Samsung Galaxy Note 7 - Are flagship phones truly dead??
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 - Are flagship phones truly dead??
2016-09-02
what innovation is left in phones I mean
what could possibly make you run out and
spend nearly a thousand dollars on a
cell phone when companies like oneplus
and ZTE
are convincing consumers that they
should be able to have devices with six
gigs of RAM in their pockets for less
than half the cost is the answer curved
glass and more ways to scan your body
parts
well Samsung sure hope so and let's take
a closer look at the note 7 my new daily
driver and the first note class device
to earn that position
Corsairs NL series fans feature magnetic
levitation technology and custom
engineered rotors to provide a high
performance low noise experience if that
sounds cool you can learn more at the
link in the video description the S
series has traditionally launched first
as the mainstream performance member of
the generational family with the note
following months later aimed squarely at
enthusiasts heavy content consumers and
productivity freaks with a stylus larger
screen refined software and beefier
hardware specs being its usual calling
cards and the note 7 continues this
tradition in some ways but like the note
5 before it has broken with the
community's expectations in others well
the note 7 does have a larger screen a
stylus and is the first to launch with
Samsung's reimagined TouchWiz Grace UX
spec wise it's pretty much identical to
the s7 s7 active and to an even greater
degree the s7 edge it rocks in Exynos
88-90 octa-core processor 4 gigs of DDR
4 RAM 64 gigs of on-board storage with
microSD expansion for those wondering by
the way if the dual SIM plus microSD mod
from the s7 and s7 edge still works it
does but the tray is more fragile now so
be careful and then around the back is
the same dual flash equipped 12
megapixel F 1.7 4k video primary camera
that's been with us since the s7 not
that I'm complaining the bump is
actually more pronounced than usual but
it launches lightning fast has great
low-light performance has this cool auto
slowdown for playback of your
slow-motion clips where it detects the
fast-moving part of the video and then
you just fine-tune it which is kind of
cool and generally continues to be my
favorite smartphone camera for capturing
all the moments that I do on the sides
you'll find the lock button and volume
buttons their tactile feedback feels
quality but I wish they weren't directly
opposing each other even though I'm
starting to wonder if there's any point
in me even continuing to say that
anymore
down at the bottom we find the three and
a half inch headphone jack something we
might not be able to take for granted
for much longer
a fast-charging compatible type-c
connector to go along with the new gear
VR a microphone port a speaker port that
is loud enough but shares its
non-optimal palm firing attribute with
the other 5.7 inch device I keep in my
pocket
and finally the holder for the improved
s-pen that now boasts 360 samples per
second updates and 4096 pressure levels
along with here's a new one IP 68 water
resistance with or without the pen in
its holder dam up front is another first
a 5.7 inch curved Corning Gorilla Glass
5 2560 by 1440 AMOLED HD our display
with almost no HDR content available I
can't really comment too much on that
but it looks great with everything else
as usual and as for the glass well the
main advantage of Corning's
fifth-generation glass is supposed to be
improved drop resistance from selfie
levels but whether that actually works
outside of a controlled lab environment
and perhaps more importantly whether
that comes at the cost of less scratch
resistance is still a developing story
that I will be keeping an eye on as
someone who doesn't usually destroy
phones for the sake of making a video
all I can really contribute to that is
that in my two weeks with the device it
doesn't have a single mark whereas some
of the worst that I've seen managed to
get scuffed up in a pocket with my
plastic headphones very considerably in
that time so let's talk about what other
features make the note 7 an upgrade over
the s7 edge if you had your hopes up for
a return to removability for the 35
milliamp hour battery
sorry they're much more subtle than that
the 3d glass on the back is now curved
to the same degree as the front one
which sounds like a very small tweak but
when combined with the basically
bezel-less looking front curved glass
and the strong accidental touch
rejection along the sides makes this
aside from being in my opinion the
sexiest phone to date by far the most
holdable note device yet for small
handed folks like me in spite of them
having to make room for the s-pen inside
so then on that subject
well the stylus is a lot of fun to
doodle with and great for screenshotting
and marking up things like webpages to
