The Samsung Galaxy Note7 (S820) Review
by Joshua Ho on August 16, 2016 9:00 AM ESTSystem Performance
As previously mentioned this year a major goal of ours was to focus on benchmarks with metrics that better indicate user experience rather than being subject to additional layers of indirection in addition to updating our previously used benchmarks. Probably one of the hardest problems to tackle from a testing perspective is capturing what it means to have a smooth and fast phone, and with the right benchmarks you can actually start to test for these things in a meaningful way instead of just relying on a reviewer’s word. In addition to new benchmarks, we’ve attempted to update existing types of benchmarks with tests that are more realistic and more useful rather than simple microbenchmarks that can be easily optimized against without any meaningful user experience improvements. With that said, let's get into the results.
Browser performance here is pretty much in line with expectations as pretty much every OEM using Snapdragon 820 is going to be using the same basic BSP and most of the optimizations here are going to be done by Qualcomm rather than the OEMs.
Again, performance is in line with expectation in PCMark, although there are some improvements here and there that are primarily centered about web browsing performance which is almost constantly being improved as developers figure out new optimizations for browsers. With that said we can move on to Discomark, which is a true high level benchmark designed to show exactly how quickly a suite of common Google and OEM applications load from NAND or from RAM.
Here the Galaxy Note7 shows some improvement on hot runtimes relative to the Galaxy S7, but the cold runtimes have dropped for some reason. It looks like much of the delta here is due to Dropbox which is now running significantly slower on the Galaxy Note7. I suspect that this is related to possible changes in Dropbox or its interaction with TouchWiz rather than any significant underlying difference in system performance relative to the Galaxy S7. Overall, the Galaxy Note7 performs about where you'd expect from a Snapdragon 820 device from Samsung given the performance of the Galaxy S7.
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theduckofdeath - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
A person who so clearly starts out with a negative stance about everything he is reviewing, just because it concerns the mammoth competitor to the fruity toy company he so clearly loves, really can't make a good review. A written review is literally all about the language in it.Yeah, I agree that the verge is worse. Then again, that's why I completely stopped reading anything there a long time ago. Being almost as bad as the worst, is that really a good thing?
osxandwindows - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Then go and make your own review and stop complaining.mjh483 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I really agree with your opinion about the camera because I've always felt that Galaxy smartphones produce very unnatural images and videos. The post processing is awful.However, don't you guys feel that your reviews about Samsung smartphones have a pessimistic and bored tone whereas Apple product reviews are full of words like "impressive" and "incredible"? You have to give credit where it's due.
grayson_carr - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Maybe they sound bored because this devices is boring. There is very little new stuff compared to the 6 month old S7 Edge. I'm sure if Apple released the iPhone 6S six months before the iPhone 6S Plus, Anandtech would sound pretty bored in the 6S Plus review as well because it would be 95% the same devices, but with a larger screen and one or two extra features.jiffylube1024 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
You're going to use that argument? The iPhone 6S is basically a 6 with a faster SoC, different camera (improved video, same still quality) and the semi-useless 3D touch. They had a YEAR to iterate that one...OK it's a bigger jump than the S7 Edge to Note 7. The Note 7 basically is an S7 Edge (do they really need all 3 at this point? I guess you get to choose between the S-Pen vs. bigger battery).
Still, the S7 Edge was a really well executed device.
mjh483 - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
How is this a bigger jump? There's no performance improvement here, which means the core user experience is still the same. iPhone 6s provides a palpably faster experience in every aspect over the 6. That alone is a big difference.CloudWiz - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
And the S7 was just the S6 with a faster SoC, better camera, and semi-useless features like water resistance and microSD. The Note 7 is the same relative to the Note 5.(Seriously, how often do you drop your phone in water? And personally, I would never choose to willingly slow down my phone by adding crappy microSD storage into it.) How is this phone any different.SirCanealot - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Actually, my girlfriend rocked a Galaxy S Mini 5 for a little while (bit of a dog obviously though, so we changed it for something better) and was washing her hands in the sink. Phone slipped into the sink into the running water. She shat herself for about 5 seconds before releasing it was waterproof :)And adding a micro SD card to your phone does not slow it down*; please stop spreading misinformation.
*Unless of course you start moving apps to it maybe.
lilmoe - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
"semi-useless features like water resistance and microSD"lol. Semi-useless? Really?
techcrazy - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Great review. Thanks for the all the hard work.