Samsung Galaxy Note 8

OUR VERDICT

The Note 8 at launch had the best big display on a smartphone and acts as Samsung’s big phone comeback story, making up for the Note 7 recall. It has an expansive 6.3-inch ‘Infinity Display,’ faster 6GB of RAM performance and two outstanding rear cameras, which add up to one of the most expensive phones ever. Just don’t expect record-breaking battery life from its predictably average-sized battery that plays it safe. It’s a great phone, if you can handle the enormous size and equally huge price.

Even in 2019, the Galaxy Note 8 remains one of Samsung’s biggest phones, and does more than enough to right the major wrongs of the recalled Note 7. This is a mega-sized mea culpa.

We’ve tested the Note 8 for many months and it’s even more interesting today thanks to the new Deep Sea Blue color that came out post-launch in the US and UK, and the big Android Oreo update that it got. This catches it up to the Samsung Galaxy S9 and similarly sized Galaxy S9 Plus.

After all of our hands on time with the Note 8 it has us convinced: this is a true redesign of not just the Note series, but of the average smartphone from top-to-bottom, edge-to-edge, and rear camera to, well, rear camera. There are now two cameras on the back, a first for a Samsung flagship smartphone (the new S9 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has this too). It takes brilliant portrait photos, and you can even edit the depth of field post-capture.

What makes the Note 8 different is the handy S Pen stylus and larger 6.3-inch ‘Infinity Display’ to work with – but one that doesn’t increase the dimensions of the actual phone too much. The phone acts like a big, borderless glass canvas for your important handwritten notes and masterpiece doodles.

Why buy this instead of the 6.2-inch Galaxy S9 Plus? The extra tenth of an inch of screen is insignificant and doesn’t matter, but Note fans adore the S Pen stylus functionality and its more square shape. Over the S8 Plus, the Note 8 also benefits power users with 6GB or RAM and a superior dual-lens camera, both features passed on to the S9 Plus.

Of course, it’s not quite a match for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, but given its lower price it doesn’t have to be.

This is still one of the most powerful Samsung phones with a stylus. It does, however, cost you in multiple ways. First, it’s too big for some. You’re going to need a Note 8 case to confidently hold this unwieldy glass beast, and two hands to operate it.

Second, the big screen also comes at the cost of the Note’s usual oval-shaped fingerprint sensor home button. It’s gone. The on-screen button that replaces it works fine, but the fingerprint sensor is now located on the back of the device and off-center – it’s a textbook flawed design, and the alternative iris scanner doesn’t always work when you want to unlock the phone. We’re hoping the Galaxy Note 9 fixes this in a couple of months.

Price and release date

• Launched at $929 (£869, AU$1,499)
• Now costs around $715 (£475, AU$900)
• Out now in the US, UK and Australia

The Galaxy Note 8 release date was Friday, September 15 2017 in the US and UK, while Australia got the new phone on September 22. It’s readily available.

The official Note 8 price is $929 (£869, AU$1,499), but many stores now sell it for far less. You can find it cheaper via Amazon US for example, with prices now coming in at around $715 (£475, AU$900).

It’s still pricey, but no longer anywhere near what it once was. Of course, it’s no longer the latest Note, as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is now available.

Design and display

• 6.3-inch ‘Infinity Display’ redefines the Note look and feel
• But it’s 9mm taller than any previous Note
• Water-resistant up to 1.5m (5ft) for 30 minutes

The Note 8 maximizes Samsung’s dual curved edge and nearly bezel-less Infinity Display to the point where this phone feels like a mini tablet from the future. It’s impressive-looking, but also big and heavy – 9mm taller than any previous Note phone, and 195g.

Stretching your fingers is well worth if you can physically manage it. Its expansive 6.3-inch display – now without a physical home button – has an unheard-of 83% screen-to-body ratio. The iPhones have a 67% screen-to-body ratio for comparison. That’s a lot less screen for such big phones, at least until iPhone 8 arrives to change everything. 

Samsung keeps topping itself, launching phones with the world’s best display every six months. Its maximum brightness, 3K resolution with Mobile HDR Premium, and wider color gamut are hard for anyone else to compete with. It’s Always-On Display continues to be an appealing feature in a smartphone.

