All There Is to Know About the Samsung Galaxy Note 8

It has been a long time coming, but now it’s official – on August 23rd, Samsung finally unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The newest Android phone is aimed at enthusiasts and pro users, with a price of about $950 that proves it. Preorders start in September, when it also goes on sale in the US.

Since last year’s failures with Galaxy Note 7 (major battery failures) and the successful arrivals of Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, the Galaxy Note 8 launch is seen by many as one of the biggest comebacks in phone history. Has enough time passed for the Note fans to forgive or forget the failed past transgressions? We’ll see that in September, and now we can present you with all important things there are to know about the Samsung’s latest release.

Design

There are only a few differences in design between the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus. The Galaxy Note 8 is a bit bigger, due to the requirement to house the S Pen and a slightly larger display. It’s the heaviest and tallest Note handset ever – 195g and measuring 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6 mm. The fingerprint scanner is easier to find, while elongated black strip on the back is where the two cameras, heart rate sensor, flash, and digit reader are housed. In case you find the fingerprint sensor to fiddly, you can use an Iris scanner as an alternative. The new Galaxy Note 8 is water and dust resistant, being able to go up to 30 minutes under water without any negative consequences.

Screen

With a 6.3-inch Infinity display and a 2960 x 1440 resolution (18.5:9 aspect ratio), the Galaxy Note 8 has the largest screen in Samsung’s handset line-up. The phone gives an almost all-screen front to the phone, with an HDR compatible screen that allows you to access HQ Amazon Prime and Netflix videos. It’s much more colorful and brighter, which makes it a great choice for movie fans.

S Pen

The key feature of the Samsung’s Note range is the S Pen, which now comes with an upgraded stylus. It has the improved pressure sensitivity and gets released from the metal-glass body by a pleasing press-and-pop ejection system. The S Pen has less latency than Surface Pro (Microsoft), and a more accurate and responsive stylus than other models from the Note range. Handwriting has also been improved, while one of the new features of the S Pen is the ability to draw and send your own animated GIFs. However, there’s less space inside for everything else due to the S Pen’s inclusion, which resulted in a smaller battery (3,300mAh) than the one that powers the Galaxy S8 Plus.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes with an 8MP front camera, and wide-angle (12MP) and telephoto (12MP) lenses with 2x optical zoom (which makes it their first dual-lens rear camera. Due to the ability to combine the snaps from both cameras (lenses can work independently of each other or together), the image quality gets a boost. You can add background blur to portrait photos (Live Focus) and get closer to the actions thanks to the 2x zoom.

Battery

The Galaxy Note 8 has a smaller battery than Galaxy S8 Plus (3,300mAh), but the wireless and fast charging are enabled. The fact that Samsung’s biggest phone so far, with the biggest screen, has a small battery can perhaps disturb some enthusiasts. However, there are 2 good reasons for this. First, the Galaxy Note 7 was exploding because of a dodgy battery, and second, they did have to squeeze the S Pen into the phone’s body (which takes up a chunk of internal space).

The Galaxy Note 8 battery is both wireless and fast charging, which is very good news. If you want to take the advantage of wireless charging, you’ll have to buy a wireless charging pad separately.

A few days ago, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was finally revealed. It will be available in black, grey, blue, and gold. The release dates are September 15 (US and UK) and September 22 (Australia), while pre-orders start August 23 (UK), August 24 (US), and August 25 (Australia). A SIM free version of the phone will cost from US$930, UK£869, and AU$1,499. If you order it before the end of September, you get a gift, which is either a fast wireless charger, a 128GB card, or a 256GB microSD card.

The Galaxy Note 8 was never intended to be a cheap phone, and if you’re thinking of purchasing one for yourself, we recommend doing it soon to get the best, bundled bargain.