Samsung Debuts Galaxy Note7 With New S Pen, Gear VR Headset, and Gear 360 Camera

[Telos101]

That this post has already generated eight pages of comment, some of it interesting and thoughtful, is testament to the fact that it belongs on MacRumors, which gets millions of hits every month. Kudos, too, for keeping me in the loop about what Apple's rivals are achieving in the long absence of any big reveals from Cupertino.

Also, don't be so naïve as to think Apple execs, devs and designers don't regularly frequent this site to gauge public opinion. Honest admiration for what the competition is offering works as a proverbial kick up the backside for a company clearly dragging its feet, for whatever reason.

 

[Rogifan]

A) Because Samsung is Apple's biggest competitor.
B) Because a thread that just started today is already at page 8. By tomorrow, it might be at 20.

And over what? Seems like a nice enough phone but if this was Apple people here would be calling it boring and just an 'S' version of the existing phone.

 

[JayIsAwesome]

No. I doubt either of them actually have any Apple products.

I have an iPhone and AppleTv. And will be getting MacBook very soon (for college) I had an iPad but sold it b/c I got bored with it. Ended up getting a Tab S. But you see, unlike some people here....I can own an apple product and still not act like Apple can do no wrong. I have an iPhone and a Galaxy. Samsung has been killing it, while Apple has been just...there. With Samsung, you have waterproofing, fast charging, wireless charging, VR, expandable storage, arguably the best camera on a mobile phone, the beautiful curved display, great battery life, among other things.

Meanwhile Apple is getting ready to release the 3rd version of the same phone they've had since 2014. And Apple is apparently gonna take out the headphone jack, which is the complete opposite of what people want. I hope Apple has some tricks up its sleeve come September. B/c the 7 (or 6se) is shaping up to be a disaster

 

[apolloa]

If you think about it, Samsung and Apple are the only real major players. Samsung is ahead in terms of innovation and hardware, but Apple's ecosystem and software is one of their strongest selling points.

Apple needs to stray away from
16gb devices and realize even using Live Photo's will consume the majority of this memory and let's not forget software updates, which also take away space to. It's upsetting we are still offered 16GB memory in 2016. Finally, I believe Apple is offering 32 GB as an entry level. If Apple delivers something big in hardware sense, say 2017, with the Tenth anniversary iPhone. Then maybe they can recruit some Of their lost followers. But for now, it appears a lot of customers are not happy with Apple. Hopefully this changes.

You think that because that's all you see on the market but Huawei and Xiaomi are both big players getting bigger and bigger.

 

[ChrisCW11]

It's not *that* hard to go Android... you're talking a few hundred bucks. Pick up a used device and check it out.

You say you've been disappointed, but compared to what, exactly? Your expectations? Android updates have been even more lame. What exactly are Google and the OEMs doing that makes you think you're missing out on something? They were years behind on Touch ID and they're years behind on 3D Touch. Even basic things like device encryption is missing on most Android devices.

If many Google employees and employees of Android OEMs like me prefer iOS, that should tell you something.

But go ahead and try it out for yourself. Everyone is different, and it sounds like you just a want something different. I know a few people who switched from iPhone to Android... but I know a lot more people who switched from Android to iPhone.

I know even more people that switch from android, to iOS back to android and are waiting for Apple to wake up and do something innovative now.

 

[Ries]

Now that is how you do it. Compact form factor for the screen size, big battery, expandable storage, 64gb base, huge OLED screen, great camera, water resistant...

Fast charging, wireless charging, 15GB cloud space free, iris unlock, private locked away area and thin bezels. Apple is becoming a dinosaur.

 

[Rogifan]

I know even more people that switch from android, to iOS back to android and are waiting for Apple to wake up and do something innovative now.

Gotta love anecdotal data.

 

[Popeye206]

That this post has already generated eight pages of comment, much of it interesting and thoughtful, is testament to the fact that it belongs on MacRumors, which gets millions of hits every month. Kudos, too, for keeping me in the loop about what Apple's rivals are achieving in the long absence of any big reveals from Cupertino.

Also, don't be so naïve as to think Apple execs, devs and designers don't regularly frequent this site to gauge public opinion. Honest admiration for what the competition is offering works as a proverbial kick up the backside for a company clearly dragging its feet, for whatever reason.

I keep hoping they're not dragging their feet because they are just plain slow, but rather that they are actually working on something else really cool in the mean time that has truly been kept a secret.

