The Galaxy Note 8 is primed to take the smartphone world by storm. It’s a stunning handset, both to gawk at and to clutch in your palms. Its bezel-less display is on par with the dazzling beauty of the Galaxy S8, and with bang-up-to-date internals, new and improved S Pen features and fancy dual rear cameras, the Note 8 is the crème de la crème of smartphone flagships. Why buy this instead of the 6.2-inch Galaxy S9 Plus? The extra tenth of an inch of screen is insignificant and doesn’t matter, but Note fans adore the S Pen stylus functionality and its more square shape. Over the S8 Plus, the Note 8 also benefits power users with 6GB or RAM and a superior dual-lens camera, both features passed on to the S9 Plus. The Note 8 is IP68 water-resistant, so it can survive up to 1.5m (5ft) underwater for 30 minutes, and it uses the reversible USB-C standard. Both are new perks for most Note fans. There’s also no camera bump, and that gaudy Samsung logo has been moved to the rear, no longer staring you in the face. Unfortunately, the fingerprint sensor has moved there, too. The fingerprint sensor has marginally improved And, because this is an AMOLED panel, contrast levels are unbeatable, at a perfect Infinity:1, and maximum brightness reaches a respectable 330cd/m2. Switch on adaptive brightness, and that figure creeps up to a blinding 981cd/m2. No more squinting at your Facebook feed in direct sunlight.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 - Expert Reviews

You also won’t get the best sound from the Note 8. It's a multimedia powerhouse visually, but its bottom-firing speaker still had us cupping the bottom of the phone to get better audio. Samsung has yet to deliver dual front-facing speakers like the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, or customizable Hi-Fi audio like the LG V30. Maybe next year.That means we’re treated to a massive 6.3in QHD+ display – 0.6in larger than last year’s effort – and it’s a great screen. Just like the Galaxy S8 and S8+ before it, it benefits from Samsung’s Super AMOLED technology, so we’re getting effectively perfect contrast levels and an image quality like no other. Graphics performance, as you can expect, is exemplary. The Note 8 breezed past the GFXBench Manhattan 3.0 test, scoring a 42fps average at native resolution, and 64fps offscreen at 1080p. This’ll run any Android game you throw at it, no question. Case in point: after putting the Note 8 to the test with our X-Rite colour calibrator, we found it covers 98.2% of the sRGB colour gamut space. With an average delta E of 1.49 (anything less than 1.5 is preferred), the Note 8 produces wholly accurate colours across the board, even if images are a tad overexposed. This is still one of the most powerful Samsung phones with a stylus. It does, however, cost you in multiple ways. First, it’s too big for some. You’re going to need a Note 8 case to confidently hold this unwieldy glass beast, and two hands to operate it. that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);

Samsung Galaxy Note8 (Unlocked) Midnight Black: SM Samsung Galaxy Note8 (Unlocked) Midnight Black: SM

Lit up, the all-screen Note 8 feels like we’re carrying around a piece of light when we’re out and about.It's much better than the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL display, Google's biggest weakness. Stretching your fingers is well worth if you can physically manage it. Its expansive 6.3-inch display – now without a physical home button – has an unheard-of 83% screen-to-body ratio. The iPhones have a 67% screen-to-body ratio for comparison. That's a lot less screen for such big phones, at least until iPhone 8 arrives to change everything.

What’s improved – slightly? The offset fingerprint sensor and center-aligned camera are a few milimeters further away from each other. Samsung wisely moved the flash and heart rate monitor in between the sensor (which requires your fingerprints) and the camera (which always gets fingerprint smudges all over it). That built-in heart rate monitor you forget still existed on Samsung phones now serves a purpose again.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 review | TechRadar

Samsung keeps topping itself, launching phones with the world’s best display every six months. Its maximum brightness, 3K resolution with Mobile HDR Premium, and wider color gamut are hard for anyone else to compete with. It's Always-On Display continues to be an appealing feature in a smartphone. that is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any person or entity; For any content that you submit, you grant SAMSUNG a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity. That telephoto lens is a fantastic addition to the Note, producing detail-rich images with very little noise compression or artefacting. It isn’t quite as good as the wide-angle lens next to it, but it’s a significant improvement over the OnePlus 5’s telephoto snapper, which tended to produce inconsistent, irregularly detailed shots in lower light. Samsung Galaxy Note 8 review: Performance and battery lifeOf course, it's not quite a match for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, but given its lower price it doesn't have to be. The smaller manufacturing process also typically means improved power efficiency, so we should have expected to see the 3,300mAh battery last a decent bout longer than its competitors. If Samsung’s previous launches were anything to go by, I certainly didn’t expect to see battery life cut.