This is no ordinary smart phone. It's the newest Galaxy Note
and it's got a lot to prove to a fan-base disillusioned by the compromises of
last year's model and to a mainstream audience that might want a smart phone
that does more, but is slowly getting used to the idea of paying less. Okay and this is the Mr.
Mobile Review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
The Note 7 blends two of Samsung's signature strengths, its
long-standing affinity for overpowered specs and its new-found talent for
industrial design. You notice the latter as soon as you pluck the phone from
its packaging. It's made entirely of glass and metal and the resulting heft
makes it feel every bit as expensive as it looks. There are four available
colors and they all look great. In shaving just two millimeters from the width,
Samsung has made this Note much more comfortable to use one-handed than the
last one. The display is large, high-resolution, and it spills slightly over
the edges to give the impression of a smart phone with almost no bezels. While
Samsung makes a big deal of its HDR capability for videos, I'm more excited
about the fundamentals. This is the brightest screen ever put into a mainstream
phone. With ambient light sensors both front and back. On the flip-side, it
also gets way dim for those times you don't want to keep a bed mate awake, with
an automatic blue light filter that kicks in at sunset to go easy on your
eyeballs.
The Note 7 can see your eyeballs in any lighting conditions
with its infared iris scanner, a trick it pulls off better than rival,
Microsoft. The idea is to use this in conjunction with the fingerprint sensor
to keep your sensitive files under lock and key, or just provide another way
for your to scan into your phone. The Note is launching at the tail-end of beach
season and having a fall-back sign in option when your thumb is wet or covered
in sunblock is really quite nice. Speaking of swimming, the Note 7 is the first
of its line to include IP68 water and dust resistance, and it also brings back
micro SD support to expand the onboard storage. The design isn't without
downsides. A mostly glass phone is always fertile ground for fingerprints and
the Note 7 is no exception. Also, while the fully symmetrical design is
beautiful to the eye, it's confusing to the hand with few physical cues to
differentiate up from down and back from front, I routinely find myself pulling
the phone from a pocket upside down or backwards or both.
On the upside, that new Gorilla Glass 5 is sturdy. This
particular unit has taken two bad spills on tile and concrete from between
three and four feet. While it's a little scuffed, it's not shattered. As
always, the new Note brings a new stylus. Doodling, writing and highlighting
have all gotten improvements.
The Note 7's digitizer is twice as sensitive to pressure as
the note 5's, the stylus tip better replicates the feel of a pen on paper, and
all of the various sketching tools have been condensed into a single app. From
video editors to compulsive Snapchatters, to those who need to sign a lot of
contracts, the S pen can come in handy to all sorts of folks. While it's cool
you can take notes under water, I find the S pen more useful in a more routine
sense. It's a mouse for your smart phone. Hover over a link in the browser and
preview where it goes. Hold it over the top or bottom of a webpage to scroll.
You can hit tiny tap targets much more easily with a pen than a thumb, and
overall, it's a more comfortable, less obtrusive way to interact with the
screen than blocking the view with your big meat paw. It's cool that you can
use the pen to translate words or magnify the screen or make a JIF from a
video, but much like the people who think there's only one right way to
pronounce GIF, those features don't really matter to me. The S pen is at its best
when it's being used for the simple stuff. Let's talk software.
With the Note 7, Samsung reasserts its interface ideas with
something called the Grace UX, an Android skin that you'll either love or
loathe depending on how you feel about the Android platform. If you're a stock
lover, of course, you won't like this and you won't like that it's based on
Marshmallow instead of Nougat, and while Samsung has been pretty prompt with
software updates of late, you'll still wait longer for the next version to drop
than your Nexus toting friends. Then, there's the look and feel. There's a new
paint job and such a depth of options that it took me longer than usual to
settle into the Note 7. Look, if you want stock Android with fast updates, you
should be shopping for a Nexus, and truly, running stock on a phone like this
would be a waste.
For all its changes over the years, the Note line is still
Samsung's chance to play with excess, and there are options in this software
for everything. The always on display now supports more notification types. You
can run some apps side by side or in Windows if you want to do two things at
once, and the theme store is back if you really can't stand that default
interface and you want to spruce things up. Yes, there are a few toys for the
curved screen. You get a really cool light show if you get a call or text while
the phone is face down on a table and you also get edge panels. Basically
widget docks that you can customize with all matter of news feeds and
shortcuts. Personally, I don't find it too useful because it's kind of a pain
to deploy, but if you've got a smoother touch than I do you might find it handy
for single handed situations. If you don't dig it but still want a one handed
shortcut, just triple click the home button to temporarily shrink the screen.
Now, if you double click that button instead, you'll fire up the Note 7's
camera. This is the same module from the Galaxy S7, and if you recall my review
of that device, you'll know I consider it one of the best cameras you can find
in a smart phone. The only really change here is in software.
The view-finder now uses left and right swipes to access
filters, settings and shooting modes and vertical swipes switch between primary
and selfie cameras. Samsung has done shooters very well for over two years now,
so the results are no surprise. I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired
of the sound of my own voice so I'll let you see for yourself what the Note 7
can do.
On my QC35s I can't tell a difference in audio quality between
the Note 7 and any other device, but I do stream all my music and I'm not at
all in audio files so I have no authority in this regard. If there's an obvious
Achilles' heel here, it's the speaker phone. It's inconveniently located, and
it's not as loud or as rich as the speakers on some much less expensive phones
The Note 7 is well future-proofed for gaming. Logically, the
phone supports the Vulkan API for next generation graphics and Samsung offers a
ton of free software including the four games that can currently take advantage
of that API. If you're really hardcore, you can spring for the new and improved
Gear VR Visor that turns the Note 7 into a virtual reality headset. Games
themselves run quite well, as does most of the software, but occasionally the
Note does bog down. It's not a deal-breaker. The phone is still plenty fast
today, but software doesn't usually age well. So it does make me worry about
tomorrow.
Finally, the battery life is fine. Like a lot of tech
reviewers, I'm a very heavy user, so I've given up on the idea of great battery
life from any smart phone. I have to admit, not being able to hit five hours of
screen on time was a bit of a letdown. On the upside, the phone does support
fast charging through USB-C and wireless charging in both PMA and Qi, which
means if you're anywhere near a power outlet or a Starbucks you'll be good. Of
course, Samsung offers a slew of battery packs, some of which are as
water-resistant as the phone itself. There are also several battery-saving
modes here too. You've got options. The modern Galaxy Note is no longer the
envelope pusher it once was. It's now a mainstream product for mainstream
buyers, albeit well heeled ones. Whether you think it's worth the price depends
how you're gonna use it. If you're just in the market for a smart phone, a
handheld companion for your tablet and computer, I'd say the Note isn't for
you. You can get a phone that does almost everything the Note does for far less
and the prices are coming down all the time. But we live in an era of ever
increasing mobility. People aren't just moving away from desktops, they're
starting to neglect their notebooks and tablets too, in favor of the device
that's always in their pocket anyway. If you're one of those people and you're
looking for the best possible blend of phone and tablet to be your primary
computing device, the Galaxy Note 7 is the best option there is. There's a
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Mobile drops a new video. It happens twice a week. Until next time, thanks for
watching and stay mobile my friends. You can read another review and specification for another samsung smartphone on http://smartphonerankings.com/
