The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 – here’s what’s going around the grapevine

Samsung’s next epic phablet is about to make its official debut in a matter of weeks and so far everything seems to be straight from the official Samsung playbook. For the past several years, Samsung has kept to a dual-flagship phone launch schedule with the Galaxy S-series phone making its debut in the first half of the year at Mobile World Congress and the latest iteration of the Note series sometime later in the year.

Last year, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge was announced at MWC on 1st March 2015 and hit multiple markets in April while the Note 5 made its debut later in the year on 21st August with regional launches arriving within weeks.

The S7 and S7 Edge were launched this year right on schedule, also at MWC. Media invitations have been sent out for the next grand Unpacked event that will take place on August 2 which, if it follows the game plan, will be the successor to last year’s Galaxy Note 5 that has been determined to be the Galaxy Note 7 . Here’s what we know so far about Samsung’s next gen phablet.

What happened to the Note 6?
While pundits wonder why Samsung is skipping a generation in their Note series, seeing as the Note 5 was released last year, rest assured it’s for a reason and not on account of a distortion in the time-space continuum or that we’re living in an alternate reality. The jump by one series straight to the Note 7 is so that symbolically syncs with the rest of their current year product line-up made up of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge and to ensure that it doesn’t imply that it is made of last year’s technology on account of the nomenclature of the S6 and S6 Edge.

What does the Galaxy Note 7 look like?
Top leaker Evan Blass has released renders of the device and it looks like a beauty with a curved edge to edge screen and three different finishes at launch. Recently, several more detailed renders have surfaced, specifically of the Note 7 in its Coral Blue finish which is a departure from the usual line-up of black, white, silver and gold paint jobs. The image, sourced from IT Home, looks like an internal leak from a casings manufacturer, who usually get the dimensions of an upcoming device so they prepare the moulds for production. In the image below, it looks like a flexible clear silicone slip-on casing from Ringke.

Source: IT Home

Samsung Galaxy Note7 in (from l to r) Black Onyx, Silver Titanium, and Blue Coral pic.twitter.com/QiePUEG9GP

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 1, 2016

What makes the Galaxy Note 7 special?
Until the Note 7 is finally revealed at the Unpacked event, the purported specifications could all be spurious rumour but titbits of information have surfaced with varying levels of authenticity. In terms of hardware, the Note 7 will purportedly, according to famed leaker @evleaks  pack a 5.7-inch 1440 x 2560 QHD dual edged Super Amoled display, come with the same high-end 12-MP camera with OIS, F/1.7 aperture and Dual Pixel imaging tech as the S7 and S7 Edge, integrate a 5-MP front-facing selfie camera and IP68 rated water resistance.

Interestingly enough, shots have surfaced on Weibo that mention that the Note 7 has an iris scanner for security verification and shots of the user interface have appeared on Weibo along with a patent for it too. According to the grapevine, the Note 7 will come with dual Edge displays like the S7 Edge by default though that may change later on.

Storage options are purported to start from 64GB and up and unlike the S7 and S7 Edge, it is likely to have a USB Type C port to charge its 4,000mAh battery which will also possibly incorporate wireless charging.

It is expected that the Note 7 will come with the Snapdragon 820 or 821 processor paired with an Adreno 530 GPU and 6GB of RAM. Likely, for Asian markets, it will probably swap it out for an Exynos 8890 processor and in all likelihood, come with a hybrid SIM card tray (which will mean it will pack a microSD card slot) and the Duos suffix as well. This handily addresses the major gripe with the Note 5 that lacked a microSD card slot to expand its onboard storage capacity.

Another interesting rumour relies on a patent that Samsung has applied for last year in August where users can scribble on the curved part of a device with an Edge display.

Image via: Patently Mobile

This bears out with a recent leak that offered the tagline “Write on the edge of something great” along with a silhouette of a stylus and a starburst of light in the shape of the number 7. This would imply enhanced functionality for the Edge screen and the phone’s S Pen along with, presumably, the ability to doodle, annotate or add notes or access/manipulate apps via the edge screen.

Source: Phone Arena

What colours will it come in?
While there’s no official word as yet, leaked renders have revealed that the Note 7 will initially appear in three colours – Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and the new signature theme colour of the device: Blue Coral. There may also be colour variants later on to cater to specific markets like prior iterations of the Note series so there may be in all likelihood a metallic pink gold version down the line.

When is it launching?
The global reveal of the Note 7 will be on August 2 in New York at 11AM local time at their Unpacked event where it will make its global debut. From there it should take about one to two months to arrive in regional markets so our best bet for it arriving in Malaysia will likely be sometime in August or September. Usually, there’s a bit of a delay to accommodate for shipping to regional markets. According to Korea IT News, Samsung has already commenced mass production with a slated five million devices ready for sale in August to coincide with the launch to strike while the proverbial iron is hot.

In terms of accessories, it will likely follow the playbook and will have a compatible variant of the S View flip cover at the very minimum plus a likely variant of the snap-on keyboard case that fits its expanded dimensions. All will be revealed soon as Samsung Unpacked will be taking place in a matter of weeks. To catch the action, swing by their official site here

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