Samsung Galaxy Note 8

Introduction:

The successor to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4/5 is finally here - meet the Galaxy Note8. Wait, what? Okay, Europeans didn't get the Note5 because, you know... Samsung, and we all know how the Note7 lived a shorter product life than it deserved. So in a way, a few of us Note-lovers have been stuck with three-year-old Notes, looking at some poor S-Pen-less S7 edges and S8s to fill the void.

Historically, Notes have been more or less identical to the Galaxy S-series flagship of the respective year, only with a bigger display and an S-Pen. Not this one, though - with the Galaxy Note8 Samsung finally takes the plunge into dual camera territory. And not just any dual camera - it's the best one there is, Samsung says. They might have a point, we theorize, looking at the specs.

It might be a controversial way of wording this, but Samsung went the Apple way with this dual camera setup - a regular wide-angle cam and a telephoto cam with twice the equivalent focal length. The former comes straight off the Galaxy S8 and S7 before that, while the latter is a new one - a 12MP Type 1/3.4" sensor is placed behind a f/2.4 aperture lens. Both the sensor size and the aperture are larger than what you'd find on the iPhone 7 Plus, but the winning doesn't end there - Samsung's tele lens is stabilized, while the sensor comes with dual pixel autofocus. Dual camera with dual pixel autofocus and dual OIS, then.

Samsung Galaxy Note8 at a glance:

Body: Polished aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back; IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. Midnight Black, Orchid Grey, Deepsea Blue, Maple Gold color schemes.
Display: 6.3" Super AMOLED 'Infinity Display', 2,960x1440px resolution, 18.5:9 (2.06:1) aspect ratio, 522ppi; HDR 10 compliant (no Dolby Vision).
Rear camera: Primary 12MP, Type 1/2.55" sensor, f/1.7 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length; Secondary 12MP, Type 1/3.4" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length; dual pixel phase detection autofocus and OIS on both; 2x zoom. 2160p/30fps video recording.
Front camera: 8MP, f/1.7 aperture, autofocus; 1440p/30fps video recording.
OS/Software: Android 7.1.1 Nougat; Samsung Grace UX; Bixby virtual assistant; Smart Connect, Smart Connect Home
Chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835: octa-core CPU (4x2.35GHz Kryo 280 & 4x1.9GHz Kryo 280), Adreno 540 GPU. Exynos 8895: octa-core CPU (4x2nd-gen Mongoose 2.3GHz + 4xCortex-A53 1.7GHz), Mali-G71 GPU.
Memory: 6GB of RAM; 64GB of storage; microSD slot for cards up to 256GB, UFS cards support.
Battery: 3,300mAh Li-Po (sealed); Adaptive Fast Charging (same as S7/S8); QuickCharge 2.0 support; WPC (Qi)&PMA wireless charging.
Connectivity: Single-SIM, Dual-SIM available in certain markets; LTE-A, 4-Band/5-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.16/13 (1Gbps/150Mbps); USB Type-C (v3.1); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac MU-MIMO; GPS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0.
Misc: S-Pen stylus with 4096 pressure levels; fingerprint/iris/face recognition; single speaker on the bottom; 3.5mm jack; bundled AKG headphones.

What you'll probably notice is that RAM's gotten a bump from the Galaxy S8's 4GB to 6GB. The Galaxy S8 can be had with 6GB of RAM in some parts of the world, but standard equipment is 4GB, while the Note8 with its focus on productivity gets 6GB by default.

Productivity is where the S-Pen comes into action, the Notes' defining feature, now with 4,096 pressure levels recognized - that's as precise as on the Note7.

Battery capacity sure would have looked better with a nice round 4,000mAh number next to it, but we can't have it all, right? And if last year's model has taught us (and Samsung) anything, it has to be moderation. Still, the Galaxy S8+ has a tiny bit more battery at its disposal that needs to power a marginally smaller display - bet on the S8+ to win the endurance race, if only just barely.Hardware overview and display

A trailblazer in a whole new market segment, the original Galaxy Note showed us that big screens aren't half bad. Six years later, the smartphone world has changed dramatically, and the Galaxy Note8 has grown further. Or has it?
Measuring 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6mm, the Note8 is 15.6mm taller than the Note of 2011, but also 9mm taller than last year's model. The latest Note is, however, 8.4mm narrower than the original, and just 0.7mm wider than the Note7, all the while packing a 6.3-inch display versus the Note's 5.3-inch and the Note7's 5.7-inch screens. So six years have brought an inch more in display diagonal in an arguably more usable (in width) body.


You have to bear in mind, of course, that the Note8 has the trendy elongated screen (18.5:9 aspect in Samsung's case) that makes for striking diagonal numbers - which don't actually translate into that much more screen area when compared to older 16:9 units. On top of that, the Note8's display is only marginally larger than the Galaxy S8+ - it's a smaller difference than last year's Note7 vs. S7 edge, but still some difference. Remember the S6 edge+ and Note5, both of them at 5.7 inches?
The 6.3-inch Super AMOLED 'Infinity Display' with 2,960x1,440px has a pixel density of 521ppi - about as fine as most recent Samsung top-shelf phablets. The Galaxy S7 and S8 pixel densities are in the 570s, but at this level, we're splitting hairs.

The display is bright when it needs to be, lively and colorful by default, but also color accurate in the different display modes, and it doesn't get washed out under direct light - it's simply a stunning piece of kit.


It's also curved, of course - for better or for worse, Samsung isn't making flat-screen flagships any longer. That said, we're not talking Galaxy Note Edge type of curves, naturally. The concept has evolved over the past few years, and it's a more natural look and feel today. Plus, palm rejection makes sure your palm doesn't activate any UI elements along the screen by accidThe Galaxy Note8's corners are sharper than those of the S8+, and that applies to the physical corners of the device and the corners of the display. It makes the Note8 look a bit more serious and industrial next to the slightly more playful and fashion-oriented S8+.ent.
Funny choice of word there, 'industrial' could be used to describe the Note8's weight. At 195g, it's easily the heaviest Note, tablets excluded. Only the Note II with its 183g comes close, but all the other generations have all been in the 168-178g range. More interestingly, the Note8 is 22g heavier than the S8+ despite a smaller battery and only marginally larger display. Apparently, the S-Pen and the second camera have added to the tally.