After months of speculations, Samsung finally pulled the wraps off the much awaited Galaxy Note8 in New York City on August 23.
The 2016-series Galaxy Note7 was a top-notch feature-rich device, but the battery fire fiasco undid all the Samsung's hard work. Now, its successor Galaxy Note8 is all set to reinvigorate the company's flagship phone sales in the market.
The new Galaxy Note8 is completely different both in terms of design and the internal hardware compared to the Note7, but it has borrowed the design elements of the current marquee Galaxy S8 series phones. It boasts the Infinity Display on the front and visually appealing shell with good mix of metal and glass cover on top.
The key improvement is the additional camera on the rear and thankfully, Samsung has made thoughtful adjustments between the camera and the fingerprint placements.
The company has incorporated LED flash and other sensors in between them, so, there will be a small gap between fingerprint scanner and the camera, and to an extent, might avoid unintentional touching of the camera lens while trying to use the fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone.
Samsung Galaxy Note8 comes with new S Pen with improved pressure sensitivity and more features. One notable aspect is the Screen off memo, that allows the user to take up to one-hundred pages of notes as soon as they remove the S Pen, pin notes to the Always On Display (AOD) and make edits directly from the AOD, as well.
Despite having a slot for S Pen, device owners will be able to take it for a dip in the swimming pool (or any fresh water bodies like pond/lake/river, but not salty sea/ocean). The Galaxy Note8 will boast IP68 dust-and-water resistant certification, meaning the device can survive up to 30 minutes close to five feet under water.
As far as the camera is concerned, Galaxy Note 8 comes with top-of-the line hardware. It houses dual-camera system, one 12 MP primary camera (Wide-angle lens with f/1.7 aperture and dual-pixel autofocus) and a 12 MP Telephoto camera (f/2.4 aperture and 2x Optical Zoom) with OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), and on the fronts, it features equally impressive a wide-angle 8MP snapper with f/1.7 aperture.
Under-the-hood, it houses 6GB RAM, 64GB/128GB/256GB storage and a 3,300mAh battery with fast wire/wireless charging capabilities.
For those unaware, Samsung, after the conclusion of the Galaxy Note7 fire investigation, had set up a broad range of internal quality and safety measures to improve the product safety, including the 8-Point Battery Safety Check (BSC) and additional protocols like multi-layer safety measures. The new Galaxy Note 8 is said to have undergone these tests before getting the nod for mass production. Rest assured that the device will not go up in flames.
Other stipulated features include facial recognition system, fingerprint sensor, Iris scanner, Bluetooth v5.0, Wi-Fi (with MU-MIMO), Type C USB port and more.
And like the Galaxy S8 series, the Galaxy Note8 supports Samsung DeX feature. Users, with the help of the display dock, can convert the phone into a mini-computer via DeX. It will offer new adaptive user experience on a big screen with optimised look and behaviour of apps as per usage preferences of the customer to provide a PC-like experience.
Samsung Galaxy Note8 price and availability details:
Samsung's new Galaxy Note8 comes with a starting price of $930(€788/Rs.59,557) in the US and will be available for pre-order starting August 24 in the US and select markets and the shipments will commence in September reach the customers' doors in mid-September. It is expected to hit stores on September 15 with four colour options -- Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Maple Gold and Deepsea Blue.
As of now, there is no word on when the Galaxy Note8 will come to India, but it is expected to happen around September-end or before the Diwali festival in October. Stay tuned.
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Key specifications of Samsung Galaxy Note8:
| Model | Samsung Galaxy Note8 |
| Display | 6.3-inch Quad HD+ (2960x1440p) Super AMOLED screen, HDR 10 content compatible Corning Gorilla Glass 5 shieldPixel density: 521ppi (pixels per inch) |
| OS | Android 7.1.1 Nougat (Android 8.0 Oreo is coming soon) |
| Processor | Model 1 for USA & China: 10nm architecture 64-bit class Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998) octa-core (2.35 Kryo cores x 4 + 1.9GHz Kryo cores x 4) CPUModel 2 for EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), India and other regions: 10nm architecture 64-bit class Samsung Exynos 8895 octa-core (2.3GHz cores x 4 + 1.7GHz cores x 4) CPU |
| GPU | Model 1: Adreno 540Model 2: Mali-G71 MP20 |
| RAM | 6GB |
| Storage | 64GB/128GB/256GB |
| Camera | Main: Wide-angle 12MP (Dual Pixel AutoFocus, f/1.7 aperture) + Telephoto 12MP (AutoFocus, f/2.4 aperture & OIS); both the cameras boasts OIS: Optical Image Stabilisation, 2 x Optical ZOOM, up to 10 X Digital ZOOM, dual-tone LED flash, PDAF (Phase Detect)Front: 8MP snapper with f/1.7 aperture |
| Battery | 3,300mAh;Wireless Charging compatible with WPC and PMAFast Charging compatible with QC 2.0 |
| Network | 4G LTE (Cat. 16) |
| S Pen | More sensitive, more brush features, S Memo, GIF animations with Smart Select, Air Command functions, Magnify, Translate, Samsung Notes, a new unified app allowing users to jot down handwritten notes, draw, or edit memos from one location, Screen off memo allows you to take up to one-hundred pages of notes as soon as you remove the S Pen, pin notes to the Always On Display and make edits directly from the Always On Display. |
| Add-ons | IP68 certified(both the Galaxy Note8 & S Pen), fingerprint sensor, facial recognition system, Iris scanner, SIM: single (type: nano)/hybrid (select markets; type nano + nano or micro SD),Bluetooth v5.0 (LE up to 2mbps), Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; dual-band: 2.4GHz & 5GHz, VHT80 MU-MIMO 1024QAM), NFC (Near Field Communication), MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission), Type-C USB port, GPS/Galileo/GLONASS/ BeiDou |
| Dimensions | 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6 mm |
| Weight | 195g |
| Colours | Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Maple Gold and Deepsea Blue |
| Price | Starts with $930 (€788/Rs.59,557) |
