Samsung takes note

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE smartphones are getting sleeker, more powerful and more advanced as evidenced by the recent release of Note 7.

Despite reports last weekend that Samsung was temporarily suspending sales after 35 reports of a battery problem in the 2.5 million phones already sold, I did not experience any overheating of the battery even though I played Pokemon Go for hours.

In fact, the Note 7 should actually be the Note 6, but was given the figure 7 to put it on the same level as the popular Galaxy S series, which is now at S7.

And thanks to its dual-curved-edge design, the Note 7 now looks like Galaxy S7Edge but with a bigger display and with a sleek S Pen stylus that clearly distinguishes the Note series from the S series.

The Note 7 has several improvements over its Note 5 brother. Best of all, it is now waterproof with IP68 rating, meaning it can be underwater at a depth of 1.5 metres for up to 30 minutes. The S Pen stylus can be removed from the holding slot when it is under water too and will write on the screen even when the smartphone is wet. While users wanting to write while diving are probably non-existent, this feature is very useful when you are, for example, walking in the pouring rain and need to take scribble an idea or reminder immediately.

Another improvement over the Note 5 is the more advanced security function, which adds an iris scanner to the finger print scanner to lock the phone.

Note 7 uses a faster octa core processor too. It’s powered by Samsung Exynos Octa 8890 with four core running at 2.3 GHz and four other ARM Cortex A53 cores at 1.6 GHz. 

The Note 7 uses the same excellent camera system as its S7 sibling. That has a Dual Pixel 12 MP camera with very fast f/1.7 lens and the Note 7’s is better still at 16 MP and f/1.9. The 5 MP front camera is also improved with a faster f/1.7 lens, compared to the f/1.9 lens of the Note 5.

Another impressive improvement is the faster and more advanced LTE 4G technology. The Note 7 now supports up to LTE Cat 12, compared to the LTE Cat 6 of the Note 5. I tested the Note 7’s data connection on TrueMove H’s LTE network and was impressed by the speed. I used Ookla speedtest app to measure the connection speed and found that it achieved a download speed of 129.54 Mbps and upload speed of 37.31 Mbps, making it the fastest I have tested so far.

In terms of dimensions and weight, the Note 7 is a little longer, a little narrower and thicker but at 69 grammes is lighter than its predecessor.

Although Note 7 is narrower, it maintains the same size and resolution of display. It uses 5.7-inch Super Amoled display with 2560x1440-pixel resolution with a pixel depth of 518 ppi. Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protects the screen.

Like the S7 Edge, the curved edges of the display of Note 5 also have a purpose and that’s the Edge Panel function, allowing you to swipe the right edge of the screen to bring up panels of apps used most frequently. You can see several panels simply by swiping the screen. Each pane is customisable too with the first panel’s apps including Gallery, Internet, Clock, Calendar and Calculator.

Note 7 is made of aluminium with curves on the back that flow to the front. The rounded back make it feel comfortable in your hand, especially when you are using the S Pen in the dominant hand.

The Note smartphone runs on the latest Android 6.0.1 operating system. It has good performance thanks to its fast octa core processor and 4 gigabytes of working memory or RAM that makes multit tasking smooth. It uses fast UFS 2.0 flash memory to provide 64 GB of internal storage, which is expandable with a microSD card up to 256 GB.

Apart from having fast 4G+ connection, the Note 7 also boasts speedy Wi-Fi 802.11 ac connection with up to 620 Mbps connection speed. It has a built-in ANT+ adapter for connecting to fitness gadgets, like a heart rate monitor device.

The Note 7 also uses USB Type-C port, which has faster connection speed and supports USB 3.1 connectivity. The new USB port makes it easier to connect to a cable because both sides have the same round shape.

As ever, the S Pen stylus is an essential tool for making the most of the smartphone. The Note 7’s pen has a smaller tip than before – 0.7mm compared to 1.6mm – and supports up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensor, compared to 2,048 levels of Note’s S Pen.

You can use the S Pen to write down your ideas without having to unlock the phone first. The Always on Display function shows the clock, third-party app or calendar event notifications even when the screen is turned off. And when the screen is in this mode, you can use the S Pen to write. You can also pin your note like a sticky note on the Always on Display screen.

Among several useful functions of the S Pen, you can use the stylus to select videos and share them with your friends and on social media. This function is called Smart Select and is found on the Air Command menu that automatically pops up when you remove the stylus from its holding slot. The Air Command boasts a Translate function, which lets you translate a word simply by holding the pen over it. You select the languages you want to translate from and to – from English to Thai – for example. 

But it’s the quality of the camera that makes the Note 7 so outstanding. During the test, Note 7 captured beautiful, sharp and clean photos even in low-light environments.

A Pro mode lets you adjust various shooting parameters, such as shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, colour tone, white balance and focal length.

Another interesting shooting mode is the Selective focus mode that lets you change the focus of your shots after they have taken.

The Note 7 is also capable of shooting 4K video clips.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is available in Gold Platinum, Silver Titanium and Black Onyx for Bt28,900.

 

Key Specs

- OS: Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow)

- Network: LTE Cat.12 / LTE Cat.10 / LTE Cat.9; 3G UMTS: 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz, 2G GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz

- CPU: Octa core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.6GHz Quad), 64 bit, 14 nm process

- Memory: 4GB RAM (LPDDR4)

- Storage: 64GB (UFS 2.0), expandable with microSD of up to 256GB

- Display: 5.7-inch Quad HD Dual edge Super AMOLED with 2560 x 1440 pixels (518ppi)

- Camera: Rear: Dual Pixel 12MP OIS (F1.7), Front: 5MP (F1.7)

- Battery: 3,500 mAh, Fast charging on wired and wireless

- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), MIMO(2x2) 620Mbps, Bluetooth v 4.2 LE, ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC, 

- Sensors: barometer, |fingerprint sensor, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, hall sensor, HR sensor, iris sensor, proximity sensor, RGB light sensor

- Dimension: 153.5 x 73.9 x 7.9mm

- Weight: 169g