We had the opportunity to put significant time into meeting the official review launch date for the Note7, so decided to put resources into that as a priority. After Josh has finished up the final sections and had his nap, we'll crack the whip :D
Suppose it makes sense to get one review out promptly and delay the already crazily late one but please, please get on with it! It's getting silly now ;)
Since you pushed the 10 review even further, I'm going to have to assume your review will be based on the latest firmware, which for the US version would be 1.91
i hope you consider the software update version 1.90.401.5 or the latest update you have . and please mention the software version in your article .thanks to all the reviewer
i hope you consider the software update version 1.90.401.5 or the latest update you have . and please mention the software version in your article .thanks to all the reviewer
Yep, my Note 4 has been great, but I don't fancy paying $1200 Canadian for something that can't really be given a case or a screen protector without compromising its functionality. Without them I'll break it within a month.
Is the charge time limited by temperature? Ie. if you plug a 50% charged phone that is cold vs. 50% charged phone that is burning hot after 30min of gaming, are the charging rates going to be the same?
"My major complaint here continues to be a general lack of performance as things like scrolling don’t feel like they have the momentum or response that they should and I still see frame drops that don’t happen in comparable devices."
The SD820 actually has the power to run the UI more fluidly than the Exynos. The Moto Z runs extremely fluidly, even moreso than the Exynos S7. The problem is, Samsung optimizes the kernel / governor settings on SD820 devices more for battery life than for performance.
Yeah. The Exynos is more efficient. But performance is still less than it should be because of Samsung's bloated software and prioritization of battery life. The Moto Z runs circles around the Exynos S7 in real world smoothness, even though the Exynos is a better chip than the SD820. Stop making this about Exynos vs Snapdragon. This is about Samsung's crappy software and optimization regardless of what chip is used.
Ding ding ding, you said it. Samsung's bloated software.
TouchWiz is an abomination that should be destroyed by fire. Each year they tout how amazing the new TouchWiz is going to be without telling you the performance penalty it brings. These overlays should only be allowed as apps that one can disable.
If say stick to Nexus devices but in this case it's the only good phablet and there are no nexuses with pen support. Suffer through TouchWiz is your only option
SD820 has the power more fluidly? Yes. Better than Exynos? Ummm... No. If you want smoother UI and better touch response, root and change the governor to Performance, or Ondemand.
I've dug a little deeper into this after I bought my GS7e (Exynos). Looks like Exynos (and it's higher count of cores) plays better than the Snapdragon with the Conservative Governor that Samsung employs to save battery life. You can manually switch it to Ondemand, Interactive, or even better, Performance (eliminating most of the UI performance differences, and increase the responsiveness of the device drastically). But battery life would take a major hit, just like every other Android device with a 1440p screen.
What needs to fixed and optimized is ANDROID. Google still insists on doing a crappy job with their OS, just like with their browser.
"What needs to fixed and optimized is ANDROID. Google still insists on doing a crappy job with their OS, just like with their browser."
What also needs to be fixed is the "higher resolutions screen is better" mentality. No smartphone should have more than a 1080p panel for optimal performance and efficiency.
There's absolutely no mention of the new power saving features that the new version of TouchWiz employs; like scaling down the resolution and how much more battery life you get out of that. Guess I'll have to test it myself when my GS7 gets the update. I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo scaling back the resolution to 1080p while leaving processing power intact.
Yes. The extra screen resolution is not worth the hit on battery life. Android and Samsung are also both to blame for poor optimisations. I had the Nokia 1520 which had great battery life, then the Note 5 which had only so so battery life, now the iPhone 6S Plus which has great battery life. On the Note 5 if I left the hotspot on it would get hot and drain the battery even when my Microsoft Pro 4 was in its case. I just felt too many rough edges on Samsung phones I had.
Remember, guys, amoled isn't hit by lower efficiency on higher resolution, that is only an LCD problem. Now granted the gpu and cpu have to work a little harder but 1080P wouldn't look nice with pentile and Samsung does pentile to get a better endurance/longevity and brightness out of AMOLED. I don't think they made the wrong choice here. And yes, 1440P on an LCD is stupid.
Then it shouldn't be an issue and if it is - they shold fix the governor not switch to performance. The performance governor is barely faster at big costs.
It doesn't act like an Interactive governor would act at all, it's very slow to ramp up clock speed, and most ramps up the little cores. It's a good thing for battery life, but not as good for fluidity.
IMHO the on demand governor should really not be costing battery life. It was designed to be a good balance and it generally is, at least on desktop.
Then again with such an outdated kernel with patches who knows what is in there... wish the android vendors would get their stuff up streamed more timely...
It's a conscious decision happening at Samsung. They could tweak the kernel / governor configuration so that there are almost no frame drops and slowdowns, but it would come at the cost of battery life. Samsung is aiming for the minimum performance they think their users won't be annoyed with in order to maximize battery life, which Samsung assumes is more important to the average user. Google on the other hand configures their devices so that they maintain 60 fps in most scenarios, and their battery life suffers for it. I personally prefer Google's approach because I value a smoother and stutter free UI more than a little extra battery life, but I think a lot of people who buy Nexus devices are baffled as to why the battery life isn't as good as their Samsung phone even though the battery is just as large. Those people may prefer battery life over the smoothest UI possible.
The trick with Nexus is not to scroll continuously. Rather than scroll line by line, read a page of text, scroll it down in one motion, read the next section. Saves a lot of power.
It's clear that Samsun really needs to invest in its Exynos chip and drop Snapdragon. They're still not evetop on Apple A9's level after an entire 11 months and all their 2016 flagships. Let's see how much wider the gap gets again with A10.
Yep, because Android don't run Objective-C or Swift based benchmark. But most benchmark cross platform benchmark use those two. And a 100$-200$ Android phone may stutter, but you can compare it with 700$ phone.
These are Javascript benchmarks that are not running in ObjC or Swift. It's measuring the browsing usage performance and work on all browser that run Javascript.
iPhone is twice as fast with the Google Octane benchmark which is the closest to real world usage. I didn't know that Google was optimising their benchmark to make iOS phones leave Android in the dust.
Yeah, I was looking at some of the benchmark numbers and the first thing that came to my mind was "Apple is killing them here, they're just killing them!"
This is supposed to be the latest and greatest CPU/GPU combination and yet Apple's year old CPU/GPU combination is wiping the floor with Samsung's new phone. Not only is Apple killing them in the browser benchmarks but also in Basemark tests as well. If I was a Samsung fan boy I would be asking why the hell a year old device (iPhone 6s) is seemingly faster than my latest and greatest flagship device.
Now, a number of users are saying that may be because of the CPU governor that Samsung chose to use as the default CPU governor so as to improve overall battery life but as we can see in some of the benchmarks, Apple is killing them yet the iPhone doesn't at all have issues with battery life. So again, why is Apple killing them with a year old device?
God, if the benchmarks look this ugly when compared to the year old iPhone 6s I can't imagine how bad it's going to be when compared to the new chip Apple is going to have in the new iPhone 7 (or whatever it's going to be called). If I had to hazard a guess, it's going to be an absolute bloodbath.
Everyone should know by now that in single threaded use apple is miles ahead of any android vendors, period. Same with storage performance. Multicore performance, which thankfully is a little more important on Android than on iOS, is better with exynos and friends but that is only a little consolation.
Still, it is a little bit sad that, as an iPhone user myself (corporate phone as I am using a Windows phone as a private own), it is now the only thing Apple fans can really brag about. Especially considering that it does not offer any appreciable benefit as most modern flagships are anyway in all practical purpose quick enough for what we are using them. Apple can continue to push this CPU race, we just reached a point of diminish return and this is really not what mobile phone needs now. People needs smaller phone for a given screen size (iPhone has huge bezel and the Note 7 is a marvel on this regard), they need more battery life and/or better or quicker way to charge (quick charging, wireless charging), they need screen readable outdoor with good contrast (iPhone is good outdoor but contrast is not up to OLED level), they need to be able to perform tasks quicker (camera hardware button, back button, NFC, ...), they need to be able to use their phone with one hand (not having the back link or all the buttons on top like on iOS), they need to be able to take the best pictures possible because this is the camera they are wearing (Apple is still really pushing the envelope with refusing to put a decent camera size sensor in their phone for whatever sake of thinness)... Let's be frank, I do not know one single person with a big of brain and common sense that would choose an iPhone versus another Snapdragon 820 or Exynote xxx just for the sake of difference of single thread CPU speed. That is just NOT an argument that register in any meaningful way these days to normal people.
How would that help? Even the Exynos S7 doesn't run as smooth as the Moto Z, which is pushing just as many pixels and has s Snapdragon 820. There are two issues, neither of which is the fault of the SD820. First, Samsung phones are bloated with a ridiculous number of features and background services running, which requires more processing power than something running a cleaner build of Android like the Moto Z or a Nexus. Second, because of the extra overhead caused by their software, Samsung has to limit the performance of their chips (both Exynos and Snapdragon) via kernel / governor configuration in order to get good battery life. Samsung could easily tweak the SD820 so that the Note 7 ran perfectly smooth and hardly ever dropped frames. The SD820 is easily capable of that. But if they did that, then the Note 7 would get below average battery life. It's all about priorities. Samsung is betting that their users will prefer good battery life and some minor stuttering here and there over below average battery life and a perfectly smooth UI. I mean, yes, the Exynos is more efficient than the SD820 so they didn't have to limit its performance quite as much to achieve good battery life, but even the Exynos is performing far below it's potential because of Samsung's heavy software and desire for good battery life. The fact that the Moto Z runs smoother than even the Exynos S7 is proof.
But that doesn't explain why the iPhone 6s appears to be wiping the floor with this device and yet iPhone 6s users often enjoy some of the best battery life numbers in the industry.
Again, as I said above... If I was a Samsung fan boy I would be asking why the hell a year old device (iPhone 6s) is seemingly faster than my latest and greatest flagship device.
Look at the S7 Exynos stock browser results. Yes, the iPhone 6s still outperforms it, but it isn't exactly "wiping the floor" with it.
Also, consider that although the onscreen benchmarks seem to be in its favour, the S7 is rendering almost 4 times the pixels. While the Mali T880/Adreno 530 is ahead though, the iPhone 6s does admittedly have superior sustained performance.
iOS runs less background processes and is less resource intensive than Android, leading to the great battery figures.
Which tells me that Samsung didn't equip the device with a strong enough GPU to push the amount of pixels and sustain high frame rates. If you ask me, there's no reason why that device should have such a high pixel count. Once you go past a certain point it becomes nothing but bragging rights.
As for iOS running less background processes, that's a good thing. Yeah, Android is pretty bloated under the hood. And then you throw Samsung's garbage on top and you make it even worse. Android's not nearly as optimized as iOS is.
The device has a high pixel count because it uses a Pentile display, so the effective resolution is always less than advertised. A Pentile 1080p on such a big screen would look like crap.
It was surpassed in performance and efficiency a long time ago, by the Exynos 7420... The 8890 widened the gap further.
I know you guys want to believe that Apple's chips are the best. I feel your pain. But it's not, no matter how many "reviewers" preach browser benchmarks. Geekbench is by no means a legit benchmark. lol.
Even on the GPU side, the PowerVR has long been surpassed.
Stop blaming Google's shortcomings on Samsung, Qualcom and others. Google's _services_ are great, but their software and optimization level is absolute brown stuff. Samsung, LG and everyone else has to literally fix Android before releasing a phone/update...
Performance...only in multi-threaded benchmarks. Twister absolutely destroys A57 in any single-threaded benchmark and since for the vast majority of use cases (i.e. web browsing) the OS only uses one core, the overall user experience is so much better with the A9. Mongoose is catching up but still not at Twister's level.
As for efficiency, the modem on the S6 makes it last a ridiculously short amount of time on LTE and even on Wifi the 6s lasts half an hour longer with a battery two-thirds the size of the S6. The 6s Plus lasts a full 2 hours longer with a similar size battery.
The GT7600 was only beaten in GFXBench this year by the Adreno 530 and surpasses both Adreno 530 and the T880MP12 in Basemark (it also has equal performance to the T880 in Manhattan). You make it sound like the GT7600 is multiple generations behind while it is not. It absolutely crushes the Adreno 430 and the T760MP8 in the Exynos 7420. The GX6450 in the A8 was underpowered but the GT7600 is not.
I do hope that at some point Apple adds two Cortex-A53s to help with low power tasks, but given that their dual-core design already achieves insanely good performance (with the A10 seeking to equal the performance of A9X in a mobile device), they might not even need to.
"and since for the vast majority of use cases (i.e. web browsing) the OS only uses one core"
False. On Android, the vast majority of applications take full advantage of 4 or more cores.
"As for efficiency, the modem on the S6 makes it last a ridiculously short amount of time on LTE and even on Wifi the 6s lasts half an hour longer with a battery two-thirds the size of the S6. The 6s Plus lasts a full 2 hours longer with a similar size battery."
Also, false. As proven by personal experience, with good reception, the modem on the modern Exynos chips can be more efficient than WiFi. What you're seeing in the charts, my friend, is that Safair (or any browser for the matter), is more efficient that Chrome (shocker). What you're also seeing is that, 720p and 1080p are more battery friendly than 1440p (another shocker). It's amazing that the GS6/GS7 can keep up with that much overhead and more pixels to push.
Not really, those cores are waisted cores. The scheduler sucks, therefore making android inefficient overall when it comes to the use of multiple cores.
Simply because the scheduler is able to schedule a workload across multiple threads does not mean it is taking "full advantage of 4 or more cores". Browser performance is still heavily single-threaded whether you like it or not. Read the comments on Andrei's article.
I'm going by Anandtech results here, and the E7420 suffers incredibly on battery life when on LTE compared to Wifi. Without results for the E8890 I can't say for sure, but with not even Qualcomm having found a way to get LTE battery life to even EQUAL Wifi (sure they're getting close, but there's still a small delta) I severely doubt that Samsung can do it, given their E7420 difficulties. Also, personal experience is highly unreliable and unless you have some time-lapse video to prove it, I won't believe you when all the data available says otherwise.
Sure Safari is more efficient. (It's also far more performant, but that's another story.) And yes I will concede that the 6s renders at a fairly low resolution. However you must keep in mind that the 6s Plus actually renders at 2208 x 1242 which is 75% the pixels of 1440p, much closer than you would think. And render resolution on GS6/7 might not even be the display resolution - most Android apps don't bother to render at such a high resolution because most phone's don't have 1440p displays. And given screen technologies in 2016, if Apple switched to 1440p LCD I doubt there would be a 2 hour+ impact to battery life. Phones like the HTC 10 with 1440p LCD displays with the same chip as the GS7 can achieve better battery life than it with the same size battery. This is not only a testament to S820's inefficiencies but also Samsung's implementation inefficiencies. And no, the GS6/7 are not able to "keep up". I've already stated how the GS6 absolutely cannot compare with the 6s or 6s Plus, and even with the GS7 the S820 version barely edges out the 6s with a battery nearly twice the size, with even the more optimized E8890 version being unable to top the 6s Plus with a larger battery. These differences can't be attributed solely to browser inefficiencies or screen densities. Samsung's implementations are simply not efficient compared to Apple or even HTC with their S820 implementation and Huawei with their Kirin 950.
- if Apple switched to 1440p LCD I doubt there would be a 2 hour+ impact to battery life
How do you explain then the huge drop of battery life between the MacBook from the MacBook Air?
