Test Galaxy Note 8: Samsung has reviewed its strengths

The Galaxy Note is back. Many people thought that Samsung would simply abandon this brand as the fiasco of the Galaxy Note7 could stick to the skin. With this Note 8, Samsung will again become the boss in the XXL smartphone market. Our test has proved that it is capable but we must note some criticism.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Release date and price

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has been available since September 15th. The price is 1009 euros for the 6 GB model of RAM / 64 GB of internal memory. However, it is certain that all those who pre-order Note 8 will receive a free DeX station to turn their smartphone into a PC. If you like to travel, know that a variant Dual-SIM is already available on the online shop.

In France, we find the colors Midnight Black and Maple Gold, and the color Deepsea Blue could also arrive, however the color Orchid Gray will not see the light in Europe.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Design and finishing

Those who know the design of the Galaxy S8 will not be disoriented by the design of the Note 8. We find the trend of Galaxy smartphones and it is a good thing that this Galaxy Note 8 is very nice with its curved glass and aluminum chassis . The finish of the test models we have seen is excellent, it is at the same level as the smartphones of the Galaxy S range. With a thickness of 8.6 millimeters, it can not be said that Note 8 is particularly thin , it weighs moreover 195 grams, which is felt as much in the hand as in the pocket.

The keys are the same as on the Galaxy S8: no Home button, the fingerprint reader is located at the back right, next to the LED flash of the back camera. Just like the S8 +, I do not find the position of this player very timely because it is difficult to access. Samsung still has work to do on this. On the other hand, at the new power button and the volume control, there is no problem to declare.

On the left side of this Note, we find the Bixby button. For now, it does nothing but display the home screen of this wizard, but for the moment the latter does not understand French. However, by the third semester it should be possible to use it in English, meager consolation when we see what the competition does. To return to the button, it is now possible to disable it to avoid pressing it unfortunately.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has the IP68 certification, so it is optimized against water and dust. The same applies to the S-Pen. For information, it can be stored directly in the phone.

The design of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is successful, it has an elegant and modern look. That said, it is a question of taste. Personally, I find that it lacks a little bit of effect wow: this new Note is pretty and the outfit is nice, but apart from the screen there is not synonymous what to whip a cat. The model in black lacks a little originality and the blue is a bit monotonous, that said they won the hearts of my colleagues. As far as I’m concerned, I would opt for the Gold version, but again, it’s just a question of taste.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Screen

The Note 8 screen has a diagonal of 6.3 inches, unlike its predecessor which had it a diagonal of 5.7 inches. Thanks to the new borderless design and the Infinity screen, we are able to get such a big screen on a smartphone just 1 cm taller than the Note7. The definition of this Super AMOLED screen is 1440 x 2960 pixels, but to be able to use it it is necessary to go in the parameters because Samsung opts by default for the definition FHD +.

The performance on the screen was up to our expectations. This Super AMOLED panel is one of the best screens you can buy: the blacks are deep, the colors faithful and the angles are excellent. On the Always On Display screen, you can see several small dots on top that act as stars on a black “sky”, and today, after several weeks of use, I still find it very pretty . The format, with its large screen, is perfectly suitable for movie playback since the image comes out large, but of course we find black borders. The length / height ratio is here again 18.5: 9 and also has advantages when playing on the web, or when you want to use two applications in parallel using the multi-window mode.

One must of course ask one question: what about screen borders? On Note 8, the borders are moderated to facilitate the use of the stylus. That said, you will still encounter this problem on the ends of the screen. In addition, changes in color appear because of the curved glass and this is disturbing. The additional Edge Sense menu would work just as well on a normal screen, ie plane. Samsung must therefore ask itself the question: is it necessary to have these currents if they do not bring advantages but on the contrary inconveniences?

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Other features

What distinguishes the Galaxy Note 8 from all other smartphones is above all its S-Pen. This stylus stows directly in the phone and is therefore always available when you might need to use it. Like the smartphone itself, the device is protected by IP68 protection against water and dust. It is important to note that the S-Pen can only be retracted in one direction.

