If you’ve been holding off pulling the trigger on a new phone recently because you’ve been waiting to see what the rest of this year has in store, you’re in luck. Today, Samsung unveiled the first of several highly anticipated smartphones set to release this fall, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. As anticipated, Samsung skipped right over the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 moniker and dove right into 7. While the reason for this still isn’t crystal clear, we figure it’s just to keep numbers consistent between Samsung devices (given that the S7 was also released this year).
This year, the Note 7 comes with a few noteworthy design changes when compared with last year’s Note 5. The Galaxy Note 7 features a dual-edged display, and adds a new color to the line-up. The Note 7 will be come in black onyx, silver titanium, blue coral, and gold platinum (which is only available for select markets) colors. It will have the same 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 Super AMOLED display that the Note 5 had.
As for its specs, the Note 7 will run on the Snapdragon 820 processor (although some markets will receive the Exynos 8890 SoC variant), have 4GB of RAM, offers 64GB of internal storage (which can now be expanded via microSD card once again by 256GB), a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 3,500 mAh battery.
In regards to special features, the Note 7 introduces the USB Type-C port that many were hoping to see with this year’s Galaxy S7, but didn’t. Samsung also included an iris scanner in addition to the fingerprint scanner, so there’s no shortage of security features on this device. There’s also the S Pen itself, which has a plethora of special Note-specific features of its own. The S-Pen continues to make the Galaxy Note a pinnacle of productivity. The Note 7, and surprisingly the S Pen as well, is IP68 water and dust resistant. Of course, the Note 7 also supports wireless charging.
You can check out all of the juicy details of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 here.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will arrive on August 19th. Samsung will also offer either a 256GB microSD card or a Gear Fit 2 with the purchase of a Note 7. Here are the prices that the U.S. carriers will be asking for the Note 7:
- AT&T: 30 payments of $29.34 with AT&T Next or 24 payments of $36.67 with AT&T Next Every Year. Pre-orders begin August 3. AT&T also offering deal that'll let you get a second Note 7 along with $695 in monthly bill credits to cover most of its cost.
- Sprint: No pricing details announced as of this post.
- Verizon: No pricing details announced as of this post.
- T-Mobile: $69.99 down and 24 payments of $32.50 each, $849.99 full retail. Pre-orders begin August 3. Buyers also have the option of getting a free year of Netflix instead of the Gear Fit 2 or 256GB microSD card.
- U.S. Cellular: Pricing starts at 30 monthly payments of $27.50 per month, with 24 and 20 monthly payment options also available. Pre-orders begin August 4.
Overall, there’s not much here that we haven’t already seen, but the Note 7 is nonetheless a top performing smartphone in its own right. Readers, what are your initial thoughts on the Galaxy Note 7? Will you be picking one up for yourself?