- And no, the GS6/7 are not able to "keep up". I've already stated how the GS6 absolutely cannot compare with the 6s or 6s Plu
The iPhone 6S did not exist when the GS6 was released. The S6 had (slightly) better battery life than the iPhone 6, despite a screen bigger, with 3 times more pixels to push. The facts do not back up your claims.
You have to consider what you're comparing here. On one side you have smartphones which have screens not even 6 inches diagonally. On the other side you have full-blown computers which have screens more than twice the size diagonally. There's a reason most computers haven't moved far past the 1440p-1600p mark. The screens are so big that the power consumption gets unreasonable. The subpixels on computers have to be much larger than on a phone. A 1440p LCD on the HTC 10, for example, will not consume the same power as a 1440p Macbook screen. In fact, it consumes far less, allowing the phone to have basically the same web browsing battery life with a much smaller battery. In addition, the Macbook has a 25% smaller battery compared to the Air, further giving it the disadvantage.
I stated that the 6s and 6s Plus destroy the GS6, correct? I never mentioned the 6 at all. Don't try to twist my words. The facts do indeed back up my claims and if you can't see that maybe you should take a look at those charts again. I do concede that the 6 series were terrible phones all around (terrible SoC, terrible display, terrible modem, terrible design, terrible Touch ID) but with the 6s Apple fixed almost all of these issues.
Finally, the S6 actually had worse battery life than the 6 in web browsing and in gaming (taking into account frame rates). What are you basing your (non-existent) claims off of?
You're hugely exaggerating the iPhone 6's deficiencies. Touch ID was it slow but it was far more accurate than any other fingerprint scanner implemented on a mobile device up to that point.
The design was the exact same as the 6S. The modem had more LTE bands than had ever been integrated into a single device. The screen wasn't vastly different than the 6S screen either. And the SoC had great single core performance. The battery even lasted longer than the 6S.
Please don't be offended, but I cannot take you, or any other biased user, seriously when you're claiming that someone's argument is unreliable, then go on and prove the opposite using the same (and/or worse) approach they did. Yes, I've read the comments on that article (all of them actually), and contributed/replied to lots.
-- Simply because the scheduler is able to schedule a workload across multiple threads does not mean it is taking "full advantage of 4 or more cores"
A good example of what I mean above. Your statement may (and I say: may) be correct if there WASN'T any DIRECTLY related data to prove it wrong. When 4 or more cores are ramping up (and actually computing data) during app loading and scrolling (including browsers, particularly Samsung's browser), then it sure as hell means that these apps (all the ones tested actually) ARE taking advantage of the extra cores. Unless the scheduler is "mysteriously" loading the cores with bogus compute loads, that is (enter appropriate meme here). Multi-core workloads ARE the future, Apple is sure to follow. It's taking a LONG while, but it's coming. We've also pointed out that there is LOTS of overhead in Android that needs work, and that most certain won't be remedied with larger, faster big cores. On the contrary it would be worse for efficiency.
"I'm going by Anandtech results here" AHHHHHHH, right there is the caveat, my dear commentator. If YOU had actually read the comment section, you'd know just how much we're complaining about the inconsistency of Anandtech's charts. You never get the same phones/models, consistently, on a series of comparisons; you get the GS7 (Exynos) VS iPhone 6S+ on one, then the GS7e (S820) VS iPhone 6/6S (not the plus) on the other, considering both iPhone models are NOT the same phone, with different resolutions and different screen size/resolution (AND different process nodes among even the same models). It's relatively safe to claim, at this point, that those inconsistencies are intentional, while Anandtech's "excuse" is that not all phones are at the same "lab" at the same time. Selective results at its best. There's absolutely no effort in extracting external factors and testing HARDWARE for what it is. One could argue that the end user is getting a package as a whole, but that's also inconsistent with Anandtech's past and present testing methodology, where at times they claim that they're testing hardware, and times you get a review largely clouded by "personal opinion" like ^this one and the one before. If you really are reading the comment section, you'd see us mention that this review is personal opinion, and adds nothing to what's being said and shown online already. We can deduct the outcome, but we want to know the REASON. Anandtech fails to deliver.
Back to the argument about radios. You haven't tested the devices yourself. You haven't used any as your daily driver. I have. Anandtech's results, charts and whatnot don't only contradict my findings (and many others) in one department, but MOST. It's safe to assume that their testing methodology is flawed, seriously flawed. They absolutely do NOT take into consideration any real world usage, NOR do they completely isolate external factors to test hardware, NOR is there any sort of deep dive or tweaking to justify their claims. For WiFi, they cherry picked the least common scenario to fault the device and they didn't show any performance/reliability data for more common workloads.
I own a Galaxy S7 Edge (Exynos), since day 1. I actually go out and know lots of people, for business and leisure. My family, friends and clients own iPhones (various generations, mostly latest), Galaxies, HTCs, LGs and Huaweis. Guess who has the best reception. Guess who has better and more reliable WiFi. Guess who has the better rear camera (front camera is almost a wash now after updates, and sometimes better. It was worse at launch), BATTERY LIFE, SCREEN, features, etc, etc, etc... This isn't limited to this generation of Galaxy S/Notes, it's been this way since the S4/Note 2 (aesthetics aside). The only drawback on current generation Galaxies is reception COMPARED to previous plastic built Galaxies; they're still BETTER than the competition.
Again, what are we comparing here? Actual hardware? Or real world usage? Performance consistency? I don't know at this point. Anandtech reviews are anything but consistent, and nowhere as easy for an objective user to extract the truer result between the lines. They weren't perfect, but it was easy to deduct the facts from the claims. Now, you get a deep dive of why X is better than Y, but then you get a "statement" of why Z is better than X without anything sort of rational reasoning (sugar coated with "personal taste").
Did you read the camera review? What was Josh comparing there? If it's about post processing, then Samsung isn't worried about his "taste", what they're worried about is what MOST OF THEIR USERS like and want. Their USERS want colorful, vivid and more USABLE images, not a blurry mess. Nothing beats Samsung's camera there, especially with the new focusing system. Again, what's being compared here? Sensor quality or his own taste in post processing? If it's sensor quality, I haven't seen a side by side comparison of RAW photos using the same settings, have you??
-- Sure Safari is more efficient. Let's stop there then, because we agree. At this point, software optimization can (and does) completely shadow any "potential" inefficiencies in radios. Everyone agrees that Chrome isn't the best optimized browser for ANY platform. Safari has built-in ad blocking, Chrome doesn't. Samsung's browser supports ad-blocking, but Anandtech didn't bother making the comparisons' more apples to apples. They claimed that it performed worse or the same as Chrome. ***BS***. Samsung's Game-Tuner enables the user to run Samsung's browser (or any other app, not just games) in 1080p and even 720p modes, but again, Anandtech didn't bother. I sure as hell noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in render performance, battery consumption, and lower clock speeds when lowering the resolution (I run my apps and browsers in 1080p mode exclusively, and my games at 720p with no apparent visual difference, but with HUGE performance benefits).
Other than the FACT that these phones are NOT running the same software (OS, apps/games, even if they were the same "titles"), Javascript benchmarks, in particular, are an absolute mind-F***. You get VASTLY different results with different browsers on the same platform, and different results using the same browser on different platforms. Any sort of software optimization can drastically change the results more so than any difference in IPC or clock speed. Any reviewer (or computer scientists for the matter) worth their weight would never, NEVER, claim that a freagin' CPU is faster based on browser benchmarks UNLESS those CPUs were running the SAME VERSION browser, on the SAME platform, using the SAME settings, AND the SAME OS. Anandtech, among others, are "mysteriously" refusing to bring this point to light, and instead chose to fool the minds of their audiences with deliberate false assumptions. Most commentators know this, so how do you expect me, and others, to take you seriously. With that said, javascript (at this piont) is the least deciding factor of browser performance (especially on mobile).
-- This is not only a testament to S820's inefficiencies but also Samsung's implementation inefficiencies How so? Where's the log data to back this up? Where's the deep dive? Where, in Samsung's software, is the reason for that? How can it be fixed?
This community is infested with false claims, inconsistent results, and bad methods of testing. Youtube is littered with "speedtests" and "RAM management" tests that have no evident value in everyday user experience, and FAIL to exclude external factors like router-scheduling and Google Play Services. No one runs and shuffles 10s of apps and 5 games at the same time.
I'm a regular commentator here, and I've bashed Samsung more than praising them on various subjects. I'm the first to point out the shortcomings of their tradeoffs. But I also know that these shortcomings are far, FAR less user-intrusive for the majority of consumers.
"The GT7600 was only beaten in GFXBench this year by the Adreno 530 and surpasses both Adreno 530 and the T880MP12 in Basemark (it also has equal performance to the T880 in Manhattan). You make it sound like the GT7600 is multiple generations behind while it is not. It absolutely crushes the Adreno 430 and the T760MP8 in the Exynos 7420. The GX6450 in the A8 was underpowered but the GT7600 is not."
You mean better drivers, right? You mean better a optimized benchmark for a particular GPU on a particular platform, VS a the "same" benchmark not optimized for any particular GPU on another platform...
Even with that handicap, the GS6/7 still manage longer battery life playing games. Amazing right?
Whether or not a phone has "better drivers" or an "optimized benchmark" doesn't matter. Sure I can let Basemark go if you so wish, but GFXBench is cross-platform and not optimized (so far as I know) for either iOS or Android. The fact is that offscreen performance is very similar between all devices, and that your statement about the GT7600 'long being surpassed' is false. It's been half a generation since it's been surpassed, and I have no doubts that whatever goes in the A10 will again reclaim the GPU performance crown for Apple. And then Qualcomm/Samsung will pass it again next year - that's how technology works. But the fact that GT7600 is so close to Adreno 530 and T880MP12 despite being half a year older and on an inferior process is a testament to Apple and PowerVR. You couldn't say the same for GX6450 or even G6430.
Also, have fun playing a game for 4 hours at 10 fps when it'd be far more enjoyable to play it for 2 hours at 30+ fps.
What are we comparing here? Unused performance or efficiency as whole? What matters in gaming desktops isn't the same for mobile devices (Smartphones). Some benchmarks are comparing Metal to OpenGL ES 3.1 when they should be comparing a lower level API to its competitor, ie: Vulcan.
Mali GPUs have far surpassed PowerVR in efficiency, for a while. You can actually measure that in both benchmarks (battery portions) and real life gaming.
-- Also, have fun playing a game for 4 hours at 10 fps when it'd be far more enjoyable to play it for 2 hours at 30+ fps.
Part of the reason why I can't take you seriously (again, no offense). What game exactly runs at 10fps even at full resolution? I haven't seen any. But it's also good that you do acknowledge that Apple's implementation isn't exactly the most power efficient.
That being said, I run all my games at 720p (just like the iPhone) using Samsung's game tuner app, and not only do they run faster now, but the battery life (which was class leading at full res) is even better. Complaining that Samsung has larger batteries is like complaining that Apple has larger/wider cores. Because, again, what are we comparing here? Hardware? Or user experience??? It's not clear at this point, but the GS7 wins on both accounts at this particular workload.
Game-tuner (and the latest resolution controls in the Note7) has completely diminished my concerns with the resolution race. It doesn't matter to me anymore. They can go 4K (or complete waco 8K) for all I care, as long as I can lower the resolution. I'm baffled how there isn't a complete section about this app/feature (and Samsung's underlying software to enable it). I also bring this up because you get a benchmark tuned-down to 1080p (on my GS7 at least) results more FPS than the 1080p "offscreen" test for "some" reason. After seeing this, I'm even more conservative about these benchmarks.....
- the modem on the S6 makes it last a ridiculously short amount of time on LTE and even on Wifi the 6s lasts half an hour longer
Do you realize when you wrote that, that the iPhone has a ... Qualcomm modem ? There is nothing magic about iPhone hardware that people try to make you believe.
It is crazy when you realize that the Note 7, with a bigger screen, with 50% more pixels, can still browse on LTE longer than the iPhone 6S Plus, while being significantly smaller.
Yes, I know it has a Qualcomm modem. I also understand that the S820 versions of the GS7 have comparable Wifi/LTE results because of Qualcomm's modem prowess. However, this has nothing to do with the SoC. The Samsung S820 implementation is still far more inefficient than the Exynos implementation or other OEMs' implementations.
The GS6 had a Samsung Shannon modem that was notoriously inefficient on LTE. That is a fact. And your comment forgets that the Note 7 also has a 30% larger battery, and in no way does 50% extra PenTile pixels translate to 50% increased battery drain.
Addendum: The Note 7 also comes with an updated modem, further helping reduce battery drain. Coupled with the fact that the S820 is more tightly integrated than A9 with respect to the modem, it really isn't that surprising that the Note 7 is able to last a bit longer.
Having Glass on the back AND front of the Phone is just asking for trouble... Wish Samsung would employ more durable materials. It wasn't a great material choice when Apple did the same years ago... It's still not a great material choice in 2016 either.
I had a Note 5 for a whole 2 days, slipped off the desk once and that was the end of that, the Note 7 is just more of the same.
My old Nokia Lumia took more abuse than that and I had it for almost 4 years, without a cover. Heck, I even purposely dropped it a few times and it just bounced without any damage.
Brah.... As painful as it is, let it go. We never wanted crappy glass backs, but the world has voted with their wallets. They don't want "durable" materials, they want design and features.
That being said, glass is still better than metal since it allows better radio and wireless charging. Until you design an alloy or mag-field that can support that, glass is here to stay.
I want my plastic backs back....................................
Voted with their wallets? Not really. If a company deserves criticism for various aspects related to their products, then I implore people to criticize, otherwise companies become complacent.
I personally prefer the rubbery polymer materials that some Phones use, it's matte so it doesn't attract fingerprints, it has a good texture that assists with grip and doesn't reduce signal reception and it allows for wireless charging (A feature I have loved for years now with my old Lumia).
Samsung can shove their Glass where the sun doesn't shine, I won't be buying another Samsung device until they change their materials.
And how many of you are there? How many of us are there? When samsung made what we liked their sales tanked. Don't blame Samsung, blame the online community.
Dropbox has gotten to be rather bloated. To give you a rough idea of how bloated it is, the Dropbox process on my PC has consumed 11 seconds of CPU time on my machine today. I have not used my dropbox all day and it has synced nothing. It should have been completely idle with extremely minimual CPU usage today. But instead, it has consumed nearly 1/4 the CPU cycles that DWM.exe has consumed. And surely you know what a hog DWM can be.
Dropbox is super bloated. But you should checkout OneDrive and how many background processes it runs on Android; ridiculous! That's why I uninstalled both and use the services through Solid Explorer.
I agree, and also a speaker test. This was a huge problem with my note 3. I was shocked at how much better the speaker was on other phones of the same generation. The speakerphone is all but useless and listening to music or videos without headphones is annoying at best. Yet, there was no mention of this in any reviews (anywhere, not just Anandtech).
Looks like they're behind the note 7 in sequential and not much different in 4KB random storage performance. So the Kirin makes that much difference, or just Touchwiz bloat?
I was really hoping for 2 Lane storage. They have it, its available, why the hell don't they use it! Especially considering how much an effect storage performance has on overall system performance. Apparently they also have developed and have ready a new 5 Axis image stabilization system for phones. Wtf are they doing?
I actually get the reasoning behind the un-swipeable tabs in SMS and Contacts: for years, Samsung has kept an unnecessary feature in these apps that is swipe to call/message, so a horizontal swipe has already been taken by that function. It's a ridiculous feature I have never used or seen anyone use, and even after 3 years of using a Samsung I still swipe in those apps sometimes and call someone instead of moving tabs.
