Everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Pricing

So, the Samsung galaxy Note 8 has just been announced and here is everything you need to know about the Smartphone.

To kick things off, let’s start with the camera or cameras: the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the first from Samsung to join the dual camera band wagon and comes with a dual 12 mega pixel camera setup on the back. Although this dual camera set-up is a little bit less than traditional. One of the cameras is a wide angle lens and the other is a telephoto one and both feature optical image stabilization which means the end result photo you get when taking pictures will be incredibly steady. Not only that, but this dual lens setup actually gives rise to another rather useful feature called dual capture.

Because the Note 8 features a telephoto lens combined with a wide angle lens, this means that when you turn this mode on (dual capture), you can take a photo and two will be captured at the same time. Albeit one slightly zoomed in and one with the wide angle shot meaning you get more of the environment in it. Also, you get two time lossless zoom.

Another thing the company mentioned when talking about the camera was something called a live preview. So, when you are using the bouquet mode, which is sort of using both of these lenses to create an artificially high level of bouquet, you get a live preview of what it will look like….something you don’t get on a lot of smart phones using this tech.

In terms of the front facing camera, nothing has really changed since the S8 and S8 plus, and seeing as those are one of the best on any phone as front facing cameras go, it’s a welcome addition.

One of the first complaints that will no doubt come to peoples’ minds when they see 6.3inch is ‘how big is this phone?’, not to mention its thickness at 8.6mm weighing in at 195grams, it is by far one of the thickest and heaviest flagship phones of 2017. For the sake of comparism, the galaxy S8 is 8mm thick. As far as color options go, the Note 8 comes in black, silver/orchid grey and maple gold.

No new Note phone is going to be complete without a shiny new S-pen and there is one, which I will get to in a minute, but what is also impressive is that whilst integrating the S-pen into the body, they still managed to retain and IP 68 water and dust proof rating which means that you can submerge the phone at a depth of about 1.5meters for 30minutes at a time. The display slides in at 6.3inches which is a fraction larger than the 6.2 seen on the Galaxy S8 Plus. Just to be clear, it is almost exclusively a 2 handed device, so use it one handed at your own risk (be warned though, a replacement screen does not come cheap). It s a 2960*1440 resolution and the phone will ship with a full HD-Plus setting which can be changed from the settings by the average consumer should you be the sort that prioritizes battery life over the beauty of the display.

As we’ve seen with every Note phone, the S-Pen has been redesigned. As well as integrating a new water proofing feature, it now has a finer tip, is more pressure sensitive and a new feature where when the phone is off, you can scribble on the phone screen and in this process, you can record up to 100 pages and just stick them on to the wall of your always-on display. New software also lets you record the drawings you make as GIF files and send them on to social media that support it. One of the coolest S-Pen feature is taking the pen out and when you hover over text in another language, it can translate it to one of over 71 other different languages instantaneously. This feature works on both words and entire sentences, taking into account the context of the pages you are on in the process also.

Now as you probably expect considering the Note 8 is an evolution of the S8 rather than a revolution, it has more or less the same aesthetics to it. The same curves which make it comfortable to hold in the hands, the same Gorilla glass on the front and rear which means it can take some drops, and ultimately the same design language…so yeah, it can often be mistaken for be hard for the S8+ or vice versa. Now, one of the main gripes here is that a lot of people were expecting a screen embedded finger print sensor or just a better way to unlock the device seeing as the finger print sensor placement on the back was mostly miss than hit by Samsung on the S8 and S8+, sadly, the Note 8 maintains the same finger print sensor location…may prove to be a deal breaker for some and diehard fans can just opt to use pattern unlock or pin and hope next year, Samsung heeds their desires.

One of the most interesting things on the entire specification was the battery. The Note 8 ships with a paltry 3300mAh which is considerably less than what the Galaxy S8 plus is packing (3500mAh), signaling something of a shift in the Note series. The Note series of phones are traditionally known for larger displays, S-Pen, more processing power and also more battery life, and it is a shame to see that the battery life trend has been nicked. Though rumor has it the Note 7 battery related debacle is mostly what necessitated this shift from Samsung, it is slightly confusing that given the smaller battery, this is still a thicker phone despite having the exact same processors featured in both the S8 and S8+. This is to say you are more or less covered for everything you want to do on the smart phone. Having said that, for those of you expecting significant updates from the S8/S8+, you might be a little disappointed because it is the  exact same setup and clock speed as the S8/S8+. The major difference though is the shift from 4GB of RAM to 6GB which means it will handle multi-tasking like the pro that it is. Don’t get me wrong, 4GB on the S8 and S8+ are plenty up to the multi tasking task but there have been times and reports of stutter when pushed to their limits.

At launch, the Note 8 will be running Android 7.1.1 and will be getting an update to Oreo 8.0 pretty soon unfortunately, not as fast as googles’ own devices, but that is to be expected.

Other things to note are that it charges via USB type-C, it supports all of Samsungs latest and greatest charging technology as well as fast wireless charging. It also supports Bluetooth 5.0 which means it can connect to two separate Bluetooth headphones and play music at the same time. Yeah, it also has a headphone jack *wink wink*.

The Note 8 is officially launching depending on region on the 15^th of September. The Note 8 comes in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB variants all featuring SD card support. The base model from Samsungs website retails at $929 (about NGN340-345k)