It’s been a little under a year since the infamous Note 7 debacle starting making headlines. Despite reports and concerns that Samsung would abandon the Note line altogether (which was believable, considering the PR nightmare the company experienced during the series of unfortunate events), Samsung is back in the saddle with the Galaxy Note 8 this year.
Like last year’s similarities between the Note 7 and Galaxy S7, the Note 8 took design cues from the Galaxy S8 released earlier this year. Slim bezels, curved Infinity display, relocation of the fingerprint sensor to the back of the device, and a glass and metal design are some of the defining design choices of both phones. The Note 8 does differ in some ways, however, with sharper angled edges and more flat surface area, giving users more real estate to use their S Pen on.
Although the S Pen is one of the shining features of the Note (and the reason for the device’s name), this year, Samsung placed an incredible amount of effort on the rear-facing camera. The Note is Samsung’s first device with a dual camera set-up, joining the ranks of LG, Apple, Huawei, and Motorola, among others who have already done so. However, Samsung’s dual camera set-up does have one advantage over the others so far, and that’s that both lenses have optical image stabilization (OIS). In many mobile cameras, just one lens has OIS. Samsung demonstrated the Note 8’s double OIS against the iPhone 7’s single OIS lens during the Unboxed event, and the results were quite noticeable.
Another feature of the Note 8’s camera that stood out to me was the Live Focus feature, which allows users to easily control the amount of focus placed on the background of an image, giving more emphasis to the subject – basically, it’s “easy bokeh”.
App Pair was another interesting feature of the Note 8. App Pair allows users to pre-pair apps to launch at the same time, taking full advantage of Samsung’s multi-window feature. For instance, you could pair GPS and a music app to launch at the same time. It’s not a huge deal, but it does take one extra step out of the equation if you happen to pair multiple apps together on a regular basis.
The S Pen also received an update this year with a finer tip and better pressure sensitivity. Users can use the S Pen for a number of things, including writing while the screen is “off”. Users can write up to 100 pages worth of notes while the screen is off, and can even edit the notes without having to unlock the phone.
Other than that, the Note 8 really isn’t anything we haven’t already seen before. The Infinity display was introduced earlier this year with the Galaxy S8 duo, and the Galaxy S8+’s 6.2-inch display is just a hair smaller than the Note 8’s 6.3-inch display, so even the Note’s conventionally big screen isn’t a shell-shocking feature anymore. Both the S8+ and Note 8 feature the same processor, same amount of RAM, and same amount of internal storage.
But just because it isn’t something we haven’t seen before doesn’t mean it isn’t still an impressive device. The Note remains a unique option in the smartphone industry by offering an innovative take on the traditional stylus necessary to operate older mobile devices, and even some current ones like the LG Stylo. The dual camera with dual OIS is another competitive feature, and it will be interesting to see how well the camera will hold up against the next generation iPhone and Pixel devices, both of which are set to be announced within the next couple of months.
That said, the gap has really narrowed between Samsung’s two flagships over the years. While I think the Note still stands alright on its own, I do wonder how much longer Samsung will keep the two separate. It’s possible that the two will always remain distinct from each other, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Galaxy Note become the new S+ device, considering how incredibly close the two are regarding specs. As it stands, I don’t see the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 as much more than a slightly tricked out S8+. Regardless, hopefully things go more smoothly this year than last - and at least Note 7 owners have a chance at getting $425 off the Note 8, not to mention the plethora of addition promos going on for pre-ordering the device, making an otherwise pricey phone a pretty darn good deal.
