After a year of explosions, literally, Samsung has brought its Note series back to the marketplace.
Galaxy Note phones are Samsung's flagship, with the best specs and technology reserved for each new series rollout. This year, it's a bit different because Samsung decided to play it safe -- especially on the battery side -- by not cramming as much capacity as last year's Note 7 (which didn't take it very well) and by giving customers all that the Galaxy S8+ has, plus a dual-camera and an accurate pressure sensitive stylus.
The Note's stylus is perfect for note taking, drawing, pointing or touching small links or areas of the screen. It is pressure sensitive, so drawing can be a fun experience by adding different pressured brush strokes (My personal favourite is writing my grocery list). Notes can be taken at any time with the stylus, even when the screen is off.
This Note 8 comes with the most bright and crisp screen you can find on the market now, with virtually no bezels, giving you nearly all screen at the front, just like the S8. It's a gorgeous, functional, huge screen. This is something that people with a new, more expensive, iPhone 8 can't compete with in terms of visual quality and colour saturation.
And just like the S8 that Samsung released earlier this year, the phone's palm rejection is very good. Touching the side of the screen that curves down both sides will not initiate anything that intervenes with what you're touching in the middle of this big phone. That said, it means the side of the screen serves no purpose apart from aesthetics and ergonomics. Good thing it oozes premiumness. I just love the phone's metal rim borders.
With the phone's generous 6GB of RAM, up to 29 apps can be stored in the phone's memory, compared to 7 on the S8. This means less app reloading for Note 8 users, but for me, a person who clears all apps from the phone system memory frequently (yeah … I know, I'm a freak), this make no difference because I must reload everything anyway.
Having strong water resistance is a valuable tool for these expensive gadgets. I washed this phone with soap and water many times to clean it of dirt and smudges. No longer worrying about killing the phone on a rainy day or fear of dropping it in the toilet is a boon indeed.
Fast camera focusing and photo taking is something that Samsung has been doing right since last year. It gives an average Joe, like me, an edge in photo-taking. Also, it has powerful and easy editing capabilities (colour adjustment, cropping, sticker decoration). And you can decorate your selfies with AR effects, like cat ears, moustaches, horns and much more.
Be aware that this big phone is not a one-handed device. In most circumstances, you'll need two hands to operate it. And, of course, if you're using the stylus, you'll need one hand to hold the phone and the other to write.
There are many ways to unlock this phone, either by the typical fingerprint sensor at the back of the phone, using facial recognition, or an iris scanner.
I know that Samsung played it safe with a smaller battery in this year's Note, but the phone nearly always lasts until bedtime and a bit more. It's unlikely it is going to die midday anyway.
The phone retails at around 34,000 baht, so you may need to wait a few months or purchase a phone on contract if you're on a tight budget.
This phone has a dedicated Bixby button on the left side that triggers Samsung's home-baked AI assistant, which lets you command a lot of things (set alarms, clear phone memory, turn on Bluetooth), but it is too easy to press it by mistake. Good thing we can disable the button, lest it gets on our nerves. Also, the Bixby voice, which detects voice commands, is a bit too annoyingly active during gameplay and will interpret a game's dialogue as voice commands.
Many online rumours had said that Samsung would ditch this famous stylus-focused Note series altogether after the exploding batteries incident. It's good to see a company is sticking to their guns and continue to please their scribbling-crazy fans once more.