The typical half glass full, negative approach when reviewing Samsung devices at Anandtech... I guess more of you guys wants a job at Apple like the one Anand managed to get?
I hate to hear the "Anandtech is posting biased reviews" argument because they do such a good job of being in-depth, and I appreciate their reviews tremendously. However, I agree that there is a bias in the wording, intentional or not, against Samsung's recent Galaxy phones, which have been spectacular options in the Galaxy S6/S7 era, even in spite of Touchwiz's shittiness.
Is Samsung's aluminum and glass industrial design and unique bezel-free design really so bad? Anandtech thinks it's tired and needs a refresh. In The Verge's review, they come up with a completely different conclusion - they say the Note 7 the best big phone ever, and praise how Samsung has out-designed the competition. Such a huge discrepancy down to essentially a matter of taste. Can we not reach a middle ground - every review of a Galaxy review on AT needs to mention how they need to spice up the "rectangle with rounded corners". It's fine for what it is! ----
To take just one example to hone my point, The iPhone 6S's camera in the AT review was rightly praised for its improved video - 4K recording and 1080p 120 fps. However very little was made of how it was essentially the same damn sensor as the last gen with shrunken pixels giving it a nominal bump from 8MP to 12MP, with basically zero quality difference in stills.
In the Samsung Galaxy S7 review, the super fast laser Autofocus was mentioned, but the overall image quality was described thusly "However, with that said the output of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge’s camera is not that impressive. I would argue that while it’s not worse than the iPhone 6s Plus, it is basically comparable."
It's not that impressive, yet equal to the iPhone 6S Plus. There was nothing in the iPhone 6S review or conclusion that described its camera as mediocre, yet that's how it comes off in the S7 review - Samsung has to be better, or it's unimpressive.
Exactly. Just because a person writes a ten page biased review it really doesn't make it less biased. This place just can't learn from old mistakes. Anandtech used to be a place you could go to to read reliable in-depth reviews about technology and gadgets. I don't know exactly when that changed, but I guess it was a long time ago when Anand had received enough gifts and perks from Apple to sway the whole writing culture on Anandtech.
Here in the UK, though, they're charging £700 for it. You could buy two OnePlus 3's (£329 each) and still have change. Don't get me wrong, this is surely the better phone. But is it really worth twice the price?
Read the first page of the iPhone 5 SE review and you'll get some perspective. An over-priced cynical release that Apple released thinking consumers were all stupid. Not a single complaint about Apple reusing the exact same hardware of a phone they had released several years earlier, and still asking for a stupid high price. This Galaxy Note 7 is still using a really unique design language that no other brand has managed to copy. Read the first page of this review again. This site has gone down the drain as an Apple marketing portal. Which I guess is why the comment sections are really starting to die. Because you know, people are not as stupid as Apple and Anand and his minions seem to think.
How can you say that when they do absolutely the best reviews, which are based on actual and realistic measurements. If you prefer superfluous reviews go to The Verge.
A person who so clearly starts out with a negative stance about everything he is reviewing, just because it concerns the mammoth competitor to the fruity toy company he so clearly loves, really can't make a good review. A written review is literally all about the language in it. Yeah, I agree that the verge is worse. Then again, that's why I completely stopped reading anything there a long time ago. Being almost as bad as the worst, is that really a good thing?
I really agree with your opinion about the camera because I've always felt that Galaxy smartphones produce very unnatural images and videos. The post processing is awful.
However, don't you guys feel that your reviews about Samsung smartphones have a pessimistic and bored tone whereas Apple product reviews are full of words like "impressive" and "incredible"? You have to give credit where it's due.
Maybe they sound bored because this devices is boring. There is very little new stuff compared to the 6 month old S7 Edge. I'm sure if Apple released the iPhone 6S six months before the iPhone 6S Plus, Anandtech would sound pretty bored in the 6S Plus review as well because it would be 95% the same devices, but with a larger screen and one or two extra features.
You're going to use that argument? The iPhone 6S is basically a 6 with a faster SoC, different camera (improved video, same still quality) and the semi-useless 3D touch. They had a YEAR to iterate that one...
OK it's a bigger jump than the S7 Edge to Note 7. The Note 7 basically is an S7 Edge (do they really need all 3 at this point? I guess you get to choose between the S-Pen vs. bigger battery).
Still, the S7 Edge was a really well executed device.
How is this a bigger jump? There's no performance improvement here, which means the core user experience is still the same. iPhone 6s provides a palpably faster experience in every aspect over the 6. That alone is a big difference.
And the S7 was just the S6 with a faster SoC, better camera, and semi-useless features like water resistance and microSD. The Note 7 is the same relative to the Note 5.(Seriously, how often do you drop your phone in water? And personally, I would never choose to willingly slow down my phone by adding crappy microSD storage into it.) How is this phone any different.
Actually, my girlfriend rocked a Galaxy S Mini 5 for a little while (bit of a dog obviously though, so we changed it for something better) and was washing her hands in the sink. Phone slipped into the sink into the running water. She shat herself for about 5 seconds before releasing it was waterproof :)
And adding a micro SD card to your phone does not slow it down*; please stop spreading misinformation. *Unless of course you start moving apps to it maybe.
Don't like the icons? Does anyone really care (hint: I don't)? Don't like TouchWiz? Use a different launcher. Ditto with the built in apps. This is one of my reasons for using Android in the first place. If I don't like what the manufacturer supplied, its no problem. Just don't use it. I've got Nova launcher and a standard set of third party apps that I use across all my Android devices that makes them all look and function more or less the same for any thing I do. About the only exceptions are anything related to the S-pen.
And refresh the design again? What for? Of course marketing people want constant change so they can convince the uninformed that its "new and improved". Just get rid of the gimmicks like curved screens and call it done. Within the next few years phones are going to be essentially commodities anyway.
The thing is, as trivial as the icon complaint is, if he dug just a tiny bit deeper, he'd realize that the new theming engine now supports icon-packs...
For some reason many modern cameraphones have a real problem rendering vegetation. They all make trees and grass look like it was oil painted. Here's an example from Anandtech's Moto G4 review, the left is OP3 and the right one is MG4+. The left one looks like it was oil painted. http://i.imgur.com/AlXPMap.jpg
You can only do so much with sensors that small, and software that prioritizes speed of capture and processing (since that's what most users want). If you want more, go fully manual.
It's amazing to see Samsung continue with the same design language introduced with the S6 Edge. Finally a phone that looks different, among a slew of pieces of glass and plastic that look identical. Companies releasing phones that have the same old dog gamn design should be utterly ashamed to put such insults on the market. One could see more variance comparing two dog gamn stones than comparing two "oh-so-new-shiny-awesome-unbelievably-cool-my- s s a <-" smartphones.
Oh and I couldn't give one fraction of a damn about volumetric efficiency BS. The lack of a removable battery is not a smart choice Samsung has made. I shouldn't have to risk destroying my phone just because I'd like to replace my battery or simply force the phone to turn off if it freezes for whatever the reason. There is no excuse for not including a removable battery. Period.
I would like to see Anandtech stick to its guns and go back to calling "USB 3.1 Gen1" what it really is, USB 3.0. I remember a previous AT article announcing that the site wouldn't be supporting that marketing crap.
nice phone, but not worth anywhere near the money samsung is asking, between the fragile construction and the sealed battery. Note 4 is a much better buy, even at this point.
Thanks Joshua for the review, greatly appreciate it and the timing! I'm a big HTC fan because of the smoothness of their sense experience, and this seems to be overlooked in every smartphone review. I was about to pull the trigger on the note 7 after doing endless review reading, and then I read your final words regarding real world use and was extremely happy I did
So the USB-C port uses Samsung and Qualcomm's fast charge, making it not actually compliant with the USB specification? Why wouldn't they just use USB-PD other than 'because Samsung'?
You say: "Looking at the overall charge time the Galaxy Note7 performs respectably as it reaches full charge in under an hour and takes basically as much time as the Galaxy S7 edge, which is probably not a surprise given their similar battery capacities."
But your chart shows the shortest charge time at 1.33 hours (Galaxy Nexus 5X)? And the Note 7 at 1.85 hours? Am I reading this wrong?
Which is strange, because my S6 has never taken more than 1h20s to charge, and I'm pretty sure many phones beat my S6 on charging...
With all due respect, this review provides NOTHING additional to what's been said and written online about the Note7/GS7 series. We come here for deep dives, SoC comparisons, software features that affect performance, etc......
This review is nothing but personal opinion.
"The S-Pen continues to work well although I very rarely have any use for it" Really? Like REALLY? Is that all you have to say about the absolute hallmark of this particular device??? No mention of the actual hardware improvements/regressions/whatever? No mention of its responsiveness or lack thereof? You think anyone gives a rat's ass about force touch? But you all still wrote paragraphs about a freagin' iGIMMICK.
Also Again??? No mention of throttling? No mention of the new power saving features? No mention of Game Tuner? No deep dive of the different SoCs???? Not a single attempt at tinkering with the kernel/governor to get a freakin' glimpse of what the heck is going on?????????
Well, get use to it. If it's a feature that iPhone has, then it will get mentioned. If it's a feature that iPhone doesn't have, then it's "irrelevant". Just wait till iPhone 7 Pro gets a stylus and iPhone 8 gets a iris scanner, then you will get paragraphs after paragraphs about how amazing they were.
As a reader, we can do selective reading as well. When it's about 3D-touching, my mind goes blah blah blah, irrelevant. Coming up to live phones, blah blah blah, irrelevant, next paragraph.
This is the sixth Galaxy Note with a stylus. I have no doubt that when Anandtech reviews the sixth iPhone model with 3D Touch, they will say little more beyond it "continues to work well."
I hear ya. Its like the reviewer was intentionally looking for something NOT to like. He goes on about mic hole placement and useless crap like that. Ironically this site waxes on the iphone symmetry so much like its an amazing feature. If it wasn't for the forums I wouldn't even come here anymore.
Sorry for a nitpick, but this isn't the first phone with an iris scanner, though probably the first with wide availability. Fujitsu's is only available in Japan right now, but I have one as my company phone. The phone and scanner are actually pretty slick too despite being based on older tech, though Fujitsu's interface is pretty awful.
Well done on the improvements in timeliness and tone, Josh. I certainly agree with other reader opinions that the S-Pen deserved a full page of its own, given that it continues to be a distinguishing factor from all other phones. I understand that it may feel unnecessary if its the same as last years models, but it is still worth a re-look and run through. After all, Samsung's screens have not changed much either, and you still ran them through a gamut of tests.
I must say that your continued placement of Samsung's AMOLED's as being "one of the best" or equal to Iphones to be have long since been untenable. Samsung's AMOLED beats or equals the Iphones in every one of your metrics. Colour-shifting remains the sole issue, but is not on its own sufficient to deny Samsung's phones the title of "best display, period".
I should also point out that your (justified) decision to be nit-picky about design must be applied fairly to your upcoming iphone 7 review as well.
If you intend to highlight design issues that do not affect the user experience (as has been done in this review), I would expect that you find fault with the Iphone 7s IF the Iphone 7s maintain the unwieldy bezel sizes of the 6 plus, and the added inconvenience of the USB-only audio jack. These should count as negatives against the Iphone 7s.
Your criteria for commenting on design must be seen as fair.
If there's a real demand for this sort of ID analysis I'll keep going with it.
To outline some of my personal thoughts for design:
1. I don't see a ton of value to extremely thin bezels. Excessive bezel like the M8/M9 is one thing but the 6s Plus had no issues with ergonomics in use. I view phablets as phones that need two hands to be used but still fit in one pocket so I don't pay that much attention to bezel unless it's really egregious like the M8/M9.
2. The S-Pen would have received further analysis but battery life testing alone took up a full 3 days. It's been made clear to me that timeliness is critical so I would rather cut out discussion on things that are fairly well understood and revisit it in future short-form than cut out data that answers essential questions.
3. To me AMOLED's color shifting issues are fairly significant and power efficiency in high APL scenarios is still lagging slightly behind LCD. If power efficiency rises above LCD then I would say shipping LCD would automatically count as a negative against an OEM, but until that comes to pass I think it's important to weigh these things on a case by case basis.
4. If the iPhone 7 loses the 3.5mm jack it would require close examination and weighing of the advantages and disadvantages. I would trend towards likely being a bad idea but we'll have to see how it plays out. There are a lot of ways this could be executed and some are good but others are awful.
Thanks for the detailed reply Josh, I appreciate the time taken.
Im definitely with you with regards to points 2 and 4. I think with regards to points 1 and 3 we will have to agree to disagree.
I look forward to the HTC 10 review, of which I am already an owner. I'm sure you'll be able to point out interesting things about this device (some nuggets already present in this review)
I am also quite shocked about the change on editorial note (because it seems really to be that) since Anand departure. Even with Anand working for Apple, reviews were still much more factual. I have an iPhone 6S but honestly, there is not denying that the S7 Edge and Note 7 are just a marvel of design. Also, saying that bezels do not matter is NOT a matter of opinion. We are speaking of phablet here and the very reason why not everyone have 6" phones is the size of those phones. So when the Note 7 include a 5,7" screen in a form factor which is 5mm shorter and 4mm narrower than a 5,5" iPhone 6+, this is huge achievement and has a significant competitive advantage compare to the iPhone or other bulkier large phone. At last, how can anyone still defend LCD against Samsung OLED screen implementation? The argument that there would be color shifting when looking the phone from the side (which obviously no one is doing) shows the extent of bad faith. Again, as an iPhone (and Windows phone user), and having no Android, I am puzzled by such review and what kind of goal is tried to be achieved...
I feel like I am a minority here as I am OK with Touchwiz. I do not feel any lagging. On the other hand, when I use other Android phones such as HTC or Vivo, I feel that I miss so many settings. My latest HTC phone was HTC M7/M8. It is quite sad as I could not find newer HTC flagship models in my country.
Finally someone who isn't afraid to say something bad about Note 7. Every other reviews are practically without any real criticism. Thanks for a honest review!
Like many other reviewers, i don't think you really appreciate whu the Note devices are so popular. It not about comparing hardware or size or software features etc. It is about the complete package and no other device offers this package and therefore your comparators and not helpful nor relevant to the millions and millions of Note users who need a highly productivity focused device. I can easily justify $200 as I'll achieve that in productivity in 2 weeks of using the Note 7 over the S7 Edge.
I expected a section on PenTile subpixel image rendering, considering how DisplayMate was gushing about it. Apparently there are algorithms which convert RGB subpixel rendering to RGBG. Oculus rift aparently uses subpixel rendering for VR on its Pentile dislay, though I'm not sure about that fact.
Also, no attempt at covering HDR and the (possibly gimicky) app-agnostic "video enhancer" option?
Your reviews are usually what I anticipate the most, as they tend to be well done. I have to say however that I am shocked at your 'merely acceptable' comment about design, because as a 6S Plus owner, after playing with Note 7 at a Verizon store, I find it to be the best looking phone I've ever touched. It is truly beautiful, and makes my 6S Plus look pedestrian by comparison.
I think pretty much every other review supports the design aspect of Note 7, Anandtech being the lone wolf in talking it down. Maybe it's time for someone else at Anandtech to evaluate the aesthetics from now on? I have to say that this review has definitely soured my trust of future commentary here...
Agreed. The Note 7 and S7 Edge are the best designed phones out there by far. Even The Verge who many claimed to have an Apple bias said so. To read the comment, "Overall, the design of the phone is acceptable, but honestly at this point it’s nothing really special." is pretty funny.
