The Galaxy Note 7 is official – hitting Malaysia for RM3,199 on 19th August

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Unpacked reveal was conducted with the grand spectacle that Samsung is known for with D.J Koh, Samsung’s mobile chief taking to the stage in New York with the thunderous applause once reserved for rock-stars. He shared about the evolution of the Galaxy Note series and shared how Samsung trail-blazed the phablet category in 2011 with the launch of the first Galaxy Note and which has seen a host of evolutionary successors culminating in today’s launch of the Galaxy Note 7. He then showed the phone to the gathered crowd before another associate dived into what made the Note 7 the most powerful phablet on the planet.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 comes with a 5.7-inch dual edge QHD Super Amoled screen with an impressive 518ppi and sheathed in tough Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The dual edge displays also takes a leaf from the S7 Edge as users can use it to read notifications and act as an app shortcut. 

Externally, it has the same fingerprint reader cum home button like the S7 on the front along with capacitive menu and back keys that glow when you touch them. Samsung has also corrected what was once the biggest niggle with the erstwhile Note 5 – the lack of expandable storage as the Note 7 comes with a hybrid dual SIM card that lets you slot in a microSD card slot and a SIM card or two SIM cards into the phone. The Note 7 is also water resistant to the tune of an IP68 rating akin to the Galaxy S7 Edge, allowing it to survive short excursions in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. This is a significant step up for the Note series and the first in it’s lineage to have water resistance out of the box.

In terms of hardware the Note 7 comes with Samsung’s own Exynos 8890 2.3GHz octacore processor running Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 paired with 4GB of RAM and a whopping 64GB of expandable onboard storage via the aforementioned hybrid SIM card tray. The TouchWiz UI on the Note 7  has a few interesting tweaks like the ability to add jotted memos via the S Pen along with the new ability to add images to the Always On display as reminder. The S7 Edge’s Game Launcher is also present on the Note 7 so you’re able to do screencaps and record your gaming session too.

To keep it powered, the phone comes with a 3,500mAH battery that has fast charging tech and wireless charging similar to the S7 Edge. The Note 7 is also first of Samsung’s phones to adopt a USB Type-C port for faster data transfer and charging. As a sweet bonus, the phone comes with an adaptor that attaches to older micro USB charger ports, allowing you to continue using your existing conventional micro USB chargers with the Note 7. Fortunately, it still has an audio jack so you can still use all your old wired headphones.

The rear camera array is similar to the S7’s impressive 12-MP rear camera that comes with an F/1.7 aperture, optical image stabilisation as well as their Dual Pixel tech to take better images in low light. The front is a 5-MP snapper that also comes with an F/1.7 aperture.

The new S Pen has been improved as well with a slimmer, more precise 0.7mm tip along with water and dust resistance to the same tune as the Note 7 – ergo it’s IP68 resistant. The S Pen is coloured in the same hue as the phone also allows for a better drawing experience that lets you blend and mix colours like a real paintbrush if you’re drawing something on screen. The Note 7 is also a nifty meme generator as well as the S Pen lets you trim videos and create an animated GIF. When not in use, it sits in it’s own stylus well located in the lower edge of the phone next to the speaker grille.

The biggest draw to the Note 7 is the inclusion of an infrared iris scanner that unlocks the phone by simply giving it a glance. If that’s not an option you can still opt for the fingerprint scanner on the home key. The Note 7 also incorporates their vaunted, mil-spec grade Knox security platform. Integrated with the iris and fingerprint scanner, along with Samsung’s soon to be launched Samsung Pay platform, the Note 7 acts as as secure means of paying for purchases with your phone.

The Galaxy Note 7 will come in three colours for Malaysia – Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and Gold Platinum

Other refinements of note include the inclusion of Samsung Cloud, the company’s own back-up service that lets you transfer data, apps, setting and layouts between devices so you can populate a new phone with familiar content in minutes with a free 15GB of storage space with every Note 7.

The Note 7 will retail for RM3,199 and will come in three different colours – Black Onyx, Silver Titanium and Gold Platinum. It is is slated to arrive on 19th August for Malaysia while pre-orders will happen on 8 to 10 of August with retailers though the initial arrival of stock is limited to 4,000 units so you’d best hustle. For more details swing by Samsung Malaysia’s official site for the Note 7 here.

Galaxy Note7

OS Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
Network LTE Cat.12 / LTE Cat.10 / LTE Cat.9 *May differ by markets and mobile operators*
Dimension 153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9mm, 169g
AP Octa core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.6GHz Quad), 64 bit, 14 nm process
Memory 4GB RAM (LPDDR4), 64GB (UFS 2.0)
Display 5.7” Quad HD Dual edge Super AMOLED, 2560 x 1440 (518ppi)
Camera Rear: Dual Pixel 12MP OIS (F1.7), Front: 5MP (F1.7)
Battery 3,500 mAh, Fast Charging on wired and wireless |  Wireless Charging compatible with WPC and PMA
Payment NFC, MST
Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), MIMO(2×2) 620Mbps, Bluetooth® v 4.2 LE, ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC, Location (GPS, Glonass, Beidou)
Sensors Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, HR Sensor, Iris Sensor, Proximity Sensor, RGB Light Sensor
Audio MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA
Video MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI , FLV, MKV, WEBM