samsung [Updated] Samsung Galaxy Note8 launched, priced $930 unlocked in the US

[8uhbbhu8]

7 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

Yup. Stabilization is also improved and much better than the iPhone 7+.

Good!!!!! My current phone has no stabilization even though everything else is good so all my pics look like crap lol

[hammer3339]

in before they start exploding

[captain_to_fire]

42 minutes ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Good!!!!! My current phone has no stabilization even though everything else is good so all my pics look like crap lol

Looks like it's priced close to $1000 so I'm in two minds whether I should get one or not and there's the upcoming iPhone event. Meanwhile, both my sub box and recommendations in YouTube is filled with Galaxy Note 8 videos. ?

[dizmo]

Pretty much exactly what I thought it'd be. Sad that they put in such a small battery, but they can likely still hit their SoT targets, and they're probably a little afraid of what'll happen if they try and cram a larger battery in there. Can't have a repeat.

I love the Note line, but I'm skipping this one. The fingerprint reader is in a stupid spot, smallish battery, and it's quite tall.

Hopefully the Note9 shrinks down a bit, increases the battery size and fixes the fingerprint reader placement. If they can manage that, they basically have my dream phone.

This year, I think the V30 is going to be my daily. Maybe the Mate 10.

8 hours ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

Not to mention a full charge only takes like 10 minutes.

Not for 1 - 100%, probably just for a "days usage" of standby time.

8 hours ago, Goku-sama said:

This is my opinion, but that design is ridiculous. I just watched MrMobile video on this and i have also watched EverythingApplePro video on the latest rumours about the iPhone 8, with the conclusion being that for me this phone is a flop.
-snip-

Haha, I think it's going to be anything but a flop. It has a lot of features people were wanting in the S line, in a package that's not that much bigger than the S8+.

The headphone audio has been worked on with AKG, so it should definitely be an improvement. I think LG will still be the superior choice though.

You wouldn't even have to make it that heavy! There's loads of phones with massive batteries in very small packages. Just look at the Zenfone 3 Zoom. They have to make room for the pen though, and they don't want a repeat of last year, so I guess some sacrifices have to be made.

How is it lacking spec wise? Sure, it doesn't have 8GB of RAM, but it seems to check the boxes with everything else.

I agree about the fingerprint sensor though, what a stupid place to put it.

8 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Thats with the quick charger I assume. I try to not use those unless I'm hurting for more battery. From my experience with RC hobby truck racing, fast charging a battery diminishes it's capacity and duration over time, especially on a device that in theory will last you two years

Can't really compare the two, the quick charge in a phone is much, much more advanced than something you'll find in another device. If you look at what QuickCharge actually does, it's pretty impressive. I think they've done a test and it showed minimal degradation over a 2 year period. Heat is generally what affects batteries.

8 hours ago, Brehohn said:

Of course it has a dual camera. Granted it's much better, but since Apple did it, why not look at their homework right?

I wish they'd gone the way LG did with the V30.

8 hours ago, DocSwag said:

With quick charge it will get worse quicker though. I would only use quick charge if you actually need it.

Not that much. This isn't QC 1.0.

7 hours ago, Goku-sama said:

-snip-

 

By the way, this is quite funny . LG is certainly trying to pick up a fight with Samsung.

 

 

Haha, that's pretty good..

7 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

I don't think most Americans can buy their phones at full price for unlocked phones. But then, it has it's advantages since unlocked Android phones can use sim cards overseas and they tend to have more supported network bands than carrier subsidized Android phones in the US.

Anyone can buy a phone at full price and have it unlocked. Most choose not to.

Also, most locked phones have the same bands as their unlocked counterparts, aside from maybe the special Verizon editions.

7 hours ago, DocSwag said:

A lot of Americans don't actually do the math and just see "oooo phone is $500 cheaper on contract" and go straight for it without comparing it to other things.

A lot of the time, if you're buying an older device or there's a good promotion, you do end up saving money on the device itself. I can't speak for plans as I'm not going to go look at all the companies offerings.

7 hours ago, wcreek said:

Maybe the 3300mAh makes it not explosive /s

It's interesting the S8+ has a slightly larger battery though. Honestly though, it would've been neat to see them have a 4000mAh battery in it. Maybe it's them not trying to cannibalize S8+ sales?

