The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 was a fine device, though fans of the Note series were irked by the smallish battery and lack of expandable memory. Samsung didn’t even give the Note 5 a full release in Europe, leading many to question its commitment to the stylus-packing phablet form factor. Rumors are swirling as we approach the August 2nd unveiling of the Note 7 — yes, Samsung is skipping a number to bring the Note series naming in-line with the Galaxy S phones. Skipping a number seems somewhat appropriate here. The Note 7 is getting leaky ahead of the announcement, and it looks like a big change for Samsung’s flagship phablet.
The latest and best look we’ve gotten of the Note 7 comes from the Chinese social media service Weibo, by way of French tech blog NowhereElse. This international connection reveals a device that looks like a slightly blown up Galaxy S7 Edge. From the front, the phone has almost no bezel on the left and right of the screen. That’s because the Note 7 will use one of Samsung’s curved Super AMOLED displays. This will be the first time the Note series has gone with such a panel, but Samsung has seen huge interest in the Edge variants of other phones. They vastly outsell the standard phone in many markets, even with the higher price tags.
Leaks points to a 5.7-inch 1440p display on the Note 7, but with the curved edges the usable space is slightly smaller. The curve in the leaked images looks like it might be less severe than the GS7 Edge, though. Samsung has always attempted to graft some features into the software to take advantage of curved displays, but they’ve never been very useful. The curved area will probably prove even less useful when using the Note 7’s built-in stylus (which hopefully doesn’t get stuck this year). Beneath the screen in the leaked photos are Samsung’s usual physical home button (with fingerprint reader) flanked by capacitive back and overview buttons.
Aside from the stylus, the Note 7 is expected to include a Snapdragon 820 (or possibly821), 4-6GB of RAM, and the same 12MP main camera as the GS7. The battery capacity is reportedly 3,600mAh, substantially higher than the 3,000mAh found in the Note 5. Rumors have long pointed to an iris scanner coming to Samsung’s phones, and again some are expecting the Note 7 to include this feature. The idea is that it would be able to look at the phone and it would unlock after identifying you via the unique patterns of your iris. That sounds nice and all, but it might not work very well in practice.
The Note 7 is expected to launch not long after the announcement on August 2nd with software based on Android 6.0. Android 7.0 Nougat is just around the corner, but that will have to wait until later for the Note 7. It will at least come with a slightly revamped version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI layer.
Blogger Comment
Facebook Comment