Equipped with a variety of novel, breakthrough UI technologies, Samsung’s new flagship smart phone was met with better than expected media and analyst reception. It is a little early to tell about the consumer response, yet, as 30 days are left before the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 7 smart phone will hit shelves on September 2. Earlier news reports pointed out that it has already set a new record in logging pre-orders, signing up about 300,000 subscribers, the largest number ever that any of Samsung smartphone series have gathered yet.
Luring the global spotlight with new user experience technologies, its built-in-Iris-recognition scanner is a brand new biometric identification technology that promises better mobile security. It recognizes all 300 patterns set on irises of an individual’s eyes not only to allow users to unlock their smart phones with a blink of eyes, but also authenticate their personal ID to let them perform mobile banking.
Samsung said that all 300 iris patterns on human eyes are extremely unique so that it is almost impossible to emulate, making it difficult to break the digitally coded pattern-based password. This difficult-to-decode password technology will allow smart phone users to more securely clear bills, or transmit money on their smart phones.
Samsung was reported to be in talks with banks across Korea and the U.S like KEB Hana Bank and Bank of America to let more of its smart phone users to enjoy the improved authentication technology to transfer money and pays bills on the go with no worries on data or password breaches.
With its China-bound variation scheduled to roll off the line, the Galaxy Note 7 is also a telltale of how Samsung will address increasingly fragmented and localized regional markets like China and India.
These two markets are the most rapidly fragmented smart phone markets in the world where local makers like Xiaomi of China and Ringing Bells of India are prevailing undercutting global top-tier smartphone makers on intriguing features tailored to local tastes. These local makers have been alluring many customers with locally-tailored features outselling Apple and Samsung in their regional market.
To keep up with the localization trend, Samsung will launch a Chinese version of Galaxy note 7 that comes embedded with upgraded memory scheme – 6GB RAM and 128GB memory.
The original memory architecture of the device was 4GB RAM and 64GB external storage space.
China is trending toward devices with bigger memory capacity, as an increasing number of local consumers are hungry for larger memory space to store large files of video clips and photo archives.
This localization effort will likely help Samsung to regain lost sales momentum to Chinese rivals in the world’s fastest growing Chinese market.
Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile business, said “It is true that we are reviewing the rollout of the Chinese version with a 128 GB built-in memory, because Chinese smart phone makers are aggressively marketing higher capacity memory-built-in smart phones.”
Powered by Samsung Exynos Octa 8890 or Snapdragon 820 SoC that is coupled with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, Galaxy Note 7 runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is installed with a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with Dual Pixel, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), optical image stabilization (OIS), an f/1.7 aperture, dual-LED flash, and Auto-HDR feature. The front-facing camera is built with a 5-megapixel CMOS image sensor with an f/1.7 aperture.
Often dubbed as “phablet’ in the industry’s jargon for its in-between form factor between tablet and smart phone, the 5.7-inch Galaxy Not 7 comes embedded with 64GB storage, which can be expanded by microSD card up to 256GB.
The Galaxy Note7 is powered by a 3500mAh non-removable battery, which the company says supports fast charging on both wired and wireless chargers. Galaxy Note 7 is compatible with wireless power consortium, or WPC and power matters alliance, or PMA wireless charging standards.
Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, MST, and USB Type-C. Sensors on board include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and a proximity sensor. The smartphone weighs 169 grams, and measures 153.5x73.9x7.9mm.
When it comes to security features, Samsung says that the Galaxy Note 7's “Knox” security suite supports the iris scanner as well as fingerprint scanner. The company is also touting the new “Secure Folder system” as a new user-friendly security feature, with which users can hide, lock, and encrypt their apps or files on the watch list.
The Galaxy Note 7 was priced at 988,900 won, or approximately US$900
