Last week, I talked about my HTC phones, the One S and the One (M7). And I mentioned that I’d talk about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 at some point. You’re certainly welcome to Google that mess, but here’s my story with it.
To set the scene: It was 2016. I’d been living with the HTC One (M7) for almost exactly 3 years. It was a good phone, but not a great phone, and was showing signs of its age. To add to that, my wife and I were getting ready to take a trip to the UK and Iceland at the end of October that year. A new phone was called for to help with the photographing and other necessities of the trip.
Hype had been building for this phone since it was announced at the beginning of August. This was continuing the line of so-called “phablet” phones that were larger than most phones at the time, but smaller than tablets. Oddly, the Note 7’s size is about comparable to my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL that I have today, so that tells you where we’ve come to in smartphones.
The Note 7 had more memory, more storage, more screen, more size, a lovely kind of streamlined rounded-corner design, an S-Pen (I’ll come back to that), and a bigger battery. Reviewers loved it. It seemed perfect for what I needed, and I was looking for a bigger screen after using the 4-inch or so screen on the One (M7). I was hooked and prepared to get it shortly after it was released.
I got a black model, like the one shown above. The glass at the edge gently curved into the side of the device, and again on the back. It had the right amount of rounding over and the right amount of rectangle. With the glass, it felt smooth and slightly soft. It was comfortable to hold, fast, took great pictures, and using the S-Pen, which was a stylus that popped out from its holder in the bottom of the phone. There was a Samsung case and phone cover that had a cutout in it so when the cover was closed, you could still easily see the time. This was a clearly well thought out phone.
I was super excited to take it with me on the trip.
Then the reports started coming in. The Note 7s were overheating. Some were catching fire, and the batteries were suspected. Cases were being investigated, and airlines were starting to ban the phones on flights. People were being told to only charge them supervised and don’t do it at night or when you weren’t going to be near the phone. Samsung was talking about a software update to limit the battery or something to prevent issues. I kept hoping I’d still be able to take it with me. And then the recall came down from Samsung. The Note 7 was discontinued and all of them had been recalled. With just a couple of weeks before we were to leave on our trip, I headed down to my local T-Mobile store and grudgingly handed it over.
I really loved that phone. In my month or so with it, it did everything I expected of it, it worked and felt wonderful, and was everything I dreamt it would be. And as I was standing there to exchange it for something, I learned I really only had one option that was in stock because others had been traded in and their stock was low.
I had to settle for a silver Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge because it was what they had in stock.
It was smaller. The design of the Edge devices was weird in that while the sides curved, they sort of curved to an apex, not a smooth edge like the Note 7 had. It had a terrible design language and didn’t look nearly as cool as the Note 7 did. But I didn’t have a choice. I was leaving the country soon, and I wouldn’t be allowed to take the phone with me unless I got something else.
I settled for the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for about two years. All because it was apparent that somewhere an engineer had designed a bad battery. I remember just being generally unimpressed and uninspired with the S7 Edge on that trip. I mean, it did what I need it to do, sure, but it just wasn’t as smooth and clean. It was an ugly blob that sat in my hands.
Because of this entire experience, I swore to never get another Samsung phone again. So when it came time to finally kick the S7 Edge to the curb, I got a One Plus 6T.
Honestly, this was the kind of mess that really should have killed Samsung in the smartphone market. But they were the dominant operators there. HTC couldn’t compete anymore, OnePlus was still a Chinese upstart, Google was still struggling to get traction with its phones, and so instead of hurting because of this problem, Samsung could just push people to their other phones and walk away unscathed. That’s what sucks most of all. They learned an expensive lesson, but didn’t really suffer from it.
And they should have.
