Galaxy Note 7 Reviews Are Up

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Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

It is interesting to see the big difference between most "consumer oriented" reviews, done by most sites, and the Anandtech review.
Anandtech obviously didn't like the device much, especially its software.
Compared with the HTC 10 the Note 7 looks bad, at least according to Anandtech. Too bad that Samsung has such a big marketing appeal and controls most of the press.
I am sure that the Note 7 is a great device (from a hardware perspective), but is too gimmicky on the software side of things.
I will ignore the Note 7, as I have done with all Samsung devices ever brought on the market.
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

I quote Anandtech's review:
"The final thing I want to discuss as far as the software experience goes is performance. While TouchWiz is generally performant I still find lag here similar to the Galaxy S7. To prove I’m not crazy I did a very simple scrolling test between the HTC 10 and Galaxy Note7 on the same application on the same pages doing a very slow scroll on content that had already been preloaded and without any notable transitions. The Galaxy Note7 consistently drops frames right as the scrolling stops while the HTC 10 stays fairly close to 60 FPS throughout this very simple test, which just highlights the kind of frustrations that I have with Samsung software. I’m fairly confident that Samsung has the engineering staff capable of resolving these issues so it’s frustrating to see how this kind of thing just never seems to get fixed. These kinds of issues make it easy to think that Samsung really only cares about things that can be easily marketed rather than things that make for a good user experience, and judging by how Samsung can quickly turn around and fix things like iconography they need to take smoothness seriously if they want to continue justifying their pricing structure.

Overall, I think TouchWiz is a pretty acceptable experience, but it’s still lacking the level of polish I’m expecting from a major high-end smartphone these days. Design is a lot better and things like collapsing multiple note applications into a single application are great, but Samsung clearly still has the impulse to add random features that don’t really have a discernable purpose other than marketing. The iris scanner is not a marketing gimmick at all, but things like the Translate function really don’t make any sense and shouldn’t involve the S-Pen at all. It might be nice to have a full page translation with the ability to select the words to be translated similar to Google Translate, but hovering over each word and waiting for translation is not a very good user experience. Similarly, things like not being able to swipe across tabs in some apps while being able to do the same thing in others is just inconsistent and not very helpful. The Note7 is not horribly choppy by any definition, but it still clearly drops frames in places that other high end smartphones don’t. I get that marketing gimmicks help to move a phone, but I would rather see developer time spent eliminating frame drops and improving touch latency rather than adding a half-hearted translation feature and animated GIFs."
Software UX: TouchWiz Redesigned - The Samsung Galaxy Note7 (S820) Review

"With all of this said I think the Note7 is fairly checkered. I’m sure there are people that want to buy one because it’s the only phablet on the market that really does a stylus well and if you’re someone that wants the Note7 for the stylus then you should stop reading now and go buy one because everything else on the market won’t meet your needs. If the stylus is just something that’s nice for you to have then the calculus gets much more difficult and the recommendation is no longer unconditional. The Galaxy S7 edge is currently about 750 USD and you can easily find people reselling new ones for any operator or international variants on Amazon for 600 USD or so. The Note7 does appreciably improve on the Galaxy S7 Edge, but it’s basically the S7 edge in a new package and with an S-Pen. You also get an extra 32 GB of storage which does justify the extra 100 USD that bumps the Note7 up to 850 USD.



With all of that said, I get the distinct sense that it will be much harder to justify the price well before the end of this year. The camera quality is kind of a disappointment given all of the hype at the launch of the Galaxy S7 given the dual pixel sensor and larger 1.4 micron pixels when the camera quality itself is not really an improvement over the Galaxy Note5 and is beaten out by the HTC 10. The software experience still shows dropped frames. There are still software features that feel like obvious gimmicks. The design is still lacking ID detailing. I’m sure other people will praise this device anyways but when a phone is this expensive and with smartphones in general getting polished to a mirror sheen each scratch becomes more obvious no matter how minor."
Final Words - The Samsung Galaxy Note7 (S820) Review
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

So if Anandtech's review had been glowing, would they too suddenly be under the influence of Samsung's powerful mind control. lol

Interesting that people take the one negative review as some sort of beacon of truth, while dismissing the others (and in the process insulting the writers here at AC), because it better fits their narrative.

Moving on...

From AC:

If you look at everything that the Galaxy Note 7 offers, I'm not sure what else you can honestly (and realistically, considering constraints and trade-offs of modern phones) ask for. It isn't a perfect smartphone, but that has and never will be the case with any phone — what matters here is that the Note 7 provides a fantastic experience through and through. And despite its congruence with the Galaxy S series that classic Note fans may bemoan, it's easily the best Galaxy Note that Samsung has ever made.
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

dsignori said:
The Verge loves it.

