Samsung Galaxy Note7 review: the best big phone on the market though expensive and loaded with bloatware
There is no greater evidence of The Future of Computing than the big-screened smartphone. Big phones have become the de facto personal computers for many people …
Context & Ripple Effects
This review extends a streak: a year earlier, Samsung's Note5 and S6 edge+ were judged the best Android phablets on the market, and The Verge now hands the same crown to the Note7 while repeating the two standing complaints — price and preinstalled software clutter.
The verdict matters because the Note line became Samsung's annual proof point that the big-screened phone is 'the Future of Computing' for many buyers; the following year's Note8 landed at $930–$960 across the major US carriers with launch bundles, confirming the premium-price template this review describes.
First-order effects
- Buyers considering the Note7 face a clear trade-off at purchase time: the best big phone on the market, at a high price, shipping with heavy bloatware they did not choose.
Second-order effects
- Samsung carried the premium positioning straight into the next cycle — the Note8's 6.3-inch infinity-display spec sheet was monetized at roughly $950 per unit via Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, with accessories bundled to soften the sticker price.
Third-order effects
- Across the lineage from the Note5 through the [[a:945086|Note10+, whose review found software backsliding into confusion even as the screen stayed beautiful]], the pattern holds: Samsung's displays win every generation while its software draws the same criticism — hardware leadership outrunning software quality as the brand's structural weakness.
The trend: Big-screen flagships are converging on de facto personal-computer status with steadily rising prices, while recurring software complaints become the persistent counterweight in Samsung's annual Note reviews.