Samsung Galaxy Note 8 hands on review

by Arvin Apsen Cell phone repair parts

The Galaxy Note 8 is the biggest reimagining of Samsung’s best smartphones for productivity, and more than enough to right the major wrongs of the recalled Note 7. This is a mega-sized mea culpa.

We've tested the Note 8 for more than a more and it has us convinced: this is a true redesign of not just the Note series, but of the average iPhone 7 LCD screen from top-to-bottom, edge-to-edge, and rear camera to, well, rear camera. There are now two cameras on the back, a first for a Samsung flagship smartphone. It takes brilliant portrait photos, and you can even edit the depth of field post-capture.

The S Pen stylus returns, and it has a larger 6.3-inch ‘Infinity Display’ to work with – but one that doesn’t increase the dimensions of the actual phone too much. The Note 8 acts like a big, borderless glass canvas for your important handwritten notes and masterpiece doodles.

Why buy this instead of the 6.2-inch Galaxy S8 Plus? The extra tenth of an inch is insignificant and doesn’t matter, but Note fans adore the S Pen functionality and its more square shape, power users are going to benefit from the 6GB of RAM, and we loved the superior dual-lens camera in our tests – you will too.

This is the most powerful Samsung phone yet. It does, however, cost you in three ways. It’s too big for some – it’s technically Samsung’s best, but not the best for everyone. You’re going to need a Note 8 case to confidently hold this unwieldy glass beast, and two hands to operate it.

The big screen also comes at the cost of the Note’s usual oval-shaped fingerprint sensor home button. It’s gone. The on-screen button that replaces it works fine, but the fingerprint sensor is now located on the back of the device and off-center – it’s a textbook flawed design, and the alternative iris scanner doesn’t always work when you want to unlock the phone.

Then there’s the Note 8 price. If you want top-of-the-line specs, the one of the most advanced cameras, a stunning display, and streamlined multitasking on a phone, you’re really going to pay for them. The Note 8 costs more than the S8 Plus, although if you’re going to sink a lot of money into a device that you use everyday, you may as well go all the way.

Can your wallet, and the extent of your grip, handle the Note 8? That’s pretty much all that you – if you have faith in Samsung again – need to ask yourself before buying this iPhone 7 LCD screen wholesale .

The new Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are the biggest Samsung Galaxy Note 8 rivals. They already run Android Oreo and Google's camera is slightly better but its screen colors are worse, in our opinion. The Google Pixel 2 XL is having a few screen burn-in problems, too. Apple has the all-new iPhone X launching on November 3 with a borderless display, facial recognition and an equally sizable price tag, but that requires switching over from Android to iOS 11.

The Note 8 rules supreme in the big-screen, big-power, big-price arena, as we'll demonstrate in our full review.