"We can argue about how Apple uses a plastic liner or whatever minute detail in the design is 'better' ” - LOL no one is arguing that.
Dear Anandtech, Please do a battery life test of the lower screen resolution settings. If the result is significant, I'll immediately permanently put it to 1080p without second thoughts the moment I have the device. I don't care if the mutant pretenders say that they can distinguish the difference. thanks
It looks like you got the size of the rear camera pixels in reverse. Both are 1/2.6 inch so the 16 megapixel should have smaller pixels than the 12 megapixel.
it would have been nice to see a picture of the s7 edge and note7 side by side or stacked on top of each other so we could get an idea of how much bigger the note is
Does the phone ship with the latest Android Security Patch level?
Has the manufacturer committed to providing security patches on a timely basis?
Has the manufacturer committed to providing Android upgrades for X number of year?
Why are such basic questions that affect the usability and viability of a phone ignored by AnandTech? We don't all buy new phones every 6 months. Some of us are holding on to our phones for 24 months or longer. The question "will my phone receive OS updates during its lifetime" is a very valid question that AT pays no attention to.
Similarly we have paragraphs dedicated to the PMIC and various ICs in the phone, paragraphs dedicated to seeing if the phone drops a frame here or there, but no attention paid to the fact that the phone ships with unpatched remote root vulnerabilities.
Anandtech's reviews are becoming less and less relevant. Sure, it's cool to know what IC is doing what in the phone, but it's absolutely irrelevant to its day to day use. Knowing if the OEM is going to supply OS updates and security updates in a timely manner very much matters!
As someone who changes cell phones once every 3 or so years.. I'm pissed the current trend of copying Apple and their non changeable battery. Worse when Samsung no longer seems to produce older batteries to force to upgrade. Not exactly a fan to be forced to for 500+ USD for a throwaway phone.
"Despite all of this, there seems to be a general disappointment with smartphones." Come on Joshua, where do you drag up this nonsense? There is a tiny fraction of internet whingers, hyperactive fools with the attention-span of 5-year olds and generally the technological to match, that are "disappointed".
Meanwhile in the real world, people are using their phones more than ever --- have you SEEN what a group of public people waiting around (think airport, restaurant, bus) looks like these days? People in the saturated wealthy nations continue (so far, as of the most recent data) to buy phones on the reliable two-year-update cycle --- and why not? This year's phones are faster than those of two years ago, with more RAM, faster flash, better radios,nicer screens. Meanwhile people in the non-wealthy world continue to be grateful for the ever falling prices, and enjoy moving on to their first smart phone.
You are not in the business of click-bait or insane interest advocacy; you are in the business of tech journalism. You don't need to write to such stupid sentences; you;re better than that; and the market you're discussing deserves better.
And starting with a stupid premise leads to what are factually flat out factually incorrect statements like "People are increasingly finding it hard to justify phones like the HTC 10 or Galaxy S7 with competition from..." HOW are people finding it hard to justify phones like the S7? Everyone knows I'm an Apple fan, but I'm also tuned into reality, and the reality is that the S7 has sold pretty damn well, (as far as I can tell perhaps 20% better than the S6).
Look it's probably true that one day we'll hit enough of a wall in phone tech that the upgrade cycle WILL slide, and consumers WILL be massively over-served by phones. But let's not pretend that that prediction has already arrived.
Part of the problem is that these reviews operate with a broken context. It makes sense to compare against last years model, but it also makes sense to compare against the model from two years ago because THAT is where the audience for this product is. Complaining that it won't excite the community it isn't TARGETED AT (ie the owners of last-years model) is just stupid.
Still rather blah- design. I'm surprised they continue the glass backing from the S6, like as if they have not learned anything from Apple? A family member has the S6 and yes, her back has a spider crack on it with a long one from top to bottom.
so no one is going to bring up the facts that this 850$ phone has a smaller battery then the Xiaomi redmi note 3 (a 150$ phone) and it's bootloader is locked in the US which literally makes it just the same as an Iphone. (All of us here came to Android because it was an open garden). Closing android is making Samsung not a legit Apple vendor IMO, and should too for the rest of you.
Don't be kids and be fooled by gimmicks and high specs. You can't even get CM13 on this phone. And a really bad job by the reviewer for not bringing this up. As usual in Anandtech they only cares about numbers and not whats behind them.
Great review and phone. I wonder if it would be possible to check the compass in future? All the phones I have owned have had terrible magnetometers which stop working, require shaking the phone, or are off by a large angle. Having compass inaccuracies pointed out in reviews would really shake things up.
So you're slamming an excellent phone (like the S7 as well) because of your non-sensical review of its camera? The most reputable camera review website - Dxomark - puts the S7 at the top for still image quality, on par with the HTC10, and the Samsung is even better in the video score. What problems do you see with video stabilization? Dxo Labs talks about "excellent video stabilization", i have an S7 edge and can only confirm what they say.
- The flagship GN7 is slower than a year-old iPhone 6S
yes and a Porsche 911 from last year is faster than an Audi RS6. The question is what do you need in your day to day life. Is the speed of the RS6 enough? Do you need space? 5 seats? Comfort? Good equipments?
People have short memory. The iPhone was a success because it was the 1st phone with a big touchscreen, easy to use, with a great experience. Now, people consider that a phone should be choosen only based on the speed difference of launching 30 different applications within 2mn. Even if new phone are twice as quick as the previous one that was twice as quick as the previous previous one that was twice... Well, you see the point. Phones are fast enough.
I do not know anybody that is using an iPhone 6 or Samsung S6 and that is saying: "my phone is too slow and the only thing I would wish is to that a phone twice as quick". I am certain that if Apple would sell at the same price: 1/ iPhone 7 = CPU of the 6S, AMOLED screen, quick and wireless charging, waterproof, 5,7" screen but 5mm narrower than current 6S+, camera hardware button, pen support. 2/ iPhone 6SS = iPhone 6S with a CPU 50% quicker you can be absolutely assure that NOBODY would choose an iPhone 6SS versus this hypothetical iPhone 7.
We can be all fair of what Apple is achieving with its iPhone, which is great. But some minimal common sense would be good in this forum.
Silly question, why do we do Pentile AMOLED displays? Wouldn't an SRGB AMOLED display allow us to use a lower resolution panel, which will save the GPU a lot of processing and hence power consumption and battery life?
Is this just an excuse to use 1440p as a marketing gimmick? AMOLED SRGB displays are definitely feasible (My Nokia E7-00 had it 7 years ago).
I'm wondering the difference between your 2016 vs 2015 battery benchmarks. I see that in your LG G4 review you were using the "2015" benchmarks and LG G4 got 11.37 hours of battery life for Web Browsing over WiFi but in this, it only gets 6.53. Very significant decrease. This is just one phone for example.
Why would there be a need to change the benchmarks? Were the 2015 test not accurate? By that much? 11.37 to 6.53? Almost half, geez! Any clarification would be appreciated, thanks!
That bendy glass is just a way to get the corners scratched and well, a matter of taste, I guess. I'd rather do without, I already touch the edges of the screen accidentally when handling the phone sometimes, with usually annoying results.
But ok, the rest of the phone is pretty splendid and I was tempted to overlook that -
Until I found out the dual-SIM solution is a "hybrid" solution, requiring removal of your MicroSD card to put a second SIM card in. I guess I wait for Sony's next entry with their splendid noise cancelling, which I've always enjoyed on airplanes...
Note 5 Owner here and for a while, because of the retail price of the Note 7. But the reviewer was clearly not feeling the Note and it's his opinion. But I have read countless reviews here and each and everytime Samsung was scrutinized for something. Plastic /Polymer Body, Screen Fit and Finish, overall Size etcetera. Now you guys err guy, has a gripe about the 3D glass sandwiching the aluminum as needed to be overhauled on the next generation. Ahem, this piece of KIT rivals anything on the market right now with exception being the S7. No one has a Water Resistant Unit period point blank! And the SPen is not for everyone, but I use my S-Pen each and every day, as a matter of fact several times a day to cut and paste captions. Yesh, a simple screen capture simply cannot compare to its precision. Samsung can do anything you've mentioned, but there is always a cost benefit associated with said options. Here's it from the head Engineering guy, http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/1/12340294/samsung-... Kind regards
Sad to see the review only for SD variant, which will be release in two countries only, but whatever. That line there, where its mentioned that scrolling is still not as smooth as expected, how devices like HTC 10 has constant near 60 fps output when it needs come, makes me to not buy this phone. I just don't know what is wrong with Samsung, that they keep their nuisance TouchWiz, and just have no interest to make it smoother and more polished. If you can't do just switch to AOSP, what's the big deal! S Note and all the other Samsung apps could work without heavily modifying the framework right? Darn it Samsung! You choose loads of features over finesse, being a major manufacturer that's unwise, like you said, and I have been saying for as long as I could remember, moment most people start realising how poor TW is in comparison with vanilla Android, let's see where Samsung stock stands after that. Probably I will still end up buying it just because of its display, but that's not the point.
Exynos review should be there though anyway, as that is the "international" variant, and arguably the better unit than SD.
So .... call reception and volume? I've been through 3 Huawei Nexus 6Ps because everyone I talk to hears an echo, using two different cellular networks. Also, why don't you guys do reviews on DACs or at least point to a review?
i am currently using an s7 edge..just some things to say out loud...first of all what a review..its an opinion of a reviewer written here rather than a copy paste from a samsung pr page...kudos.. secondly i have to point out 3 things 1. the edge is awesome if you like it..i watch a lot of movies on it, all sitcoms, etc, so the videos look awesome if they are movies..somewhat stretched if watching 16:9 videos. 2 the display looks awesome..the pictures appear flush to the glass surface..a neat change after using an xperia z1 3. i use a transparent skin rather than tempered glass with back cover..works wonders(i use gadgetshieldz..)my dog pulled at my headphones and the phone fell down from my table face down..to problems at all..
How does the battery life profit from reducing the resolution to 720p or 1080p and is it possible to reduce the resolution without a permanent notification?
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zbingonz - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
So did you guys drop the HTC 10 review?Ian Cutress - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
We had the opportunity to put significant time into meeting the official review launch date for the Note7, so decided to put resources into that as a priority. After Josh has finished up the final sections and had his nap, we'll crack the whip :Dzbingonz - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Ah good to hear :)Thanks for the prompt reply!
JoshHo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Given the choice between being timely on the Note7 and finishing the HTC 10 review we have elected to focus on timeliness for the Note7 review.philehidiot - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Suppose it makes sense to get one review out promptly and delay the already crazily late one but please, please get on with it! It's getting silly now ;)philehidiot - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Buuutt... if you want to send me the HTC 10, I'll review it for you (badly).I'm not having a go, I do appreciate quality takes time and there is no other site I know of which can match this place for quality.
lagittaja - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Since you pushed the 10 review even further, I'm going to have to assume your review will be based on the latest firmware, which for the US version would be 1.91JoshHo - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
The HTC 10 review unit is on EMEA software, it will be the EMEA 1.90.401 build.wessam_yamani - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
i hope you consider the software update version 1.90.401.5 or the latest update you have . and please mention the software version in your article .thanks to all the reviewerXinn3r - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Please tell me you're reviewing the Xiaomi 5 as you seem to include them in all the benchmarks for newer phones.fm13 - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
thanks for your work. any plans for Mi5 review? given that most reviews of it published so far are utter crap.JoshHo - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
The Mi5 review is assigned to Andrei. He will be best equipped to say whether he can finish it.jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
I hope you meant "when" not "whether" ;-)wessam_yamani - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
i hope you consider the software update version 1.90.401.5 or the latest update you have . and please mention the software version in your article .thanks to all the reviewerVagabondjonez - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I literally just posted right after you lolSttm - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Don't worry they will get the review out while its still available at at least 1 carrier.SaolDan - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Neat!!ddriver - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I just wish they go back to making a note (as in note 3) instead of this glass brick, which IMO doesn't really merit the "note" moniker.zozoqoq - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Yep, my Note 4 has been great, but I don't fancy paying $1200 Canadian for something that can't really be given a case or a screen protector without compromising its functionality. Without them I'll break it within a month.zepi - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Is the charge time limited by temperature? Ie. if you plug a 50% charged phone that is cold vs. 50% charged phone that is burning hot after 30min of gaming, are the charging rates going to be the same?JoshHo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
That is unlikely as the charging current is already limited if the screen is on with the Galaxy Note7 and S7.Tigran - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
No throttling test?JoshHo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Due to time constraints it couldn't be run. I will update the review when possible with the results as well as a pipeline post.vanilla_gorilla - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"My major complaint here continues to be a general lack of performance as things like scrolling don’t feel like they have the momentum or response that they should and I still see frame drops that don’t happen in comparable devices."How is this still possible?
damianrobertjones - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
It needs another 8 CPUsshabby - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Because snapdragon, the s7 exynos version was smoother than the sd820 version.grayson_carr - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
The SD820 actually has the power to run the UI more fluidly than the Exynos. The Moto Z runs extremely fluidly, even moreso than the Exynos S7. The problem is, Samsung optimizes the kernel / governor settings on SD820 devices more for battery life than for performance.arayoflight - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
And yet the exynos destroys it in battery.grayson_carr - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Yeah. The Exynos is more efficient. But performance is still less than it should be because of Samsung's bloated software and prioritization of battery life. The Moto Z runs circles around the Exynos S7 in real world smoothness, even though the Exynos is a better chip than the SD820. Stop making this about Exynos vs Snapdragon. This is about Samsung's crappy software and optimization regardless of what chip is used.niva - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Ding ding ding, you said it. Samsung's bloated software.TouchWiz is an abomination that should be destroyed by fire. Each year they tout how amazing the new TouchWiz is going to be without telling you the performance penalty it brings. These overlays should only be allowed as apps that one can disable.
If say stick to Nexus devices but in this case it's the only good phablet and there are no nexuses with pen support. Suffer through TouchWiz is your only option
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
SD820 has the power more fluidly? Yes. Better than Exynos? Ummm... No.If you want smoother UI and better touch response, root and change the governor to Performance, or Ondemand.
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I've dug a little deeper into this after I bought my GS7e (Exynos). Looks like Exynos (and it's higher count of cores) plays better than the Snapdragon with the Conservative Governor that Samsung employs to save battery life. You can manually switch it to Ondemand, Interactive, or even better, Performance (eliminating most of the UI performance differences, and increase the responsiveness of the device drastically). But battery life would take a major hit, just like every other Android device with a 1440p screen.What needs to fixed and optimized is ANDROID. Google still insists on doing a crappy job with their OS, just like with their browser.
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"What needs to fixed and optimized is ANDROID. Google still insists on doing a crappy job with their OS, just like with their browser."What also needs to be fixed is the "higher resolutions screen is better" mentality. No smartphone should have more than a 1080p panel for optimal performance and efficiency.
There's absolutely no mention of the new power saving features that the new version of TouchWiz employs; like scaling down the resolution and how much more battery life you get out of that. Guess I'll have to test it myself when my GS7 gets the update. I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo scaling back the resolution to 1080p while leaving processing power intact.
