After that embarrassing misstep last year, Samsung resurrected its Galaxy Note line Wednesday with the new Galaxy Note 8.
In many ways, the Galaxy Note 8 is an incremental improvement over the Galaxy S8, which launched in April. The Note 8 has a slightly larger screen, a boost in RAM, the S Pen stylus, a dual-lens camera system, and some software tricks unique to the larger form factor.
It’s a phone for those who want the best performance and features from Samsung, and Samsung promises it won’t suffer the same fate as the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7.
The Note 8, which starts at $960, will be available to preorder on Thursday. It’ll be in stores on September 15.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Note 8:
The Note 8 has a new dual-lens camera system, just like the iPhone 7 Plus.
The cameras appear to be an improvement over the iPhone. Both lenses have optical image stabilization (OIS), which reduces blur caused by movement. The dual lenses also let you use 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom. Both cameras shoot at 12 megapixels.
The dual lenses take two photos at once, which allows you to take portrait-style photos with blurred backgrounds called "bokeh."
You can even adjust the blur effect after you take the photo.
The Note's S Pen is back. It lets you draw on the screen or take notes.
You can use the S Pen to mark up photos.
Or use the new animated messaging feature, Live Message.
Live Message records your doodles as a GIF that you can send to any device. You can also build a library of Live Message GIFs for quick responses.
You can run two apps at once in split-screen mode, just like you can with older Note phones. But there's a new trick in the Note 8...
Now you can program pairs of your favorite apps that launch in a split screen.
Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant, will ship with the Note 8.
Bixby made its delayed debut on the Galaxy S8 this summer. It's not as good as Siri, Google Assistant, or Amazon's Alexa, but luckily, the Note 8 also comes with Google Assistant. You're better off using that instead.
The iris scanner, which is now standard in Samsung phones, lets you unlock the phone with your eyes.
You can also unlock the phone with a selfie, but it's not as secure as a fingerprint or iris scan. (Recommendation: Don't use this feature.)
Like the Galaxy S8, you can dock the Note 8 with Samsung's DeX, which lets you power a desktop operating system using just your phone.
DeX is a special version of Android that works with a standard computer monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
DeX has now been optimized for gaming.
And accessories, like this keyboard.
If you pre-order the Galaxy Note 8 you can get a free Gear 360 camera, which normally costs about $100.
If you don't want the Gear 360, you can get a free wireless charger and 128 GB memory card. (This is a better deal, by the way.)
Here are some other features in the Note 8.
- 6.3-inch screen Wireless charging Water resistance Fingerprint sensor (on the back) 3,330 MaH battery 6 GB of RAM 64 GB of internal storage, which is expandable with a memory card
The Note 8 is the latest in an impressive lineup of upcoming high-end smartphones.
This is going to be a big year for premium smartphones, and you're going to have a tough decision if you're ready to upgrade. This week, the startup Essential starts shipping its attractive new phone. Now there's the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 8 in a few weeks. And Google will have the sequel to its excellent Pixel phone in October.
Good luck.