Samsung has finally unveiled the new Galaxy Note series flagship Galaxy Note8 in an official event today. The Galaxy Note8, the successor to last year’s Note7, was a big disappointment for the Korean giant because of the battery explosion incidents forcing the company to permanently stop the production of the device and recall the sold units of the phone.
The Samsung Galaxy Note8 features an infinity display just like the Galaxy S8 phones come with. The new Galaxy Note8 is the first event Samsung phone to feature a dual camera setup on the rear side and we already know that the Galaxy C7 2017 is also going to feature dual rear cameras when it is launched officially by the company.
Galaxy Note8 Price
The new Samsung Galaxy Note8 is listed on the official Samsung website and it comes with Midnight Black, Maple Gold, Orchid Grey and Deep Sea Blue colour options. In the US, the Galaxy Note8 will be priced at $930 and the users pre-ordering it will get a free Gear 360 camera or a 128GB microSD + fast wireless charger.
In the UK, it’s priced at £869 and the users pre-ordering it can get a Samsung DeX docking station for free, In Europe, it is priced at €999 and you can get a Samsung DeX docking station for free if you pre-order the device right now, in Canada, the Note8 costs you CA$1,300 and the user pre-ordering it can get a free 128GB microSD card + a fast wireless charger until September 15 only.
Galaxy Note8 Specifications
The Galaxy Note8 features a 6.3-inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity display with 2960 × 1440 pixels resolution, 522ppi and an 18.5:9 aspect ratio. it is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with Adreno 540 GPU / octa-core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 8895 processor with Mali-G71 MP20 GPU. The device comes with 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB/128GB/256GB inbuilt storage options with all variants supporting expandable storage up to 256GB with a microSD card. It runs on the Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) OS out of the box and comes with Hybrid Dual SIM support.
It features a dual rear camera with a 12-megapixel Dual Pixel rear camera with LED Flash, f/1.7 aperture, wide-angle lens, OIS along with a secondary 12-megapixel camera with telephoto lens, f2.4 aperture, OIS, 2x optical zoom and up to 10x digital zoom. We have an 8-megapixel auto-focus front-facing camera with f/1.7 aperture and a wide-angle lens.
The device is backed up by a smaller 3300mAh battery if we compare it with the Galaxy S7 Edge battery or with the Galaxy S8 device batteries. However, the Note8 battery supports fast charging both on wired and wireless mediums. The Galaxy Note8 is IP68 certified making it a water and dust-resistant smartphone.
Connectivity options available are 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth v 5.0 (LE up to 2Mbps), GPS with GLONASS, USB Type-C 3.1, NFC and MST. The device supports several sensors including an Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Heart Rate Sensor, Proximity Sensor, RGB Light Sensor, Iris Sensor, and Pressure Sensor and a fingerprint scanner is available on the rear side near the dual camera setup. The device measures 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6mm and weighs 195 grams.
Galaxy Note8 Leaks and rumors
In the past, some images from the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 got leaked on Weibo that confirmed some of the specifications of the Galaxy Note 8 smartphone and also confirmed a bigger variant Galaxy Note 8 Edge. The leaked retail box of the Galaxy Note 8 confirms a 64GB inbuilt storage option and the Samsung logo will be below the display on the front panel, However, no images from the rear panel of the device got leaked.
The leaked retail box confirms that the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 flagship will feature a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display and will have IP68 ratings that make the phone water-resistant and dust-resistant. The leaked images also confirm a 3.5mm audio jack and the USB Type-C port for the device at the bottom, and they also come with an S-Pen in the right bottom corner. We are not able to confirm if these images are real or fake, but looking at the images, we can say that they are real and are from an official Galaxy Note 8 device box.
Another leaked image from the Weibo user also confirms the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Edge variant that has a single rear camera, but no other specifications details are available about this device in his Weibo post. But it was then revealed that this isn’t the Galaxy Note 8 but it’s a fake Chinese clone.
We heard different rumours about the device in the past and its launch dates, a reliable leakster has also confirmed the time frame for the launch of the Galaxy Note 8 smartphone. According to the leakster @evleaks, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will launch in Late September however, hasn’t revealed the exact date for its launch. He also said that the Galaxy Note 8 might carry a price tag of around €999 which makes it the most expensive smartphone from the company.
The leakster has also confirmed some of the rumoured specifications of the Galaxy Note 8. According to him, the Galaxy Note 8 will feature a 6.3-inch edge-to-edge AMOLED display with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio and is similar to the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones. Samsung also listed the Galaxy Note 8 on the official Samsung US website with images. The device was listed with model SM-N950UZKAXAA on the official website with 64GB inbuilt storage capacity. The listing confirms the Infinity display, S-Pen and Bixby Assistant for the new Note 8 smartphone.
It was also spotted listed by the GFXBench benchmark website which has listed almost all its specifications. The device is listed with the model number SM-N950 and is listed with a Samsung Exynos 8 processor but it is listed with ARM Mali-G71 GPU which confirms that it will be the Exynos 8895 processor. The GFXBench listing confirms a 6.4-inches QHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity display with 2960 x 1440 pixels resolution and is powered by the octa-core 2.3GHz Exynos 8895 processor with ARM Mali-G71 GPU. It comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt storage capacity.
The support pages for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 dual SIM variant carrying the model number SM-N950F/DS have also gone live on the official Samsung Singapore and Caribbean websites. However, the support pages don’t list any specifications or details for the device. @evleaks has shared an image from the Galaxy Note 8 here that shows the S-Pen and the device from all angles.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 also got the FCC certification in the past and has confirmed the model numbers for the device. The two separate FCC fillings for the device confirmed the model numbers SM-N950F and SM-N950U and some additional model numbers like SM-N950U1, SM-N950XU, SM-N950W, SM-N950F/DS and SM-N950X. The SM-N950F/DS confirmed that we will also have a dual SIM variant of the device that might support Hybrid dual SIMs.
Samsung announced its Galaxy Unpacked Event on August 23 in New York where the company was expected to launch the new Note series device Galaxy Note 8 with new design and features. Samsung also confirmed this news via an official blog post in which a teaser has been posted by the company that says “Do Bigger Things” and comes with a glimpse of the phone’s outer part with an S-Pen Stylus that is the signature of the Galaxy Note series.
Samsung might be taking serious measures to prevent the battery-related issues we saw with the Note 7 whose production was halted after several explosion incidents reported across the world and the company was forced to recall all the Galaxy Note 7 units.