InspectHerGadget - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Yes. The extra screen resolution is not worth the hit on battery life. Android and Samsung are also both to blame for poor optimisations. I had the Nokia 1520 which had great battery life, then the Note 5 which had only so so battery life, now the iPhone 6S Plus which has great battery life. On the Note 5 if I left the hotspot on it would get hot and drain the battery even when my Microsoft Pro 4 was in its case. I just felt too many rough edges on Samsung phones I had.jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Remember, guys, amoled isn't hit by lower efficiency on higher resolution, that is only an LCD problem. Now granted the gpu and cpu have to work a little harder but 1080P wouldn't look nice with pentile and Samsung does pentile to get a better endurance/longevity and brightness out of AMOLED. I don't think they made the wrong choice here. And yes, 1440P on an LCD is stupid.lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Sorry, the governor they use is Interactive, not conservative...jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Then it shouldn't be an issue and if it is - they shold fix the governor not switch to performance. The performance governor is barely faster at big costs.lilmoe - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
It doesn't act like an Interactive governor would act at all, it's very slow to ramp up clock speed, and most ramps up the little cores. It's a good thing for battery life, but not as good for fluidity.jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
IMHO the on demand governor should really not be costing battery life. It was designed to be a good balance and it generally is, at least on desktop.Then again with such an outdated kernel with patches who knows what is in there... wish the android vendors would get their stuff up streamed more timely...
grayson_carr - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
It's a conscious decision happening at Samsung. They could tweak the kernel / governor configuration so that there are almost no frame drops and slowdowns, but it would come at the cost of battery life. Samsung is aiming for the minimum performance they think their users won't be annoyed with in order to maximize battery life, which Samsung assumes is more important to the average user. Google on the other hand configures their devices so that they maintain 60 fps in most scenarios, and their battery life suffers for it. I personally prefer Google's approach because I value a smoother and stutter free UI more than a little extra battery life, but I think a lot of people who buy Nexus devices are baffled as to why the battery life isn't as good as their Samsung phone even though the battery is just as large. Those people may prefer battery life over the smoothest UI possible.Meteor2 - Saturday, August 20, 2016 - link
The trick with Nexus is not to scroll continuously. Rather than scroll line by line, read a page of text, scroll it down in one motion, read the next section. Saves a lot of power.KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Just Android thingsTechguy89 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
It's clear that Samsun really needs to invest in its Exynos chip and drop Snapdragon. They're still not evetop on Apple A9's level after an entire 11 months and all their 2016 flagships. Let's see how much wider the gap gets again with A10.Geranium - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Apple SoC performes better running Apple optimized benchmark.xype - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Yes, and Apple uses dark magic to make the UI stutter and calculations slower on select Android devices. True story.Geranium - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Yep, because Android don't run Objective-C or Swift based benchmark. But most benchmark cross platform benchmark use those two.And a 100$-200$ Android phone may stutter, but you can compare it with 700$ phone.
Geranium - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
And if you think no stuttering means better OS, than my Nokia 206 running S40 is better OS both iOS and Android. Because it never stutters.Bluetooth - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
These are Javascript benchmarks that are not running in ObjC or Swift. It's measuring the browsing usage performance and work on all browser that run Javascript.lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Please spread more ignorance, the world is too smart...Xinn3r - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
You're commenting on a 700$ Android phone though...?KoolAidMan1 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Apple is also responsible for Android's abysmal security and its impending botnet apocalypse.#illuminati
Bluetooth - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
iPhone is twice as fast with the Google Octane benchmark which is the closest to real world usage. I didn't know that Google was optimising their benchmark to make iOS phones leave Android in the dust.trparky - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Yeah, I was looking at some of the benchmark numbers and the first thing that came to my mind was "Apple is killing them here, they're just killing them!"This is supposed to be the latest and greatest CPU/GPU combination and yet Apple's year old CPU/GPU combination is wiping the floor with Samsung's new phone. Not only is Apple killing them in the browser benchmarks but also in Basemark tests as well. If I was a Samsung fan boy I would be asking why the hell a year old device (iPhone 6s) is seemingly faster than my latest and greatest flagship device.
Now, a number of users are saying that may be because of the CPU governor that Samsung chose to use as the default CPU governor so as to improve overall battery life but as we can see in some of the benchmarks, Apple is killing them yet the iPhone doesn't at all have issues with battery life. So again, why is Apple killing them with a year old device?
God, if the benchmarks look this ugly when compared to the year old iPhone 6s I can't imagine how bad it's going to be when compared to the new chip Apple is going to have in the new iPhone 7 (or whatever it's going to be called). If I had to hazard a guess, it's going to be an absolute bloodbath.
jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Everyone should know by now that in single threaded use apple is miles ahead of any android vendors, period. Same with storage performance. Multicore performance, which thankfully is a little more important on Android than on iOS, is better with exynos and friends but that is only a little consolation.Psyside - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
That is pure BS, i got the 8890 S7 and its utterly fantastic and uber fast.jlabelle2 - Monday, August 22, 2016 - link
Still, it is a little bit sad that, as an iPhone user myself (corporate phone as I am using a Windows phone as a private own), it is now the only thing Apple fans can really brag about. Especially considering that it does not offer any appreciable benefit as most modern flagships are anyway in all practical purpose quick enough for what we are using them.Apple can continue to push this CPU race, we just reached a point of diminish return and this is really not what mobile phone needs now.
People needs smaller phone for a given screen size (iPhone has huge bezel and the Note 7 is a marvel on this regard), they need more battery life and/or better or quicker way to charge (quick charging, wireless charging), they need screen readable outdoor with good contrast (iPhone is good outdoor but contrast is not up to OLED level), they need to be able to perform tasks quicker (camera hardware button, back button, NFC, ...), they need to be able to use their phone with one hand (not having the back link or all the buttons on top like on iOS), they need to be able to take the best pictures possible because this is the camera they are wearing (Apple is still really pushing the envelope with refusing to put a decent camera size sensor in their phone for whatever sake of thinness)...
Let's be frank, I do not know one single person with a big of brain and common sense that would choose an iPhone versus another Snapdragon 820 or Exynote xxx just for the sake of difference of single thread CPU speed. That is just NOT an argument that register in any meaningful way these days to normal people.
grayson_carr - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
How would that help? Even the Exynos S7 doesn't run as smooth as the Moto Z, which is pushing just as many pixels and has s Snapdragon 820. There are two issues, neither of which is the fault of the SD820. First, Samsung phones are bloated with a ridiculous number of features and background services running, which requires more processing power than something running a cleaner build of Android like the Moto Z or a Nexus. Second, because of the extra overhead caused by their software, Samsung has to limit the performance of their chips (both Exynos and Snapdragon) via kernel / governor configuration in order to get good battery life. Samsung could easily tweak the SD820 so that the Note 7 ran perfectly smooth and hardly ever dropped frames. The SD820 is easily capable of that. But if they did that, then the Note 7 would get below average battery life. It's all about priorities. Samsung is betting that their users will prefer good battery life and some minor stuttering here and there over below average battery life and a perfectly smooth UI. I mean, yes, the Exynos is more efficient than the SD820 so they didn't have to limit its performance quite as much to achieve good battery life, but even the Exynos is performing far below it's potential because of Samsung's heavy software and desire for good battery life. The fact that the Moto Z runs smoother than even the Exynos S7 is proof.mrochester - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Why can't we have both like the iPhone? Too many compromises.Psyside - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
NVMe storage, the A9 is far bellow 8890, the storage is the key.trparky - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
But that doesn't explain why the iPhone 6s appears to be wiping the floor with this device and yet iPhone 6s users often enjoy some of the best battery life numbers in the industry.Again, as I said above... If I was a Samsung fan boy I would be asking why the hell a year old device (iPhone 6s) is seemingly faster than my latest and greatest flagship device.
thunderwave_2 - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Look at the S7 Exynos stock browser results. Yes, the iPhone 6s still outperforms it, but it isn't exactly "wiping the floor" with it.Also, consider that although the onscreen benchmarks seem to be in its favour, the S7 is rendering almost 4 times the pixels. While the Mali T880/Adreno 530 is ahead though, the iPhone 6s does admittedly have superior sustained performance.
iOS runs less background processes and is less resource intensive than Android, leading to the great battery figures.
trparky - Saturday, August 20, 2016 - link
Which tells me that Samsung didn't equip the device with a strong enough GPU to push the amount of pixels and sustain high frame rates. If you ask me, there's no reason why that device should have such a high pixel count. Once you go past a certain point it becomes nothing but bragging rights.As for iOS running less background processes, that's a good thing. Yeah, Android is pretty bloated under the hood. And then you throw Samsung's garbage on top and you make it even worse. Android's not nearly as optimized as iOS is.
slyronit - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
The device has a high pixel count because it uses a Pentile display, so the effective resolution is always less than advertised. A Pentile 1080p on such a big screen would look like crap.lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
It was surpassed in performance and efficiency a long time ago, by the Exynos 7420... The 8890 widened the gap further.I know you guys want to believe that Apple's chips are the best. I feel your pain. But it's not, no matter how many "reviewers" preach browser benchmarks. Geekbench is by no means a legit benchmark. lol.
Even on the GPU side, the PowerVR has long been surpassed.
Stop blaming Google's shortcomings on Samsung, Qualcom and others. Google's _services_ are great, but their software and optimization level is absolute brown stuff. Samsung, LG and everyone else has to literally fix Android before releasing a phone/update...
CloudWiz - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Performance...only in multi-threaded benchmarks. Twister absolutely destroys A57 in any single-threaded benchmark and since for the vast majority of use cases (i.e. web browsing) the OS only uses one core, the overall user experience is so much better with the A9. Mongoose is catching up but still not at Twister's level.As for efficiency, the modem on the S6 makes it last a ridiculously short amount of time on LTE and even on Wifi the 6s lasts half an hour longer with a battery two-thirds the size of the S6. The 6s Plus lasts a full 2 hours longer with a similar size battery.
The GT7600 was only beaten in GFXBench this year by the Adreno 530 and surpasses both Adreno 530 and the T880MP12 in Basemark (it also has equal performance to the T880 in Manhattan). You make it sound like the GT7600 is multiple generations behind while it is not. It absolutely crushes the Adreno 430 and the T760MP8 in the Exynos 7420. The GX6450 in the A8 was underpowered but the GT7600 is not.
I do hope that at some point Apple adds two Cortex-A53s to help with low power tasks, but given that their dual-core design already achieves insanely good performance (with the A10 seeking to equal the performance of A9X in a mobile device), they might not even need to.
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"and since for the vast majority of use cases (i.e. web browsing) the OS only uses one core"False. On Android, the vast majority of applications take full advantage of 4 or more cores.
"As for efficiency, the modem on the S6 makes it last a ridiculously short amount of time on LTE and even on Wifi the 6s lasts half an hour longer with a battery two-thirds the size of the S6. The 6s Plus lasts a full 2 hours longer with a similar size battery."
Also, false. As proven by personal experience, with good reception, the modem on the modern Exynos chips can be more efficient than WiFi. What you're seeing in the charts, my friend, is that Safair (or any browser for the matter), is more efficient that Chrome (shocker). What you're also seeing is that, 720p and 1080p are more battery friendly than 1440p (another shocker). It's amazing that the GS6/GS7 can keep up with that much overhead and more pixels to push.
osxandwindows - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Not really, those cores are waisted cores.The scheduler sucks, therefore making android inefficient overall when it comes to the use of multiple cores.
thunderwave_2 - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9518/the-mobile-cpu-...This piece shows that, on the S6 at least, not all of those cores go to waste.
osxandwindows - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Nope, you don't get it.osxandwindows - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
I'm not saying it can't use them, I'm saying it can't use them an a way that doesn't affect performance or battery life.name99 - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
For crying out loud. Read the damn comments to that article.Bottom line is it doesn't prove what you and Andrei seem to think it proves.
CloudWiz - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
Simply because the scheduler is able to schedule a workload across multiple threads does not mean it is taking "full advantage of 4 or more cores". Browser performance is still heavily single-threaded whether you like it or not. Read the comments on Andrei's article.I'm going by Anandtech results here, and the E7420 suffers incredibly on battery life when on LTE compared to Wifi. Without results for the E8890 I can't say for sure, but with not even Qualcomm having found a way to get LTE battery life to even EQUAL Wifi (sure they're getting close, but there's still a small delta) I severely doubt that Samsung can do it, given their E7420 difficulties. Also, personal experience is highly unreliable and unless you have some time-lapse video to prove it, I won't believe you when all the data available says otherwise.
Sure Safari is more efficient. (It's also far more performant, but that's another story.) And yes I will concede that the 6s renders at a fairly low resolution. However you must keep in mind that the 6s Plus actually renders at 2208 x 1242 which is 75% the pixels of 1440p, much closer than you would think. And render resolution on GS6/7 might not even be the display resolution - most Android apps don't bother to render at such a high resolution because most phone's don't have 1440p displays. And given screen technologies in 2016, if Apple switched to 1440p LCD I doubt there would be a 2 hour+ impact to battery life. Phones like the HTC 10 with 1440p LCD displays with the same chip as the GS7 can achieve better battery life than it with the same size battery. This is not only a testament to S820's inefficiencies but also Samsung's implementation inefficiencies. And no, the GS6/7 are not able to "keep up". I've already stated how the GS6 absolutely cannot compare with the 6s or 6s Plus, and even with the GS7 the S820 version barely edges out the 6s with a battery nearly twice the size, with even the more optimized E8890 version being unable to top the 6s Plus with a larger battery. These differences can't be attributed solely to browser inefficiencies or screen densities. Samsung's implementations are simply not efficient compared to Apple or even HTC with their S820 implementation and Huawei with their Kirin 950.
jlabelle2 - Monday, August 22, 2016 - link
- if Apple switched to 1440p LCD I doubt there would be a 2 hour+ impact to battery lifeHow do you explain then the huge drop of battery life between the MacBook from the MacBook Air?
- And no, the GS6/7 are not able to "keep up". I've already stated how the GS6 absolutely cannot compare with the 6s or 6s Plu
The iPhone 6S did not exist when the GS6 was released. The S6 had (slightly) better battery life than the iPhone 6, despite a screen bigger, with 3 times more pixels to push.
The facts do not back up your claims.
CloudWiz - Thursday, August 25, 2016 - link
You have to consider what you're comparing here. On one side you have smartphones which have screens not even 6 inches diagonally. On the other side you have full-blown computers which have screens more than twice the size diagonally. There's a reason most computers haven't moved far past the 1440p-1600p mark. The screens are so big that the power consumption gets unreasonable. The subpixels on computers have to be much larger than on a phone. A 1440p LCD on the HTC 10, for example, will not consume the same power as a 1440p Macbook screen. In fact, it consumes far less, allowing the phone to have basically the same web browsing battery life with a much smaller battery. In addition, the Macbook has a 25% smaller battery compared to the Air, further giving it the disadvantage.I stated that the 6s and 6s Plus destroy the GS6, correct? I never mentioned the 6 at all. Don't try to twist my words. The facts do indeed back up my claims and if you can't see that maybe you should take a look at those charts again. I do concede that the 6 series were terrible phones all around (terrible SoC, terrible display, terrible modem, terrible design, terrible Touch ID) but with the 6s Apple fixed almost all of these issues.
