- Hey guys this is Austin.
Today I'm here in New York City for the launch
of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
My first thought with the Note 8
is that it actually does feel a little bit different
to the Galaxy S8 and S8+.
So when you look at it up front it looks very, very similar.
Yes, it does have a 6.3 inch display
instead of 6.2 on the S8+.
But in hand it actually has a little bit more of an edge.
Before it was very much sort of like a tapered thing
all the way from the screen to the back.
But now there's actually something to grab onto.
The Note 8 still has the Infinity Display.
So this means that it has super small bezels
on top and bottom.
It does have a curved display on the edges.
And it also does have the sort of wraparound edge
on both the left and right side.
All this jargon means,
it actually does feel really nice in the hand.
The Galaxy Note 8 is still going to be water resistant,
which is nice.
And taken as a whole, the hardware does feel very similar
to the Galaxy S8 and especially the S8+.
It's not going to be a huge jump,
but what you're really getting here is the S Pen
and especially that new dual camera setup.
This guy is rocking a pair of 12-megapixel cameras
that are very similar to the iPhone 7 Plus.
So there's one wide angle lens as well as one telephoto.
It's a 2x crop, and there's a lot of cool things
that you can do with it.
Not only do we have the wide angle lens,
but you can also jump into the telephoto,
and if we hit Live Focus,
essentially what we should be able to do,
so we actually just took three photos.
So not only did we use the wide angle shot,
but we also do have the telephoto,
and we have version with background blur.
So what's interesting about the Note 8
is that you can actually adjust this.
So you can basically turn it all the way off,
or go maximum blur.
Looking at it closely, it looks decent,
but he's a little bit soft.
Now, I think that's actually an issue
I've found a lot with the iPhone 7 Plus with the portrait mode,
and this is a sort of similar setup,
but in theory they have done a better job
of implementing it by actually allowing
you to take multiple photos.
However this, while it did a good job
of sort of isolating him from the background
it looks very similar to what you get on the iPhone.
Now beyond that, it's a fairly similar setup.
Like I said, they're both 12 megapixels.
And to my eye, it looks pretty similar
to the photos that you're getting on the Galaxy S8,
but thankfully there's no camera bump.
What's not great about that,
is that it also means that the fingerprint sensor
is still going to be around back.
So it is still very, very easy
to accidentally touch your camera,
when you actually mean to unlock the phone.
So Jimmy, what are your thoughts on the Galaxy Note 8?
- Dude, it fits in my hand, it's crazy.
It's fine, like, I like iPhone,
but the screen is really nice, and it's fast.
- I think I'm gonna take over the video again.
- Yeah, take it.
(laughing)
- The Note 8 is rocking a 6.3 inch, super AMOLED display,
and I think honestly, this is probably one of the best
smartphone displays around.
But Samsung has kinda been on top of the game
for a couple years now here.
I've got to admit, when the Galaxy S8 came out,
I felt like that was the best hardware on any phone,
and the Note is super similar.
So it still does have not only USB-C,
but also a headphone jack, which is nice to see.
But of course, being a Note, it does have the S Pen.
The S Pen has gained a few new features,
like you can use it to translate text,
as well as of course you can use it
to doodle and sketch and that kind of stuff.
Now I know a lot of people really do like the S Pen,
but personally I don't find a ton of use
for a stylus on a phone.
And that actually brings us to one of the downsides
of the Note 8.
It has a very small 3300 mAh battery.
Now for comparison, the Galaxy S8+,
with a slightly smaller screen,
has a 3500 mAh battery.
The Note 7 was a big part of the presentation today.
So, in case you've been living under a rock,
the Galaxy Note 7 was kind of a big deal.
And by big deal, I mean it kept exploding
and, yeah, did not go well.
So of course, the battery is smaller here.
I think they're being a little more conservative,
and I think that is a good thing,
but it also means that, with such a giant display,
and pretty powerful specs, I'm curious to see
what the actual battery life is going to be.
Inside, the Note 8 is rocking a Snapdragon 835 processor,
as well as an Exynos option in some international markets.
It has six GB of RAM, 64 Gigs of storage,
as well as a MicroSD card slot.
So this is very similar to what you're getting
on the Galaxy S8.
The biggest difference is that you're getting
that two extra gigs of RAM, but to be totally honest,
it's going to be a very similar experience.
The Note 8 also has a Bixby button,
because you know, that was a huge hit on the S8.
It launches Bixby, which still exists.
It's slightly better now.
Moving on, what is a little bit cooler is DeX.
So this is Samsung's solution to
being able to turn your phone into somewhat of a desktop.
So if you get the DeX dock,
you can hook up a monitor, mouse, keyboard,
kind of like some of the Windows phone stuff
that I have taken a look at recently.
Now this actually worked pretty well on the Galaxy S8,
and they've done even more improvements
with more apps and more features on the Note 8.
It's still not quite there for me,
as essentially you're just running Windowed Android apps,
but I feel like, as this gets better and better
it's going to become more and more of a reason
to pick up a Samsung device.
Which brings me to my next point, the rest of the software.
It's exactly the same as the Galaxy S8.
Kind of a trend with this video, I think.
So, it's not bad, it's not like TouchWiz back in the day,
but it is nowhere near stock Android.
And because of that, this guy is shipping
with Android 7.1 Nougat, as opposed to Oreo,
which of course is not quite out yet.
But still expect a little bit of a delay
on getting updates with this,
just like every other Samsung phone.
One cool thing Samsung did
with the Note 8 software is App Pair.
So this is kind of like Spaces on your desktop.
You can have a pair of apps set
to automatically open together.
And they will have the correct
sort of multitasking setup.
And that is kind of cool.
For example, you could have YouTube launch with, say,
Twitter, or whatever you want to do,
and you can have that kind of custom.
It's not a huge feature, but I guess it's something.
With the Note 8, Samsung have taken
what is arguably one of the best designed phones
out on the market right now,
and added the S Pen, as well as the dual camera setup.
Now, if you're looking for a large-screen smartphone,
honestly, it's kind of a no-brainer over the S8+.
I feel like the dual cameras alone
are going to make it worth it.
But, what do you guys think about the Galaxy Note 8?
Let me know in the comments below,
and I will catch you on the next one.