Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review

Posted by Techiadvisor! Tech news blog on

Wednesday 17 August 2016

Techiadvisors Mobile reviews-samsung galxaxy note 7 

 The 5.7-inch, stylus-slinging Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a damn fine phone. Its sexy wraparound glass, precise S Pen and brilliant screen would impress anyone, but it's ideal for artists, architects and people who would rather write with their own hand than type on a screen.

It has a gorgeous, symmetrical design that looks particularly stunning in Coral Blue. It takes great photos and has both the water resistance and expandable memory slot that last year's Galaxy Note 5 lacked (oh yeah, there is no Note 6). Battery life goes on and on -- but not as long as the Galaxy S7 Edge -- and you can charge up wirelessly.

This is Samsung's ultimate phone, with all the Edge's curved-screen goodies and more: 64GB of storage instead of the Edge's 32GB. An iris scanner for unlocking the phone with your eyes. A good, refreshed take on Android. A USB-C charger port that also charges up your other devices (you should buy a USB 3.1 cable for faster data speeds). New pen tricks to magnify, translate languages and make an animated GIF. A nighttime filter you can schedule to automatically give your weary, screen-staring eyes a break.

The question you have to ask yourself is how much all this is worth to you. Because the Note 7 is one of the most expensive phones you can buy. It's comparable to Apple's large-screen iPhone 6S Plus (the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are right around the corner), but costs more than the already pricey Edge, and twice the OnePlus 3, a CNET Editor's Choice winner for its excellence as an all-round midprice phone. In the US, promotions that bundle a free memory card or Samsung wearable help soothe the sting.

As much as I loved my time with the compelling, beautiful, functional Note 7 -- and I really did -- I hesitate to recommend it to anyone who isn't serious about using that digital S Pen to draw, write and navigate on the phone. The S Pen has some minor issues, too. It isn't perfect at everything. Sometimes wielding the stylus feels natural; other times tapping and typing make more sense. (Though it does make really great annotated photos, Snapchat snaps and social media GIFs.)

At the end of the day, most people can easily live without the Note 7, especially with the capable S7 Edge a near doppelganger. If you're ready to move on from the Note 4, switching to the Note 7 gets you more storage and power, an upgradable Android version and a far better S Pen. If you're happy with the Note 5, wait a year. If not, you get waterproofing, expandable storage and software shortcuts on those curved edges. With its elevated features and fee, the Note 7 is for rarified buyers who delight in details. Buy it and you get an excellent phone -- but if you aren't going to use that pen, forget it.

Using the new S Pen stylus: Smooth, precise, tricked-out

Without the S Pen, the Note 7 is just a refined S7 Edge with steeper curved sides. This year's digital stylus has a fine, precise point and senses 4,096 levels of pressure, double last year's model. And? It's very good. But, compared to a 10-inch tablet, the screen is a small for creating fine art, though it handles notes and more casual drawings very well.

A few things bothered me with execution. Including the Note Edge, this is the seventh Note phone ever made, so all S Pen maneuvers should be flawless by now. But I still found it hard to paint an entire canvas without on-screen buttons getting in the way (they'll move if you get it right). It's easy to accidentally exit or press unintended controls that mysteriously shift the layout into something you don't want. That's frustrating, especially when you can't figure out how to resume the original canvas.

Here's what's good about the new S Pen:

• 1) Navigating with the pen keeps the screen cleaner and reduces repetitive-stress finger strain.
• 2) There's now just one Notes app for all your writing, not five separate apps.
• You can jot a note from the lock screen, and pin it there.
• 3) The stylus won't get stuck in its holder if you put it in upside down (it might actually spring across the room).
• 4) The S Pen worked after we dunked the entire phone in 2.5 feet of water for 28 minutes (it's rated for 30 minutes in about 5 feet of water).

Here's what's not so good:

• 1) You can type faster with your fingers than you can handwrite, keyboard-trace or touch-type with the S Pen. Handwriting mode, where you write with the pen in a specific text field, created many errors, especially if you write quickly.
• 2) You can only see the note you pin to the lock screen when you tap an icon...with your finger. It won't respond to the S Pen. (Oh, the irony.) It'd be better to see the note ghosted onto the Always On display.
• 3) A few times I worried I'd lose the stylus. Magnetic sides would make it a more loyal sidekick when the S Pen is outside its holder.
• 4) At the beach, grains of sand wedged in between the pen and its holder, and wouldn't dislodge with fingernails, a slim knife blade or a flat set of Swiss Army Knife tweezers. It's forever stuck. An outlier case, but it could happen to you, too.

