As expected the Galaxy Note 7 was announced this week and has the same camera specs as the most popular flagship phone from Samsung the Galaxy S7. It does have some new tricks up it’s sleeve aside from the customary S Pen. It has for the first time in a Samsung phone an Iris scanner for security unlocking and now USB Type C which many phones already sport.
It is basically a Galaxy S7 Edge with a larger screen, a pen and an Iris Scanner with IP68 Water resistance. We would not take it in the ocean but should withstand moderate immersion and or splashes. This may be the best Note phone yet but it is also the most uneventful in the line since most if it’s specs are already present in the S7 line. The Note phones used to be about the most forward looking specs, this time around Samsung stuck with the proven formula of the S7 which is the #1 Selling Android phone for 2016.
Camera Specs are the same as the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge and S7 Active which are as follows:
- 12MP dual-pixel camera for phase AF
- f1.7 aperture Lens
- 1080p 60fps
- 720p at 240fps! (Slow-Mo)
- 4k UHD 30fps
Video samples of the 240fps 70p slow motion option on the Galaxy Note 7 have already started to show up and below are a few for your visual inspection:
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE7 SLOW MOTION by LALIT KALIA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3BVciAIrys
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Super SlowMo Camera Video Sample by smartPHONEika:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcmt20uMUgc
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 : The best Slow Motion Mode by PlacPac:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZNPl-QWaEk
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Camera Test by Goar 132:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b0M_BecY2g
The Camera App:
The videos below show the Camera features in action which is somewhat improved in the interface over previous Samsung phone releases, purely usability and cosmetic changes for the most part:
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 camera tour by Pocketnow:
Galaxy Note 7 camera closeup by CNET:
Note 7 more of the same for Samsung Slow-Mo Fans:
No surprises here, we knew the camera module would be the same and the processing is identical to the Galaxy S7. 240fps 720p video is good and detailed and we could not spot any quality differences between the other Galaxy Phones when it comes to video at 720p.
There seems to be a limiting factor on the sensor as it has a performance ceiling in that frame rate spec at 240fps 720p and 60fps 1080p. It would take a new sensor/processing formula to get better performance. 1080p 120fps is reserved for the iPhone, Nexus 6P and some other lesser known Chinese brands. The clear step up for phones is to offer 240fps at 1080p and 480fps at 720p in the future. Lets hope it gets here soon.
We have ranked the Galaxy Note 7 below the Galaxy S7 based on price alone since it shares the same specs but at a higher price of $849.00 USD.
We liked the Galaxy Note 7 phone as a camera and multipurpose device but it’s far from the state of the art when it comes to mobile slo-mo. Thanks for reading- HSC