Galaxy Note7's S Pen recognizes 4,096 different pressure levels, comes with new features

The S Pen is the signature feature (we couldn't resist) of the Note series and it's better than ever on the Galaxy Note7. Samsung wants to make sure we know it and has published some details on the stylus that's not really a stylus.
For starters, the Note7's S Pen is water resistant with an IP68 certification to match the phone itself. And we don't mean it just won't die - it actually works under water. It's electromagnetic resonance (EMR) technology that does the trick, and the digitizer in the phone can communicate with the internal coil in the S Pen to identify its position and degree of pressure - an interaction unhindered by water. We wonder how that more complex setup will affect potential tip replacements, though.
Anyway, the S Pen has been physically redesigned, and even though you may not notice it's gotten 2.6mm shorter than the one in the Note5, you can't miss the much thinner 0.7mm tip (vs. the old 1.6mm). Samsung states that allows for 'finer penmanship' and better emulation of that ink on paper feeling.
Strides have been made on the software side of things as well. Screen off memo now works on the Always On Display, you can create GIFs from videos (crops of the frame, too), and you can use the Magnify feature to check tiny details when sites refuse to let you zoom in. And let's not forget Translate, which can recognize 38 languages on its own and then, well, translate into 71 languages.
That's just the basics though, for the full scoop, make sure you check out the Source links below.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 unveiled with a 5.7" curved screen, IP68 rating 02 AUGUST, 2016

Riding on a wave of rumors and hype, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 has landed. The new flagship will help Samsung venture deeper into several market segments.

The Note7 is tough. It's the first Note to be waterproofed - IP68 rating certifies it for depths beyond 1m. The phone's metal frame is sandwiched between two symmetrically curved sheets of Gorilla Glass 5. The new Blue Coral option paints the metal and accents in gold, the rest in blue.

The Note7 has an amazing screen. Samsung kept to the 5.7" Super AMOLED formula but curved it on both sides like an edge phone. It has QHD resolution, naturally, but is among the first mobile displays to feature HDR support - a feature borrowed from 4K TVs that allows the screen to show more colors and scenes with very high contrast.

The S Pen promises a ballpoint pen-like experience. The stylus can leave notes on the Always on screen. And it can write underwater! Other new features include a text magnifying glass, a translate tool, even a GIF creator.

The Note7 is secure. It adds an iris scanner to its arsenal of biometric sensors. Soon, it will be able to replace the fingerprint reader as the way to secure Samsung Pay, Knox and your personal files (hidden in the Secure folder). You can still use the fingerprint reader, of course. Both will be available to third-party apps through Samsung Pass.

   
Samsung Galaxy Note7: Blue Coral • Onyx Black • Silver Titanium

The Note7 is Samsung's first with USB Type-C. The port supports On The Go and quick charging. There's wireless quick charging too, to fill the 3,500mAh battery in a hurry (yes, it's 100mAh smaller than the S7 edge battery).

The 12MP dual-pixel camera from the Galaxy S7 is back. It features a bright f/1.7 aperture and OIS and can record 2160p video. On the front is a 5MP selfie camera, again borrowed from the S7.

The Note7 is powerful. It's powered by a Snapdragon 820 chipset or an Exynos 8890 (depends on region), has 4GB of RAM (the 6GB rumor fizzled out) and 64GB storage. You get a microSD slot, but UFS cards are not supported. There's no word on a 128GB version yet.

   
Samsung Galaxy Note7: Blue Coral • Onyx Black • Silver Titanium

Samsung polished its Android 6.0 Marshmallow customizations for the Note7. A bit awkward that it just ahead of the Android 7.0 Nougat launch.

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 will go on pre-order tomorrow, August 3. Sales officially start on August 19, at least in the US. All major carriers will offer the phone, plus many retailers. More launch info here.

Unlike the S7, the Note7 will not be bundled with a free Gear VR, but for a limited time, you can score a free Gear Fit 2 smart band or a 256GB microSD card. More info on launch day freebies here.

Hot News Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units and box leak in live shots

Today is the big day - August 2, which leaves only a few hours before Samsung's highly-anticipated Galaxy Note 7 Unpacked event. The festivities will kick off at 10AM PST / 1PM EST and as always, we will be covering the announcements live. However, it appears the rumor mill is not ready to quiet down quite yet and a fresh new batch of shots offers yet another look at the phablet and this time around its retail box as well.
 
 The leak covers not only one unit, but rather a total of three. We can clearly see the Note 7 in Black Onyx and Silver Titanium, as described by an earlier leak, as well as the Gold variant, we saw earlier today. Of course, the stills can't really come close to the quality of the official press renders, which were leaked a few days ago as well. However, this does allow us to count out a total of four color options yet again, suggesting this will likely be the official selection Samsung will be unveiling later today.

 
  
Galaxy Note 7

The new leak also offers a close-up view of the phablet's retail box. This includes a short specs summary on one side of the cardboard enclosure. While far from complete, these few lines do offer proof for at least a few specs rumors. Starting with the screen size, 143.9mm, clearly indicated a 5.7-inch panel, which means Samsung has stuck to the signature measurement for yet another Note iteration. There isn't a lot of information about the chipset, which we currently believe to be a choice between a Snapdragon 821 and an Exynos 8893, but memory is very clearly indicated as 4GB, along with 64GB of storage in this particular model. And while the latter number will likely go as high as 128GB across the Note 7 line, RAM will most-likely be the same, meaning that Samsung decided it won't jump on the 6GB hype train quite yet. Still, there is always the possibility of something along the lines of a "Pro" version with a RAM upgrade, although historically that is yet to happen in the Note family.

