The success of the Tencent Digital News (Tencent) S7 made the Note 7 known to the world bit by bit almost under strict surveillance. In the two weeks before the press conference, the new phone was basically released through spy photos and rumors. This kind of treatment is only available to Samsung except Apple’s iPhone.

Interestingly, Samsung did not continue their Note codename this year. Instead, they willfully skipped Note 6 and named the just-released new product Note 7. The official explanation is that they hope that Samsung’s two most important series will have the same numerical codename within a year. This year, the GALAXY S was updated to 7, and it is logical that the Note will also "jump" to 7.

Almost like last year, Note 7 became a completion plan for S7. Samsung quickly made corrections in Note 7 for some unsatisfactory aspects of S7. Oh, and if you are a parameterist, you will be disappointed. In just 5 months, the Note 7 basically copied the S7 in terms of hardware.

Since the time to experience the product before the launch is relatively short, I would like to talk about the parts that many people (or I think many people) care about.

Design

The double-sided glass + metal frame design began to be used in Samsung’s most important mobile phone products with the S6, and the Note 7 is no exception. Also starting from the S6, every time Samsung launches an important mobile phone product, it will give an Easter egg in color. The S6 was lake blue and dark green, the Note 5 was silver, the S7 was gold pink, and with the Note 7, it became blue.

This blue is a bit close to the traditional sky blue, but what’s interesting is that Samsung did not use this color on the blue Note 7. Instead, it sprayed gold on the middle frame, giving the phone a somewhat contrasting feel. I don’t know if it’s intentional or due to craftsmanship considerations.

I still remember when the Note 5 was launched last year, in order to consolidate the market with a hyperbolic screen, Samsung specially launched an S6 edge+, one with a curved back and one with a curved front. Since there is not much difference in product positioning, it can be said that the emergence of S6 edge+ has somewhat hindered the market promotion of Note 5.

This year Samsung made up its mind to merge the two into one, so only one phone was released, the Note 7. Everyone also saw a phone with a curved front and a curved back. Compared with the 3D Note 5, the weight of the new phone has not changed much, except that the length has increased by 0.3 mm, the width has decreased by 2.2 mm, the thickness has increased by 0.3 mm, and the weight has decreased by 2 grams. These can be ignored, right?

As for the feel, based on personal experience, Samsung is obviously much more mature in handling the Note 7 frame than the S6 edge. Even though the glass on both sides of the front and back is drawn closer to the middle, the feel is still good. But the phone is still big, 5.7 inches, so weigh it in your pants pocket before buying.

In addition to blue, Note 7 is also available in black, silver and gold. It is reported that the commercially available Note 7 will only come in three colors. I don’t know which three colors will be available. You can guess.

Improvements

As the legacy of S7, Note 7 naturally supports some newly added functions on S7. For example, dustproof and waterproof, this technology has been popular on the S7. Many people buy mobile phones for this function. Now the Note 7 also has it, giving them an extra choice.

It is worth mentioning that the Note 7's stylus also supports IP 68 dust-proof and waterproof. Although the gap at the edge of the stylus is quite obvious when the stylus is inserted into the phone, since it is waterproof, it should be sealed with rubber on the inside of the phone.

The other is the return of the TF card slot. The single-card version has a Nano SIM card + a TF card, while the dual-card version like the mainstream version has a shared card slot for TF and SIM2. This is no different in design from the S7.

The difference is that Note 7 introduces a new USB Type-C interface. After all, it is still the big brother. If you don’t be the first to try it, you can’t be too slow. This means that the interface may have to be adjusted in future Samsung mobile phones, and it also means that the era of USB Type-C is coming.

The interface has been changed, but it still supports fast charging, and wireless charging continues to be supported. Whether to change the interface or not is a matter of one wire.

S Pen

This is a magical existence on almost every generation of Note series mobile phones. The reason is simple. Samsung has devoted all its efforts to the development and design of new technologies for each generation of S Pen. but! but! ! There are indeed a minority of people who buy Note series mobile phones and prefer stylus pens, so S Pen has become what I call a "magical" existence.

But even so, Samsung still spares no effort to develop the S Pen. In addition to the dustproof and waterproof mentioned above, the S Pen pressure sensitivity on Note 7 continues to be enhanced to 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and the thinnest handwriting can be as small as 0.7 mm.

In addition, Samsung has made two improvements that I personally think are very good. One is that they merged all the S Pen-related software in the phone into "Samsung Notes". The advantage of this is that there are still many functions, but there are fewer pre-installed icons, so you can understand them naturally.

