In front of me I have the long awaited Samsung Note 7.
Samsung decided to straight up skip the the Note 6, to catch its Note Series of phones
up to S7 and S7 Edge line up.
Its good to keep things organized, and now they all have similar names!
I test cell phone durability, so you know what to expect before you spend almost 1000
dollars on a pocket computer.
Most phones survive my durability tests, but ive also had a few catastrophic failures that
I stick on my 'Shelf of Shame'.
I'm an Android guy, and I carry around the Galaxy S7 Edge as my daily driver.
So Ive been looking forward to the Note 7 for awhile now, And I am VERY interested in
its new more shatter resistant Gorilla Glass 5 screen.
I have a set of picks that tell me how hard, or scratch-able, the front glass is on Mohs
Scale of Hardness.
Most of the 30 smart phones I have tested so far on my YouTube channel don't scratch
until a level 6.
I usually take it to a level 7 just for kicks and giggles... but on this phone, I was around
the level 5 pick and I noticed something different.
And after holding the phone up, You can see that this phone starts scratching at a level
3.
While this Gorilla Glass 5 might be more Shatter resistant than the Gorilla Glass 4, it is
only one step above plastic on the hardness scale.
If you do not have a screen protector on your Note 7, you will start seeing scratches on
your screen VERY soon after your purchase.
Remember, im not here to degrade Gorilla Glass, or the Note 7.
I'm here to help the consumer protect their devices for the long term.
If you know what to look out for, you can protect against it.
And this phone simply is not as scratch resistant as its predecessors like the Note 5 or Galaxy
S7 or even the iPhone.
I tried wiping off the scratch marks.
But even the level 3 mark is permanent.
Just for reference, I took the level 5 pick that didn't scratch the Galaxy S7 Edge and
held them side by side.
Remember...
The Note 7 is going to be more shatter resistant.
And this is awesome.
Just get a tempered glass screen protector and you can have the best of both worlds.
Scratch resistance AND shatter resistance.
So, lets move on.
The front camera, and iris scanner are both under the same front glass, so they are still
better protected than the HTC M9's front plastic camera lens.
I scratched the home button to check the durability of the fingerprint scanner.
Most cell phone fingerprint scanners will still function after being heavily scratched.
The LGG5 kept working, The Nexus 5x , The Axon 7, even the Moto z kept working.
But after heavily scratching the Note 7 scanner it spazzes out and never functions again...
so... try to keep your scanner scratch free.
The home button functionality is fine.
Only the scanner portion is out of commission.
To correct this in the future, Samsung should use a glass button like the OnePlus 3 or on
the iPhones.
The sides of the phone are made of pure metal.
Which is good.
It definitely has the premium metal feel to it.
Even the buttons are made of metal and will definitely last longer than if they were made
of plastic.
Premium materials are always a good thing.
The 12 megapixel rear camera lens is made of glass.
Not many smartphones have a plastic camera lens... but sometimes manufactures will try
and slip one through.
Like with the Blackbery Priv.
Plastic can be optically clear, BUT glass will hold up better against scratches and
general wear and tear longer.
Professional cameras use glass for a reason.
The single colored LED flash is under plastic, but that protective layer isn't quite as important.
The S-pen pops out easy enough.
Its light weight and you can see that the shaft is made of plastic, and the top portion
is plastic as well, covered in a plastic chrome.
The button is made of metal though.
So that is interesting.
Before we burn the phone and bend it, I did a quick test with my level five pick on the
back glass, and it scratched there as well.
Onto the burn test.
The Note 7 has a quad HD Super Amoled display.
And like the Galaxy S7, it does burn.
This phone lasted 8 seconds before the pixels started turning white.
It pales in comparison to the Moto Z's 50 second perseverance...
But lets be honest.
Flame isn't going to be a normal people have an issue with.
Its just an interesting comparison.
One thing that is awesomely impressive with Samsung and their Galaxy Series.
Is how strong the phone is.
When it comes to bending, this Galaxy Note 7 is a tank.
Even when I flex the phone from front and rear there are no kinks or permanent damage
anywhere even with its large size.
While I definitely don't recommend or endorse sitting on your phone...
this one can probably handle it.
You can check out my Shelf of Shame playlist for the few phones that couldn't.
In summary...
I'm pretty impressed with Samsung.
The've done a lot of things right with this phone.
The major complaint I have, is with the scratch resistance of the screen.
While its nice to have the extra confidence that comes with the 'shatter resistance'...
Its unfortunate that we have to lose 3 levels of hardness when compared to Gorilla Glass
4.
But even a simple cheap screen protector will take care of that.
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Thanks for watching.
I'll see you around.