Samsung Galaxy Note 7

The day the camera broke in my Note 4 was the last time I used that phone. I still have it, really I should get it fixed and pass it on to a family member or friend. The Note 4 is one of the greatest phones I’ve ever used. The Note 5 on the other hand, was less exciting to me, for one thing it didn’t come to the UK, but also it missed off a lot of the stuff I wanted in a Note phone.

But the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 seems to bring back the phone that I fell in love with back in 2012 when I first got a Note II as my main phone. And by missing out on the Note 5, I’m also missing the only Note that didn’t have removable storage. But let’s look over what I like about the Note 7 in the limited time I got to spend with it in the pre-brief and at the launch event.

Firstly, this is, without doubt, the best phone I’ve held in a long time. Samsung was keen to get us to think about how it felt, and I can see why. There’s some clear brilliance in the way the phone has a curved front and a matching curved back. Those two things together make it a joy to hold. It’s sort of the model Apple AAPL 0.00% has used on the iPhone, curves make it nice to hold.

Samsung’s skill though has been to maximise the 5.7-inch screen while keeping the phone as small as possible. The Note 7 is a tiny fraction taller than the Note 5 and another fraction thicker. In width though, Samsung has reduced the phone from 76.1mm to 73.9mm. We’re not talking massive change here, but the width reduction is important from a comfort perspective.

Camera

Here’s where things get a little bit less impressive than I’d like. The camera is, without doubt, amazing. But it’s the same as the one in the Galaxy S7. Now Samsung’s decision to align the model numbers might be a hint here, but I always liked the way the company used the six months of extra development time to make the old Note phones a little bit better than the Galaxy S line. That made it feel more special and worth the extra money.

I’m very happy with the camera on the S7 though, and having that same module on the Note 7 is no bad thing. Low-light photos are better now, but not perfect but the Note and S7 are both class-leaders in cameras. The autofocus speed is a particular highlight if you, like me, want a phone camera to come out of your pocket and be ready in seconds. Samsung’s fast access to the camera is something I use all the time on the S7 – just double tap the home button and you’re in.

S Pen

The S Pen is important to the Note. Samsung says that people who used the pen more like using the Note more. That makes sense, it’s a key feature of this range and it’s very powerful. For me, the pen and screen have always been amazing to use, but the tools for making the most of them weren’t always the most obvious.

Now you can use the pen to make animated GIFs. If you don’t know, an animated GIF is a piece of crap technology that should have died out along with the dinosaurs. Sadly it’s gaining in popularity despite the format being utterly ill-suited to moving images. But if you hate everyone, why not make a 50MB clip lasting 15 seconds at 12 frames-per-second. I’m exaggerating here, but only very slightly.

Better uses for the S Pen are making notes that you can have on the always-on screen and using the phone to translate foreign languages that are written on things like menus and road signs. This tech is awesome and really will change the way we conduct business and holidays in countries where we don’t speak the language. What I’m saying is that the Note 7 might make you look less stupid. I always feel very stupid in countries where I don’t speak the lingo.

Iris scanner

Bear in mind that because the average phone contract is around two years, many people will still be using their Note 4 at the moment. Those users will be stuck with the terrible swipe-type fingerprint scanner. Note 5 users have the advanced touch-type scanner, where covering the button is enough to log you in. But it’s interesting to see how far the tech has come in a short time.

And the Iris scanner changes things too. Samsung told me that the Iris recognition system is 100 times more secure than fingerprint, and I can sort of see how that would be the case. Even ignoring the security aspect, it seems that iris scanning is faster and less susceptible to slight moistness of the finger. The IR camera works in the dark too, so there’s no problem using it in almost any condition. It’s much harder to fake an iris scan than a fingerprint too.

One idea I had, which I don’t think Samsung has implemented, was using both the fingerprint reader and iris scanner together as a way of really increasing security. I suspect that the need to be secure for most users isn’t great enough to warrant that level of inconvenience.

Waterproof

I broke my review sample of the S7 Edge when I got it from Samsung. It turns out that the report from their labs suggested it had been submerged in salt water. I had chucked it in water, to test its waterproof skills, but that was just out of the tap. I don’t know what happened there, but I can tell you that waterproofing is a last-resort sort of thing for me. Don’t submerge your phone without a really good reason.

A Samsung exec I spoke to though showed me a video from his phone underwater, and the quality was stunning. So if you’re brave, there are some real advantages to having a handset that can survive submerged.

The S Pen is also waterproof, and of course, that’s essential because without the same rating as the phone it may well break. Samsung also says you can use the S Pen when the phone screen is wet. This seems to be the case, but I don’t find this massively useful as a feature. Perhaps you might, so it’s arguably good it exists.