Samsung on a winner with superior Note8
WITH a price tag of almost $1500, Samsung’s Note8 would need to be a spectacular phone. And it is.
This is a phone you just to love to hold, use and watch.
The finish is beautiful. The 6.3 inch infinity display is incredible to see.
With a dead TV remote, I found myself watching an entire Netflix episode on the Note in our media room. Ridiculous, I know, but the screen is that good.
I did the same, sitting in our spa on a day off. Despite it being in full sun, the display was incredible.
My only complaint was the speakers could have been a little louder.
The big selling points of the Note8 go beyond just the impressive screen though.
This phone is more like a laptop in your hand when it comes to productivity.
With Samsung’s DeX docking station, you can set up your phone with a screen and a keyboard, whether it be at a workstation at the office or home.
You could, for example, be involved in a video chat on your phone with work colleagues and walk into the office and continue it on the screen via the DeX station.
Even apart from DeX, the Note8 is well designed for multitasking.
You can split screens and pair apps, so for example, launch both your private and work emails to display in separate windows above and below.
I’ve never been a big user of a stylus, but the S Pen on the
Note8 is nice to handle and use.
You can now write a screen off memo, without even launching an app, which can go for up to 100 pages. That’s an awfully long shopping or chores list to be left with!
For the creative types, there is a wide range of apps which allow you to draw, paint, and colour-in. Sitting in front of the TV, I found colouring-in quite therapeutic, especially during those noisy ad breaks.
If you want to show off your flair on social media, Live Message will let you draw a note or picture, and then animate it as a GIF which can be shared via Facebook Messenger, Twitter or Snapchat.
The camera system on the Note8 is definitely one of the best I’ve seen on any android.
It features two optical stabilised cameras (12MP and 8MP) and a new Live Focus setting which allows you to blur the background of portraits.
The level of the blurring or bokeh effect can be adjusted after the photo is taken.
The range of that adjustment depends on the photo you are taking. For some pictures, it did not make as much of a difference as I would have liked.
The new iPhone 8 Plus takes that ability even further with some incredible post-editing options which are superior.
But for Note fans, this is undoubtedly the phone they have been waiting for.
Samsung had to hit a home run on this phone after the disaster of the Note7’s exploding battery. And for the most part it has.
One of my only gripes would be that the smaller battery, while more efficient, may not be powerful enough in the long run, especially if you are a heavy multimedia user.
The fast-charging system, however, is super quick so even a short charge at the airport will get you out of trouble.