The hills are alive with the sound of the Samsung Galaxy Note7‘s hype. It’s the South Korean company’s next big thing for 2016 and if any of the rumours are true, it’s going to be a doozy. Here’s the thing about rumours, though, they can be rather scattered and hard for your average reader to follow. To simplify things, we’ve compiled a list of 7 big things you can expect to see on the upcoming Galaxy Note7.
1. It will be called the Note7
Confirmed. pic.twitter.com/jo1EF3Mp3J
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) June 25, 2016
We’ll start with the most obvious. The next Note won’t be called the Note 6 (or Note6), instead, it will be called the Samsung Galaxy Note7. Samsung says that this is to keep it in line with the existing Samsung Galaxy S7 lineup and minimise confusion.
Samsung’s reasoning aside, the Note7 name actually makes sense because this is the 7th Note handset if you count the Galaxy Note Edge.
2. An iris scanner
Yes. It looks almost certain that Samsung will be adding a new option for biometric security on the Galaxy Note7. It won’t be your conventional face unlock, instead, the Note will an “Iris Recognition Camera” to quickly and more accurately unlock your device.
This system should be relatively similar to the ZTE Axon and Microsoft Lumia 950 XL’s setup. Check out this post if you want to know more.
3. A Dual Pixel camera
Much like the Galaxy S7 line of smartphones, the Note7 will likely feature the splendid 12-megapixel Dual Pixel primary camera at the back. This is definitely good news as we love this camera. It’s incredibly quick and can take brilliant photos with minimal effort.
Low light performance is fantastic too, thanks to the large 1.4-micron pixels and fast f/1.7 aperture lens. The only thing we’d like Samsung to take a look at with the otherwise brilliant camera is in the post processing. On the S7 smartphones, the images always look a little oversharpened and a little unnatural when you zoom in.
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4. A revamped TouchWiz (Grace)
We have touched on some of the potential changes we could see with the upcoming version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI thanks to a video posted by HDBlog.it. This new skin, also known as “Grace”, definitely improves upon the rather ugly TouchWiz on the S7 and S7 edge.
Everything looks a little cleaner, a little more stock and a little more classy in the new UI. You also get more customisation like widget transparency and flick gestures for individual app icons. Check out our full breakdown for more info.
5. A clean new look with a new colour
The Note7 will also look rather different compared to the Note5 it succeeds. Well, when I say different, I mean that in the most relative of senses. It’ll still be glass and metal and probably a fingerprint magnet as well, but it’ll be a fingerprint magnet that looks more like the S7 edge.
As part of their move to streamline their smartphone lineup, the Note7’s design language will probably also be similar to that of the S7. This is because the Note7 will feature a dual edge display on the front with a curved back to help with ergonomics. I guess you can think of it as an S7 edge+ with an S Pen? Since it looks and is built like the S7 edge, it will likely also be IP68 water resistant.
To set it apart, though, it looks like Samsung is going for a new colour option with the Note7 — Coral Blue. It honestly looks pretty darn good in the renders and I’m glad Samsung are going with a less conventional colour scheme.
6. A new faster fast charger and USB Type-C
Samsung’s Adaptive Fast Charging is pretty quick, being able to top up the S7 edge’s relatively large 3,600 mAh battery from 0% in about two hours. But, in a world with Dash Charging and VOOC Flash Charge (and even Super VOOC), Samsung have really got to up their game if they want to remain competitive in the fast charging market.
And that’s apparently exactly what the South Korean electronics giant is planning to do. Rumours have been floating around that the Note7 would come with a newer version of Samsung’s Adaptive Fast charging that offers three voltage options — 5V/2A, 9V/1.67A and 12V/2.1A — as opposed to the two on the current S7 edge’s charging brick.
The Note7 will also allegedly sport a USB Type-C port, something that was rumoured to make an appearance on the S7 line. While Sammy has shied away from using USB Type-C on their flagship smartphones, it appears that they will finally buy into the hype with the Note7.
7. More memory and storage
Finally, the Samsung’s Galaxy Note7 is said to come with a whopping 6GB of RAM. I suppose that isn’t too surprising considering the fact that there are already several flagships with 6GB of RAM, but what will probably surprise more is the rumour that the Note7 will offer a base storage of 64GB.
Not 16GB, not 32GB, but 64GB and it’s further expandable via microSD! Should this rumour turn out to be true, then it’s really good news for Galaxy Note fans…assuming Samsung doesn’t bump up the price by too much, that is.
Of course, keep in mind that most of these are unconfirmed and should be treated as such. All will be revealed on the 2nd of August, so stay tuned for all the juicy details.
