After so many rumors, Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has finally come back as the Galaxy Note Fan Edition. The previous version had a battery defect that made it explode which led to Samsung recalling every single unit they could. They then vowed to fix the issue and then resell a refurbished version of the phone as an environmental safety measure, as opposed to disposing all those electronic devices. The company also had the dilemma of re-introducing the Note 7 in a manner that does not steal the thunder of the upcoming Note 8, so they decided to release it in small batches and in few regions. Meet the Galaxy Note Fan Edition, does it measure up to its amazing predecessor? I think it does.
Everything seems to have remained the same from the design to internals. The only difference is a reduction in battery size from 3500mAh to 3200mAh. This change was necessary due to the fact that the previous battery was making the internal dimensions of the phone too tight which led to the reported explosions. Samsung now subjects its batteries through a rigorous 8-point safety test to ensure that the defects never occur again, the practice was started during the production of the Galaxy note 8.
Will the reduction of the battery size matter? Not so much, this is due to the optimizations brought by the Android 7.1 Nougat and Samsung’s own implementation. As a consolation of sorts, the Galaxy Note FE will come with the Bixby as it is part of the new software version; that effectively puts this phone on par with the new Galaxy S8 and S8+.
The rest of the specs remain the same as previous Note 7, that is to say that it is still one of the faster phones out there and can handle everything that a 2017 phone can. To quickly recap the internals, we have a 5.7inch QHD AMOLED display which was the first to come with HDR 10 support, an octa core Exynos 8890 processor accompanied by a 12-core Mali T880 GPU, this setup is coupled with 4GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage expandable to 256GB. A 12MP camera with optical image stabilization and a super wide f/1.7 aperture graces the back while the front settles for a 5MP camera with auto-HDR. The phone is waterproof, has fingerprint scanner and an iris scanner on the front while the back holds the heart rate monitor. True to the Galaxy Note signature feature, the FE supports a comprehensive stylus software package and an input accessory dubbed S Pen.
Samsung is initially releasing the Galaxy Note FE in their home country – Korea – with other regions launch to ‘be decided later’. Only 400,000 units are going on sale at a reduced price of $611 compared to the $750+ of the Note 7, I have a feeling that they will be sold out in less than a month. Let’s hope Samsung got it right this time round and that they release the device in Africa too, in that order.
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