.

The model number for the phone in question is SM-N930, and since the Note5 is the SM-N920, this is clearly its successor. However, its results in Geekbench are underwhelming so far, with a measly 909 single-core score and 3,768 for multi-core. What's more, this prototype only had 3GB of RAM, which is clearly not something we'll see on the final version of the Note7 (rumored to sport no less than 6GB). And one more baffling thing - the chipset used in the benchmarked handset is the old Exynos 7420 from last year, and not the rumored Exynos 8893 that's been specially crafted for the Note7.

So this is probably a very early prototype, and Samsung seems interested just in the integration of the newest version of Android here. Hopefully we'll soon see the Note7 with its final hardware also running Nougat and going through various benchmarks - that would be further proof that it could be launching with Android 7.0 on board.

Source | Via (in Dutch)