- [Narrator] This is no ordinary smart phone.
It's the newest Galaxy Note and it's got a lot to prove
to a fan-base disillusioned by the compromises
of last year's model and to a mainstream audience
that might want a smart phone that does more,
but is slowly getting used to the idea of paying less.
I'm Michael Fisher and this is the Mr. Mobile Review
of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
(techno music)
The Note 7 blends two of Samsung's signature strengths,
its long-standing affinity for overpowered specs
and its new-found talent for industrial design.
You notice the latter as soon as
you pluck the phone from its packaging.
It's made entirely of glass and metal
and the resulting heft makes it feel every bit
as expensive as it looks.
There are four available colors and they all look great.
In shaving just two millimeters from the width,
Samsung has made this Note much more comfortable
to use one-handed than the last one.
The display is large, high-resolution,
and it spills slightly over the edges
to give the impression of a smart phone
with almost no bezels.
While Samsung makes a big deal of its HDR capability
for videos, I'm more excited about the fundamentals.
This is the brightest screen ever put
into a mainstream phone.
With ambient light sensors both front and back.
On the flip-side, it also gets way dim
for those times you don't want to keep a bed mate awake,
with an automatic blue light filter that kicks in
at sunset to go easy on your eyeballs.
The Note 7 can see your eyeballs in any lighting conditions
with its infared iris scanner, a trick it pulls off
better than rival, Microsoft.
The idea is to use this in conjunction
with the fingerprint sensor to keep your sensitive files
under lock and key, or just provide another way
for your to scan into your phone.
The Note is launching at the tail-end of beach season
and having a fall-back sign in option when your thumb
is wet or covered in sunblock is really quite nice.
Speaking of swimming, the Note 7 is the first
of its line to include IP68 water and dust resistance,
and it also brings back micro SD support
to expand the onboard storage.
The design isn't without downsides.
A mostly glass phone is always fertile ground
for fingerprints and the Note 7 is no exception.
Also, while the fully symmetrical design is beautiful
to the eye, it's confusing to the hand with few physical
cues to differentiate up from down and back from front,
I routinely find myself pulling the phone from a pocket
upside down or backwards or both.
On the upside, that new Gorilla Glass 5 is sturdy.
This particular unit has taken two bad spills
on tile and concrete from between three and four feet.
While it's a little scuffed, it's not shattered.
As always, the new Note brings a new stylus.
Doodling, writing and highlighting
have all gotten improvements.
The Note 7's digitizer is twice as sensitive to pressure
as the note 5's, the stylus tip better replicates
the feel of a pen on paper, and all of the various sketching
tools have been condensed into a single app.
From video editors to compulsive Snapchatters,
to those who need to sign a lot of contracts,
the S pen can come in handy to all sorts of folks.
While it's cool you can take notes under water,
I find the S pen more useful in a more routine sense.
It's a mouse for your smart phone.
Hover over a link in the browser and preview where it goes.
Hold it over the top or bottom of a webpage to scroll.
You can hit tiny tap targets much more easily
with a pen than a thumb, and overall,
it's a more comfortable, less obtrusive way
to interact with the screen than blocking the view
with your big meat paw.
It's cool that you can use the pen to translate words
or magnify the screen or make a JIF from a video,
but much like the people who think there's only
one right way to pronounce GIF, those features
don't really matter to me.
The S pen is at its best when it's being used
for the simple stuff.
Let's talk software.
With the Note 7, Samsung reasserts its interface ideas
with something called the Grace UX,
an Android skin that you'll either love or loathe
depending on how you feel about the Android platform.
If you're a stock lover, of course, you won't like this
and you won't like that it's based on Marshmallow
instead of Nougat, and while Samsung has been pretty
prompt with software updates of late, you'll still
wait longer for the next version to drop
than your Nexus toting friends.
Then, there's the look and feel.
There's a new paint job and such a depth of options
that it took me longer than usual
to settle into the Note 7.
