[Review] Samsung Galaxy Note7 – The phablet with the write stuff

While official news sites have indicated that Samsung were banking on the Note7 being a hit and even pre-manufacturing over 4 million phones to be ready for sale in the days following its 19 August launch, it seems that actual consumer demand has knocked even that estimate out of the ballpark as Samsung reported to Reuters that “As pre-order results for the Galaxy Note 7 have far exceeded our estimates, its release date in some markets has been adjusted.” Originally slated for August, the Note7 launch in Malaysia has been delayed till September.

With this kind of market demand, you’ll likely be wondering what the Galaxy Note7 has to offer over its rivals and the answer is : plenty. We covered its grand launch over in New York where it was unveiled to the world with the pomp and grandeur that you’d usually associate with the Golden Globe awards and prior to that we tracked it via @evleaks‘ vaunted leaks of the phone.

We also managed to score a retail production unit and performed an unboxing of the vaunted device. Now, we put it through its paces as we give it a thorough once over. If you’d like to get a look at how it our initial findings on its build quality, looks and what comes inside the retail packaging, saunter on over here. If you’re looking for the TLDR one sentence  review: the Galaxy Note7 can be summed up as a gorgeous looking phablet with an improved stylus, an excellent screen, enhanced security features and a great camera though it’s also one of the priciest phones in the market.

Performance

In terms of hardware, the Galaxy Note7 for the Malaysia market comes with a similar Exynos 8890 processor paired with 4GB RAM as the Galaxy S7 edge. Where it differs is that the Note7 comes with double the onboard storage – 64GB over the S7 edge’s 32GB. Both are also Duos variants, indicating that they have a hybrid SIM card that allows either two SIM cards or a single microSD card and a single SIM card to supplement the onboard storage.

The other bigger difference is of course the size of the screen with the S7 edge coming with a smaller 5.5-inch QHD Super Amoled curved display with 534ppi. The Note7 is slightly larger at 5.7-inches with a slightly lower 518ppi though side by side comparison showed the resolution of both screens was indistinguishable to the human eye. The Note7 also sports a slightly smaller 3500mAh battery whereas the S7 edge has one that is slightly larger at 3600mAh. This, along with the bigger panel accounts for the slightly larger size, weight and girth of the Note7 though it has several refinements that expand its functionality beyond being deemed an upsized S7 edge. For a more in-depth look at just how they differ, check out our prior comparison piece here.

When put through its paces the Note7 was able to run everything thrown at it in a pleasingly swift fashion. It aced GeekBench with a score of 2105 single core score and a multicore score of 6526. 3DMark’s Slingshot test snagged a score of 2129. Theoretical benchmarking aside, the Note7 ran like a dream in the field.

As a gaming machine, the Note7 is an impressive beast with scads of power under the hood. Gaming was handled in a silky smooth fashion with Asphalt 8 and Warhammer 40000: Freeblade with maxed settings running like a dream on the Note7. What makes the Note7 and it’s siblings the S7 edge and S7 a gaming delight is the fact that all of them offer Samsung’s Game Launcher app, a TouchWiz overlay that lets you mute phone alerts, take screencaps and even capture video so you can upload your gameplay online for bragging rights.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”#FF0000″ class=”” size=”15″]When put through its paces the Note7 was able to run everything thrown at it in a pleasingly swift fashion.[/perfectpullquote]

If you’re a mobile gamer, the Game Launcher so far is one of the most refined gaming overlays ever baked into a phone. Granted, there are third party apps that can do this but this is so smoothly integrated into the UI that using it is a delight.  The only quibble here is the lack of a dual front-facing speaker though the external speaker is more than adequate for general use with clear, distortion-free audio even when dialed to maximum when viewing the odd video clip or two or running through several Spotify playlists.

As you’d likely surmise, the Note7’s excellent display also makes it great for watching movies too and the phone has had a few subtle enhancements  over its siblings that include High Dynamic Range (HDR) video streaming support and Mobile Digital natural Image engine (mDNIe) tech integrated to offer brighter, more vibrant videos. The Dark Knight Rises looked splendid on the Note 7 in landscape mode with beautifully deep blacks and rich colours onscreen while the Fifth Element was a vivid panoply of luscious golds and rich detail. Milla Jovovich has never looked more fetching.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”#FF0000″ class=”” size=”15″]The iris sensor is not for everyone but it adds an optional secure means of access to what is already a highly secure device. [/perfectpullquote]

This time around, you’re able to unlock the phone just by staring at it on account of a front-facing iris scanner. To unlock the phone, you simply position your eyes where the two circles are on the lock screen. There’s some caveats: it doesn’t quite work with users wearing contacts nor with glasses but that aside, the sensor is fast and accurate. The iris sensor is not for everyone but it adds an optional secure means of access to what is already a highly secure device. For a better idea just what Knox is about, check out our prior piece here. In lieu of that, you’re still able to use the fingerprint reader or a PIN to keep your stuff safe and sound. The fingerprint reader works fast and even reads wet digits too.

 

The edge screens on the Note7 allow for you to add a number of shortcuts that lead to any app, not just the stock ones onboard and allow for notifications to stream in a ticker tape fashion on the side of the phone. You can only use one edge at a time but you can opt for either one depending on if you’re a southpaw or not. The display itself also retains the same Always On functionality as the S7 edge. Even when the screen is off, it still displays a mono image of the date, time, notifications and any reminders for a minute drain on the battery.

 

Page 1	Performance
Page 2	A Touching Experience
Page 3	Absolutely Pentastic
Page 4	Camera
Page 5	Battery Life & Conclusion