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.
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CloudWiz - Thursday, August 25, 2016 - link
Yes, I know it has a Qualcomm modem. I also understand that the S820 versions of the GS7 have comparable Wifi/LTE results because of Qualcomm's modem prowess. However, this has nothing to do with the SoC. The Samsung S820 implementation is still far more inefficient than the Exynos implementation or other OEMs' implementations.The GS6 had a Samsung Shannon modem that was notoriously inefficient on LTE. That is a fact. And your comment forgets that the Note 7 also has a 30% larger battery, and in no way does 50% extra PenTile pixels translate to 50% increased battery drain.
CloudWiz - Thursday, August 25, 2016 - link
Addendum: The Note 7 also comes with an updated modem, further helping reduce battery drain. Coupled with the fact that the S820 is more tightly integrated than A9 with respect to the modem, it really isn't that surprising that the Note 7 is able to last a bit longer.StevoLincolnite - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Having Glass on the back AND front of the Phone is just asking for trouble... Wish Samsung would employ more durable materials.It wasn't a great material choice when Apple did the same years ago... It's still not a great material choice in 2016 either.
I had a Note 5 for a whole 2 days, slipped off the desk once and that was the end of that, the Note 7 is just more of the same.
My old Nokia Lumia took more abuse than that and I had it for almost 4 years, without a cover. Heck, I even purposely dropped it a few times and it just bounced without any damage.
jayfang - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Agreed. Does not matter how nice something looks when you have to put it in cover for grip and protection.lilmoe - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Brah.... As painful as it is, let it go. We never wanted crappy glass backs, but the world has voted with their wallets. They don't want "durable" materials, they want design and features.That being said, glass is still better than metal since it allows better radio and wireless charging. Until you design an alloy or mag-field that can support that, glass is here to stay.
I want my plastic backs back....................................
StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Voted with their wallets? Not really.If a company deserves criticism for various aspects related to their products, then I implore people to criticize, otherwise companies become complacent.
I personally prefer the rubbery polymer materials that some Phones use, it's matte so it doesn't attract fingerprints, it has a good texture that assists with grip and doesn't reduce signal reception and it allows for wireless charging (A feature I have loved for years now with my old Lumia).
Samsung can shove their Glass where the sun doesn't shine, I won't be buying another Samsung device until they change their materials.
lilmoe - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
And how many of you are there? How many of us are there? When samsung made what we liked their sales tanked. Don't blame Samsung, blame the online community.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
Samsung kinda' ignored what the people wanted with the Note 5.* Glass back.
* No MicroSD.
* No replaceable battery.
And then sales tanked.
jospoortvliet - Thursday, August 18, 2016 - link
They nailed it with the S7... including the glass back... and yes I also would have preferred metal.TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - link
We should crowdsource our own phone, with a plastic back, removable battery, ece. Make a truly durable piece of equipment.