Heaven forbid it's been something totally new with the MacBook line.

 

[44267547]

You think that because that's all you see on the market but Huawei and Xiaomi are both big players getting bigger and bigger.

I agree I am seeing a lot more of Huawei on the market. They make a nice smart watch and they have been in the tablet market for while too.

 

[JayIsAwesome]

I'm curious about the iris scanner. Unless my hand is wet from just coming out of the shower, the Touch ID works instantly and pretty much every time. Was there a way the iris scanner made unlocking the phone quicker and more convenient? I just can't see how it can be quicker and since I have to pick up my phone with my hand, the only other time I can't unlock it is if I'm wearing gloves. I just don't see how something can iris scan my eye quick enough and accurately enough for this to be a superior unlock process.

The way my Samsung rep put it, the Iris scanner isn't necessarily faster...but it's more secure. He showed it off to me and it worked pretty well. The phone unlocked pretty quickly too

 

[dannyyankou]

Funny, iPhone 7 is rumored to have 21 megapixels.

That's a crazy rumor from 2 years ago based on new parts created by a supplier.

More recent, relevant rumors say 12 megapixels.

 

[MH01]

We don't get front page articles every time someone releases a new smartphone. Clearly the only reason this is a front page story and not in the alternative to iOS forum is for clicks - to get a bunch of people posting how Apple doesn't innovate anymore, I'm switching to Android blah blah. Over at AI it's front page news for the opposite reason; to generate a bunch of snarky anti-Samsung/Android posts.

When you run an ads driven news site, you need to generate daily quota of stories, Cause if there are no new stories, people leave and stop coming back, so what Apple stories should they run?

Don't blame editorial staff and the masses cause we are looking at getting an iPhone 6SS..... yes people are worried about innovation at Apple....with good reason , cause the hardware releases are really drying up, for any product. Blame Schiller, he is the fool that dropped the "Apple cannot innovate my ass" comment.....on a product approaching. 1000 days without update...

 

[apolloa]

I agree I am seeing a lot more of Huawei on the market. They make a nice smart watch and they have been in the tablet market for while too.

Yeap, they will be the ones replacing Sony and Motorola and HTC and even LG. All have made nice handsets this year but not enough to light up sales, whereas the Chinese makers can offer high end specs, half decent build quality all for cheap prices.

 

[manu chao]

How much will you be throwing away in app store purchases when you switch?

If I were to switch (which is not likely), including any DRM-ed content (movies, audiobooks), probably several thousand Dollar. But some of this is for apps that I no longer use (because they might not run anymore, are outdated in some way, or simply because I moved to a competing app).

 

[mikecorp]

i'm glad Samsung created more advanced telephone, but still do not like android and Samsung's crappy past lineups. I will keep my iphone 5 as long as I can or until Apple releases something that would be worth update. 5s, 6 and 6s were rubbish. My top consideration would be SE, but it needs to get better software support.
PS: if Samsung iris scan will be ****** as their finger print, Apple doesn't need to be worried. Face recognition on Stvs suck big time

 

[lagwagon]

Good luck outperforming the A10 chip. As always, it won't come close.

It won't, like you said. A10 was rumoured to be roughly equivalent to an A9X as far as speed goes. I don't even think the Snapdragon 820 beats a normal A9 chip. (SD's always "win" in multicore performance, but that's almost a useless win because most tasks are typically done with single core.)

 

[bushido]

Thats literally every little thing i want from an iPhone. Shame on you Apple

 

[manu chao]

And over what? Seems like a nice enough phone but if this was Apple people here would be calling it boring and just an 'S' version of the existing phone.

A new Samsung device will be compared on MacRumors much less to the previous Samsung device than to the current (or likely future) competing device from Apple. And the number of differences in that comparison often might easily be greater than the differences to its Samsung predecessor. Meaning there is enough to talk about, even if the same thing that was talked about last year.

 

[choctawfootball]

I heavily favor android phones now a days.
Although I have owned iPhone 3gs and 4s.
I might add the 4s was one of my fav phones with its glass back.

I am very disappointed with this note 7.
In fact I'm actually looking forward to what iPhone 7 will offer.

I admit the new note7 may be the best phone out there, but I can still be disappointed by it.
I'm not going to list what is wrong with the note7 here bc I don't think a lot of iPhone fans will understand my criticisms.

