Samsung announces the Galaxy Note 8
While almost everything about Samsung’s latest magnum opus, the Galaxy Note 8 has been unveiled in a series of inadvertent leaks in the last few weeks, Samsung’s titular phablet took to the stage today at their annual grand Unpacked event in New York to a full house of invited guests from across the planet.
DJ Koh, president of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics at the launch of the Galaxy Note 8 in New York
Like its predecessors, the Galaxy Note 8 is a huge phablet that sports a stylus as its main calling card though the Note 8 this time around has a massive 6.3-inch Quad HD+, 2,960 x 1440 pixel Super AMOLED display that is somewhat akin to the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in terms of design with a rectangular 18.5:9 aspect ratio and the remove of the traditional oblong-shaped home button to one located under the touchscreen panel to offer a massive display unbesmirched by buttonry. Where it differs slightly, bar the size is the fact that it’s flatter to facilitate the use of the S Pen stylus as opposed to the rounded edges of the display on the S8 series.
The improved S Pen stylus lets you create and doodle animated GIFs to send to friends
The stylus itself has been improved over prior generations and is more sensitive and responsive while also coming in a colour matching the four announced colours at launch. The rest of the hardware is equally impressive with either an Exynos or Snapdragon 64-bit octacore processor built on the 10nm process depending on region, 6GB RAM and various combinations of available storage starting at 64GB to 128GB and capping out at a massive 256GB behemoth with all of them augmentable via a microSD card slot. Some regions will come with a single SIM and single microSD card slot while others come with hybrid SIM card slots. Malaysia will most likely come with the latter and an Exynos processor.
Four colours were announced at launch though which region and which colours Malaysia will get have yet to be finalised
Like what the leaks have shown, the Galaxy Note 8 has not one but two 12-MP rear cameras, both of which come with optical image stabilisation for judder-free videos and snaps alike. One rear camera comes with their Dual Pixel tech and an F/1.7 aperture while the other camera has an F/2.4 aperture and 2x optical zoom for scenery snaps. This setup allows it to take close-up shots and scenery with equal facility. The dual rear camera setup also offers what they call a Love Focus mode where you can select a subject to keep it sharp in the foreground and dial in how much defocus you want in the background. You’re even able to do it after you’ve taken the shot. The front-facing selfie camera has an 8-MP sensor with an F/1.7 aperture.
The S Pen stylus as mentioned earlier has enhanced responsiveness and, in tandem with the 6.3-inch display, offers quite a large digital canvas. The Screen Memo feature that lets you jot notes down even when the screen is off has been expanded significantly – you’re able to jot down up to 100 pages of notes even when the screen is off which is plenty. The hovering Air Commands seen in prior generations of Note series phones is back and you’re now able to select text and translate it into the language of your choice. It even works for measurements and currencies too. Handy, that. Other features touted at launch for the Galaxy Note 8 include enhanced functionality with their Bixby assistant. Of note, pun aside, is that Bixby is able to respond to voice commands to execute pre-programmed commands in sequence. At the launch, a voiced ‘Good Night’ got the phone to turn on the blue light filter and fire up a ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode which is a somewhat complicated sequence of commands to execute but which the phone did without a hitch.
Some of the apps optimised to work with the Galaxy Note 8 and the DeX dock
One particularly pleasant surprise is that the Galaxy Note 8 has DeX dock support so you can plonk it into their eponymous dock and, with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, get a desktop experience. Expected mod-cons like IP68 water resistance are present on the Note 8 and like the prior Note 7, the Note 8 has a suite of security authentication features that include either the usual pattern unlock, facial recognition or an iris scanner as well as their robust Knox security suite. Like the S8 and S8+, the Note 8 will ship with a pair of AKG earbuds on the house that offer some seriously good sound. The Note 8’s 3,300mAh battery offers fast charging support and the phone will come in mid-September in four colours – Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Maple Gold and Deepsea Blue though which colours will make it to Malaysia have yet to be announced or the price tag though earlier announcements stateside by US telcos have placed it circa around the USD900 to USD950 mark which works out to under RM4,000 or so. The usual preorder giveaways in Malaysia have, in the past, bundled an impressive series of freebies that salves that hefty price tag.
You can doodle away up to one hundred pages worth of off screen memos on the Galaxy Note 8
As of now, the Galaxy Note 8 is stated to hit stores on September 15 globally and will be available for preorders from 5 September to 10 September with a special preorder package for buyers in Malaysia. To find out more details on the preorder, swing by www.samsung.com/my/note8preorder.
