Samsung Galaxy Note 8 hands-on

Key Features

Review Price: £869
6.3-inch quad-HD+ AMOLED HDR display
Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895
6GB RAM, 64GB storage
3300 mAh battery, Wireless and fast charging

Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8: The new best big phone?

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was one the best phones of 2016 – until it began to catch fire. A few weeks later, it was recalled and then discontinued. It was a sour end to what appeared to be a good year for Samsung. 12 months on, it doesn’t seem to have caused any lasting issues. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are easily two of the best handsets of the year so far, selling in droves, and the company has just announced the Samsung Note 8: a smartphone I never thought would come to be.

Before delving into my hands-on first impressions, here are the key facts you need to know about Samsung’s latest phablet.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 UK release date – September 2017

Like all recent Samsung phones, the Note 8 is a gorgeous slab of curved metal and glass. It looks a lot like the S8, but it’s more straight-edged – more businesslike – and the curved screen is steeper to aid S-Pen note-taking. The Infinity Display is even bigger at 6.3 inches, and it continues to make bezel-heavy devices feel old-fashioned by comparison.

Note 8 – Design and Screen

If you found the S8+ too big, you’ll struggle here. The Note 8 is slightly larger on all fronts and difficult to use with one hand. The iPhone 7 Plus, which remains a bizarrely large phone for its screen size, is one of the only other recent phones to come close to matching the Note 8 in size.

The QHD+ AMOLED display is stunning, but that’s no surprise. The colours suck you in and perfect blacks make it ideal for Netflix and YouTube viewing, and scrolling through pictures. The slightly odd 18.5:9 aspect ratio is strange at first, but you can stretch videos and apps to fit it so it doesn’t detract from anything. Like the S8, the Note 8 is HDR certified by the 4K Alliance, but the actual amount of HDR content around is still slim.

There are a few design differences between the Note 8 and its S8 siblings. The biggest is the addition of the S-Pen stylus, which is tucked away next to the USB Type-C port on the phone’s bottom. Even though this adds a for water to get in the Note 8 has the same level of IP68 water-resistance as the S8.

Samsung told me the S-Pen is more sensitive than previous versions, and its combination with the Note 8 will be ideal for artists looking for a mobile sketch station. However, in my opinion, the Note 8’s giant screen will still prove too small. Some people may still want it for note-taking, but in all honesty the S-Pen has always felt like an antiquated accessory that I’ve never used beyond the initial week. I’m not sure it will be any different this time.

My only issue with the Note’s design is the rear-facing fingerprint scanner’s position next to the camera module, which on a phone of this size makes it very hard to reach.

Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy 8 Note on Vodafone (4GB) – £200 upfront, £36/month
Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy 8 Note on O2 (5GB) – £150 upfront, £39/month
Pre-Order: Samsung Galaxy 8 Note on EE (10GB) – £150 upfront, £42.99/month

Galaxy Note 8 – Camera

The other big change is on the rear of the device. Samsung has jumped on the dual-camera bandwagon, popping a 12-megapixel telephoto sensor next to the already excellent wider-angle 12-megapixel sensor from the Galaxy S8. Importantly, both these sensors feature optical image stabilisation (OIS), so even if you use the 2x optical zoom, your snaps should be blur-free. The main issue with the secondary sensor on the iPhone 7 Plus is that it lacks OIS, and so it struggles if you’re not stock still.

I’m not the biggest fan of dual-sensor cameras, and none of the phones with the best cameras have them, but it does seem like Samsung is on the right track. You can quickly jump to ‘2x’ zoom in the camera app, and from there access a Live Focus mode for achieving that blurry background bokeh effect. Again, false bokeh effects can often look terrible, but in my short time with the Note 8, the results looked good. The second sensor really helps here.

On the front you get the same 8-megapixel selfie camera as the S8.

Galaxy Note 8 – Specs

Internal specs have always been pulled from the top-drawer for the Note series, and that remains true here. There’s 6GB of RAM, either an Exynos 8895 or Snapdragon 835 CPU, and 64GB of storage, plus a slot for a microSD card. Expect US owners to get the Snapdragon version while the UK and rest of the world the Exynos one. Time will tell whether the device is as fast as the specs suggest, but Samsung’s software has been gradually and constantly improving so we have high hopes.

The Android 7.1.1 software is all but identical to that included with the Galaxy S8, and that’s no bad thing. Samsung has done a great job of making use of that big screen. Split-screen apps are useful with the extra space, and the UI makes it easier to swipe around with just one hand.

Predictably, the majority of the extra software tweaks added for the Note 8 revolve around the S-Pen. Screen-off Memo remains my favourite, letting you pop out the S-Pen with the screen off and start jotting down notes on the black display. You can also live-translate words simply by dragging over the stylus, which works as advertised during my demo.

Galaxy Note 8 – Specs

The only potential issue with the Note 8’s specs will be its slightly small battery. The 3300mAh cell offers less capacity than that of the Galaxy S8+ and leaves me concerned about the phablet’s stamina. I can barely get through a full day of hard usage on the S8+, and considering the Note 8 has an even bigger screen and more RAM, it could be a struggle. At least there’s both wireless and fast-charging onboard – and fingers crossed that there won’t be any ‘exploding’ Galaxy Note issues this time around.

First impressions

In the past, the Note series has always offered a huge step forward over the regular ‘S’ line of devices, but that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. In fact, the Note 8 doesn’t really offer much over the S8 and S8+ at all. That’s not to say the Note 8 isn’t an exciting phone, because it is. The S-Pen will be useful to some – it just isn’t for me – and the more straight-edge design with steeper curves will appeal to those who find the S8 too curvy.

But the biggest difference will hopefully be the camera. Samsung isn’t necessarily saying the camera with be ‘better’, but it does seem to offer greater versatility. I love the telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus, and the addition of OIS here should make Samsung’s version even better.

The elephant in the room here is the Note 8’s price, which is a whopping £869. Whether it will be worth that steep price, or offer more than the iPhone 8, we’ll have to wait and see – but what is certain is that Samsung has another gorgeous phone on its hands.

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