Samsung Unveils Galaxy Note8 With 6.3-inch Infinity Display, Dual Rear Cameras (venturebeat.com)

VentureBeat reports: After months of leaks, Samsung today unveiled the Galaxy Note8 in an event in New York City. The company's latest stylus-equipped flagship smartphone is expected to be available for preorder starting tomorrow, August 24. The phone ships "in mid-September" with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, but you can expect it will be upgradeable to Android Oreo, which was only officially announced two days ago. The Galaxy Note8 succeeds the Galaxy Note7 (you may think that's obvious, but the Note7 succeeded the Note5). Samsung is likely holding its breath with the Galaxy Note8 given the Galaxy Note7 fiasco due to exploding batteries that led to a product recall. The direct result of this is that the Note8 has a smaller 3300mAh battery, which can be charged either via the USB-C port or wirelessly. Samsung's Galaxy Note8 features a 6.3-inch SuperAMOLED edge display (1440 x 2960 resolution, 18.5:9 aspect ratio, 521 pixels per inch) and has minimal top and bottom bezels which the company markets as Infiniti. For those wondering, yes, this is the biggest screen ever on a Note device. The phone is powered by an Exynos 8895 system-on-chip globally and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 in the U.S., 6GB of RAM, and starts at 64GB of internal storage (128GB and 256GB variants also available, all expandable via a microSD slot). The device is also IP68-certified, meaning it is dust and water resistant. The phone weighs 195g and physical dimensions come in at 162.5mm by 74.6mm by 8.5mm. No word on pricing yet. Update: Between $930-$960.

Comments

Specs beat Pixel XL

[Anonymous Coward]

But you know what? Who gives a fsck what specs any of these "devices" have, as the only way to get them to do what you actually want to do involves downloading from a shady website some obscure, proprietary security exploit to "root" the damn thing.

What a waste of resources.

We're all carrying around arbitrarily crippled computers, and then just throwing them away when it's time to upgrade to some new set of emojis.

Re:S8+

[HumanWiki]

So it's an S8+ with a second rear camera and a pen?

That's how I read it.. As a Note 3 and Note 5 owner.. I yawned through most of the other data and the release videos.. There's a few kinda neat tricks on Note 8 only, but, not worth it for me to jump ship to it.

Is battery removable?

[amigabill]

I see microSD card, check.
I hope for a headphone jack, even with usbC.
But I really wish for a removable/changable battery. After the Note 7 nonsense, how can they not do a removable battery? I'm still in my Note 4, which I can continue using by getting new batteries when they get old, and am still quite happy with it. Make a phone disposable, and I'm much less interested, especially if it tries to dispose of me or my car or house.

Re:What about the battery?

[hey!]

Sometimes a company with a complex product just sucks at one aspect of that product. When I was a kid back in the 70s Fords had a reputation for leaking oil. You'd buy a new Ford, park it in your driveway and there'd be an oil slick the next day. In the 90s, after the glory days of 1-2-3 on DOS, Lotus was never able to deliver any products whose UI wasn't a miserable failure.

The thing is, dysfunctional companies produce dysfunctional products. If your car leaks oil or your users can't figure out your UI, you'd think the solution would be simple: hire an engineer with expertise in the relevant areas and do what he says. And yet it often takes years for companies to correct obvious deficiencies in their practices.

I owned a Samsung S6, and it's battery life was comically bad. If I actually used it as a smart phone, I could actually *watch* the battery percentage drop as the phone became almost too hot to hold; I ended up carrying it in "super battery saving mode", which essentially turns it into a dumb phone, because that's the only way I could get through a full eight hour day and still have any battery left.

So when the Note 7 fiasco happened, I simply wrote Samsung off. Obviously power management is something they suck at. Now maybe the S8 will be better, but I'll wait a generation or two of products; if the can go two or three years without a fiasco maybe I'll consider them again, but my experience with technology is not to assume a company will get its act together because you'd think they'd do it.