...and how Samsung stacks up

A snide allude to last year’s literally explosive Galaxy Note 7 aside, Samsung is back with the category defining Note smartphone. The Note 8 is everything that a fanboy could dream of, with a little compromise thrown in for good measure.

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It builds on the Galaxy 8’s narrow bezels, and the 6.3” ‘infinity display’ even trumps the Galaxy 8 Plus’ mammoth 6.2” screen by .1”. The device also marks Samsung’s first foray into the dual camera setup, and just like Apple, it has also employed a set of wide and telephoto lenses to give users the ability to zoom without degrading the image quality, and also shoot with the bokeh effect that cases the background to look blurred. However, unlike Apple, it gives users the ability to increase or tone down the amount of blur in a photo even after taking the shot.

The materials used in the Note 8’s constriction are glass and metal, and it feels very much like the top of the line premium smartphone that it is. The design is reminiscent of the Galaxy lineup introduced earlier this year, but differentiates itself enough to not look exactly like a Galaxy S8 Plus with a stylus.

As you can tell from the spec sheet, the Note 8 runs the latest Octa-Core Exynos chip from Samsung, packs their best OLED display and features a liberal 6 GB of RAM. To help users draw from all this power, the device also introduces an App Pair splitscreen mode that launches two apps simultaneously with one touch, useful for apps like a Music Player and Maps while driving, or Chrome and YouTube and so on. 

Also present are advancements to the S-pen, that, as can be expected, is more responsive than ever. It enables features like drawing your own emojis to show how you feel or writing a message on a photo and sending it as a handwritten note.

By and large, the Note 8 still feels like a Galaxy S8 Plus with a stylus and a dual camera. So, before you choose to buy it, consider the value of the stylus and the dual camera setup. If you really need either, then by all means choose the Note 8, but if not, get the S8 Plus model and save yourself some money. You’ll even get better battery life in the process (3500 mAh v. 3300 mAh on the Note 8).

If the choice is between the iPhone X and the Note 8, both flagships from rival brands, then the Note 8 certainly has a ?21,000 price advantage. 

But high prices have never been Apple’s doom, and on the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple isn’t about to lose the sales war, just because Samsung undercut it on price. — VS