The Samsung Galaxy Note7 (S820) Review
by Joshua Ho on August 16, 2016 9:00 AM ESTIC Design Wins
While we normally allude to the various things that we find in a phone in the interest of providing some extra depth for posterity I went ahead and dug through the software to find all the various peripherals that are present in the Galaxy Note7. For example, the Wacom digitizer identifies itself as the W9010 over i2c, which is interesting considering that this digitizer is the same one found in the Galaxy Note 3. In various briefings it was explicitly said that the digitizer supports double the number of pressure levels, so I’m not sure how this is achieved or if it really has any changes at all besides the smaller tip.
Moving past the Wacom digitizer we can see that there are a number of supporting ICs for power management and things like the battery charger. I’m not going to spend a ton of time talking about this but a huge number of these are Maxim Integrated ICs such as the MAX77838 switching regulator/PMIC, although I’m not clear on exactly what this PMIC supplies. There’s also the MAX77854 which functions as a PMIC, as well as a MAX98506 class D audio amplifier for the codec, which is likely used to drive things like the earpiece, speaker, and 3.5mm jack. This is shared with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge and it looks like it uses the same WCD9335 audio codec so I wouldn’t get my hopes up about improved audio quality for the Snapdragon variants. If you want better audio you’re going to have to look towards the Exynos variant or the HTC 10.
Moving to slightly more boring but critical parts of the Note7 there are ICs like Cypress CapSense PSoC which enables the capacitive buttons and a TI BQ25898S battery charger IC which supports 9V and 12V charging voltages for adaptive fast charge. There’s also an NXP PN547 NFC controller and an NXP P61 secure microcontroller that seems to be for payments and similar applications. It should also probably surprise no one that there’s a Validity/Synaptics VFS7xxx fingerprint scanner here, although I found some mention of an Egis Technologies ET320 fingerprint scanner which makes me wonder whether Samsung is dual sourcing here.
The more esoteric ICs here include a Richwave RTC6213N FM radio tuner and a CEVA DBMD4 DSP which seems to be for always-on voice commands which are visible on i2c and SPI respectively. The only IC that I can’t identify at all is something called the SX9320 over i2c, which officially has zero mentions on the internet unless you count a Shacman trailer that is manufactured by Shaanxi Automobile Group in China or NGK spark plugs. At any rate, looking at these kinds of details it’s much more apparent just how critical economies of scale are as these are parts that seem to be shared across the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, which surely helps to drive down cost due to the sheer volume of these devices. There are also things like FM tuners which aren’t necessarily going to be a point of advertising for a phone but are neat to have anyways.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
202 Comments
View All Comments
HideOut - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
"You also get an extra 32 GB of storage which does justify the extra 100 USD that bumps the Note7 up to 850 USD."You must work for apple if you somehow think that 32Gb of on board storage is worth $100. FFS its about 1/5 that to buy in any other format.
bJammin - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Sorry for a nitpick, but this isn't the first phone with an iris scanner, though probably the first with wide availability. Fujitsu's is only available in Japan right now, but I have one as my company phone. The phone and scanner are actually pretty slick too despite being based on older tech, though Fujitsu's interface is pretty awful.http://www.gsmarena.com/fujitsus_latest_phone_is_w...
Vagabondjonez - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Still no htc 10 review or a Twitter response....Lau_Tech - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Well done on the improvements in timeliness and tone, Josh. I certainly agree with other reader opinions that the S-Pen deserved a full page of its own, given that it continues to be a distinguishing factor from all other phones. I understand that it may feel unnecessary if its the same as last years models, but it is still worth a re-look and run through. After all, Samsung's screens have not changed much either, and you still ran them through a gamut of tests.I must say that your continued placement of Samsung's AMOLED's as being "one of the best" or equal to Iphones to be have long since been untenable. Samsung's AMOLED beats or equals the Iphones in every one of your metrics. Colour-shifting remains the sole issue, but is not on its own sufficient to deny Samsung's phones the title of "best display, period".
Lau_Tech - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I should also point out that your (justified) decision to be nit-picky about design must be applied fairly to your upcoming iphone 7 review as well.If you intend to highlight design issues that do not affect the user experience (as has been done in this review), I would expect that you find fault with the Iphone 7s IF the Iphone 7s maintain the unwieldy bezel sizes of the 6 plus, and the added inconvenience of the USB-only audio jack. These should count as negatives against the Iphone 7s.
Your criteria for commenting on design must be seen as fair.
JoshHo - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
If there's a real demand for this sort of ID analysis I'll keep going with it.To outline some of my personal thoughts for design:
1. I don't see a ton of value to extremely thin bezels. Excessive bezel like the M8/M9 is one thing but the 6s Plus had no issues with ergonomics in use. I view phablets as phones that need two hands to be used but still fit in one pocket so I don't pay that much attention to bezel unless it's really egregious like the M8/M9.
2. The S-Pen would have received further analysis but battery life testing alone took up a full 3 days. It's been made clear to me that timeliness is critical so I would rather cut out discussion on things that are fairly well understood and revisit it in future short-form than cut out data that answers essential questions.
3. To me AMOLED's color shifting issues are fairly significant and power efficiency in high APL scenarios is still lagging slightly behind LCD. If power efficiency rises above LCD then I would say shipping LCD would automatically count as a negative against an OEM, but until that comes to pass I think it's important to weigh these things on a case by case basis.
4. If the iPhone 7 loses the 3.5mm jack it would require close examination and weighing of the advantages and disadvantages. I would trend towards likely being a bad idea but we'll have to see how it plays out. There are a lot of ways this could be executed and some are good but others are awful.
Lau_Tech - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Thanks for the detailed reply Josh, I appreciate the time taken.Im definitely with you with regards to points 2 and 4. I think with regards to points 1 and 3 we will have to agree to disagree.
I look forward to the HTC 10 review, of which I am already an owner. I'm sure you'll be able to point out interesting things about this device (some nuggets already present in this review)
jlabelle2 - Friday, August 19, 2016 - link
I am also quite shocked about the change on editorial note (because it seems really to be that) since Anand departure. Even with Anand working for Apple, reviews were still much more factual.I have an iPhone 6S but honestly, there is not denying that the S7 Edge and Note 7 are just a marvel of design.
Also, saying that bezels do not matter is NOT a matter of opinion. We are speaking of phablet here and the very reason why not everyone have 6" phones is the size of those phones. So when the Note 7 include a 5,7" screen in a form factor which is 5mm shorter and 4mm narrower than a 5,5" iPhone 6+, this is huge achievement and has a significant competitive advantage compare to the iPhone or other bulkier large phone.
At last, how can anyone still defend LCD against Samsung OLED screen implementation? The argument that there would be color shifting when looking the phone from the side (which obviously no one is doing) shows the extent of bad faith.
Again, as an iPhone (and Windows phone user), and having no Android, I am puzzled by such review and what kind of goal is tried to be achieved...
NitT - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
I feel like I am a minority here as I am OK with Touchwiz. I do not feel any lagging. On the other hand, when I use other Android phones such as HTC or Vivo, I feel that I miss so many settings. My latest HTC phone was HTC M7/M8. It is quite sad as I could not find newer HTC flagship models in my country.WoodyPWX - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Finally someone who isn't afraid to say something bad about Note 7. Every other reviews are practically without any real criticism. Thanks for a honest review!