It has been a year since the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco and a very long period of criticism and apology, there had to be a worthy successor to the Galaxy Note 7. The much-awaited eighth iteration of the Galaxy Note phablet series, the Galaxy Note 8 has been finally unveiled by the South Korean giant at the Galaxy Unpacked Event in New York.
It’ll be in US stores on September 15, and that’s probably going to be the same date around the world in key territories like the UK.
The 6.3-inch Quad HD+, Super AMOLED Infinity Display looks both stunning and responsive. The design is almost similar to that of Galaxy S8+ and the only thing that sets both devices apart is a dual camera. The Note 8 is the first phone by the South Korean giant to sport a dual camera. The curved back also fits comfortably in the palm.
The S Pen has been a signature feature of the Galaxy Note devices. The company has upgraded the accessory in the Note 8 and also added many features to the device related to it. The S Pen is – along with the raw power inside – the thing that defines the Note series, and with the new version of the new version of the stylus, it’s better than ever. 4000 levels of pressure sensitivity, a more flexible tip and overall nice weight to the S Pen make it nice to use on the screen of the Galaxy Note 8. Samsung, once again, wheeled out the idea that ‘this feels like writing on paper’ and while it utterly doesn’t (because this is rubber on glass) it’s closer than ever before and highly accurate.
The new features offered, such as creating an animated GIF of your sketches and translating more words in a single swipe, are among the most useful that Samsung has offered with the S Pen. We never felt that being able to snip out parts of pictures was a great tool to have, but the Galaxy Note 8 feels more useful to the millennial generation than ever.
The Galaxy Note 8 is the first smartphone from Samsung to house a dual-camera setup. Though the officials did not reveal exact specifications of the camera setup, it is expected that Note 8 will feature a 12MP wide-angle camera sensor with a f/1.7 aperture and a telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture. Both the lenses support OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation). Samsung has added a few new features to the dual camera setup, Live Focus being the biggest highlight. The feature allows the user to select the area of focus to provide the Bokeh mode to the photo, before and after capturing the photo.
The 6GB of RAM, Galaxy Note 8 arrive as one of the most powerful devices on the market today. The device offers 64GB of internal storage that can further be expanded up to 256GB with the help of a microSD card. The phone will support wireless charging and will come in Midnight Black and Maple Gold. Just like other flagships of the company, the Note 8 is IP68 certified, which means it will be water resistant. In addition, Note 8 comes with Pair App feature which allows a user to open two applications simultaneously.
There is no hint about its Indian launch, but, we expect it to arrive around Diwali. Let’s see how it manages to compete against the likes of upcoming next flagship of Apple.