Iris scanner is a gimmick like 3d touch or the fingerprint sensor (I don't lock my phone). I want my phone unlocked immediately.

I really wanted Samsung to make me buy the note7 at launch but I'm going to wait. Unless I can buy one at a discount using someone's bogo discount .

IPhone7 has a chance at picking me up.
A surprise min 64gb storage?
A huge upgrade to the cpu/gpu?
A huge bump in battery?

I need at least two of the above to make me highly consider an iPhone7 upgrade (or something similar).

I do like the Apple store iPhone upgrade program. Why hasn't HTC or Samsung implemented this?

Of all the things Samsung could "copy" why havnt they copied the Apple store iPhone upgrade program?

 

[niun]

Yeap, they will be the ones replacing Sony and Motorola and HTC and even LG. All have made nice handsets this year but not enough to light up sales, whereas the Chinese makers can offer high end specs, half decent build quality all for cheap prices.

The very reasons I picked up a One+ 3.
Initially as an android dev phone but it's totally replaced my iPhone - which is now a dev phone.

 

[Allewsive]

How could they release Android N? The official Nougat update is not even out for Nexus phones yet. It's probably won't be out until late September or early October alongside with the new Nexus phones. Either way, I agree it's disappointing to buy a new phone with an outgoing OS version. Then again, Android N doesn't seem like a huge update over Marshmallow, anyway. The big thing in Nougat for me was multiwindow support, and Samsung has already been doing that since the Galaxy S5.

Stock Android is the big thing for me. I really like the hardware look and feel of the Samsung lineup lately, but TouchWiz really takes the cake as worst altered Android experience. I have used it a lot through phone sales, and through trying out the Note 5... Also, how long does it take for most Galaxy devices to get the new version of Android when Google drops it?

 

[TallManNY]

iOS 7 was a blatant rip off of android. And you can't tell me that devices like the Surface Pro didn't influence the iPad Pro. I find it comical that Apple hardcore iFans will shout from the mountain top that "so and so stole from Apple" Yet when Apple blatantly copies...you get the "oh, well that's different" bs excuse

Surface Pro did not influence the iPad Pro. There have been keyboard cases since the launch of the iPad.

The way my Samsung rep put it, the Iris scanner isn't necessarily faster...but it's more secure. He showed it off to me and it worked pretty well. The phone unlocked pretty quickly too

In what way is Touch ID not secure? Have there been examples of it being hacked off of finger prints? There were lots of reports of such a hack when it was introduced. But lots (if not all of those) were debugged as fakes.

It seems like cool tech though. But I'd like to understand how it is more secure. It will certainly be slower to swipe up the screen to turn on phone and then to position eyes into the scan position. Tough to beat Touch ID which unlocks in less than a second.

 

[SMIDG3T]

It won't, like you said. A10 was rumoured to be roughly equivalent to an A9X as far as speed goes. I don't even think the Snapdragon 820 beats a normal A9 chip. (SD's always "win" in multicore performance, but that's almost a useless win because most tasks are typically done with single core.)

Yep. It's slightly less than the A9X chip (the Geekbench score). Just think. That chip powers the iPad Pro's which have massive displays, think what it'll be able to do in a smaller device like an iPhone!

 

[BeSweeet]

Typical response of someone with no argument. Dismiss the other person as a hater to diminish what they say.

Having something that can be inserted wrong is a DESIGN FLAW. This is why countless devices in countless industries have things like keyways to prevent things from being used the wrong way (usually by accident). You can't throw out hundreds of years of engineering just because you won't admit Samsung made a mistake.

I'm still waiting for one of you Samsung fans to list off all those powerful Android Apps that run so well on an S7 but can't on an iPhone. How many times do I have to ask this before someone steps up to the plate? I've got my S7 and 6S Plus sitting here waiting to test them. And please list off all those powerful 64bit Android Apps that can utilize the S7 processor.

I can insert a DVD upside-down and it won't play. Is it the manufacturer's fault for now adding a laser on the opposite side? No. These examples go on and on. Moral of the story? Don't be stupid, and insert the S Pen correctly.

Facebook for Android loads light years faster than it does on the iPhone. Coded differently, but that's just one example.

As mentioned earlier, you're clearly a disgruntled anti-Android user, clearly made evident by your posts in this thread.

 

[Born Again]

Can anyone tell me, am I reading Macrumors right now?

When apple starts innovating please share it on macrumors.