- Last year, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7,
that phone had to be recalled twice
before ultimately being killed.
Today, Samsung reinvigorates the Galaxy Note Line
with the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
What's going on, tech squad?
Andru Edwards here, Editor-in-Chief of GearLive.com.
If this is your first time here, this channel is
all about tech, gadgets, and gaming
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We're in New York City today for the launch
on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, it's the big event.
We're outside of the Park Avenue Armory
where the launch is going to go down.
So let's head inside and check out all the latest news
and get some first impressions
on Samsung's brand new flagship.
Let's do it.
As I said, we are at the Park Avenue Armory
and this is where Samsung announced
the brand new Galaxy Note 8.
Samsung definitely knows how to put on a show.
They had a huge display that was kind of cornered off,
so you were looking into a curve.
You had a display on the left,
you had a display on the right.
You had these lights coming from the top
and you had the floor also acting as a display.
So from a visual perspective,
the event was really, really cool.
After the event, we were able to go backstage
and actually get some hands-on time with the Galaxy Note 8.
Picking it up for the first time, it feels like a Note.
The display is huge and it definitely
feels like a flagship premium device.
The design is squared off, meaning it's grippier
than the S8 and S8+, but with a bigger display.
That display, by the way, is a 6.3-inch infinity display
in an 18.5:9 aspect ratio.
Even though the screen is much bigger,
the Note 8 is almost the same size as the Note 7
from last year, being just a bit taller
but practically the same width.
The Quad HD AMOLED display does support HDR,
which means you get that high-color gamut
and the impressive brightness as well.
And again, with virtually no bezels,
it's almost like you're just holding a display by itself.
It's very impressive to behold.
As far as hardware goes, it's still made
with the same finish and is IP68 certified.
Combination of metal and Gorilla Glass 5 all around,
looks good but it still attracts a bunch of fingerprints.
You'll find the Power, Volume, and Bixby buttons
in the same positions that you'll find them
on the Galaxy S8, but if you're looking for differences
on this device, you'll find those around back.
Since Samsung's replaced the hardware Home button
with a haptic one, the fingerprint scanner
stays in that odd, uncomfortable position
near the rear camera, rather than being under the display
since no one is able to do that just yet.
But we'll probably see that in next year's Note 9.
I personally didn't like using the fingerprint reader
on the Galaxy S8+
and here on the Note 8 is no different.
So on mine, I'll probably rely
on facial recognition or iris scanning.
Speaking of the back, though, the Note 8 is
Samsung's first-ever dual-camera smartphone.
You've got two 12 megapixel sensors,
one with an F1.7 wide-angle lens
and another with an F2.4 telephoto lens.
Both sensors support optical image stabilization,
which is a world's first, but only the wide-angle lens
comes with Dual Pixel Auto Focus.
The telephoto lens allows for 2x optical zoom
and Samsung's got a cool Live Focus feature,
which allows you to control the amount of blurriness,
the amount of bokeh in the back
of your picture on a sliding scale.
Using it in person and seeing it work
in realtime is super cool and the images
that this thing takes are absolutely amazing.
The overall UI on the Note 8 stays
pretty similar to the S8 and S8+.
It's the Samsung Experience Launcher,
and to be honest, it's pretty good.
There's Bixby and the usual Samsung bloatware
but all of it runs well on that Snapdragon 835 processor
and for the first time, we're also seeing six gigabytes
of RAM on a Samsung device so
that should also help things out as well.
Of course, what I've found in the past
is Samsung's UI does tend to slow down with time
so I'll give better feedback on this later
in my full review after I've been able
to spend much more time with the phone.
All that said, there's no doubt
that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is packed with features.
You've got the iris unlock, you've got the Face Unlock,
you've got the Always On display, you've got
the Multi Window feature that allows you
to use two apps at once.
You've got the dual app launching,
you've got the S Pen, you've got a bunch to like here.
This is officially Samsung's premium flagship device
right now, even over and above the S8 and S8+.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes in four colors,
those being Midnight Black, Orchid Gray,
Maple Gold, and a new Deep Sea Blue.
Unfortunately, if you're in the United States,
only the black and the gray variants will be for sale.
And speaking of for sale,
the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is not cheap.
It also comes with a pretty premium price tag.
Buying it directly from Samsung, expect to pay $930
plus tax for the privilege of owning the Galaxy Note 8.
If you're buying from Verizon or AT&T,
you're gonna be paying $960.
So you have it, guys, that was your look
at the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Launch event,
as well as my first impressions of the device.
I'd love to hear what you think about the Galaxy Note 8,
if you plan on picking one up or if you plan on waiting
for other smartphones out there
or maybe you're satisfied with the phone you have.
Drop a comment down below and I'll meet you
down there for further discussion.
I'm gonna be spending even more time
with the Galaxy Note 8 here in New York City
over the next couple of days, so be sure
to stay tuned for even more early impressions
of this brand new smartphone.
'Til next time, thanks so much for watching, guys.
I appreciate your support.
I'm Andru Edwards and I'll catch you in the next video.
(energetic rock music)