As August approaches, so too does the expectation of a new Samsung phone, specifically the next addition to the Note range.
Samsung is set to hold an Unpacked event on August 2nd, and has dropped some heavy hints that the new Note will be debuted – the stylus in the invitation is a dead giveaway.
So what could the event bring? The rumours, as usual, are flying.
Name
The next Note looks set to be the Note 7 – skipping the Note 6 completely. Making this change will pull the range into line with the Galaxy S phones, the newest of which is the S7. It’s sure to annoy those who like a bit of order to things, in much the same way that the leap from Windows 8 to Windows 10 rankled with some people, who wanted to know where Windows 9 had disappeared to. It will all end in chaos, clearly.
Look
The Note 7 could draw inspiration from the Galaxy range for more than just its name. The word on the street is that the new Note will have the curved screen of the Edge range, making it a more attractive handset – in our opinion – and stand out from the phablet crowd. Will there be a flat version? Rumours indicate not, but that remains to be confirmed. Either way, it will be a glass and metal affair, and is expected to come in blue, silver and black. It will be waterproof and impervious to dust too, with an IP68 rating.
Screen
Apart from the curve, it looks like the screen will be quad HD instead of 4K. Journalist
Evan Blass
, who has a reputation for being right when it comes to this kind of thing, says it will be 5.7 inches too. Either way, you can expect it will be great quality.
The advantage of 4K would come with virtual reality, especially given Samsung’s Gear VR. The closer your eye is to that screen, the better it has to look, and 4K would be another step up for the firm. We can live without it though, especially given the power drain a 4K screen would be.
Tech
Samsung usually puts out two versions of its flagship phones: one powered by its own Exynos processor and another with a Snapdragon chip. Expect this to continue for the Note 7. There is also some speculation that the new phone will have as much as 6GB of RAM.
Power
Which brings us nicely to an important consideration: battery. A spec sheet claims the latest Note will come with a 3,500mAh battery. That’s not insubstantial but it falls short of 4,000mAh that people were hoping for.
It looks too like Samsung will be making the leap to USB C for the Note 7, adopting the new standard for the handset. What exactly does it mean? Well that stash of micro USB cables will be defunct. USB C is, like the lightning cable on Apple's devices, reversible so there is no wrong way to use it. The S7 failed to include it, preferring to stick with micro USB, but the Huawei P9, the Lumia 950 and Nexus 6P all use the new connection. The shift has begun, and it's just a matter of time before everyone falls in line. Except maybe Apple, of course.
Security
Fingerprint scanners are on most of the flagship phones these days; in fact, it’s unusual to find a model that doesn’t have it. But Samsung may have decided scanning fingerprints is passe, with word that the Note will come with an iris scanner. Will it be another gimmick? Possibly. Samsung also flirted with facial recognition as a security measure in the past – the Galaxy SIII had it – but it was a little too ambitious and prone to frustration. Later Galaxy phones monitored your eye position to keep the screen active when you were reading a web page, which was fine until you got a bit of low light in the mix. Then it couldn’t detect your eyes, rendering the feature useless – at least in our experience.
Storage
Could Samsung have ditched the 32GB version of the Note? There are strong rumours that the 64GB will be the smallest version of the Note 7, with the handset topping out 256GB. Plus, there will be the option to add a micro SD card too, something Samsung brought back with the S7. The more space the better, we say.
Camera
The Galaxy S7 has a great camera, so the Note 7 should be worth looking at. There are indications that the new Note will come with 12 megapixel Dualpix camera, and a five megapixel front facing camera. We have high hopes for this one to be at least as good as the S7.
Come back on August 2nd to find out how many of these rumours were based in reality.