Streamlined Android software, new iris scanner and waterproofing

The Note 7 runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, but will upgrade to Android Nougat down the line. Samsung's refreshed custom layer is a more colorful, trimmed down take on its TouchWiz software interface, and feels cleaner and easier to read. If you don't like digging around, simply search the app tray and settings menu for what you need.

There are bonuses sprinkled here and there, like adding apps to home screen folders with a tap (rather than a drag-and-drop), and more visually accessible data in sub settings like the battery and memory meters. The setting to keep the phone from turning on in your pocket or bag is clutch.

The iris scanner that unlocks the phone with your eyes is fast and accurate, and worked with my glasses and contacts. But if the phone's already lying on the table, picking it up again is inconvenient. Also, Samsung told us it's meant more as a secondary security measure to the fingerprint scanner than for constant use. (And is it even secure?) You might want to use it to unlock the Private Folder, for example.

On the splish-splash front, the Note 7 survived our two bucket dunk tests, both with and without the S Pen snapped inside. That's 28 minutes in 2.5 feet of water for each test. The phone's rated for 5 feet and up to 30 minutes (also known as IP68), which could break the device. We just want to stress it. Considering the other phones in the "7" family passed our underwater pool test, we feel pretty good about this one -- though Samsung does apply a yearlong warranty if something goes wrong.

Camera: New gestures, great photos

The Note has the same cameras as the S7 and S7 Edge: 12 megapixels on the back and 5 up front. Like those phones, this is one of the best all-around cameras we've used. If you're worried that the Note 7's 12-megapixel camera pales in comparison to the the Note 5's 16-megapixel shooter, don't be. 16 sounds more impressive than 12, but as we keep saying, image quality has a lot to do with processing and light.

Just like the S7 and S7 Edge, the Note 7 takes clear, bright, crisp photos in indoor, outdoor and low-light settings. Selfies are generally good, too, especially when the screen lights up as a flash for dark environments. The extra-wide selfie works like panorama mode and is impractical for group pics that require others to stay still. There are tons of filters and editing features; shortcuts make photos easy to share.

The camera app gets a jolt with new gestures. Swipe up and down to switch between front and rear cameras, and swipe to the sides to bring up filters and effects. This usually works well, and I liked the instant gratification of previewing the filter effects before choosing the one I want. But my fingers kept accidentally tapping the Back and Recent buttons, which kicked me out of the app. Sometimes my swipes zoomed the photo or slid a vignette control instead of calling up the other menus or switching cameras. Mistakes are time-wasting and annoying.

Top 10 Features of Samsung galaxy Note 7

Battery and speed are great, but a bit behind S7 Edge

The Note 7 has many of the same hardware guts as the S7 Edge, but performance and battery life slightly lag (see full specs list below). Its barely smaller battery ran 2 hours shorter in our looping video drain test; a 17 hours, 40 minute average versus the Edge's 19 hours, 40 minutes. In real-world tests, I got a solid day between charges and topped up in between using either a wireless charging pad (sold separately) or through USB-C cables at work and at home. Samsung gives you one in the box; I recommend buying a spare.

Depending on your region, the Note 7 comes with either Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chip or Samsung's housemade Exynos processor. I tested the Qualcomm version, and my colleague in Asia ran benchmarks on the Exynos version as well. Both scored high compared to most phones, but weirdly, the Qualcomm version was a little lower on the graphical benchmark test Geekbench 3 than the S7 Edge.

In real-life tests, the Qualcomm-outfitted Note 7 is a pretty snappy device. It gamely handled fast-paced, graphics-heavy games, launched apps and downloaded and uploaded content quickly. But when I started using the drawing tools heavily, it lagged. Not much, but enough to notice.

Be aware, a security flaw in Qualcomm's 820 chip may affect this phone and millions of other Androids.

Labels: Smartphone Tips

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