The functions of this stylus of 4096 pressure points have been improved. You can write notes directly on the locked screen and save them. You can also pin a note on the locked screen, such as a shopping list, to keep the information you need in view. In addition, you can create GIFs with this S-Pen, or make screenshots, translate texts and many other things. In short, this S-Pen makes the Galaxy Note 8 a real work device.

The Galaxy Note 8 offers three ways to unlock the device: the iris scanner, facial recognition and fingerprint reader. None of them really convinced us in our test. The iris scanner is certainly the most secure but the unlocking is rather slow. Those wearing glasses will encounter problems with facial recognition, including those wearing sunglasses. This method is fast but not very secure since you can cheat with a simple photo to unlock the device. Ironically, several times in our test we have not managed to get a registered face recognized. When the brightness is not at the rendezvous, the sensor obviously encounters its limits.

What about the fingerprint reader? Well we must already reach it because it is located far too high. Even if you can reach it, recognition is neither successful nor fast. The Galaxy Note 8 is not happy, the finger would not be totally above the sensor and therefore would not be recognized. All the flagships of the competition offer better methods, and faster, to unlock the screen. At this point, we want to return the Home button and the fingerprint reader on the front to unlock the smartphone in a click, because on Note 8, the easiest is still to use a good old code PINE.

In addition to the poor placement of the fingerprint reader and the weakness of facial recognition, the ergonomics of the Galaxy Note 8 also poses a problem. This is due to the dimensions of the device: even with large hands it is difficult to use Note 8. Despite a long screen, the smartphone remains very wide, which is not pleasant for holding in hand . Add to that a somewhat slippery material and a high weight, and you get the risk of seeing a smartphone falling from your hands.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Software interface

Samsung offers Android 7.1 Nougat on its Galaxy Note 8. An update to Android O will of course be part, although it may be necessary to wait until next year to see it. Samsung places its own overlay, formerly TouchWiz and now Samsung Experience, over Android. The current version, 8.5, also works on the Galaxy S8 and S8 +, and visually it’s the same thing. If you do not like the optics, you can change the icons, the font and even the entire design according to your tastes.

Samsung has introduced a new feature on the Galaxy Note 8 that simplifies the use of the same two applications at the same time. In the edge menu (which you find on the right with a swipe), you can link two applications that open at the same time in the split screen. This can be really handy for passing data from one application to another. Like Huawei, Samsung allows a dual installation of applications in order to have for example two WhatsApp accounts launched at the same time.

Unlike HTC, Samsung does not give up its applications to Google, so you have two applications for calendar, contacts, photos and more. This is not the case everywhere, sometimes there is only one application. That of the camera, for example, is interesting and has several special functions, such as the post-shot adaptation of the Bokeh effect.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Performance

Samsung has placed on this Galaxy Note 8 a chip of its own manufacture. This is the Exynos 8895, octocore processor which has a maximum speed of 2.3 GHz and has an etching in 10 nanometers. As for the graphics, we have a Mali G71 MP20 chip. So we have a 4G Cat16 modem, support for Glonass and Beidou and a 6GB RAM. Thanks to UFS 2.1, the memory is very fast.

On the benchmarks, this chip does not reach the height of that of Qualcomm. The OnePlus 5, the HTC U11 or the LG V30 are faster and get better results with their Snapdragon 835. The results on the single core are on the other hand in favor of Note 8.

The Galaxy Note 8 on benchmarks

Note that these figures are theoretical. In practice, the Galaxy Note 8 does all that is asked and nothing happens to make it fall, we even feel that this Exynos 8895 has inexhaustible reserves. As for computing power and graphics, know that the water will still flow long under the bridges before this phone is no longer performing, although chips such as the Kirin 970 with artificial intelligence technology, or the A11 Bionic. 6 GB of RAM is also offered to meet the needs in the future, but at the moment it is not necessarily useful.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Sound quality

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 does not offer anything exceptional with its speakers, unlike its competitors HTC with Boomsound. In fact, the sound is average and has nothing really remarkable. On the other hand, the AKG headphones weigh much more on the balance and and offer a very good sound with a correct volume. It is necessary to be careful, sl the earphone is not well placed that feels on the basses. That said, the use is well adapted to sportsmen because they do not fall easily from the ear.