Galaxy Note 7

Other interesting info from the box includes the camera setup, which at least going by the "Dual Pixel" moniker and the 12MP, plus 5MP back and front setup looks to be lifted straight from the Galaxy S7. Last but not least, the IP68 rating appears to be confirmed as well, making the Note 7, the first from its family to offer the additional protection.

Hot news Honor Note 8 is official: 6.6" QuadHD AMOLED, Kirin 955, and Marshmallow

The Honor Note 8 has been made official today in China, as promised about a week ago. The high-end phablet from Huawei's sub-brand joins the likes of Xiaomi Mi Max and Lenovo Phab 2 Pro in an area where the 'phone' is starting to lose ground to the 'tablet'.
The 6.6-inch Honor Note 8 is bigger than those two competitors by some 0.2" in diagonal, and Huawei has picked 1,440 x 2,560 px as the proper resolution at this size. That results in a 443ppi pixel density by their own calculations - plenty sharp, then.
Huawei tends to pick from its own inventory for chipsets to power its flagships and it's no different with the Note 8 - it's the Kirin 955 in charge of things. That means an octa-core CPU in a 4xCortex-A72 + 4xCortex-A53 configuration and a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. There are 4GB of RAM on board (though a lower-specced 3GB version has been rumored and showed up on TENAA earlier), and storage options are 32/64/128GB with 23/52/110GB left to the user, respectively.

Honor Note 8

The primary camera is a single 13MP unit, unlike the Honor 8 (non-Note) and its 2x12MP setup. This one does feature optical image stabilization, but video recording is still capped at 1080p. On the front there's an 8MP shooter to handle selfies.
The Honor Note 8 has a hybrid dual-SIM slot, which can take a couple of nanoSIM cards, or one nanoSIM and a microSD card - not our favorite solution, but if you plan on using both SIM cards, at least you can opt for a higher built-in storage capacity. Also, only one of the SIM cards can tap into a 4G/3G network, the second one is limited to 2G.

Honor Note 8

You do get dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou and Bluetooth v4.2, but there's no NFC support or MHL for wired video output. The port on the bottom is USB Type-C, but don't let that fool you - it only conforms to USB 2.0 specs. There's a 4,500mAh battery inside the Honor Note 8, and the device measures 178.8 x 90.9 x 7.18mm, while weight is a reasonable 219g. The phablet runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.
The Honor Note 8 can be pre-ordered starting today, with sales kicking off on August 9. Prices start at CNY 2,299 ($345) for the 32GB base variant, twice the storage means CNY 2,499 ($375), and the 128GB top model will set you back CNY 2,799 ($420). Global availability remains to be detailed.

Hot news Samsung Galaxy Note7, photos of phone and packaging appear

There aren’t even 24 hours left before Samsung’s official announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note7 which is to take place tomorrow at 10AM EST time zone. There are already leaked photos of the retail packaging and the Gold Galaxy Note7 in question.
This leak thankfully isn’t a blurry photo of the phone in question. There are also photos of the actual device from inside the retail packaging. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is seen in all it’s dual-edged Glory as well.

The device itself is pictured and it looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge but larger and perhaps a little “boxier”. The Note7 will be announced tomorrow with pre-orders to open either the 2nd or 3rd of the month.
There were also rumors that pointed to an August 16 launch in Europe. Good news for Note 4 owners who have been awaiting a Note successor to launch since the Note 5’s release was altered for the European market and instead made the S6 edge+ available in the region in its place.

Hot News Iris scanner confirmed for the Galaxy Note7, Patron to make it

The Galaxy Note7 is reportedly going through some major shifts from the previous generation. First - the name - according to the rumors the next Galaxy Note will skip number 6 and go for 7 in order to catchup with the Galaxy S7 series.
Then there is the thing about a curved screen and the ability to write on it with the S-Pen. The teaser to reveal this info also confirmed the name jump to Note7.
Finally, we heard recently about the possibility of an iris sensor addition, which leaked through a beta software. It seems the iris scanner is indeed happening, as the Korean manufacturer Patron has reportedly won a bid for supplying all of those sensors.
Patron won the bid months ago but the information surfaces just now. It will be the sole maker for these biometric modules, which should be mounted around the front selfie camera of the Note7.
The Galaxy Note7 is rumored to be unpacked at a special event on August 2 in New York. Stay tuned for more info in the upcoming weeks.

Hot News Technical difficulties put the kibosh on a dual camera setup for the Apple iPhone 7 Plus/Pro?

Those expecting to purchase a new Apple iPhone 7 Plus/Pro later this year, might want to take this new rumor into consideration. A posting today on China's Weibo micro-blogging site says that due to technical difficulties, Apple has decided to put the kibosh on the dual camera feature for this year's iPhone.

Many had been expecting the Apple iPhone 7 Plus/Pro to carry two 12MP cameras on the back, with the extra sensor used for optical zooming. Most leaked images of the phone, schematics and other images included the dual camera setup. But Foxconn insiders who have taken to Weibo to spread the news, say that the dual cameras are no longer on the table.

If the dual camera setup is no longer being considered for the iPhone 7 Plus/Pro, there might not be that many new features on the next iteration of the iPhone to attract buyers. Yet, Apple is confident as it ordered 72 million to 78 million iPhone 7 units for this year, well above analysts' expectations. 

We do recommend that you take this news with a grain of salt.