Finally, the S6 actually had worse battery life than the 6 in web browsing and in gaming (taking into account frame rates). What are you basing your (non-existent) claims off of?
sonicmerlin - Sunday, August 28, 2016 - link
You're hugely exaggerating the iPhone 6's deficiencies. Touch ID was it slow but it was far more accurate than any other fingerprint scanner implemented on a mobile device up to that point.The design was the exact same as the 6S. The modem had more LTE bands than had ever been integrated into a single device. The screen wasn't vastly different than the 6S screen either. And the SoC had great single core performance. The battery even lasted longer than the 6S.
lilmoe - Saturday, August 27, 2016 - link
Please don't be offended, but I cannot take you, or any other biased user, seriously when you're claiming that someone's argument is unreliable, then go on and prove the opposite using the same (and/or worse) approach they did. Yes, I've read the comments on that article (all of them actually), and contributed/replied to lots.-- Simply because the scheduler is able to schedule a workload across multiple threads does not mean it is taking "full advantage of 4 or more cores"
A good example of what I mean above. Your statement may (and I say: may) be correct if there WASN'T any DIRECTLY related data to prove it wrong. When 4 or more cores are ramping up (and actually computing data) during app loading and scrolling (including browsers, particularly Samsung's browser), then it sure as hell means that these apps (all the ones tested actually) ARE taking advantage of the extra cores. Unless the scheduler is "mysteriously" loading the cores with bogus compute loads, that is (enter appropriate meme here). Multi-core workloads ARE the future, Apple is sure to follow. It's taking a LONG while, but it's coming. We've also pointed out that there is LOTS of overhead in Android that needs work, and that most certain won't be remedied with larger, faster big cores. On the contrary it would be worse for efficiency.
"I'm going by Anandtech results here"
AHHHHHHH, right there is the caveat, my dear commentator. If YOU had actually read the comment section, you'd know just how much we're complaining about the inconsistency of Anandtech's charts. You never get the same phones/models, consistently, on a series of comparisons; you get the GS7 (Exynos) VS iPhone 6S+ on one, then the GS7e (S820) VS iPhone 6/6S (not the plus) on the other, considering both iPhone models are NOT the same phone, with different resolutions and different screen size/resolution (AND different process nodes among even the same models). It's relatively safe to claim, at this point, that those inconsistencies are intentional, while Anandtech's "excuse" is that not all phones are at the same "lab" at the same time. Selective results at its best. There's absolutely no effort in extracting external factors and testing HARDWARE for what it is. One could argue that the end user is getting a package as a whole, but that's also inconsistent with Anandtech's past and present testing methodology, where at times they claim that they're testing hardware, and times you get a review largely clouded by "personal opinion" like ^this one and the one before. If you really are reading the comment section, you'd see us mention that this review is personal opinion, and adds nothing to what's being said and shown online already. We can deduct the outcome, but we want to know the REASON. Anandtech fails to deliver.
Back to the argument about radios. You haven't tested the devices yourself. You haven't used any as your daily driver. I have. Anandtech's results, charts and whatnot don't only contradict my findings (and many others) in one department, but MOST. It's safe to assume that their testing methodology is flawed, seriously flawed. They absolutely do NOT take into consideration any real world usage, NOR do they completely isolate external factors to test hardware, NOR is there any sort of deep dive or tweaking to justify their claims. For WiFi, they cherry picked the least common scenario to fault the device and they didn't show any performance/reliability data for more common workloads.
I own a Galaxy S7 Edge (Exynos), since day 1. I actually go out and know lots of people, for business and leisure. My family, friends and clients own iPhones (various generations, mostly latest), Galaxies, HTCs, LGs and Huaweis. Guess who has the best reception. Guess who has better and more reliable WiFi. Guess who has the better rear camera (front camera is almost a wash now after updates, and sometimes better. It was worse at launch), BATTERY LIFE, SCREEN, features, etc, etc, etc... This isn't limited to this generation of Galaxy S/Notes, it's been this way since the S4/Note 2 (aesthetics aside). The only drawback on current generation Galaxies is reception COMPARED to previous plastic built Galaxies; they're still BETTER than the competition.
Again, what are we comparing here? Actual hardware? Or real world usage? Performance consistency? I don't know at this point. Anandtech reviews are anything but consistent, and nowhere as easy for an objective user to extract the truer result between the lines. They weren't perfect, but it was easy to deduct the facts from the claims. Now, you get a deep dive of why X is better than Y, but then you get a "statement" of why Z is better than X without anything sort of rational reasoning (sugar coated with "personal taste").
Did you read the camera review? What was Josh comparing there? If it's about post processing, then Samsung isn't worried about his "taste", what they're worried about is what MOST OF THEIR USERS like and want. Their USERS want colorful, vivid and more USABLE images, not a blurry mess. Nothing beats Samsung's camera there, especially with the new focusing system. Again, what's being compared here? Sensor quality or his own taste in post processing? If it's sensor quality, I haven't seen a side by side comparison of RAW photos using the same settings, have you??
-- Sure Safari is more efficient.
Let's stop there then, because we agree. At this point, software optimization can (and does) completely shadow any "potential" inefficiencies in radios. Everyone agrees that Chrome isn't the best optimized browser for ANY platform. Safari has built-in ad blocking, Chrome doesn't. Samsung's browser supports ad-blocking, but Anandtech didn't bother making the comparisons' more apples to apples. They claimed that it performed worse or the same as Chrome. ***BS***. Samsung's Game-Tuner enables the user to run Samsung's browser (or any other app, not just games) in 1080p and even 720p modes, but again, Anandtech didn't bother. I sure as hell noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in render performance, battery consumption, and lower clock speeds when lowering the resolution (I run my apps and browsers in 1080p mode exclusively, and my games at 720p with no apparent visual difference, but with HUGE performance benefits).
Other than the FACT that these phones are NOT running the same software (OS, apps/games, even if they were the same "titles"), Javascript benchmarks, in particular, are an absolute mind-F***. You get VASTLY different results with different browsers on the same platform, and different results using the same browser on different platforms. Any sort of software optimization can drastically change the results more so than any difference in IPC or clock speed. Any reviewer (or computer scientists for the matter) worth their weight would never, NEVER, claim that a freagin' CPU is faster based on browser benchmarks UNLESS those CPUs were running the SAME VERSION browser, on the SAME platform, using the SAME settings, AND the SAME OS. Anandtech, among others, are "mysteriously" refusing to bring this point to light, and instead chose to fool the minds of their audiences with deliberate false assumptions. Most commentators know this, so how do you expect me, and others, to take you seriously. With that said, javascript (at this piont) is the least deciding factor of browser performance (especially on mobile).
-- This is not only a testament to S820's inefficiencies but also Samsung's implementation inefficiencies
How so? Where's the log data to back this up? Where's the deep dive? Where, in Samsung's software, is the reason for that? How can it be fixed?
This community is infested with false claims, inconsistent results, and bad methods of testing. Youtube is littered with "speedtests" and "RAM management" tests that have no evident value in everyday user experience, and FAIL to exclude external factors like router-scheduling and Google Play Services. No one runs and shuffles 10s of apps and 5 games at the same time.
I'm a regular commentator here, and I've bashed Samsung more than praising them on various subjects. I'm the first to point out the shortcomings of their tradeoffs. But I also know that these shortcomings are far, FAR less user-intrusive for the majority of consumers.
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"The GT7600 was only beaten in GFXBench this year by the Adreno 530 and surpasses both Adreno 530 and the T880MP12 in Basemark (it also has equal performance to the T880 in Manhattan). You make it sound like the GT7600 is multiple generations behind while it is not. It absolutely crushes the Adreno 430 and the T760MP8 in the Exynos 7420. The GX6450 in the A8 was underpowered but the GT7600 is not."You mean better drivers, right? You mean better a optimized benchmark for a particular GPU on a particular platform, VS a the "same" benchmark not optimized for any particular GPU on another platform...
Even with that handicap, the GS6/7 still manage longer battery life playing games. Amazing right?
CloudWiz - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
Whether or not a phone has "better drivers" or an "optimized benchmark" doesn't matter. Sure I can let Basemark go if you so wish, but GFXBench is cross-platform and not optimized (so far as I know) for either iOS or Android. The fact is that offscreen performance is very similar between all devices, and that your statement about the GT7600 'long being surpassed' is false. It's been half a generation since it's been surpassed, and I have no doubts that whatever goes in the A10 will again reclaim the GPU performance crown for Apple. And then Qualcomm/Samsung will pass it again next year - that's how technology works. But the fact that GT7600 is so close to Adreno 530 and T880MP12 despite being half a year older and on an inferior process is a testament to Apple and PowerVR. You couldn't say the same for GX6450 or even G6430.Also, have fun playing a game for 4 hours at 10 fps when it'd be far more enjoyable to play it for 2 hours at 30+ fps.
lilmoe - Saturday, August 27, 2016 - link
What are we comparing here? Unused performance or efficiency as whole? What matters in gaming desktops isn't the same for mobile devices (Smartphones). Some benchmarks are comparing Metal to OpenGL ES 3.1 when they should be comparing a lower level API to its competitor, ie: Vulcan.Mali GPUs have far surpassed PowerVR in efficiency, for a while. You can actually measure that in both benchmarks (battery portions) and real life gaming.
-- Also, have fun playing a game for 4 hours at 10 fps when it'd be far more enjoyable to play it for 2 hours at 30+ fps.
Part of the reason why I can't take you seriously (again, no offense). What game exactly runs at 10fps even at full resolution? I haven't seen any. But it's also good that you do acknowledge that Apple's implementation isn't exactly the most power efficient.
That being said, I run all my games at 720p (just like the iPhone) using Samsung's game tuner app, and not only do they run faster now, but the battery life (which was class leading at full res) is even better. Complaining that Samsung has larger batteries is like complaining that Apple has larger/wider cores. Because, again, what are we comparing here? Hardware? Or user experience??? It's not clear at this point, but the GS7 wins on both accounts at this particular workload.
Game-tuner (and the latest resolution controls in the Note7) has completely diminished my concerns with the resolution race. It doesn't matter to me anymore. They can go 4K (or complete waco 8K) for all I care, as long as I can lower the resolution. I'm baffled how there isn't a complete section about this app/feature (and Samsung's underlying software to enable it). I also bring this up because you get a benchmark tuned-down to 1080p (on my GS7 at least) results more FPS than the 1080p "offscreen" test for "some" reason. After seeing this, I'm even more conservative about these benchmarks.....
jlabelle2 - Monday, August 22, 2016 - link
- the modem on the S6 makes it last a ridiculously short amount of time on LTE and even on Wifi the 6s lasts half an hour longerDo you realize when you wrote that, that the iPhone has a ... Qualcomm modem ?
There is nothing magic about iPhone hardware that people try to make you believe.
It is crazy when you realize that the Note 7, with a bigger screen, with 50% more pixels, can still browse on LTE longer than the iPhone 6S Plus, while being significantly smaller.
CloudWiz - Thursday, August 25, 2016 - link
Yes, I know it has a Qualcomm modem. I also understand that the S820 versions of the GS7 have comparable Wifi/LTE results because of Qualcomm's modem prowess. However, this has nothing to do with the SoC. The Samsung S820 implementation is still far more inefficient than the Exynos implementation or other OEMs' implementations.The GS6 had a Samsung Shannon modem that was notoriously inefficient on LTE. That is a fact. And your comment forgets that the Note 7 also has a 30% larger battery, and in no way does 50% extra PenTile pixels translate to 50% increased battery drain.
CloudWiz - Thursday, August 25, 2016 - link
Addendum: The Note 7 also comes with an updated modem, further helping reduce battery drain. Coupled with the fact that the S820 is more tightly integrated than A9 with respect to the modem, it really isn't that surprising that the Note 7 is able to last a bit longer.StevoLincolnite - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Having Glass on the back AND front of the Phone is just asking for trouble... Wish Samsung would employ more durable materials.It wasn't a great material choice when Apple did the same years ago... It's still not a great material choice in 2016 either.
I had a Note 5 for a whole 2 days, slipped off the desk once and that was the end of that, the Note 7 is just more of the same.
My old Nokia Lumia took more abuse than that and I had it for almost 4 years, without a cover. Heck, I even purposely dropped it a few times and it just bounced without any damage.
jayfang - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Agreed. Does not matter how nice something looks when you have to put it in cover for grip and protection.lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Brah.... As painful as it is, let it go. We never wanted crappy glass backs, but the world has voted with their wallets. They don't want "durable" materials, they want design and features.That being said, glass is still better than metal since it allows better radio and wireless charging. Until you design an alloy or mag-field that can support that, glass is here to stay.
I want my plastic backs back....................................
StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Voted with their wallets? Not really.If a company deserves criticism for various aspects related to their products, then I implore people to criticize, otherwise companies become complacent.
I personally prefer the rubbery polymer materials that some Phones use, it's matte so it doesn't attract fingerprints, it has a good texture that assists with grip and doesn't reduce signal reception and it allows for wireless charging (A feature I have loved for years now with my old Lumia).
Samsung can shove their Glass where the sun doesn't shine, I won't be buying another Samsung device until they change their materials.
lilmoe - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
And how many of you are there? How many of us are there? When samsung made what we liked their sales tanked. Don't blame Samsung, blame the online community.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Samsung kinda' ignored what the people wanted with the Note 5.* Glass back.
* No MicroSD.
* No replaceable battery.
And then sales tanked.
jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
They nailed it with the S7... including the glass back... and yes I also would have preferred metal.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
We should crowdsource our own phone, with a plastic back, removable battery, ece. Make a truly durable piece of equipment.Meteor2 - Saturday, August 20, 2016 - link
Well apart from the removable battery, you're describing Nexus.Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Dropbox has gotten to be rather bloated. To give you a rough idea of how bloated it is, the Dropbox process on my PC has consumed 11 seconds of CPU time on my machine today. I have not used my dropbox all day and it has synced nothing. It should have been completely idle with extremely minimual CPU usage today. But instead, it has consumed nearly 1/4 the CPU cycles that DWM.exe has consumed. And surely you know what a hog DWM can be.Cod3rror - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Dropbox is super bloated. But you should checkout OneDrive and how many background processes it runs on Android; ridiculous! That's why I uninstalled both and use the services through Solid Explorer.Vaga - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Please do a headphone out audio output test. Also, please review the ZTE Axon 7!prime2515103 - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
I agree, and also a speaker test. This was a huge problem with my note 3. I was shocked at how much better the speaker was on other phones of the same generation. The speakerphone is all but useless and listening to music or videos without headphones is annoying at best. Yet, there was no mention of this in any reviews (anywhere, not just Anandtech).Dennis Travis - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Excellent Review! Thanks so much.tipoo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Those P9 and Mate 8 hot and cold runtime scores though. Is that from storage performance or the A72 cores in the Kirin?tipoo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Looks like they're behind the note 7 in sequential and not much different in 4KB random storage performance. So the Kirin makes that much difference, or just Touchwiz bloat?JoshHo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
It's a function of some optimizations that HiSilicon has done in their BSP.jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Any more details than that? It is quite curious that Samsung can't manage this...tipoo - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
Yes please. Interesting topic that is strange that smaller Chinese companies do better than some Android giants.Bombdog - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"like the iris scanner are actually useful and work well which is amazing considering how this is the first modern smartphone with an iris scanner"It's not, the Lumia 950 & 950 XL were the first.