send to others but with that said as a
non artist I don't think I'm getting the
most out of it and I don't see myself
paying a big premium for the privilege
of using it I mean there's a lot of
functionality but I've never felt the
need to create a Jif out of something
that I'm watching on my phone though
aside from the way you need to fight
with the UI of whatever you're capturing
I will say it's pretty intuitive to use
on top of that as a millennial I
actually type or dictate much faster
than I write with a pen and again maybe
age is a factor here but I'd probably
tell my grandparents to get something
else I'm having fond memories of my
briefing on the Galaxy mega right now if
they really need a magnification wand in
order to use their phone and glance a
feature I was actually kind of excited
about that let's you hover over a
minimized app to refer back to it
quickly would sell me on it if it was
any faster than just using task switcher
I tried using it for compiling a prop
list and doing internet research but
even in that case the multitask view
would work better
that is if sheets was supported anyway
with that said the translate feature
looks awesome if you ever translate
anything which I generally don't and
when it comes to the feel of using the
stylus
if I was the kind of person who used it
a lot I would be amped about the
improvements that have been made to the
leg and the overall natural feeling of
it so I have to give kudos there moving
on it's got fast wireless charging
though to be clear I still don't
recommend using it when it takes
literally four seconds to plug your
phone into a low current one amp charger
before you go to sleep which coupled
with the excellent battery management of
modern devices like the note 7 will get
most people through all but the most
demanding days but it's still a cool
feature and Samsung's Wireless charge
battery case is a pretty neat magnetic
phone snap-on case as an option for
emergencies as for the headline feature
the iris scanner having spent more time
with it I'm really impressed by how
quickly and usually how well it works
but it just didn't add anything to the
experience for me whether I'm looking at
my phone on my desk taking it on my
pocket grabbing it from a car dock or
tell wherever people keep their phones
in every situation it was as fast or
faster for me to get a finger on the
home button instead of pointing the
display at myself and adding the extra
step of swiping the screen which doesn't
mean it's not cool as all hell and a
huge step forward for biometric
authentication I just want to see a
software update where I can use it as an
additional authentication factor for
stuff like the cool new secure folder
feature
I mean I'd rest easier knowing that you
need my password and one of either my
fingerprint or an iris scanner maybe
some combination of all three in order
to get into my private contacts pictures
and documents on the subject of software
then let's talk about grace UX XDA
developers has an article declaring it
to be a trash sandwich so there's that
but as a heavy phone user but one who
doesn't really try to do much out of the
ordinary with my device the main
difference I noticed was the appearance
sorry
Samsung software engineers who probably
worked really hard on this the clipboard
feature is still awesome Flipboard is
still there to suck up 15 minutes of my
life when I accidentally swipe to the
left auto caller ID is still really cool
I guess I guess there's a cool battery
optimization button and you can
customize your power profiles now which
gives you better more granular control
over the power savings of your device
the always-on display can hold a
shopping list or a picture and has icons
for your notifications on it now though
you still can't preview them like you
count on Motorola devices and I guess
the edge panels are neat with location
contextual junk that you might want to
do being the highlight for me over the
default speed dial shortcut
that are already in there t9 dialing is
the king of absolutely everything and
has made the contact list and speed dial
on my phones the least access thing for
years now which leaves I guess then only
the conclusion interestingly one of the
least watched parts of my videos so I'll
try to keep it short the note 7 is
really great I wouldn't pay $1000
unlocked for it personally but if I
didn't have to pay for phones which I
don't then it's the one that I would
choose to use the charging port digs
into my finger a little bit and the
touch screen stylus accuracy falls away
a little bit near the edges if you're
trying to position a cursor but these
are the biggest complaints I could come
up with it's functional and beautiful
with the slight adjustment to the curve
making a much bigger difference to its
usability than I could have possibly
expected so thanks for watching guys if
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