The quality of sound during communications is one of the strengths of this Galaxy Note 8. Your interlocutor and you will come to understand perfectly and the reduction of the ambient noise is successful, there is no reproach to do at this level .

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Camera

At the back of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a real novelty at Samsung: for the first it places a dual camera. Both cameras have an optical image stabilizer and a 12-megapixel sensor, but they stand out in terms of focal length and aperture. The wide-angle camera has an aperture f / 1.7 and a double-pixel autofocus, the telephoto lens with double focal length with f / 2.4 aperture. The front camera also has an aperture f / 1.7, and takes pictures in 8 megapixels.

The quality of the pictures taken with the Galaxy Note 8 is extraordinary. The colors are faithfully reproduced, only red is sometimes overrepresented. Sharpness, dynamics and brightness are generally very well managed, and if you really want to put your hand to the dough you can take a look at the manual mode and perform an after-work work on the RAW images. If the light is not enough, noise appears in the picture but it is rather moderate at first and becomes problematic when it is really dark. The autofocus of Samsung is incredibly fast and allows to make very good shots. Even at the front, the selfies are convincing but it is obviously not the same quality as the back.

The Bokeh effect, which is calculated using the Live Focus function, depends heavily on the scenes photographed. The software version is not always able to avoid problems. The pictures with Bokeh, when they are successful, are taken with the telephoto lens, so it is sometimes necessary to move a little away from the object to succeed. Small bonus: the Galaxy Note 8 also records the photo in wide-angle, giving the user a choice.

It has happened several times that a picture taken with Live Focus does not work. The smartphone displays a message that the distance to the object is not sufficient. From time to time, the gallery also displays a message: “Invalid file format”, and refuses to take the picture. On other dual cameras such as the new Huawei model, the Bokeh feature poses fewer problems and displays better results. Samsung still has a lot to learn about this, but with updates it can improve things.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Battery life

The battery is a sensitive subject for Samsung with this Note range, those who followed the case of the Explosions Note 8 know what I’m talking about. It is therefore not surprising to see a Samsung conservative, unwilling to take risks with the size of its battery. Thus, it proposes a battery of 3300 mAh, that is to say even less than what one finds on the Galaxy S8 + since the battery of this other flagship of Samsung has a capacity of 3500 mAh.

The generations Note d’antan had the reputation of having a great autonomy, and it is true that their big size allowed them to accomodate a big battery. Note 8 that we tested had no problem until evening, like most smartphones. With the Always On Display mode activated, I arrive until the evening with between 30 and 40%. It is difficult to hold two full days, in particular thanks to the large consumption of the device when it is in standby. At night it loses between 12 and 15%, which forces us to recharge it in the morning when arriving at work. Autonomy is therefore not particularly good.

With Quick Charge and Qi technology for wireless charging, the smartphone returns to 100% fast. This does not prevent the battery from being disappointing, unless you turn off the Always On Display mode and activate energy saving modes, but this reduces the smartphone’s potential, which is a pity for a smartphone that wants to be very powerful.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 – Specifications

Final verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a very good smartphone. It has one of the best screens and one of the best cameras on the market, a powerful processor, an up-to-date software interface and an exemplary finish. Samsung relies on the beautiful design and the material quality in order to shade Apple and its new iPhone. With the S-Pen, the Galaxy Note 8 also features a feature that is not found in the competition although it is much appreciated by fans. Samsung has really thought about what he wants to do with his S-Pen.

But if there is light, there are also areas of shadow. The battery of the device did not convince us during the test. Plus, the smartphone is really big, heavy and expensive. Recognition methods do not work as well as they would like, so the position and quality of the fingerprint reader could have been better worked.

Overall, Note 8 still remains one of the best smartphones on the market. With the iPhone 8 Plus, the Google Pixel XL 2, the LG V30 and the Huawei Mate 10, it should see coming from the competition in the universe of phablettes.