Samsung Galaxy Note8 review: This is how you make a comeback

It’s hard to think of a smartphone that has had more expectation placed on it than the Samsung Galaxy Note8. Its disastrous predecessor left a scar in the South Korean electronics giant’s reputation so deep that I don’t know how long it will take before the world stops making “will it explode?” jokes.

So, if there was any smartphone that could redeem the company’s reputation in the eyes of its harshest critics, it has to be the Galaxy Note8. This phone needs to be the best phone Samsung has ever made. It needs to be incredible. It needs to be flawless.

But, while I think the Note8 has hit the first two points absolutely on the head, it falls just short of the third point.

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I’ve seen a lot of critics claim that the Galaxy Note8 isn’t “just an S8+ with an S Pen and dual-camera system” as if that was a bad thing. I’m sorry, but what’s wrong with being as good as the best phone of 2017 plus a few upgrades? If anything, I think it’s really high praise and it’s a description I’d happily use to describe one of my favourite phones of this year. No, that’s a lie, because I think that even in the areas where the S8+ scores top marks, the Note8 still finds ways to improve on them.

And the first thing I think is a significant upgrade is apparent from the second you pick this handset up: The way it looks. Not to throw shade on the S8+ because I feel this is also down to personal preference, but I like the squared off aesthetic on the Note8 so much more than the S8+. Coupled with the tall display, it just looks right and I didn’t think I’d find another phone more visually stunning than the S8+ so soon.

However, if we’re talking about fit and finish, S8+ users will be happy to learn that the gap between the S8+ and the Note8 is nowhere near as big as it was between last year’s S7 edge and the Note7. Both handsets this year have are equally exquisite to hold and use on a daily basis, so props to Samsung for practically perfecting this build. And of course, you’ve also got IP68 water resistance for both the phone and its S Pen.

One aspect they have not perfected, though, is its fingerprint scanner because…it’s still in the wrong spot. However, while you might think it’s harder to reach on this phone because it’s even taller than the S8+, for my hands, it’s actually a lot easier, and a big part of that is down to the more pronounced border surrounding it. Still, if you hate it, Samsung’s got an Iris Scanner which works really, really well.

Once again, the super tall 18.5:9 aspect ratio Mobile HDR Premium certified screen makes a return on the Note8 and it’s bigger than ever, measuring 6.3 inches diagonally. In fact, Samsung has also made some tweaks to this Quad HD+ (2960×1440) Infinity Display so that it’s even more awesome than it was on their 2017 Galaxy S flagship. Needless to say, looking at it is just a treat for your eyes. Viewing angles are fantastic, colours pop and that trippy feeling you get from this super tall curved display hasn’t gone away.

After plenty of whinging from the public, Samsung finally gave the Note8 a boost in performance as this unit now sports 6GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable internal storage in addition to its powerful 10nm Exynos 8895 octa-core processor. Is there a noticeable difference? Probably not because it’s as buttery as I remembered when I used the S8. I think there were one or two instances where I felt the Note8 was a little quicker, but that could be my brain reinforcing the fact that it has better specs on paper.

Software, I’m happy to report, is still the best Samsung has ever made their Android skin. I liked it on the S8 and I like it a lot on the Note8 too, but it is a bit of a shame that it’s still only built on top of Android 7.1.1. Samsung also introduced a new Edge function called App Pair which lets you set two apps so you can launch them both in multi-window with a single tap. While I do see how useful this can be especially with the taller screen, the fact is, I don’t use multi-window on a smartphone very often, if at all. It works well, but for me personally, I didn’t find it that useful.

As much as I like this software, with it, you will also be getting one of the most polarising virtual assistants yet — Bixby — and its non-reprogrammable physical button.

While I don’t like that the physical button is still really easy to accidentally press and quite hard to distinguish from a volume rocker, I have to say that with Bixby Voice, this assistant is actually rather awesome.

I thought there was no place for Bixby in a world where we already had the Google Assistant, but after spending a few days with it, I think it will do perfectly well living alongside its older rival. Why? Well, that’s because Bixby’s strengths allow it complement the Google Assistant rather than compete with it.

You see, while the Google Assistant is very good in doing Google-y things like search and contextual understanding, Bixby is absolutely fantastic in performing system functions. This means you can tell Bixby to do a complex set of instructions involving multiple applications installed on your smartphone with just your voice.

For example, you can tell it to send the latest photo you took to a specific contact in WhatsApp and it will execute flawlessly. Or, you can tell it to download and install a specific application from the Play Store and Bixby will do just that without needing any further input from you. On the rare occasion it does mess up, it’s more because it didn’t catch the correct word (or didn’t understand it) and not because of limited functionality. And that’s scary good considering how young Bixby is.

One humourous interaction I discovered with Bixby Voice, though is when I ask it to take a selfie and send it to someone, Bixby will take a screenshot of your home screen and send that instead — because that’s what a selfie of Bixby is!

But enough about the conventional spec bump, the real difference between this year’s Galaxy S line and the Galaxy Note8 are in two big features — the brand new dual-camera system and the S Pen.

Let’s start with the camera. Samsung’s Galaxy S8 has probably the best camera on a smartphone, ever, with it perhaps being a toss up only between the Google Pixel and the HTC U11 in certain scenarios.

