Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 looks very familiar to the Galaxy S8+. Yes, Samsung played it very safe this time around; they had to. Last year, the Inquisitr detailed the problems with the “Galaxy Nuke 7,” which exploded in people’s faces. So with the Note 8, Samsung’s goal is to rebuild the Note line after several months of disastrous publicity. Samsung might not have hit a grand slam, but they made a hit big enough to put the Note line back in good standing. Let’s take a look at some of the main aspects.

Design

Just like the Galaxy S8+, the Note 8 is a very sturdy piece of hardware. Samsung made the curves on the Note 8 more square than the rounded corners on the S8+, which makes the device feel like a notepad. With a 6.3-inch screen, it’s also a little bit bigger than the Galaxy S8+, and the one inch really does make a difference. The Galaxy Note 8 looks and feels like a beast, although a manageable one. The screen seems to curve slightly more than the Galaxy S8+ did, and this can cause problems with your finger accidentally touching the screen, especially when you are writing.

There is a slight (and welcome) difference on the rear of the device, which now hosts a dual-lens camera instead of a single one. And thankfully, the fingerprint reader is a little bit further so you don’t accidentally press one of the lenses. Though some reviews point out that the fingerprint reader is still problematic, the small hands and even smaller forefinger of this author can guarantee you that it isn’t.

Screen

The Galaxy Note 8 has a gorgeous screen. [Image by Daryl Deino]

Apple, you won’t be able to top this! While the 5.8-inch OLED screen is groundbreaking for Apple, the 6.3-inch Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy Note 8 is just an extension of the same screen technology Samsung has been using for the past five years. Still, the Note 8 screen doesn’t look as oversaturated (no matter what settings you put it on) like the Note 2 or Note 3. You also have the ability to make the colors warmer or colder.

At 2960 x 1440 pixels (522 pixels-per-inch), the images are sharp and crisp — far more than they need to be. That’s probably why Samsung sets the resolution at 2220 x 1080 pixels (392 pixels-per-inch) as a default, which may be a little low. It’s best to just set the maximum resolution in the display settings, and you shouldn’t be concerned about battery life by changing the settings.

The brilliance of the screen is most noticeable when watching HD movies on streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu. In particular, watching Bojack Horseman on the Note 8 reveals a lot of individual characteristics of the anthropomorphic animals and insects that you won’t notice watching the show on the iPhone 7 Plus.

Performance

The Note 8 is fast thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and the 6GB of RAM. In everyday use, the Note 8 doesn’t perform noticeably faster than the S8+ except when several apps are open at the same time. The Note 8 runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat), and although Android has become better throughout the years, it’s still no match for Apple’s iOS. In fact, the iPhone 7 Plus, which has a slower processor and far less RAM than the Note 8, runs faster. As Apple proves, improving memory management is more important than adding physical memory.

Samsung puts their own TouchWiz operating system on top of Android, and it adds to Google’s operating system rather than taking away from it like the first few versions of TouchWiz did. TouchWiz is especially good for the customization of icons, fonts, screen backgrounds, and other things.

Conclusion

The Note 8 offers a sleek design, the best screen ever seen on any smartphone, and great performance for an Android phone (which means it still doesn’t perform as fluid as the iPhone). A look at some other aspects of the Note 8 such as the S Pen, the camera, and the battery life is coming soon. For now, it’s safe to say that Samsung’s comeback into the phablet world is a major success.

[Featured Image by Daryl Deino]