Android Central: Here's why you should buy the Galaxy Note 7 over the S7 edge in India

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Here's why you should buy the Galaxy Note 7 over the S7 edge in India

The Galaxy S7 edge recently received a significant price cut, but that doesn't mean you should discount the Note 7 altogether.

The Galaxy Note 7 is now up for pre-order in India. The phone will be available in store shelves from September 2 for ₹59,990 ($895), or ₹3,000 more than the launch price of the S7 edge. But the S7 edge has seen a price cut to ₹50,900 ($745), making it a much more alluring option.

For years now, Galaxy Note phones featured the best hardware that Samsung has to offer. The large screen and S Pen differentiated the Note lineup from the more mainstream Galaxy S phones, but this year Samsung is unifying its product lines. As such, we're looking at largely unchanged hardware from the S7 and S7 edge, and near-identical designs.

Samsung may not have the most spec-intensive phone in the Galaxy Note 7, but it offers several new features that make it worth your money.

The Note 7 is all about refinement

The S7 and S7 edge offer excellent Quad HD AMOLED screens and incredible cameras, but the Note 7 is much more polished than this year's Galaxy S lineup. Samsung has been continually tweaking its industrial design ever since the launch of the Galaxy S6 last year, and the result is that the Note 7 looks and feels stunning. The dual curved screen at the front is narrower and tighter than the one on the S7 edge, and it makes a drastic difference in day-to-day usage.

Narrow curves on the Note 7 edge screen make a remarkable difference.

I wasn't a fan of the S7 edge. The edge screen dug into my palm, and it was infuriating to use the phone one-handed on account of all the accidental touches. That isn't the case on the Note 7. The rounded metal frame and subtler curves result in a significantly improved in-hand feel, and you don't notice the 0.2-inch bump in display size. Also, Gorilla Glass 5 protects the front and back of the phone, which should make it more resilient to tumbles. After seeing two S7 edge displays shatter, I'm hoping Gorilla Glass 5 fares better. Overall, the Note 7 is much better to hold and use than the S7 edge.

While the design changes are welcome, the main differentiator between the Note 7 and the S7 edge is the S Pen, which has more functionality. Samsung has doubled the pressure sensitivity from the Note 5, making for an experience that mimics writing on paper. The S Pen can make GIFs out of anything, serves as a translation tool, and can be used to doodle on-screen when the display is off. Oh, and unlike the Note 5, you won't break the phone while trying to insert it backwards.

If you're not looking to pick up the Note 7 for the stylus, the phone has other features to offer. The built-in storage is double that of the S7 edge's at 64GB, you get USB-C connectivity, and there's an iris scanner in addition to the fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button.

Not convinced yet? The Note 7 comes in a murdered-out black edition that looks absolutely magnificent. After being treated to gold and silver designs for years (and that weird faux leather finish), it's great to see an all-black version in the Note series.

The biggest case for the Galaxy S7 edge is its 3600mAh battery, which is larger than the 3500mAh battery in the Note 7. Compare that with the larger 5.7-inch display on the Note 7, and it is easy to see that the Galaxy S7 edge is a better choice if you're looking for battery life. That said, you're looking at an incremental increase in battery life.

It may not seem like there's a lot of difference between the Note 7 and the S7 edge on the surface, but there are plenty of changes that are immediately noticeable once you start using both phones next to each other. If you're looking to get in on the Note 7 during the pre-order stage, you get to buy the new Gear VR at a discounted price of ₹1,999.

See at Amazon India

Which phone are you guys looking to buy? Let us know in the comments.