Verizon, T-Mobile to Start Shipping Galaxy Note 7 Ahead of Planned Release Date

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was unveiled on August 2, with the official release date planned for this Friday, August 19. However, Verizon and T-Mobile are making smart moves in the business by shipping the handsets earlier than usual.

This is not the first time T-Mobile has done this. It happened with Samsung Galaxy S6 as well as this year’s Galaxy S7. However, now that Verizon has joined the party, it shows how eager the carriers are for their customers to be the first to move to the new handset. This news comes after some people who had pre-ordered the handset started receiving emails confirming that the phone will be shipped and arrive on earlier dates.

To makes things even more concrete, the emails included tracking numbers, one XDA Developers’ Forum member confirmed. This means that the Verizon users can now get the chance to be among the first people to get their hands on the Galaxy Note 7.

Just as a reminder, the Galaxy Note 7 is the successor to last year’s Galaxy Note 5 (there is no Galaxy Note 6, for marketing reasons). Unlike the Galaxy S7 that came in with slight design changes and major improvements under the hood and on camera performance, the Galaxy Note 7 debuted a new design language for the Galaxy Note series.

The 2016 Note 7 has a curved dual-edge screen like what you see on the Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the newer Galaxy S7 Edge. In fact, you’ll be forgiven to think that the Galaxy Note 7 is a larger S7 Edge. In addition to coming in with a secondary Edge screen, the Galaxy Note 7 also features a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display panel with a QHD Always On display that should deliver the best display quality you can desire on a phone.

Under the hood, there is a Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890 SoC that is backed by a RAM of 4GB and onboard storage of 64GB. This storage can also be expanded via a microSD card of up to 256GB. Even though you get Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box, Samsung has promised to bring Android 7.0 Nougat in 2-3 months following its official release, which is expected to happen this month.

Samsung finally ditched microUSB connectivity in favor of USB-C. You also get an iris scanner for authentication purposes, just like what you do with your fingerprint scanner. As for the camera specs, there is a 12MP snapper on the back and a 5MP selfie camera, both with f/1.7 aperture, but you only get OIS and LED flash support on the main snapper.