Samsung has officially unveiled the new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone at its Galaxy Note Unpacked 2016 event a short while ago, held simultaneously in New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro. The Galaxy Note 7 will be available from the 19th August and will come in the following colour variants: Blue Coral, Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium and Black Onyx.
Lots of hype around the iris scanner being packed into Galaxy Note 7, making this the first smartphone from Samsung with such a feature. The device also features an improved S Pen stylus.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is dust and water resistant with IP68 certification as well as the Samsung Knox security suite with biometric authentication that includes both the iris scanning feature and the fingerprint scanner.
There is also a new Secure Folder feature added just to keep private information safe. An upgrade over the Private Mode that Samsung previously offered that hid files but was limited to very few apps. This new Secure Folder stores files as well as entire apps in a secure location.
The Galaxy Note 7 boasts a 5.7-inch QHD (1440×2560 pixels) dual-edge Super Amoled display with an impressive pixel density of 518ppi, and Always-On display functionality. It is the first device featuring the recently unveiled Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It is powered by a 14nm octa-core processor, with four cores clocked at 2.3GHz, and four cores clocked at 1.6GHz, with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The handset packs 64GB of inbuilt storage (UFS 2.0) that’s expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB).
The Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow-based Galaxy Note 7 sports ‘Dual Pixel’ 12-megapixel OIS (optical image stabilisation) with an f/1.7 aperture and dual-LED flash. There is a 5-megapixel front camera which also boasts of an f/1.7 aperture. The dual-pixel sensor technology on the Galaxy Note 7 with wide aperture enables it to quickly focus, so that it can click sharp images even in low-light conditions.
The Galaxy Note 7 packs a 3500mAh battery with fast charging support on wired as well as wireless. Samsung says the Wireless Charging is compatible with WPC and PMA. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), GPS/ A-GPS, Glonass, 3G, and USB Type-C. The smartphone also supports LTE and is compatible with LTE Cat.12, LTE Cat.10, and LTE Cat.9. The LTE compatibility may differ by markets and mobile operators. The smartphone also supports the Samsung Pay system, with both NFC and MST support.
The handset supports assortment of sensors including barometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic, proximity, and ambient light sensor. As mentioned above, it also features a fingerprint scanner. The Galaxy Note 7 measures 153.5×73.9×7.9mm and weighs 169 grams.
The all-new iris recognition technology on the Galaxy Note 7 can also be utilised to authenticate purchases made through Samsung Pay.
The upgraded S Pen is also now dust and water resistant with IP68 certification. Some of the new features of the S Pen that you can enjoy include:
- Creating gif image animations with Smart Select
- New Air Command functions for magnifying and translating
The new S Pen has a tip which is 0.7mm smaller than its predecessor, however, with improved pressure sensitivity.
The Galaxy Note 7 can also be used with Gear 360 camera which means it can capture, edit, and share 360-degree images videos on the go.
The Galaxy Note 7 users will also receive up to 15GB of free space on the newly unveiled Samsung Cloud to backup content, such as videos and photos. It also allows for easy transfer of data, apps, settings, and layouts between devices.
Samsung has also unveiled a new Gear VR headset, called Gear VR for Galaxy Note 7 or just the new Gear VR. The upgraded headset, which offers improved viewing angles and a dedicated home button, works with older handsets like the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and Galaxy S6 Edge+. The headset offers both USB Type-C and Micro-USB connections to support this.
