Samsung announces Note 8
A lot is at stake for Samsung’s Note brand as it works to gain the trust of consumers, writes Blayne Slabbert.
Samsung has announced the Galaxy Note 8, a smartphone that replaces the model that came to a fiery end last year.
The 6.3-inch Note 8 will cost $1599 and go on sale in New Zealand on September 22, with preorders opening on September 8. It replaces the infamous Note 7, which had to be recalled after some batteries ‘‘exploded’’, resulting in a billion-dollar financial loss and a public relations disaster for Samsung. But that was more than a year ago, a long time in tech history.
The company has since put the incident behind it with the release of the Galaxy S8 which has sold well and Samsung has had no battery problems.
The Note 8 is the company’s most expensive smartphone, costing more than the Galaxy S8. Its defining feature is the S Pen, a stylus which can be used to write or draw on the screen or to navigate around the phone.
The Note 8 will also have Bixby, the company’s virtual assistant. This feature will also now be available on the Galaxy S8 though it won’t have the specific ability to understand Kiwi accents.
The biggest new features on the Note 8 are dual 12MP cameras. One lens is wide-angle while the other is a telephoto, and both have optical stabilisation. This set-up has recently become more popular on high-end phones, including the iPhone 7 Plus.
These features make it Samsung’s premium device and are most suited to power users or anyone who wants the best tech available in a smartphone.
That technology includes an iris scanner and face detection for security. It also has a fingerprint scanner on the rear next to the camera lenses.
The Note 8 (which is a lot bigger than the 5.7-inch Note 7) also features the same curved screen and resolution as the S8 but has a different, more squarish look.
It does have some unique software features too, including App Pair which allows you to create a custom pair of apps and then launch them simultaneously.
The phone comes in three colours (gold, black and orchid grey) and runs Android 7, the current version of Google’s operating system but it has design tweaks and extra features added by Samsung.
It has 6GB of RAM and 64GB of memory, which is also expandable to 256GB, and features the DeX tech which lets you connect the phone to a monitor and lets you use it like a desktop computer.
The Note 8 is one of the most expensive smartphones on the market. The 6.2-inch Samsung S8 Plus comes close at $1499, while the cheapest iPhone 7 Plus (5.5-inches) with 32GB of memory costs $1429.
A lot is at stake for Samsung’s Note brand as it works to gain the trust of consumers.
While the company is the world’s top selling Android manufacturer, the Note 8 will face a lot of competition.
The company’s own Galaxy S8 and S8+ were released in April and several other high-end Android phones from Sony, Huawei and LG are now available.
Also, Apple is due to announce up to three new devices at an event next month, followed by Google’s expected release of its new phones in October.