Look, if you want stock Android with fast updates,
you should be shopping for a Nexus, and truly,
running stock on a phone like this would be a waste.
For all its changes over the years, the Note line
is still Samsung's chance to play with excess,
and there are options in this software for everything.
The always on display now supports more notification types.
You can run some apps side by side or in Windows
if you want to do two things at once,
and the theme store is back
if you really can't stand
that default interface and you want to spruce things up.
Yes, there are a few toys for the curved screen.
You get a really cool light show if you get a call
or text while the phone is face down on a table
and you also get edge panels.
Basically widget docks that you can customize
with all matter of news feeds and shortcuts.
Personally, I don't find it too useful
because it's kind of a pain to deploy,
but if you've got a smoother touch than I do
you might find it handy for single handed situations.
If you don't dig it but still want a one handed shortcut,
just triple click the home button
to temporarily shrink the screen.
Now, if you double click that button instead,
you'll fire up the Note 7's camera.
This is the same module from the Galaxy S7,
and if you recall my review of that device, you'll know
I consider it one of the best cameras you can find
in a smart phone.
The only really change here is in software.
The view-finder now uses left and right swipes
to access filters, settings and shooting modes
and vertical swipes switch between primary
and selfie cameras.
Samsung has done shooters very well for over two years now,
so the results are no surprise.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired
of the sound of my own voice so I'll let you see
for yourself what the Note 7 can do.
For a closer look at these photos,
visit the Mr. Mobile Facebook page.
(soft techno music)
I've used the Note 7 on T-Mobile for six days
between greater Boston and Cape Cod
and fundamentals like voice calls have been strong.
I love the extra volume option for loud environments
and callers said I sounded crisp and clear on their end.
Same goes for media.
On my QC35s I can't tell a difference in audio quality
between the Note 7 and any other device,
but I do stream all my music and I'm not at all
in audio files so I have no authority in this regard.
If there's an obvious Achilles' heel here,
it's the speaker phone.
It's inconveniently located, and it's not
as loud or as rich as the speakers
on some much less expensive phones.
("I Want It All" by Warren G.)
The Note 7 is well future-proofed for gaming.
Logically, the phone supports the Vulkan API
for next generation graphics and Samsung offers
a ton of free software including the four games
that can currently take advantage of that API.
If you're really hardcore, you can spring
for the new and improved Gear VR Visor that turns the Note 7
into a virtual reality headset.
Games themselves run quite well,
as does most of the software,
but occasionally the Note does bog down.
It's not a deal-breaker.
The phone is still plenty fast today, but software
doesn't usually age well.
So it does make me worry about tomorrow.
Finally, the battery life is fine.
Like a lot of tech reviewers, I'm a very heavy user,
so I've given up on the idea of great battery life
from any smart phone.
I have to admit, not being able to hit five hours
of screen on time was a bit of a letdown.
On the upside, the phone does support fast charging
through USB-C and wireless charging in both PMA and Qi,
which means if you're anywhere near a power outlet
or a Starbucks you'll be good.
Of course, Samsung offers a slew of battery packs,
some of which are as water-resistant as the phone itself.
There are also several battery-saving modes here too.
You've got options.
The modern Galaxy Note is no longer
the envelope pusher it once was.
It's now a mainstream product for mainstream buyers,
albeit well heeled ones.
Whether you think it's worth the price
depends how you're gonna use it.
If you're just in the market for a smart phone,
a handheld companion for your tablet and computer,
I'd say the Note isn't for you.
You can get a phone that does almost everything
the Note does for far less and the prices
are coming down all the time.
But we live in an era of ever increasing mobility.
People aren't just moving away from desktops,
they're starting to neglect their notebooks and tablets too,
in favor of the device that's always in their pocket anyway.
If you're one of those people and you're looking for the
best possible blend of phone and tablet
to be your primary computing device, the Galaxy Note 7
is the best option there is.
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and stay mobile my friends.