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Samsung's decision not to sell the Note 5 in the UK was so unpopular that 50,000 people signed a petition demanding a rethink. While unsuccessful, I think people will take solace in the fact that they're going to get something much better: the Galaxy Note 7.
Skipping a generation to bring the Note range in line with the Galaxy S7 family (it's definitely less confusing), the Note 7 is Samsung's latest and greatest phablet, bringing pen control to the masses along with a whole range of other new features.
Build quality and design
Samsung has absolutely nailed design and build quality with its recent crop of handsets and the Note 7 is yet another step forwards. With its sleek body and curved display, I have no doubt that this is one of the most attractive phones ever made. It's the attention to detail that really stands out, with the phone entirely symmetrical from top to bottom and side to side. In the hand, the Galaxy Note 7 doesn't really feel like a big phone anymore, either. It's well-balanced, easy to grasp and feels just right.
It measures 153.5x73.9x7.9mm and weighs just 169g. That makes it smaller overall than the iPhone 6S Plus (the Note is a little thicker), and not much bigger than the Galaxy S7 Edge. Given that this phone as a 5.7in display, that's pretty good going. Samsung's also releasing the phone in three colours: Black Onyx, Blue Coral and Silver Titanium. I'm a fan of the Blue Coral as its subtle shade of blue really stands out compared to its white and black siblings.
IP68 dust and water protection
As with the Galaxy S7 range, the Note 7 has an IP68 rating, which means that it's both dustproof and waterproof up to 1.5m in fresh water for up to 30 minutes. In other words, if you drop it down the loo or get caught in a rain shower, your phone won't break. If you spill a pint over it or something other than clean water, however, you might not be so lucky.
S Pen
Of course, the standout feature of the Note range has always been the stylus, and the Note 7 gets a brand new S Pen, which Samsung says is easier to use and feels more natural. The truth? Absolutely spot on. Thanks to the 0.7mm tip on the Note 7's new S Pen, you get incredible accuracy. The S Pen also feels quite soft when writing, making it feel more like writing on paper than a hard display. I'd certainly have no problems using this as my notebook of choice.
Diving into the S Pen's features is easy, too, as there's an ever-present shortcut icon that remains onscreen whenever you take the pen out of the phone. These utilities give the S Pen a few neat tricks. First, Google Translate is built in, so you can convert words on the fly just by hovering the pen over them. It will even work using a photo, so you can take a picture of a menu, for example, and translate as you go.
You can use the animated GIF function to turn an online video into a short clip that you can share with your friends. There's also a magnify option - just hover the pen over the screen and you'll get a zoomed-in view. With the S Pen slotting neatly out of the way into the bottom of the phone, you'll find it hard to lose it.
Security - fingerprint and iris scanners
We’ve all seen fingerprint scanners before, but the Note 7 is the first handset to have a built-in iris scanner, which can unlock your phone just by scanning your eyes. The registration process takes around 30s, after which the phone unlocks in just a couple of seconds when you hold it up to your face. It’s clever to see and is an additional form of security that banks and other financial institutions may be interested in, but it’s not going to be for everyone, as it warns that contact lenses and glasses can cause problems with the scanner.
Display
Samsung's Super AMOLED technology is about the best you can get on a smartphone these days and the Note 7 has yet another brilliant screen. The resolution of 2,560x1,440 gives you a screen density of 518ppi, and while not quite as high as the S7 and S7 Edge, everything still looks absolutely pin sharp on its 5.7in display. I haven't been able to run our usual barrage of tests on this screen yet, but I'd be surprised if it didn't get near-perfect scores.
Camera
Samsung has fitted the Note 7 with the same dual-pixel 12-megapixel sensor it used in the Galaxy S7. I couldn't take any sample shots in my time with the phone, but the S7's camera is one of the best in the business and I'd expect the Note 7 to produce equally good results.
Battery life
Samsung didn't quote any battery life figures for the Note 7, but the new phone has a huge 3,500mAh battery. That's just shy of the 3,600mAh battery used in the Galaxy S7 Edge, but bigger than the 3,000mAh battery in the S7. Given that the Note 7 has a bigger screen, it seems reasonable to expect that the new phone will last somewhere between the S7's 17h 48m and the S7 Edge's 18h 42m in our video playback test.
Fast charging via the USB-C port on the rear should also means that you'll be able to get to around 50% charge in 10 minutes just like the S7, but Samsung hasn't released any official details or time scales at time of writing.
Performance
As for performance, the Note 7 has 4GB of RAM and an octa-core 2.3GHz Exynos 8890 SoC in the UK version - other territories get a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. This is the same chip used in the Galaxy S7 range, so I'm expecting the Note 7 to be as blisteringly fast as those handsets.
Storage
Rejoice, as Samsung has fully returned to upgradeable storage this year, with a microSD card slot letting you cheaply upgrade storage from the 64GB that's built-in to the handset.
Conclusion
If you've been missing the Note range, you're going to be extremely happy with the Note 7: it's gorgeous, it's fast, it's got a better S Pen and it's waterproof. Following on the from the quality of the S7, it looks clear that this handset is going to be another winner for Samsung.