Everything we know about the Galaxy Note 8

Samsung Galaxy owners have been patiently waiting for the release of the new Samsung Galaxy 8 Note for a while now, especially those whom owned the notorious 7 Note that may have burnt through their pockets. Samsung had a lot to recover from after a public failure, so this new phone is expected to blow us away (metaphorically please).

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What are people excited about this time? Gregory Ionadi, a senior mechanical engineering technology major, said he is most excited “for the big battery, dual cameras and the 6.3 inch screen, but most importantly for the extra abilities of the S Pen. The pen becomes a lot more useful than many would imagine, like writing notes with the screen turned off or being able to very quickly navigate a lot of applications running at the same time.”

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That being said, one of the best new features on the Note 8 is its dual camera. It allows you to take clear and steady photos even while shaking thanks to its dual OIS system, which stands for “optical image stabilization”. Its camera has 2x optical zoom, which allows you to zoom in very clearly and have an overall better image quality.

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Similar to the iPhone, the Note 8 has a “bokeh effect” which allows you to take photos with your subject in focus while keeping the background blurred. There is also an option that allows you to snap a photo, while the dual camera takes an additional picture of what you may have missed outside the frame. Additionally, it specializes in nighttime photography thanks to its wide-angle camera, 1.4 µm pixels, bright F1.7 lens and the 12MP dual pixel sensor. The new camera is definitely something to be excited about, especially with its 6.3” screen-their biggest one yet.

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The Note 8 comes in 4 different colors, midnight black, orchid gray, deep sea blue, and maple gold. Unfortunately, the last 2 colors, deep sea blue and maple gold won’t be available in the U.S. during the initial launch.

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Its infinity display has an 18.5:9 aspect ratio and is great to write on with the new S Pen. With the new pen, there are unlimited features to do many new things such as draw your own emoji’s, make animated GIF’s, draw pictures or write notes and messages. You can also take notes on your screen without unlocking your phone and save or pin them.

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This feature could prove to be very useful and widely used, and like Gregory Ionadi mentioned, people are excited for it. The S Pen has a 0.7mm tip for more precise note taking and it can turn into an eraser with just the click of a button. It also has over 4,000 increments and levels of pressure to control the flow of the pen. Another major change is the fingerprint scanner and home button, which are now embedded into the screen for a slick experience.

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And finally, for performance, the Note 8 has an expandable memory up to 256GB via microSD card and a dual SIM card option. It can charge wirelessly and is water and dust resistant all while offering a high-performing 10nm mobile processor and 6GB of RAM.

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Now onto battery life, there is an 8-point battery safety check put in place to ensure that your new device is not a fire starter. The battery size was reduced from 3,500mAh to 3,300mAh but it shouldn’t have any impact on its life. What’s really cool though are the ways to unlock your phone, including an iris scan, fingerprint scan and face recognition.

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Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has a lot to look forward to! In other news, the vice chairman of Samsung got sentenced to 5 years in jail for bribery and embezzlement…so I’ll let you chew on that.