Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s sudden and unexpected demise may have thrown a wrench in some people’s plans to upgrade. On paper, Note 7 was an ideal phone for big screen lovers, especially those coming from, say, a Note 3 or 4. It offered two generations of upgrades along with a sleek curved-screen design, good battery life and the latest and greatest hardware.
For many people due for an update, waiting another year for Note 8 to come out may not be an option. So today we are going to look at some of the big-screen alternatives that we have to Note 7 in the market. It is rather unfortunate that no other manufacturer has gotten around to using something akin to Samsung’s wonderful S Pen.
Once you get the S Pen out of the way, however, you get plenty of compelling options from which to choose.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
The first viable alternative to the Note 7 is Samsung’s own Galaxy S7 Edge, a phone that Note 7 itself was based on. It offers a slightly smaller screen at 5.5 inches, but features more or less the same design elements and features that the Note 7 would have had. The phone is powered by the same processors as the Note 7 and has the same 4GB RAM.
The camera on the two phones is also the same, and going by reviews it is one of the best in the market. You also get a slightly bigger battery than the Note 7 (3600mah vs 3500mah), and coupling it with a smaller screen means that you will end up having better battery stamina than the Note 7 would have had. The storage on the phone is half that on Note 7 (32GB vs 64GB), but it is expandable so it should not be much of a bother. The phone has been out since earlier this year and the price has had a chance to settle down. Looking around, you should be able to grab it at quite a bargain (we have seen it being advertised for as little as QR1950 at some places, so a little shopping around is advised).
LG V20
LG’s follow-up to last year’s well-received V10 makes a compelling case for itself. It features the same 5.7-inch screen that you would have gotten on Note 7. To sweeten the deal, it also features an always-on 2.1-inch secondary display on top-right. This secondary display is completely customisable and lets you choose what you want to see there when the main screen is on or off. It is a nifty little feature that adds to the phone’s appeal.
The LG V20 is based on LG G5, but ditches the latter’s modularity in favour of a more rugged outer shell (it complies with MIL-STD-810G, which makes it resistant to drops). Powered by flagship-grade Snapdragon 820, it matches the S7 Edge specs-for-specs. You get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of built-in memory with expandable storage.
The phone also features G5’s unique dual-camera setup (16MP main, and 8MP wide-lens), letting you switch between normal mode and wide angle mode on the go. The phone offers some of the best manual camera controls in the business. The picture quality itself is nothing to scoff at and is among the best.
The phone’s bestselling feature, however, is its use of Quad DAC tuned by Bang & Olufsen. DAC stands for Digital-to-Analogue Converter and is basically responsible for converting your digital files into music. The V20 promises some of the best audio experience out of a phone and initial reviews say it does live up to its promise. The difference isn’t day-and-night pronounced – most phones already do pretty good – but it is significant enough for you to want to use it over other phones. Another benefit of the Quad DAC is that the phone can output a lot of volume through the headphones, something that many other phones tend to struggle with.
Lastly, you get 24-bit/48KHz audio recording, which is a step above many other phones and should be good enough to record a concert clearly. This also translates to better audio in your videos. Launched recently, the phone will come at a premium price over the S7 Edge. Sadly, LG does not seem to have included in Qatar the B&O Play H3 earbuds that it is giving away elsewhere.
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
If you are done with Android and want to explore something new, you can always go for the Apple iPhone 7 Plus. The phone features Apple’s take on a dual-camera setup, featuring a wide-angle camera and a 2X telephoto camera to offer better zoom and DSLR-like bokeh effect. Apple iPhones have always been known for their good cameras, and this one is no different.
It also offers 3D Touch display and home button. What this means is that the screen is able to tell the difference between the varying amounts of pressure that you apply on it. In real world use, think of it as a right click with your mouse: tapping an icon on the screen, for instance, will give you a bunch of quick options to select from. The entire experience is designed to reduce the number of taps that you need to make to get anything done.
The phone is also dust and water resistant, like the Galaxy S7 Edge, so you should generally be fine in light rain. Apple’s own processor in the device, going by the benchmarks, is amongst the fastest right now, with excellent gaming capabilities. The screen resolution though is just Full HD, a step below the QHD screens on V20 and the S7 Edge. The screen-to-body ratio is also worse than the other two at 67.7% (76.1% for S7 Edge and 72.4% for V20).
Huawei Mate 9
Huawei’s Mate 9 has not yet been released. On paper though this phone seems to do a lot right, featuring a bright 5.9 inch screen (though still Full HD), 64GB expandable storage, 4GB RAM, and a chipset that finally brings a Huawei flagship on par performance-wise with other flagships. You get Huawei’s take on a dual-camera setup here, with a 12MP primary camera and a 20MP monochrome secondary camera to improve the picture quality. If Huawei P9 is anything to go by, the camera should perform admirably and would be right up there with the leaders.
Tech News
Netflix in 4K
Netflix has announced support for PC users to be able to stream their 4K titles. There are some severe restrictions, however. You will need Windows 10 for the 4K stream to work, in addition to the latest seventh generation of Intel Core processors and a 4K screen. Lastly, you will have to use the Microsoft Edge browser.
Sony PlayStation 4 Pro
Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro is now available in Qatar. An evolution of PlayStation 4, the gaming console offers improved hardware for better VR experience on the PlayStation VR and 4K rendering. The console features a higher clocked CPU and a GPU that is capable of processing 4.2 teraflops of data, compared to PlayStation 4’s capability of 1.8 teraflops of data. While all new games will run on both consoles, they will have support for the Pro mode, to enable 4K gaming and better graphics.
Nokia smartphones
Nokia is coming back to the smartphone business. Even though there is nothing official at the moment, a leaked Nokia presentation indicates that the Finnish giant is slated to return to the smartphone business in 2017. The rumour mill expects an announcement around February 2017, followed by the phone’s release in the middle of the year. No word yet on what exactly to expect.
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