The good news is, that excellent 12MP Dual-Pixel f/1.7 aperture camera makes a return on the Galaxy Note8, only this time it’s augmented with a secondary 12MP sensor sporting a short telephoto f/2.4 aperture lens. What sets this apart from the other telephoto dual-camera systems is that both cameras come with optical image stabilisation and, let me tell you, you’ll definitely notice its obvious benefits during those telephoto shots.

Image quality is still stellar from this camera, which is probably unsurprising at this point. Great sharpness, good colour reproduction and dynamic range, though I did find that the auto white balancing can be a little off sometimes.

That said, Samsung didn’t just slap a secondary telephoto lens on the back of the Note8 just for kicks. It’s there for 2X optical zoom and it works about as well as most of the other systems out there. I would say it’s better because the OIS helps a great deal when you’re trying to hold steady when zooming in, but the Note8 will still default to digital zoom using the primary f/1.7 aperture lens when it doesn’t get enough light.

Samsung’s also included a portrait mode bokeh shooting mode called Live Focus, and it also works about as well as the competition — no big surprises here.

What does set it apart, though, is that you can freely adjust the level of bokeh both before and after the shot is taken. I really like this feature because sometimes the bokeh will look pretty fake and you just want the normal zoomed-in photo. If you turn on Dual Capture, the Note8 will also capture a photo with the wider lens so you can opt to use either photo, though, in practice, it’s kinda hard to frame the wide shot properly with Live Focus on. The iPhone 7 Plus also captures both bokeh and non-bokeh photos in their portrait mode so it’s nice to see Samsung take this a step further.

Some may say that giving users the option to adjust the bokeh both before and after capturing the photo makes things unnecessarily confusing, but I think that’s just silly talk. You can simply tap on Live Focus straight out of the box and it’ll work just like the iPhone 7 Plus’ portrait mode. The adjustment is just there for people who want more control.

Next, we’ve got the Note line’s defining feature — the S Pen. Again, I’ll stress that I’m not a big S Pen user but even I can appreciate how useful it can be sometimes. My favourite feature from previous notes has been the screen-off memo which is great when I need to scribble points during an event/briefing, so I’m glad to see they took the time to improve it.

However, of all the new features, the one I had the most fun with was Live Message, which lets you create a GIF of your writing on a plain background or over a photo. Since it’s your bog-standard GIF file, you can share it across messaging services like WhatsApp and everyone will be able to view it without the need to download any fancy codec or player.

The other new features, like the improved hover-translate, though, was a little less useful to me because I don’t often find myself needing to translate or convert anything on mobile. As far as accuracy goes, it is powered by Google, so I think you can get an idea of how accurate it is.

Up until this point, pretty much everything I’ve mentioned has a point towards Samsung’s Galaxy Note8. I actually struggled a little, coming up with a list of cons for this phone without sounding too nitpicky.

Sure, I’d like the Note8 to have stereo speakers, but then I’d have to give up the gorgeous near-bezel-less display. I would have also liked the Note8 to have a dedicated MicroSD card slot, but the fact is not many flagship smartphones do this right now so it’s not a problem specific to Samsung.

But, while that list is short, there is one rather big flaw about the Note8 and that’s its battery life. Realistically, a 3,300 mAh battery was never going to power this collection of high-end specs for a record-breaking amount of time, and we all knew that.

In practical terms (FHD+ resolution with Live Wallpaper on), I managed to get about 4 hours of screen on time on average, with about 12 hours of total time on battery…which is just about average. On lighter days, I managed to get 4.5 hours of SOT with about 14 hours of time on battery, bumping it up from average to good. It’s slightly better than the S8 and slightly worse than the S8+. But, worse than the Note7 it succeeds (that caught fire, though, so maybe this is a good thing).

And that’s a shame because, in nearly every other way, the Note8 is anything but average. It’s a spectacular device with an equally spectacular price tag of RM3,999. While these battery specs are OK for your average light-to-moderate user, it’s not good enough for heavy power users and I believe a majority of the people who will drop this kind of cash on an Android flagship — especially one from the Note line — are not your average light-to-moderate users.

It is on par with the likes of the HTC U11, which has a 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS display, but a smaller 3,000 mAh battery. Maybe it’s because Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor is more frugal than the Exynos 8895 chip we have in our Galaxy Note8.

The silver lining is that it charges relatively quickly, topping up from a 5% charge in about one hour and 40 minutes. In typical Samsung fashion, though, 30 minutes on the plug only gives you about 38% of charge. It’s also got fast wireless charging, for those who have compatible Qi wireless chargers, but is that enough to make up for the battery life? I don’t know, but if I had to use this as a daily driver, I wouldn’t leave the house without a powerbank with me.

So there you have it. The Samsung Galaxy Note8 and all its pros and cons. Would I say this is the best Android flagship of 2017 that I’ve used so far? Yes, yes I would and I think it’s probably the best Android phone money can buy right now. While battery life is a concern for me, it’s not abysmal (or even bad) by normal standards. It’s just that it’s easy to pick out an average feature when everything else about the phone is so exceptional.

Should you save the money and get a Galaxy S8+ instead? For most people, I think that’s a perfectly viable option. But based on my personal experience, now that I’ve used the Note8, it’s kinda hard to go back to the S8+.

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Here are more photos captured with the Samsung Galaxy Note8. Click on each one to view its full resolution.

Low light

Zoom

No zoom:

2X zoom:

No zoom:

2X zoom:

10X zoom:

No zoom:

2X zoom:

2X zoom:

Live Focus:

Bonus selfie:

Mixing things up a little with a we-fie.