"its best phone ever"

"The Note 7 is Samsung’s best device ever, and arguably the best big phone ever made"

"The Note 7’s combination of metal and glass, symmetrical sides, and rounded corners make it the nicest-looking phone I’ve ever laid eyes on"
Click to expand...

For the Verge who is very pro apple to say that means something! And everyone was so "disappointed by the note" Guess you small vocal minority are the only ones upset by it.
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

dsignori said:
It's funny. Unless its a Nexus, AP's reviews of Smartphones - and Samsung phones in particular - have always struck me as being like that kid in school who is "too cool" to like the things that are popular. Not that this initial "review" is all that bad, it just something I've noticed with AP over the years.

I really love AP, and I read them daily. They just have an inherent bias toward "pure" Android - which I do not share - and it really seems that if a device is so popular, they go out of their way to try to highlight any small negative. I never take their phone reviews too seriously, but I do read and love all their other articles.
Click to expand...

Agree. David is the nexus defender over at AP. He was in full force in the comments of the leaked nexus images for this year. Funny he gives the nexus a pass but would bash any other company if their device looked like the nexus.
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

I think it looks fantastic. Would love to have a go with the s-pen. Shame I only just got the s7!

Posted via the Android Central App
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

Citizen Coyote said:
AnandTech's biggest beef with the phone is the price for what you get. If you're not sold on the S-Pen, then their opinion is you're probably better served by a Galaxy S7 Edge, maybe even a used one. It's a fair criticism in my mind.
....
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Sort of. Anadtech, like so many posters here, and so many tech sites, never properly qualify their price /value opinions. What I mean by that is that 99% of the buying public does NOT pay full retail price when getting a new phone. They use their upgrades to get discounts, pay on a monthly plan, etc. I have never once paid full price for a phone. While many here on the forums do, and many tech site writers do, almost no one in the general public does.

As such, I might have to pay $5/month more to get the Note 7 per month over a S7E, or so. Someone else might pay an extra $50 up front for a contract - if anyone is still on them, etc. So is this "worth" $5 for me? I think so, yeah :-). If they would just clarify their pricing discussions a bit more in this way, perhaps by saying something like my "biggest beef with the phone is the price for what you get - if you have to pay full price to get it", AnandTech could be a bit more precise - as they like to be :-).
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

areyes163 said:
Like others here I always like Floss Carter and Erica Griffen's reviews the best. And of course Mr Mobile. Those are the only three I really trust. All the others are just time fillers.
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In addition to the above mentioned, I also like Lisa @ Mobiletch review
 
I've read a lot of the reviews. They all seem to have a common theme: The Note7 is the best phone Samsung has made and is one of the best Android phones you can buy.

Only thing is that I've been hearing that the SD820 variant seems to have some concerns with small performance hiccups and battery life being good but not great. Wonder if it'll improve over time.

At the same time, will the Exynos variant be the same story as it was with the S7?

dsignori said:
It's funny. Unless its a Nexus, AP's reviews of Smartphones - and Samsung phones in particular - have always struck me as being like that kid in school who is "too cool" to like the things that are popular. Not that this initial "review" is all that bad, it just something I've noticed with AP over the years.

I really love AP, and I read them daily. They just have an inherent bias toward "pure" Android - which I do not share - and it really seems that if a device is so popular, they go out of their way to try to highlight any small negative. I never take their phone reviews too seriously, but I do read and love all their other articles.
Click to expand...
I like AP for this one photo. :P
image.png

Rizwan Basir said:
He continued with saying that it isn't a deal breaker. But really, Samsung? It's 2016. Ive had so many Samsung phones and it didn't really bother me. The RAM management hasn't been good. From the look of things it isn't good still. Check out C4eTech. Ive ignored their software quirks everytime. I can ignore them still.
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Actually, I've seen some more speedtests and I'm beginning to suspect that C4eTech's unit may be faulty or has a unique bug or what.

Like this Vietnamese video. Exynos variant, like C4eTech's.
https://youtu.be/cX3GANN494w

I don't know why, but this particular model manages memory in a much better fashion compared to C4eTech's, even though they are identical in hardware.

We'll have to wait and see for what the general consensus is, but right now, I think C4eTech might have a bit of a dodo in his review unit.
 
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Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

jshah500 said:
SAME! It's nails on a chalkboard everytime he says his name at the beginning and end of his videos
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You ain't kidding, That HiMe crap makes me sick. Good reviewer but he needs to get over squawking that name HiMe. :(
 
Re: Note 7 Reviews Are Up

i've yet to read a review that says the Note 7 is awful or very bad.

so, i think it's one of the better phones around, price aside.

oh well... who's getting it? :)
 
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