JoshHo - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Duly noted. The review has been updated.Geranium - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Lumia 950 & 950 XL use face recognition, not iris scaning.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Nope.The Lumia's have an infrared camera and another camera that specifically designed to take pictures of your eyes.
slyronit - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
No. The Surface Pro 4 and Surface book use face recognition. Both the Lumias you mentioned use Iris scanners.supraman21 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I was really hoping for 2 Lane storage. They have it, its available, why the hell don't they use it! Especially considering how much an effect storage performance has on overall system performance. Apparently they also have developed and have ready a new 5 Axis image stabilization system for phones. Wtf are they doing?phoenix_rizzen - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Leaving features on the table for future phones, to get people [back] onto the upgrade treadmill?WPX00 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I actually get the reasoning behind the un-swipeable tabs in SMS and Contacts: for years, Samsung has kept an unnecessary feature in these apps that is swipe to call/message, so a horizontal swipe has already been taken by that function. It's a ridiculous feature I have never used or seen anyone use, and even after 3 years of using a Samsung I still swipe in those apps sometimes and call someone instead of moving tabs.snajk138 - Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - link
I actually use that swipe all the time. In my opinion it's a great time saving feature.theduckofdeath - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
The typical half glass full, negative approach when reviewing Samsung devices at Anandtech... I guess more of you guys wants a job at Apple like the one Anand managed to get?theduckofdeath - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Half glass empty, that is...See, I'm simply not capable of being as negative as an Anandtech writer. :)
jiffylube1024 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I hate to hear the "Anandtech is posting biased reviews" argument because they do such a good job of being in-depth, and I appreciate their reviews tremendously. However, I agree that there is a bias in the wording, intentional or not, against Samsung's recent Galaxy phones, which have been spectacular options in the Galaxy S6/S7 era, even in spite of Touchwiz's shittiness.Is Samsung's aluminum and glass industrial design and unique bezel-free design really so bad? Anandtech thinks it's tired and needs a refresh. In The Verge's review, they come up with a completely different conclusion - they say the Note 7 the best big phone ever, and praise how Samsung has out-designed the competition. Such a huge discrepancy down to essentially a matter of taste. Can we not reach a middle ground - every review of a Galaxy review on AT needs to mention how they need to spice up the "rectangle with rounded corners". It's fine for what it is!
----
To take just one example to hone my point, The iPhone 6S's camera in the AT review was rightly praised for its improved video - 4K recording and 1080p 120 fps. However very little was made of how it was essentially the same damn sensor as the last gen with shrunken pixels giving it a nominal bump from 8MP to 12MP, with basically zero quality difference in stills.
In the Samsung Galaxy S7 review, the super fast laser Autofocus was mentioned, but the overall image quality was described thusly "However, with that said the output of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge’s camera is not that impressive. I would argue that while it’s not worse than the iPhone 6s Plus, it is basically comparable."
It's not that impressive, yet equal to the iPhone 6S Plus. There was nothing in the iPhone 6S review or conclusion that described its camera as mediocre, yet that's how it comes off in the S7 review - Samsung has to be better, or it's unimpressive.
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Samsung has to be a lot, LOT, better, or it's unimpressive. FTFY.It's a mentality that really kills me.
theduckofdeath - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Exactly.Just because a person writes a ten page biased review it really doesn't make it less biased. This place just can't learn from old mistakes. Anandtech used to be a place you could go to to read reliable in-depth reviews about technology and gadgets. I don't know exactly when that changed, but I guess it was a long time ago when Anand had received enough gifts and perks from Apple to sway the whole writing culture on Anandtech.
thunderwave_2 - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Here in the UK, though, they're charging £700 for it. You could buy two OnePlus 3's (£329 each) and still have change. Don't get me wrong, this is surely the better phone. But is it really worth twice the price?lilmoe - Saturday, August 20, 2016 - link
Then why isn't the same being said about every other expensive phone???Meteor2 - Saturday, August 20, 2016 - link
It is.theduckofdeath - Saturday, August 20, 2016 - link
Read the first page of the iPhone 5 SE review and you'll get some perspective. An over-priced cynical release that Apple released thinking consumers were all stupid. Not a single complaint about Apple reusing the exact same hardware of a phone they had released several years earlier, and still asking for a stupid high price.This Galaxy Note 7 is still using a really unique design language that no other brand has managed to copy. Read the first page of this review again.
This site has gone down the drain as an Apple marketing portal. Which I guess is why the comment sections are really starting to die. Because you know, people are not as stupid as Apple and Anand and his minions seem to think.
Bluetooth - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
How can you say that when they do absolutely the best reviews, which are based on actual and realistic measurements. If you prefer superfluous reviews go to The Verge.theduckofdeath - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
A person who so clearly starts out with a negative stance about everything he is reviewing, just because it concerns the mammoth competitor to the fruity toy company he so clearly loves, really can't make a good review. A written review is literally all about the language in it.Yeah, I agree that the verge is worse. Then again, that's why I completely stopped reading anything there a long time ago. Being almost as bad as the worst, is that really a good thing?
osxandwindows - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Then go and make your own review and stop complaining.mjh483 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I really agree with your opinion about the camera because I've always felt that Galaxy smartphones produce very unnatural images and videos. The post processing is awful.However, don't you guys feel that your reviews about Samsung smartphones have a pessimistic and bored tone whereas Apple product reviews are full of words like "impressive" and "incredible"? You have to give credit where it's due.
grayson_carr - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Maybe they sound bored because this devices is boring. There is very little new stuff compared to the 6 month old S7 Edge. I'm sure if Apple released the iPhone 6S six months before the iPhone 6S Plus, Anandtech would sound pretty bored in the 6S Plus review as well because it would be 95% the same devices, but with a larger screen and one or two extra features.jiffylube1024 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
You're going to use that argument? The iPhone 6S is basically a 6 with a faster SoC, different camera (improved video, same still quality) and the semi-useless 3D touch. They had a YEAR to iterate that one...OK it's a bigger jump than the S7 Edge to Note 7. The Note 7 basically is an S7 Edge (do they really need all 3 at this point? I guess you get to choose between the S-Pen vs. bigger battery).
Still, the S7 Edge was a really well executed device.
mjh483 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
How is this a bigger jump? There's no performance improvement here, which means the core user experience is still the same. iPhone 6s provides a palpably faster experience in every aspect over the 6. That alone is a big difference.CloudWiz - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
And the S7 was just the S6 with a faster SoC, better camera, and semi-useless features like water resistance and microSD. The Note 7 is the same relative to the Note 5.(Seriously, how often do you drop your phone in water? And personally, I would never choose to willingly slow down my phone by adding crappy microSD storage into it.) How is this phone any different.SirCanealot - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Actually, my girlfriend rocked a Galaxy S Mini 5 for a little while (bit of a dog obviously though, so we changed it for something better) and was washing her hands in the sink. Phone slipped into the sink into the running water. She shat herself for about 5 seconds before releasing it was waterproof :)And adding a micro SD card to your phone does not slow it down*; please stop spreading misinformation.
*Unless of course you start moving apps to it maybe.
lilmoe - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
"semi-useless features like water resistance and microSD"lol. Semi-useless? Really?
techcrazy - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Great review. Thanks for the all the hard work.Ratman6161 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Don't like the icons? Does anyone really care (hint: I don't)? Don't like TouchWiz? Use a different launcher. Ditto with the built in apps. This is one of my reasons for using Android in the first place. If I don't like what the manufacturer supplied, its no problem. Just don't use it. I've got Nova launcher and a standard set of third party apps that I use across all my Android devices that makes them all look and function more or less the same for any thing I do. About the only exceptions are anything related to the S-pen.And refresh the design again? What for? Of course marketing people want constant change so they can convince the uninformed that its "new and improved". Just get rid of the gimmicks like curved screens and call it done. Within the next few years phones are going to be essentially commodities anyway.
polygon_21 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Its too bad launchers only change the home screen and the app drawers... you are stuck with touchwiz for the rest of the stufflilmoe - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
The thing is, as trivial as the icon complaint is, if he dug just a tiny bit deeper, he'd realize that the new theming engine now supports icon-packs...jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Sadly I haven't figured out how to disable or delete many of the built in apps...TheCurve - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Really nicely done, Josh. Made my morning. Cheers!Cod3rror - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
For some reason many modern cameraphones have a real problem rendering vegetation. They all make trees and grass look like it was oil painted. Here's an example from Anandtech's Moto G4 review, the left is OP3 and the right one is MG4+. The left one looks like it was oil painted. http://i.imgur.com/AlXPMap.jpglilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
You can only do so much with sensors that small, and software that prioritizes speed of capture and processing (since that's what most users want). If you want more, go fully manual.3ogdy - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
It's amazing to see Samsung continue with the same design language introduced with the S6 Edge. Finally a phone that looks different, among a slew of pieces of glass and plastic that look identical. Companies releasing phones that have the same old dog gamn design should be utterly ashamed to put such insults on the market. One could see more variance comparing two dog gamn stones than comparing two "oh-so-new-shiny-awesome-unbelievably-cool-my- s s a <-" smartphones.3ogdy - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Oh and I couldn't give one fraction of a damn about volumetric efficiency BS. The lack of a removable battery is not a smart choice Samsung has made.I shouldn't have to risk destroying my phone just because I'd like to replace my battery or simply force the phone to turn off if it freezes for whatever the reason. There is no excuse for not including a removable battery. Period.
zeeBomb - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Back to back phone reviews from anandtech... What a time to be aliveCygni - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I would like to see Anandtech stick to its guns and go back to calling "USB 3.1 Gen1" what it really is, USB 3.0. I remember a previous AT article announcing that the site wouldn't be supporting that marketing crap.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
nice phone, but not worth anywhere near the money samsung is asking, between the fragile construction and the sealed battery. Note 4 is a much better buy, even at this point.keg504 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Is the Galaxy Note 5 stylized as Note5 or is just an error on the first page? I have seen this in other places as Note5, so it's gotten me curiousPolizei608 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Thanks Joshua for the review, greatly appreciate it and the timing! I'm a big HTC fan because of the smoothness of their sense experience, and this seems to be overlooked in every smartphone review. I was about to pull the trigger on the note 7 after doing endless review reading, and then I read your final words regarding real world use and was extremely happy I didjhoff80 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
So the USB-C port uses Samsung and Qualcomm's fast charge, making it not actually compliant with the USB specification? Why wouldn't they just use USB-PD other than 'because Samsung'?vLsL2VnDmWjoTByaVLxb - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
You say:"Looking at the overall charge time the Galaxy Note7 performs respectably as it reaches full charge in under an hour and takes basically as much time as the Galaxy S7 edge, which is probably not a surprise given their similar battery capacities."
But your chart shows the shortest charge time at 1.33 hours (Galaxy Nexus 5X)? And the Note 7 at 1.85 hours? Am I reading this wrong?
Which is strange, because my S6 has never taken more than 1h20s to charge, and I'm pretty sure many phones beat my S6 on charging...
lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
With all due respect, this review provides NOTHING additional to what's been said and written online about the Note7/GS7 series. We come here for deep dives, SoC comparisons, software features that affect performance, etc......This review is nothing but personal opinion.
"The S-Pen continues to work well although I very rarely have any use for it"
Really? Like REALLY? Is that all you have to say about the absolute hallmark of this particular device??? No mention of the actual hardware improvements/regressions/whatever? No mention of its responsiveness or lack thereof? You think anyone gives a rat's ass about force touch? But you all still wrote paragraphs about a freagin' iGIMMICK.
Also Again??? No mention of throttling? No mention of the new power saving features? No mention of Game Tuner? No deep dive of the different SoCs???? Not a single attempt at tinkering with the kernel/governor to get a freakin' glimpse of what the heck is going on?????????
What's wrong with you guys???
amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Well, get use to it.If it's a feature that iPhone has, then it will get mentioned.
If it's a feature that iPhone doesn't have, then it's "irrelevant".
Just wait till iPhone 7 Pro gets a stylus and iPhone 8 gets a iris scanner, then you will get paragraphs after paragraphs about how amazing they were.
As a reader, we can do selective reading as well. When it's about 3D-touching, my mind goes blah blah blah, irrelevant. Coming up to live phones, blah blah blah, irrelevant, next paragraph.
whiteiphoneproblems - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
This is the sixth Galaxy Note with a stylus. I have no doubt that when Anandtech reviews the sixth iPhone model with 3D Touch, they will say little more beyond it "continues to work well."Oyeve - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
I hear ya. Its like the reviewer was intentionally looking for something NOT to like. He goes on about mic hole placement and useless crap like that. Ironically this site waxes on the iphone symmetry so much like its an amazing feature. If it wasn't for the forums I wouldn't even come here anymore.HideOut - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"You also get an extra 32 GB of storage which does justify the extra 100 USD that bumps the Note7 up to 850 USD."You must work for apple if you somehow think that 32Gb of on board storage is worth $100. FFS its about 1/5 that to buy in any other format.
bJammin - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Sorry for a nitpick, but this isn't the first phone with an iris scanner, though probably the first with wide availability. Fujitsu's is only available in Japan right now, but I have one as my company phone. The phone and scanner are actually pretty slick too despite being based on older tech, though Fujitsu's interface is pretty awful.http://www.gsmarena.com/fujitsus_latest_phone_is_w...
Vagabondjonez - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Still no htc 10 review or a Twitter response....Lau_Tech - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Well done on the improvements in timeliness and tone, Josh. I certainly agree with other reader opinions that the S-Pen deserved a full page of its own, given that it continues to be a distinguishing factor from all other phones. I understand that it may feel unnecessary if its the same as last years models, but it is still worth a re-look and run through. After all, Samsung's screens have not changed much either, and you still ran them through a gamut of tests.I must say that your continued placement of Samsung's AMOLED's as being "one of the best" or equal to Iphones to be have long since been untenable. Samsung's AMOLED beats or equals the Iphones in every one of your metrics. Colour-shifting remains the sole issue, but is not on its own sufficient to deny Samsung's phones the title of "best display, period".
Lau_Tech - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I should also point out that your (justified) decision to be nit-picky about design must be applied fairly to your upcoming iphone 7 review as well.If you intend to highlight design issues that do not affect the user experience (as has been done in this review), I would expect that you find fault with the Iphone 7s IF the Iphone 7s maintain the unwieldy bezel sizes of the 6 plus, and the added inconvenience of the USB-only audio jack. These should count as negatives against the Iphone 7s.
Your criteria for commenting on design must be seen as fair.
JoshHo - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
If there's a real demand for this sort of ID analysis I'll keep going with it.To outline some of my personal thoughts for design:
1. I don't see a ton of value to extremely thin bezels. Excessive bezel like the M8/M9 is one thing but the 6s Plus had no issues with ergonomics in use. I view phablets as phones that need two hands to be used but still fit in one pocket so I don't pay that much attention to bezel unless it's really egregious like the M8/M9.
2. The S-Pen would have received further analysis but battery life testing alone took up a full 3 days. It's been made clear to me that timeliness is critical so I would rather cut out discussion on things that are fairly well understood and revisit it in future short-form than cut out data that answers essential questions.
3. To me AMOLED's color shifting issues are fairly significant and power efficiency in high APL scenarios is still lagging slightly behind LCD. If power efficiency rises above LCD then I would say shipping LCD would automatically count as a negative against an OEM, but until that comes to pass I think it's important to weigh these things on a case by case basis.
4. If the iPhone 7 loses the 3.5mm jack it would require close examination and weighing of the advantages and disadvantages. I would trend towards likely being a bad idea but we'll have to see how it plays out. There are a lot of ways this could be executed and some are good but others are awful.
Lau_Tech - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Thanks for the detailed reply Josh, I appreciate the time taken.Im definitely with you with regards to points 2 and 4. I think with regards to points 1 and 3 we will have to agree to disagree.
I look forward to the HTC 10 review, of which I am already an owner. I'm sure you'll be able to point out interesting things about this device (some nuggets already present in this review)
jlabelle2 - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
I am also quite shocked about the change on editorial note (because it seems really to be that) since Anand departure. Even with Anand working for Apple, reviews were still much more factual.I have an iPhone 6S but honestly, there is not denying that the S7 Edge and Note 7 are just a marvel of design.
