Here’s the Samsung Galaxy Note 7

The Note 7, on the other hand, is metal and glass, and despite its 5.7 inch screen, fits more comfortably in the palm of your hand, even for those of us with smaller appendages.

The Galaxy Note 7 comes with the S Pen, Samsung’s well-executed attempt at producing a stylus and writing style that’s similar to using a pen and paper. There is no getting away from it though – the Note 7 is a serious bit of kit, although it’s sleek with it.

The Note7 launches with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, so you’ll be waiting for a Nougat update.

The pen can also be used to hover over words and translate them or to zoom up to 300% on the screen.

Magnify works as it’s named, enlarging a portion of the display at the pen tip. It feels classy in every detail (which wasn’t always the case with Samsung). Finally, Samsung streamlined its literal note-taking capabilities by combining Action Memo with S Note to make for a cleaner note interface. The Note 7 sticks with quad HD and Super AMOLED, and the overall effect is impressive.

Samsung has added a few software tricks to make the S Pen more useful with the Note 7. It now supports 4,096 points of pressure, and measures 4.25 x. When trying out the Note 7’s pen alongside the Note 5’s, I noticed a difference, but only a subtle one. The entire unit is IP53-rated for dust and water resistance, too, meaning that you can use it to capture your activities. The phone is 2.2mm thinner than the Note5. With the market approaching saturation and new device launches boasting the same specs and basic designs, it’s no longer enough to have a fast processor and lots of storage. Otherwise the hardware isn’t much different from the 2015 Galaxies. Samsung’s big Galaxy Note 7 press conference is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. ET / 8:00 a.m. PT, and Samsung is streaming live video from the event. It has the same excellent camera as the S7 and S7 edge (now with HDR video), and ships with 64GB capacity (up from 32GB), supports microSD cards, and has a 3500 battery with Quick Charge and wireless charging.

Samsung has also added an infrared retina scanner to the Note7, which it says is significantly more secure than the fingerprint scanner that’s on the Galaxy S7, though that fingerprint scanner is also on the Note7. After initial setup, it can also work through eye glasses. The iris scanning tech that has been rumored for years is included in the Note7.

We didn’t get a chance to test it out during our brief hands-on time, but it worked quickly and flawlessly in demos.

The iris scanner works as advertised, but I’m yet to be convinced that it’s easier to use than the familiar fingerprint scanner.

The iris scanner is probably the most buzzed-about feature to land on the Note 7, but Samsung isn’t the first to use it as a biometric security. Its security is entirely user-focused; not even a corporate IT department can access or disable it. Here users can keep banking apps or even an email app tied to a private account. We look forward to testing its limits when we have a demo unit in the NotebookReview test lab.

At first glance, the Note 7 doesn’t seem to be a dramatic enhancement over last year’s model.

Among the latest upgrades include a wider field of view – from 96 degrees to 101 degrees.

The Note7 will be available from August 19 for $1399. Being able to net the top three spots on the list of most popular Android smartphones is something you can be sure Samsung is pleased with. And it’s now black, neatly dealing with any objections to the white colour of the previous Gear VR headsets.