Samsung Galaxy Note 6 could be called Note 7 instead

Samsung's next generation Note could be called Galaxy Note 7 instead of Note 6 as is widely believed. This would be first time the company has chosen to skip a model number for the Galaxy Note lineup due to marketing strategy.

ETNews, quoting multiple sources in the industry, claims Samsung has chosen the name Galaxy Note 7 for its new Note, which is expected to be released in the second half of 2016.

"Within Samsung Electronics, a new Galaxy Note is already being called as Galaxy Note 7," said an industry representative. With the launch of its first generation Galaxy Note in 2011, Samsung has numbered all the Notes from 1 through 5, without leaving any number in between.

One of the possible reasons Samsung skipped naming the device the Note 6 is it wants to make the model number of the new Notes correspond with the Galaxy S7. The model number of the Note series is always a number lower than the Galaxy S series flagship handsets as the Note was launched a year after the Galaxy S handset.

The company did a similar thing with its Z series smartphone powered by the Tizen operating system. After launching Samsung Z1, the company skipped Z2 name in favour of Z3.

"When Galaxy Note 6 that has its model number lower than Galaxy S7, which is the newest model, is released, it can give out a feeling that it is an outdated phone," said a source. "It is known that Samsung Electronics has made the numbers same to unify a premium image."

The Note 7 could sport a dual-edge screen to bring the new Note's design on par with the current Galaxy S7 Edge unveiled in February 2016, states Sammobile. Other rumoured specs of the phablet include a 10-nanometre LPDDR4 6GB mobile DRAM and an iris scanner.

The company is planning to start production of the handset sometime in the middle of July, with a launch expected in early or mid-August. The Note 5 was unveiled on 13 August, 2015, followed by a release in the same month. Samsung might even have an early launch date ahead of Apple's next iPhone iterations — the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus — expected to be launched in September.