Also, saying that bezels do not matter is NOT a matter of opinion. We are speaking of phablet here and the very reason why not everyone have 6" phones is the size of those phones. So when the Note 7 include a 5,7" screen in a form factor which is 5mm shorter and 4mm narrower than a 5,5" iPhone 6+, this is huge achievement and has a significant competitive advantage compare to the iPhone or other bulkier large phone.
At last, how can anyone still defend LCD against Samsung OLED screen implementation? The argument that there would be color shifting when looking the phone from the side (which obviously no one is doing) shows the extent of bad faith.
Again, as an iPhone (and Windows phone user), and having no Android, I am puzzled by such review and what kind of goal is tried to be achieved...
NitT - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I feel like I am a minority here as I am OK with Touchwiz. I do not feel any lagging. On the other hand, when I use other Android phones such as HTC or Vivo, I feel that I miss so many settings. My latest HTC phone was HTC M7/M8. It is quite sad as I could not find newer HTC flagship models in my country.WoodyPWX - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Finally someone who isn't afraid to say something bad about Note 7. Every other reviews are practically without any real criticism. Thanks for a honest review!polbit - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
So it's an honest review because they criticize the phone? That's an interesting honesty test.Pdajah - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Like many other reviewers, i don't think you really appreciate whu the Note devices are so popular. It not about comparing hardware or size or software features etc. It is about the complete package and no other device offers this package and therefore your comparators and not helpful nor relevant to the millions and millions of Note users who need a highly productivity focused device. I can easily justify $200 as I'll achieve that in productivity in 2 weeks of using the Note 7 over the S7 Edge.vidal6x6 - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Why not compare xiaomi redmi note 3 pro i have one and play 7 8 hours to drain the batery samsung biased review! f&^&^anandtech!Ian Cutress - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
You mean the review we posted a couple of weeks ago?http://www.anandtech.com/show/10463/xiaomi-redmi-n...
HollyDOL - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
But but, can in serve as an emergency oar?BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
With a 5.7 inch screen? Yes, you can tape it to the end of a stick and row your boat with it. :)winjay - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
I expected a section on PenTile subpixel image rendering, considering how DisplayMate was gushing about it. Apparently there are algorithms which convert RGB subpixel rendering to RGBG. Oculus rift aparently uses subpixel rendering for VR on its Pentile dislay, though I'm not sure about that fact.Also, no attempt at covering HDR and the (possibly gimicky) app-agnostic "video enhancer" option?
Tylanner - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Bravo on the opening pictures. They plainly shows the appeal of this device without a single word.I want one
polbit - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Your reviews are usually what I anticipate the most, as they tend to be well done. I have to say however that I am shocked at your 'merely acceptable' comment about design, because as a 6S Plus owner, after playing with Note 7 at a Verizon store, I find it to be the best looking phone I've ever touched. It is truly beautiful, and makes my 6S Plus look pedestrian by comparison.I think pretty much every other review supports the design aspect of Note 7, Anandtech being the lone wolf in talking it down. Maybe it's time for someone else at Anandtech to evaluate the aesthetics from now on? I have to say that this review has definitely soured my trust of future commentary here...
henrybravo - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Agreed. The Note 7 and S7 Edge are the best designed phones out there by far. Even The Verge who many claimed to have an Apple bias said so. To read the comment, "Overall, the design of the phone is acceptable, but honestly at this point it’s nothing really special." is pretty funny."We can argue about how Apple uses a plastic liner or whatever minute detail in the design is 'better' ” - LOL no one is arguing that.
Axiomatic - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
My cube mate over the wall from me got the Note 7 today. His immediate comment to me was, "well it performs better with Nova Launcher than Touchwiz."trparky - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
When you have to replace stuff on your phone to get acceptable performance, there's something wrong.silverghozt - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Are the photos from the Note 7 worse than the Note 5? Can you please compare. I'm astounded that the HTC 10 is taking better images.BoyBawang - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
Dear Anandtech,Please do a battery life test of the lower screen resolution settings. If the result is significant, I'll immediately permanently put it to 1080p without second thoughts the moment I have the device. I don't care if the mutant pretenders say that they can distinguish the difference.
thanks
lebigamaca - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
It looks like you got the size of the rear camera pixels in reverse. Both are 1/2.6 inch so the 16 megapixel should have smaller pixels than the 12 megapixel.skrewler2 - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
it would have been nice to see a picture of the s7 edge and note7 side by side or stacked on top of each other so we could get an idea of how much bigger the note isaryonoco - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
Does the phone ship with the latest Android Security Patch level?Has the manufacturer committed to providing security patches on a timely basis?
Has the manufacturer committed to providing Android upgrades for X number of year?
Why are such basic questions that affect the usability and viability of a phone ignored by AnandTech? We don't all buy new phones every 6 months. Some of us are holding on to our phones for 24 months or longer. The question "will my phone receive OS updates during its lifetime" is a very valid question that AT pays no attention to.
Similarly we have paragraphs dedicated to the PMIC and various ICs in the phone, paragraphs dedicated to seeing if the phone drops a frame here or there, but no attention paid to the fact that the phone ships with unpatched remote root vulnerabilities.
Anandtech's reviews are becoming less and less relevant. Sure, it's cool to know what IC is doing what in the phone, but it's absolutely irrelevant to its day to day use. Knowing if the OEM is going to supply OS updates and security updates in a timely manner very much matters!
tamalero - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
As someone who changes cell phones once every 3 or so years.. I'm pissed the current trend of copying Apple and their non changeable battery.Worse when Samsung no longer seems to produce older batteries to force to upgrade.
Not exactly a fan to be forced to for 500+ USD for a throwaway phone.
tamalero - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
errata.. "not exactly a fan of being forced to FORK 500+ USD for a throaway phone every year"name99 - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
"Despite all of this, there seems to be a general disappointment with smartphones."Come on Joshua, where do you drag up this nonsense?
There is a tiny fraction of internet whingers, hyperactive fools with the attention-span of 5-year olds and generally the technological to match, that are "disappointed".
Meanwhile in the real world, people are using their phones more than ever --- have you SEEN what a group of public people waiting around (think airport, restaurant, bus) looks like these days?
People in the saturated wealthy nations continue (so far, as of the most recent data) to buy phones on the reliable two-year-update cycle --- and why not? This year's phones are faster than those of two years ago, with more RAM, faster flash, better radios,nicer screens.
Meanwhile people in the non-wealthy world continue to be grateful for the ever falling prices, and enjoy moving on to their first smart phone.
You are not in the business of click-bait or insane interest advocacy; you are in the business of tech journalism. You don't need to write to such stupid sentences; you;re better than that; and the market you're discussing deserves better.
And starting with a stupid premise leads to what are factually flat out factually incorrect statements like "People are increasingly finding it hard to justify phones like the HTC 10 or Galaxy S7 with competition from..."
HOW are people finding it hard to justify phones like the S7? Everyone knows I'm an Apple fan, but I'm also tuned into reality, and the reality is that the S7 has sold pretty damn well, (as far as I can tell perhaps 20% better than the S6).
Look it's probably true that one day we'll hit enough of a wall in phone tech that the upgrade cycle WILL slide, and consumers WILL be massively over-served by phones. But let's not pretend that that prediction has already arrived.
Part of the problem is that these reviews operate with a broken context. It makes sense to compare against last years model, but it also makes sense to compare against the model from two years ago because THAT is where the audience for this product is. Complaining that it won't excite the community it isn't TARGETED AT (ie the owners of last-years model) is just stupid.
erikiksaz - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
How did you guys manage to monitor for frame drops? Is it a separate app?Belard - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
Still rather blah- design. I'm surprised they continue the glass backing from the S6, like as if they have not learned anything from Apple? A family member has the S6 and yes, her back has a spider crack on it with a long one from top to bottom.amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
they need the glass back for the wireless charging.Glass and plastic works with Qi-charging, metal does not(at least for now).
thek - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
so no one is going to bring up the facts that this 850$ phone has a smaller battery then the Xiaomi redmi note 3 (a 150$ phone) and it's bootloader is locked in the US which literally makes it just the same as an Iphone. (All of us here came to Android because it was an open garden). Closing android is making Samsung not a legit Apple vendor IMO, and should too for the rest of you.Don't be kids and be fooled by gimmicks and high specs. You can't even get CM13 on this phone.
And a really bad job by the reviewer for not bringing this up. As usual in Anandtech they only cares about numbers and not whats behind them.
thek - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
not a legit Android* vendorCSMR - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
Great review and phone.I wonder if it would be possible to check the compass in future?
All the phones I have owned have had terrible magnetometers which stop working, require shaking the phone, or are off by a large angle.
Having compass inaccuracies pointed out in reviews would really shake things up.
Pipperox - Sunday, August 21, 2016 - link
So you're slamming an excellent phone (like the S7 as well) because of your non-sensical review of its camera?The most reputable camera review website - Dxomark - puts the S7 at the top for still image quality, on par with the HTC10, and the Samsung is even better in the video score.
What problems do you see with video stabilization?
Dxo Labs talks about "excellent video stabilization", i have an S7 edge and can only confirm what they say.
Diet - Monday, August 22, 2016 - link
This the only review on the internet that addreses the weak points of this overpriced phone.Kudos To Anandtech!
KoolAidMan1 - Monday, August 22, 2016 - link
More performance tests: https://youtu.be/3-61FFoJFy0tldw - The flagship GN7 is slower than a year-old iPhone 6S.
jlabelle2 - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
- The flagship GN7 is slower than a year-old iPhone 6Syes and a Porsche 911 from last year is faster than an Audi RS6. The question is what do you need in your day to day life. Is the speed of the RS6 enough? Do you need space? 5 seats? Comfort? Good equipments?
People have short memory. The iPhone was a success because it was the 1st phone with a big touchscreen, easy to use, with a great experience. Now, people consider that a phone should be choosen only based on the speed difference of launching 30 different applications within 2mn. Even if new phone are twice as quick as the previous one that was twice as quick as the previous previous one that was twice... Well, you see the point. Phones are fast enough.
I do not know anybody that is using an iPhone 6 or Samsung S6 and that is saying: "my phone is too slow and the only thing I would wish is to that a phone twice as quick".
I am certain that if Apple would sell at the same price:
1/ iPhone 7 = CPU of the 6S, AMOLED screen, quick and wireless charging, waterproof, 5,7" screen but 5mm narrower than current 6S+, camera hardware button, pen support.
2/ iPhone 6SS = iPhone 6S with a CPU 50% quicker
you can be absolutely assure that NOBODY would choose an iPhone 6SS versus this hypothetical iPhone 7.
We can be all fair of what Apple is achieving with its iPhone, which is great. But some minimal common sense would be good in this forum.
slyronit - Tuesday, August 23, 2016 - link
Silly question, why do we do Pentile AMOLED displays? Wouldn't an SRGB AMOLED display allow us to use a lower resolution panel, which will save the GPU a lot of processing and hence power consumption and battery life?Is this just an excuse to use 1440p as a marketing gimmick? AMOLED SRGB displays are definitely feasible (My Nokia E7-00 had it 7 years ago).
iRoNeTiK - Wednesday, August 24, 2016 - link
I'm wondering the difference between your 2016 vs 2015 battery benchmarks. I see that in your LG G4 review you were using the "2015" benchmarks and LG G4 got 11.37 hours of battery life for Web Browsing over WiFi but in this, it only gets 6.53. Very significant decrease. This is just one phone for example.Why would there be a need to change the benchmarks? Were the 2015 test not accurate? By that much? 11.37 to 6.53? Almost half, geez! Any clarification would be appreciated, thanks!
n13L5 - Thursday, August 25, 2016 - link
That bendy glass is just a way to get the corners scratched and well, a matter of taste, I guess. I'd rather do without, I already touch the edges of the screen accidentally when handling the phone sometimes, with usually annoying results.But ok, the rest of the phone is pretty splendid and I was tempted to overlook that -
Until I found out the dual-SIM solution is a "hybrid" solution, requiring removal of your MicroSD card to put a second SIM card in. I guess I wait for Sony's next entry with their splendid noise cancelling, which I've always enjoyed on airplanes...
Bfree4me - Friday, August 26, 2016 - link
Note 5 Owner here and for a while, because of the retail price of the Note 7. But the reviewer was clearly not feeling the Note and it's his opinion. But I have read countless reviews here and each and everytime Samsung was scrutinized for something. Plastic /Polymer Body, Screen Fit and Finish, overall Size etcetera. Now you guys err guy, has a gripe about the 3D glass sandwiching the aluminum as needed to be overhauled on the next generation. Ahem, this piece of KIT rivals anything on the market right now with exception being the S7. No one has a Water Resistant Unit period point blank! And the SPen is not for everyone, but I use my S-Pen each and every day, as a matter of fact several times a day to cut and paste captions. Yesh, a simple screen capture simply cannot compare to its precision. Samsung can do anything you've mentioned, but there is always a cost benefit associated with said options. Here's it from the head Engineering guy, http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/1/12340294/samsung-...Kind regards
ithehappy - Friday, August 26, 2016 - link
Sad to see the review only for SD variant, which will be release in two countries only, but whatever. That line there, where its mentioned that scrolling is still not as smooth as expected, how devices like HTC 10 has constant near 60 fps output when it needs come, makes me to not buy this phone. I just don't know what is wrong with Samsung, that they keep their nuisance TouchWiz, and just have no interest to make it smoother and more polished. If you can't do just switch to AOSP, what's the big deal! S Note and all the other Samsung apps could work without heavily modifying the framework right? Darn it Samsung! You choose loads of features over finesse, being a major manufacturer that's unwise, like you said, and I have been saying for as long as I could remember, moment most people start realising how poor TW is in comparison with vanilla Android, let's see where Samsung stock stands after that. Probably I will still end up buying it just because of its display, but that's not the point.Exynos review should be there though anyway, as that is the "international" variant, and arguably the better unit than SD.
Vagabondjonez - Saturday, August 27, 2016 - link
Htc 10 review...ideamotor - Monday, August 29, 2016 - link
So .... call reception and volume? I've been through 3 Huawei Nexus 6Ps because everyone I talk to hears an echo, using two different cellular networks. Also, why don't you guys do reviews on DACs or at least point to a review?SanX - Monday, August 29, 2016 - link
I immediately stop looking at any phone less then 6".lastunas - Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - link
do you guys have charge time by 25w(12v/2.1a) wall charger?lastunas - Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - link
do you guys have charge test by 25w(12v/2.1a) wall charger?vivekvs1992 - Tuesday, September 6, 2016 - link
i am currently using an s7 edge..just some things to say out loud...first of all what a review..its an opinion of a reviewer written here rather than a copy paste from a samsung pr page...kudos..secondly i have to point out 3 things
1. the edge is awesome if you like it..i watch a lot of movies on it, all sitcoms, etc, so the videos look awesome if they are movies..somewhat stretched if watching 16:9 videos.
2 the display looks awesome..the pictures appear flush to the glass surface..a neat change after using an xperia z1
3. i use a transparent skin rather than tempered glass with back cover..works wonders(i use gadgetshieldz..)my dog pulled at my headphones and the phone fell down from my table face down..to problems at all..
mgutt - Tuesday, September 20, 2016 - link
How does the battery life profit from reducing the resolution to 720p or 1080p and is it possible to reduce the resolution without a permanent notification?