A new report suggests onc again that Samsung will skip the Galaxy Note 6 iteration and will head straight to number seven, while it will also take on Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 Plus in terms of memory. According the usually reliable @evleaks (Evan Blass), the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has a 5.7-inch curved QHD Super AMOLED screen and an iris scanner for security. It will offer 64GB of built-in storage plus microSD expandability, a 12MP dual-pixel autofocus camera system and a 5MP selfie cam, and IP68 dust/water resistance rating.

If Samsung increase the storage on the upcoming Galaxy Note tablet to 64GB, additional pressure will be applied on a number of smartphone manufacturers. With many flagship handsets starting at a restrictive 16GB, the Note 7 could reset the baseline expectations of consumers to a much higher and practical level.

In addition, it’s great to see that microSD expansion (64GB, 128GB and 256GB options?) will be available. This was removed from the 2015 Galaxy Note, and that caused a lot of disappointed fans.

Running with 64GB increases demand for the actual storage memory chips (which boosts Samsung’s semiconductor business), and it also puts Apple on the back foot regarding storage sizes.

It seems that the Note 7 is looking to trump the new iPhones in a number of areas – it will debut with a dual-lens rear camera before the iPhone, it will have removable storage, it will have a curved edge screen, and now it will offer users far more storage in the lowest model than Apple.

It’s unlikely that Apple will move to 64GB as the entry-level storage size – the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus started at 16GB, which helped force an upsell to either 64GB or 128GB.

A Google-branded phone?

In related news, Google is said to be readying its own designed and branded smartphone, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Before the year is out this new device, and if this is the case, it will be Google's hardware vision to the market.

This handset is said to be distinct from Google's branding endorsement of Nexus phones manufactured by its partners, though no details are given as to why and how it'll be produced.

Google's official timeline for the release of its first smartphone is for 2017 via its Project Ara modular phone initiative. The report could point toward the mythical Pixel phone, which is more a fan fantasy than an established project within Google.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai had, however, earlier said that "our plan is still to work with hardware partners".