Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the newest premium smartphone launched by the Samsung company, it has been officially available in Romania since the middle of last month and thanks to the people from Orange I had the opportunity to test it. Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is available for purchase in the Orange offer this page, and in what follows I will tell my experience with him.
A Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus in design, and many others
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is practically a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus with a screen only 0.1 inches larger and a case whose corners are not as round. I say this because all those who had the opportunity to see both phones have definitely seen the fact that the smartphones have an almost identical design, those corners making the phone more difficult to use with one hand, which is very difficult anyway because of the screen with a large diagonal.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has a screen 0.1 inch larger than the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, but it has the same resolution and technologies, the difference in the number of pixels per inch being so small that it doesn't even matter. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 does not have a physical Home button, it has the fingerprint reader also in the case, it also has an iris scanner and a curved screen towards the outer edges of the case, just like the spring models.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has so many points similar to its smaller brother that I recommend you read mine Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus review to see what you need to know about design, screen, software, fingerprint reader, iris scanner, front camera, etc. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes with an improved Android and some other new software functions, less important for many, but the basis comes from the S8 Plus.
Better performance and not much
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has exactly the same processors as the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895. Unlike the spring phones, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 still has 6 GB of RAM integrated by Samsung, and here we are talking about a the big difference, but not in processing power, but in multitasking and managing background applications.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 can keep several applications open in the background thanks to the 6 GB of RAM, 2 GB more than in the case of the Samsung Galaxy S8, and that matters a lot. The difference in the implementation date of another 2 GB of RAM in the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is so great that the phone is faster than the iPhone 8 Plus, and this finally brings very good performance for Korean phones.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is finally an Android smartphone with good performance, but that is until the operating system starts to become cumbersome, as it usually happens with Android. To be honest, I also found it surprising that the Geekbench score is higher than what was seen in the first tests, approaching 7000 points, still more than 3000 points lower than the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, although in real life multitasking destroys the difference.
The new camera makes all the money
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes with a new dual camera that, from my point of view, "makes all the money" and was supposed to arrive in Samsung phones already in the spring. We are talking about a dual camera consisting of a 12-pixel image sensor with optical stabilization and f/1.7 aperture, plus a second 12-megapixel sensor, but with 2x optical zoom and f/2.4 aperture.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with this dual camera takes very good pictures, comparable to those of the iPhone 8 series, each of the phones having its strengths and weaknesses. My opinion is that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has a better camera than that of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and you can compare the pictures here and those from that previous review to convince yourself.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has also integrated a new function similar to the Portrait in the iPhone 7 Plus, but it comes with an extremely useful change. More precisely, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 allows adjusting the level of blur that is applied to the background of the photos, so that we can choose how well the elements in the background are visible even when we take the photos, the company's idea being a very good one.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 takes better pictures than the iPhone 7 Plus, and the integration of the option to adjust the blur level makes the whole experience excellent. Combining this with the fact that the Camera application of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 allows advanced settings for recording photos and videos, in the end we have a better experience than in the case of the iPhone.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has the best camera implemented in a Samsung phone and that should convince any fan to buy it. If the pictures do not seem to have excellent quality, know that the fault is not the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, but the compressions made during publication and rendering of the page.
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes with a smaller battery than the one implemented in the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, and this generates a reduction of up to one hour of autonomy. Of course, we are talking about the different experience depending on what you do on the phones, and the 300 mAh minus between the batteries of the two phones puts the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 at a disadvantage.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 still has a battery that does not explode during charging, and here we are talking about a big problem solved by the Korean company. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 doesn't even get extremely hot during use, so theoretically there should never be any problems with the batteries, so far no case has appeared that confirms the existence of problems as big as last year's.
conclusions
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a very interesting smartphone, perhaps one of the best ever made by the Samsung company, but it lacks changes compared to the series dedicated to ordinary users. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a phone designed mainly for the business segment, good for productivity, good for drawing with the stylus, but a bit big and heavy for a normal person.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 doesn't have the best performance for a mobile phone, it's too big to have an exceptional design, but it has an excellent camera and a decent screen. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 still has a big problem, because the price of 4500 LEI in Romania makes it difficult for potential customers to find enough reasons to spend this money on this model instead of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 compared to the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, from the point of view of a regular customer, has as its only important advantages the camera and the additional 2 GB of RAM. The difference is 600 LEI between the two phones and, to be honest, it is not really worth it because the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is more difficult to use, although it has a better camera and more RAM, but it all depends on the consumers.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a smartphone intended for a narrow segment of Samsung's customers, but they can do better with a Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and a stylus.