The second one is the combination of two technologies. The AOD screen on the S7 has also appeared on the Note 7 this time. In addition, the Note 5 has previously supported the quick note-taking function under the screen. The combination of the two can realize the customization of the AOD screen. Although this function was originally designed by Samsung to be used as a portable note to remind users not to forget something important in real time, but I think a customized AOD screen may be more acceptable, right?

Iris

Many people are concerned about this feature. This is indeed the first time it has appeared on a Samsung mobile phone. For this reason, Samsung has specially added an infrared module with red film recognition on the left side of the microphone on the front panel of the mobile phone. Basically, it can be judged that the working principle of Note 7 iris recognition is to illuminate the iris of the eyeball through this infrared module and take photos and store them through the front lens, and then compare them with the saved photos when unlocking.

Let me first answer two questions that netizens are more concerned about. The first is speed. When I used it, the iris unlocking speed was very fast. From an intuitive perspective, it was no slower than fingerprints. This is enough to show that the iris technology used by Samsung has a good recognition rate.

The second problem is the problem of limited environment. First of all, when entering the iris information, the mobile phone will clearly indicate that wearing glasses is not acceptable. I asked a traveler to help test whether the contact lenses would work, but the result was tragic. It doesn't work in a dark environment. The reason is very simple and cannot be explained. So from the current point of view, Note 7's iris recognition can be regarded as a new security and confidentiality method for users, but it cannot replace fingerprints for the time being.

Samsung has specially set up a secure folder for iris unlocking, where you can store some private photos, short movies, etc., which will generally not be discovered, you know.

Camera

As for the camera module, Samsung copied the 12-megapixel one on the S7, with an F1.7 aperture and dual-phase focusing technology. Anyone who has used the S7 phone to take photos must have a deep understanding of the focusing speed of that lens and its ability to take photos in night scenes.

The main change of Note 7 this time is in the software. The original photography operation is based on buttons. For example, to open panoramic photography, you need to click "Mode" at the bottom of the screen, and then select panoramic photography. And on Note 7On the camera, the camera interface has become a sliding one. When you slide left and right on the camera interface, different menus will appear, which simplifies the operation.

I also took a random photo to test the Note 7's imaging. One sentence review: The overall level of detail is quite outstanding, the details of the out-of-focus scenes are intact, and the overall tone is warmer, which is in line with the usual sample tonality of Samsung mobile phones.

Focus speed? Before you finish saying these four words, Note 7 has finished focusing, over~

Accessories

As in the past, Samsung launched Note 7 this time with some accessories with different functions, of course, mainly leather cases and VR. The new VR has been released at the press conference, adding replaceable interfaces and a larger viewing distance within the screen.

This time Samsung mainly launched two cases for Note 7, one is a three-fold leather case that can support itself, and the other is a back case with its own battery, both of which are endorsed by Samsung's Note 7 LOGO. but! Taobao probably won’t sit idly by.

In addition, there are some strange products, such as this large lens housing...

Other things you may not care about

Due to the relatively short experience, I cannot fully tell you what this phone is like, so I will write about the battery life, actual sample effects, smoothness of use, etc. in the overall review later.

I have to talk about some things that are not so concerning but affect purchase.

First, there is the problem of accidental touch on the curved screen. This problem is particularly obvious on the S7 edge, and many users have complained about it. Judging from the 20-minute hands-on experience and my active testing of false touches, this problem still exists, especially when you hold it with one hand, there is still a similar problem in the part where the palm fits the screen. However, it is obvious that Samsung is improving the false touch problem, because I found that the Note 7 detects false touches much more times than the S7 edge, and even when a false touch occurs, the screen's movement range is not as large as before.

Second, there is the issue of fingerprints. Glass material has poor resistance to fingerprints. Starting from S6, many "Virgos" have been concerned: Oops, why is my phone so dirty? ! On Note 7, the fingerprint problem has not been significantly improved. Even when I attended the launch of Corning Gorilla 5 Glass two weeks ago, Corning’s CEO admitted that nothing can be done about the fingerprint problem, so don’t expect Note 7 to perform well.If you want to be fingerprint-free, buy a light-colored one.

Third, price. I really don’t know...but the US version of Note 7 has been announced to be available on the day of release, so you can check it out. The price of Note 5 last year was 5,388 yuan. It is estimated that this year's Note 7 will not be lower than 5,000 yuan. It is possible that the price will be slightly reduced like the S7.