Galaxy Note 7

Curvy Samsung Galaxy Note 7 takes giant

What do you get when you take the curved-screen Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and add a stylus? The Galaxy Note 7, which Samsung unveiled last tuesday in New York.

The Edge and Note don't look identical, but close enough that if you see them both in black and the S Pen is holstered away, you may not immediately know the difference. But there are a few. The Note 7 has a symmetrically rounded front and back compared to the Edge's flat back and curving face.

The Note 7 will be available from all four major carriers on August 19th, with preorders starting  August 3rd. Samsung says that pricing will be commensurate with prior Note devices and will be higher than the S7 Edge, which is about $770 to $800, depending on where you look. An unlocked version of the Note 7 will be available in the US at a later date.

Samsung has also updated its software interface for the Note 7, with a cleaner color palette, softer white menus, and an overall nicer-looking aesthetic. It seems that with each new phone, Samsung’s software gets better looking, and the Note 7 is no exception. The company says that the new software interface will likely come to older models, such as the S7, but it did not provide a timeline for when that might happen.

The Note 7 is launching with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but Samsung says that it will be upgraded to Android 7.0 Nougat in the future. When that might happen is anyone’s guess — the company isn’t committing to a timeframe and it has a history of taking a very long time to deliver new versions of Android to its phones.

Here's what the Note 7 has that the Note 5 doesn't:

1. Curved screens (sharper, less sloping than the S7 Edge)
2. USB-C charger port (Samsung's first phone to adopt the new standard)
3. Iris scanner to unlock the phone with your eyes
4. Gorilla Glass 5 screen (the first phone with Corning's new screen tech)
5. More sensitive, accurate S Pen stylus
6. Water-resistant phone body and S Pen
7. MicroSD card slot (like the S7 phones)
8. Larger battery (3,500 mAh versus Note 5's 3,000 mAh)
9. Better low-light camera
10. New S Pen tricks, like magnification and GIF-making
11. Stylus won't get stuck if you jam it in backwards
12. Coral Blue color choice (it's great)