Lit up, the all-screen Note 8 feels like we’re carrying around a piece of light when we’re out and about. It’s much better than the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL display, Google’s biggest weakness.

The entire front glows with unimpeded information – as long as you don’t drop and crack it, and you’ll need to be extra careful as the entire phone is enveloped in glass wrapped around an aluminum frame. Combined with its size, this makes for one slippery smartphone.

While we spent most of the time using this phone naked (that’s without a case), we did test several Note 8 cases and instantly felt more confident carrying it around. Why? The added grip (and peace of mind) let us operate it with one hand, whereas we struggled with the pure glass body at such tall and wide dimensions. Sorry – you’re going to need a case with this phone.

The fingerprint sensor has marginally improved

• No physical home button means a rear fingerprint sensor
• It’s further away from the camera vs the S8 and S8 Plus sensor
• Iris scanner and face unlock are poor substitutes 

We hate the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy Note 8, just as we did on the S8 and S8 Plus. Maybe a tiny bit less, but we still don’t like its off-center rear location for the same reason: we keep blindly smudging the far-too-close dual-lens camera. It’s really difficult to unlock the phone.

Specs and performance

• Impossible to slow down thanks to the new 6GB of RAM
• The Snapdragon 835 chip is fast. The Exynos chip is faster
• 64GB, but includes a microSD card slot for extra storage

The Galaxy Note 8 is the fastest Samsung phone you can buy thanks to its souped-up internal specs, including the all-new 6GB of RAM and latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset. In the UK and other regions it’s even faster, courtesy of Samsung’s Exynos chipsets.

We couldn’t slow this phone down if we tried – and we did try. Running Geekbench software, the Note 8 CPU averaged a 6,524 multi-core score under normal use.

We couldn’t even get below the 6,000 mark when weighing it down by downloading a ridiculous number of apps, running Google Maps and playing music in the background all at the same time (6,164 was the lowest we hit).

Camera

• Two 12MP cameras with optical image stabilization best iPhone 7 Plus
• We loved its 2x optical zoom for telephoto pictures, portrait photos
• Its 4K video quality and OIS are great, but LG offers more controls

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 camera was at launch the best on any phone we’ve tested for three reasons: it captures clear, colorful photos, has a brilliant new bokeh (background blur) effect, and it sets you up with an easy-to-use, yet full-featured camera app.

Having two rear cameras makes a world of difference for bokeh-rich ‘Live Focus’ photos. This is Samsung’s answer to the iPhone 7 Plus portrait mode. It too blurs photo backgrounds, which reduces photobombing distractions and lets your important subject stand out. Don’t worry though, it saves both the zoomed-in Live Focus photo and the wider original photo by default, which is a unique and welcome touch.

What’s different is that Samsung lets you adjust the depth of field blur. A bokeh slider bar is displayed when you’re taking the photo, and it doesn’t go away after you’ve snapped the picture. Having more control over this background blur effect further highlights the power of two cameras.

Battery life

• Smaller 3,300mAh battery has Samsung going conservative
• All-day battery life, but depletes faster and charges slower

The Note 8 battery doesn’t explode – or at least it hasn’t after about two weeks of extensive testing. We even tried to overclock it by cycling through many power-hungry apps. No dice.

Everything is safer, according to Samsung. Its eight-point battery safety check, introduced in the wake of the Note 7 debacle, set strict rules for the S8, S8 Plus and Note 8 battery review process.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was at launch the best big phone you could buy. For once, it’s more than just the size of the screen and the power of the S Pen that count. It also captures superior telephoto and bokeh-rich photos with its new dual-lens array, and it clocks in faster with 6GB of RAM.

There’s a price to pay, however. It’s a taller phone with a steeper price tag. It takes a lot of finger-stretching to reach the outer edges of the screen, and costs more money than any previous Note phone. You’re also only getting all-day battery life that’s lower than expected, probably thanks to last year’s recall. It’s less, shall we say, Note-worthy.

The Note 8 is Samsung’s big phone homecoming, its dual-lens camera debut and its 6GB of RAM premier wrapped into one. It makes quite an entrance.

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