Gadgetory

what's up guys lon here from Android authority and we're taking a quick look at the freshly announced samsung galaxy note 7 and comparing it to last year's note 5 despite what the number says this is actually the sixth generation Galaxy Note and the direct successor to the note 5 the note 7 still retains the same glass and metal design of the note 5 so they're pretty similar in that regard but Samsung has made some subtle changes here to make the note 7 feel a little bit nicer and generally more comfortable to hold instead of the flat sides and chamfered edges that we saw on the note 5 the metal frame of the note 7 has pretty much been rounded off at every angle similar to what we saw with the s7 edge the note 7 is also a tad narrower than the note 5 by 2 millimeters which may not sound like a lot but it makes a pretty big difference in how much easier it is to hold and operate the note 7 in one hand even though there's some slight differences in the dimensions the screen size is still the same the note 7 still has a 5.7 inch Super AMOLED quad HD display just like the note 5 and just as you would expect it looks absolutely stunning the big difference here is that the note 7 has a curved edge display that's similar to the screen on the s7 edge but the curve isn't quite as drastic and because the side rails are much thicker you shouldn't have much of a problem with accidentally touching the sides of the screen with your palm or fingers the curved edge glass also brings the edge UX features to the note 7 so things like the apps edge task edge people edge etc will all be available at a simple swipe of a finger and so far it looks and functions exactly the same as it did on the s7 edge the note sevens display also brings over the always-on display feature that we first saw on the s7 and s7 edge this can show you some basic information like the clock and calendar and it's technically just a simple software feature so this could trickle down to the note 5 with a software update but so far we haven't seen it happen on the bottom of the phones you'll find the headphone jack speaker and s-pen all in the same place but you'll notice on the note 7 that Samsung has finally switched over to USB type-c it still supports fast charging and wireless charging which will be perfect for charging up that 3500 milliamp hour battery and it's a slight bump from the 3000 milliamp hour battery on the note 5 so on paper at least there should be some improve with a battery life on the note seven last year's no.5 came in multiple storage options with no room for expansion but with the note 7 the phone only comes in a 64 gigabyte version but microSD card expansion is back with support for up to 256 gigs of extra storage the note 7 also adds water and dust resistance and this includes protection for both the phone itself and the S Pen the S Pen has also been improved it's a little bit shorter has more pressure sensitivity and the tip is exactly the same size as when you would find on a ballpoint pen and all this together results in a much more accurate and precise writing experience as you would expect the note 7 comes with a fingerprint sensor embedded in the home button the same way it was on the note 5 but where the note 7 has the leg up is with the iris scanner which is going to offer additional biometric security over the note 5 it uses infrared scan your eyes so it'll work in a well-lit room or in the dark and it can't be spoofed with a photo so unless you're able to steal someone's eyeballs the iris scanner is a very secure way of protecting your phone internally the note 5 is packing the Exynos 7420 and 4 gigs of ram while the note 7 shares the same exact setup from the s7 with the snapdragon 820 and 4 gigs of ram on paper this may not sound like that big of an upgrade and if you're hoping for something more like 6 gigs of ram you might be disappointed but this is still plenty of power for the note 7 and with Vulcan supporting games being released with the launch of the note 7 you're going to get a much more powerful gaming experience over the note 5 if you remember last year Samsung took the 16 megapixel camera of the s6 and brought it over to the note 5 and they pretty much done the same thing here with this year's note 7 the note 7 features the same 12 megapixel camera on the rear and 5 megapixel front facing shooter and as we already know from the s7 this reduction in megapixels allows for better low-light and you're also getting that extremely fast dual pixel autofocus technology so I think it's pretty safe to assume that the picture quality on the note 7 isn't going to disappoint despite being the same camera sensor as the s7 the camera software did receive a little bit of a facelift Samsung has made the interface much cleaner and it still offers all the same features from the note 5 but it's a lot easier to navigate now especially with one hand by just using swipe gestures so you can swipe to the left to get to the camera effects to the right to access all the different camera modes or swipe down to switch to the front-facing camera both the note 5 and note 7 are running on Android marshmallow and of course being Samsung phones you have Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top for the most part the experience is exactly the same but Samsung has done a little bit of housecleaning on the note 7 so you'll notice things like the notification shade and Settings menu look a little bit more streamlined and they're pretty minor changes but it definitely makes TouchWiz feel like a much cleaner experience another area that got cleaned up is with the note taking applications back on the note 5 there were several different apps like action memo scrapbook and S note but with the note 7 all these apps have been consolidated into one app called Samsung notes to simplify the experience and also makes the UI feel a lot less bloaty you also notice that the note 7 comes with some new and improved S Pen functionality the screen off memo those first introduced on the note 5 can now be pinned to the always-on display to let you see what you wrote without unlocking the phone and the memo is also now scrollable allowing to write much larger memos the note said this S Pen can also be used to translate text or images magnify the screen and create gifs which I could really see people having a lot of fun with and it's probably possible for these features to come to the note 5 in a software update but as of right now they're specifically just the note 7 but what do you guys think of the note 7 and how it compares to last year's note 5 with an iris scanner water resistance improved S Pen functionality a bigger battery and a slightly revamp design is it worth the upgrade feel free to let us know down in the comments below personally I think this is the most refined galaxy note Samsung has ever made and if you do decide to make the leap to 7 I don't think you'll be disappointed you