Samsung are pushing hard with their phablet line, Galaxy Note. The most recent entry in the series, the Galaxy Note 7, just started shipping out to T-Mobile customers who had pre-ordered the device, despite the fact that it shouldn’t have been available for another few days. Quite the happy surprise for those who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the phone as soon as possible, but just how good is the Galaxy Note 7 for the price Samsung are asking for it? And what about the recent rumors of another variant headed to the market?
Most previews of the phone paint it in a very positive light, and it looks like Samsung have managed to strike the perfect middle ground in combining certain features. The new phone comes with more storage space, a faster processor, and a camera identical to what buyers would get from the regular Galaxy S7, so all in all it’s a solid feature package offered at an adequate price.
The phone comes out at a great time too, as phablets are becoming more and more popular with customers. The trend used to lean towards small-sized devices, but recently more and more people have started to express a desire for a larger screen. Mobile operating systems have seen various improvements in terms of usability and multitasking recently, and Android especially is great for power users who want to be extra productive with their smartphones nowadays.
But this relies on having a large enough screen to comfortably fit all those applications at once, so phablets have a well-defined place in the market. With the strong hardware that Samsung usually like to put in those devices too, the Galaxy Note 7 is sure to be a hit among those who want to feel like they have a computer in their pocket on the go.
Some rumors claim that Samsung are actually preparing yet another version of that device, and it’s apparently coming to the market quite soon. The new Galaxy Note 7 will come with 128 GB of storage space, and will also support Android 7.0 Nougat. According to Samsung, all variants of the Note 7 will get the new version of the operating system in a reasonable timeframe, which has given some hope to their users that the company is going to actually handle their updates in a reasonable manner this time.
After all, Samsung are notorious for delaying their Android updates, and their users have more or less gotten used to the situation at this point. It’s not rare to see Samsung devices months behind the current version of the operating system, and Samsung occasionally introduce various changes to the core OS that go against the wishes of their users too. It’s no wonder that so many Samsung users are fans of custom ROMs, but at least the company is not very restrictive in preventing them from installing something like that.
It’s worth pointing out that some rumors claim that the new variant of the Galaxy Note 7 will be exclusive to the Chinese market, but there is no confirmation of that so far. In fact, it would make little sense for Samsung to go in that direction, given the recent market trends, as the company has been enjoying a very stable position in the global market. A position which would be undermined by an exclusive deal like that.