Based on the life of Galaxy Note smartphones, you can make an exciting dramatic film. You need to call it something like "The telephone that could". Everything was here. From the very beginning, the public did not believe in giant Korean flagships with a strange name and, like a bully from high school, teased them with the offensive word "shovel". When that was not enough, the Note was pissed off for the "stylus in the 2010s" and plastic soap cases. Then - for the poisonous colors in the display and curved edges.
But our gallant heroes bent their line, and in the end it was not in vain. Big smartphones are the new reality. OLED displays are the best in the world. The digital pen has a loyal fan base, and the curved edges have allowed Samsung to create a fantastically beautiful design that's not like Apple's.
It seemed that Note won and proved everything to everyone, but the writers snapped their fingers somewhere - and last year's Note 7 was blown up by a mine of its own ambitions. The biggest scandal in modern technology history. The main technological meme of the century. Thousands of jokes, colossal damage to reputation, millions in losses.
However, every good movie must have a climax - something bad happens before the main character with a busty fashion model rides off into the sunset on a motorcycle. So: if all this were a movie, then the Galaxy Note 8 would be his happy ending.
It's all a matter of taste, and in my opinion, the most beautiful smartphones are made by Samsung. Lively futuristic: almost one solid display on the front with rounded edges, symmetrical glass on the back, a neat aluminum frame in between. Everything is like the S8 - only the Note 8's body is "more square", which makes it look a little stricter. Personally, I like the exaggerated curves of the S8 + better, but the Note 8 can elicit an admiring sigh, don't hesitate. It's a pity that all the "charms" of the glass have not gone anywhere - it is very quickly covered with fingerprints and scratches, so if you are too worried about the state of your smartphones, immediately shove Note 8 into the case.
The weakest point of the design of the new smartphone is the back cover. This is the first Samsung smartphone with a dual camera, and it looks strange - a giant rectangle with two lenses - "eyes" looks like a periscope. The problem with the monstrous location of the fingerprint scanner is also nowhere to go - it's still close to the camera and it's still hard to reach. Thank God that the face scan works quite fast: it is not as advanced as in the iPhone X and the smartphone does not recognize you at night, but during the day and indoors it saves you from stretching your index finger.
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Note 8 is not an ergonomic smartphone - its display is 6.3 inches, which is slightly larger than the S8 +. The fact that Samsung was able to fit such a large 18.5: 9 display in a relatively compact body is respectable, but you won't be able to fully use your smartphone with one hand. However, the Note line has always been like this and many people fell in love precisely for the screen size.
Speaking of the screen, it's still the world's best, near-perfect display, yielding to the panel on the new iPhone X only in that it doesn't automatically adjust color balance to ambient light. Otherwise, it is impossible to find fault with it: almost perfect color rendition (in the "Main" mode), outstanding contrast with a deep, like darkness itself, black color, a huge margin of brightness and maximum viewing angles. When tilted, the white color almost does not change, unlike the same S8, where the display in this case turned red or green (whoever is lucky).
As before, the screen can be calibrated: if you want too bright colors - set the "adaptive" mode in the settings, the picture seems "cold" - move the corresponding slider to the right. The resolution remains the same - WQHD + (2560x1440) and it is enough for the eyes. For some reason, the default in the smartphone is Full HD, so we recommend increasing it in the options - the difference will be noticeable, and if you already bought such an expensive smartphone, then use it to its fullest.
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There are two main differences between the Note 8 and the S8 +: the unchanged S-Pen and the dual camera. The stylus now recognizes 4096 degrees of pressure and is protected from water according to the IP 68 standard (it is not clear why, but why not). There are also two useful functions that can be used by a person who cannot draw anything more complicated than a house and an emoticon. The first one is “Live Messages”: you write or draw on the screen, and the whole process is captured in the form of a “GIF”, which can then be sent in a message or in a messenger. In general, like Apple - you can only send it to everyone.
The second is the ability to quickly take a screenshot of a specific area of the screen. We took out the pen, selected the desired part, cut it off - it's convenient.
Otherwise, everything is the same: if you are the owner of a Note of previous generations and without an S-Pen, as without hands, you do not need my recommendations anyway (like this review). For the rest, it will only become a pleasant and sometimes useful appendage.
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The camera is much more important - and for the first time in a line of Samsung smartphones, it is double. The system is like in the iPhone 7 Plus: one regular module of 12 megapixels (26 mm, f / 1.7, the second - telephoto (52 mm, f / 2.4). Therefore, the Note 8 has a dual optical zoom and portrait mode. Unlike the iPhone 7 and 8 Plus, optical stabilization is present in both camera modules, and at the time of release it was the only smartphone in the world with such functionality (a little later it was joined by the iPhone X). What this gives in practice: better and brighter portrait shots indoors and at night The Note 8's bokeh quality is comparable to Apple smartphonesand even bypasses them in some ways. Here, for example, the strength of the blur can be adjusted, and even after you have taken a photo. On the other hand, don't forget that the iPhone 8 Plus and X can simulate different lighting conditions in portrait photos.
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Otherwise, the Note 8 shoots in the same way as the S8 + - great, but it almost falls short of the level of the latest iPhones and Google Pixel. Personally, I don't like post-processing photos: the color balance always falls into yellow. It is almost imperceptible during the day, but night photos look like they were sprinkled with sand.
But Note 8 was the first Samsung smartphone, to the speed of which I have no complaints. The Korean company has always worked with an ax rather than a needle: if something goes wrong, you just need to add memory or megahertz, let someone else fine-tune the software. There was no other way to explain why, for example, S7 Edg e with the most powerful processor in the Android world at that time allowed itself to slow down. Not everything went smoothly at the start of sales of the S8 +, which was powered by the same Exynos 8895 processor - but now the situation is different. Perhaps the point is in the updates released during this time, but the smartphone works smartly, instantly reacts to touches and behaves as a flagship should. A real multimedia harvester.
The answer to a question that was probably worth discussing right away: no, the Note 8 battery does not explode. And it doesn't even get warm. It's not as capacious as in last year's Note 7 (cough-cough), but it's always enough for a day of work. And if you don't bother checking all social networks 400 times a day, then the next morning a little charge will remain.
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The Note 8 is an almost perfect flagship and one of the few devices that is hard to part with without genuine regret. It is by far the best big smartphone you can buy now, and for shovel lovers like me, the best smartphone on the market in principle. But at the same time, I cannot definitely advise him to buy. Samsung already sells a "near-perfect smartphone" that costs significantly less. The S8 + has the same luxurious screen, equally outstanding bezel-less design and the same nimble processor. Yes, there is no dual camera, but he still shoots well. And the stylus … Not everyone needs a stylus, and even more so for an ordinary user, it does not cost more than 10, if we talk about the official price, thousands of overpayment.
So the Note 8 is not the best smartphone for everyone. This one is for fans of the Note line. And at the end of 2017, being a fan of the Note line is really cool.>