They're just afraid of having another battery too big for the chassis. Luckily we still have the Mate10 coming soon

7 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

5+ hours of screen on time? I'll believe it when the reviews come in. I'm not confident that the Snapdragon 835 SoC will be enough for an entire day of usage given how huge the screen is. 

It's possible...but it entirely depends on what the phone's doing. No two use cases are the same.

7 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Unless it comes with support for USB 3, then it doesn't matter USB C or any other interface to me. Marketing uses type C as a selling point, which is useless by itself. My only electronic device that uses a type c interface is my GoPro, so the sahpe, size and color of the connector is not a priority... Yet.

It's not useless by itself at all. Is microUSB reversible? No. Is microUSB rated for as many connect/disconnects? No. USB C, even if it is slower, is simply a better interconnect.  Period.

6 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

-snip-

But doubt next phone will be from Samsung since they will only make 'edge' phones and they're terrible. 

You could always get the Active variant They're better phones anyway.

5 hours ago, Nineshadow said:

It's not a problem. I wish they could have done something a little bit more special.

You don't think the second camera, the first with OIS on both was special enough?

What would you have liked to see?

43 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Why do people in North America have to get the Snapdragon 835 variant whereas the rest of the world has to get the Exynos 8895 variant?

It's more of a household name than Exynos is. Something people can relate to. At least, that's what they say. Personally I don't think nearly as many people care about what processor they have in their phone, or even know they're different.

 

Canada usually gets Exynos chips, btw

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

It's possible...but it entirely depends on what the phone's doing. No two use cases are the same

Well you guys in North America are lucky to get the Snapdragon 835 variant whereas the rest of the world will get the Exynos 8895. As Anandtech pointed out, the Snapdragon 835 is slightly better when it comes to battery life than the Exynos 8895. Also, the screen is bigger so I don't think it can make 5+ hours of screen on time.

[dizmo]

5 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Well you guys in North America are lucky to get the Snapdragon 835 variant whereas the rest of the world will get the Exynos 8895. As Anandtech pointed out, the Snapdragon 835 is slightly better when it comes to battery life than the Exynos 8895. Also, the screen is bigger so I don't think it can make 5+ hours of screen on time.

Some people get 7 hours of SoT with the OP phones. Anything is possible, it all depends on how you're testing it.
Will most people get that? No. But it's not out of the realms of possibility.

The Exynos isn't that much worse, and in some cases is better. Last gen, it was up to 30% better than the SD equivalent.

The 6.2" S8+ gets amazing battery life. The Note8 has a marginally bigger screen, smaller battery, but I'm sure it'll still beat most other flagships when it comes to longevity.

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, dizmo said:

Some people get 7 hours of SoT with the OP phones. Anything is possible, it all depends on how you're testing it.
Will most people get that? No. But it's not out of the realms of possibility.

The Exynos isn't that much worse, and in some cases is better. Last gen, it was up to 30% better than the SD equivalent.

The 6.2" S8+ gets amazing battery life. The Note8 has a marginally bigger screen, smaller battery, but I'm sure it'll still beat most other flagships when it comes to longevity.

I'll believe it once the reviews start rolling in and the embargo has been lifted

[Jito463]

9 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

To be honest the only thing that prevents me from using an Android phone as a daily driver is the painfully slow release of software updates. If I pay premium on something, I want a premium experience nonetheless and majority of Android phones simply can't keep up unlike the iPhone which has an astounding record for keeping their devices up to date. Hopefully when Samsung decided to release Android Oreo update to the Galaxy Note8 in a few months, updates then would be faster thanks to project Treble.

To be fair, Apple controls both the hardware and the software, so it's far simpler for them to roll out an update.  With Android, Google only controls the software, and even that has to be modified to be compatible with the hardware, which requires an intermediary (namely the phone manufacturer).  It's not like an update to Windows, that will work on any copy of Windows regardless of the hardware, it has to be custom tailored for each phone.  Hopefully Project Treble will smooth some of that out, though.

8 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Why did you doubt it having type-c? Every phone in the past 2 years has had it.

My S7 Active only came out ~1^1/2 years ago, and it has MicroUSB, not Type-C.

[captain_to_fire]

11 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

 It's not like an update to Windows, that will work on any copy of Windows regardless of the hardware

Not all the time. When Microsoft released the Windows 10 Creators Update in April 5, 2017, I waited at least 3 weeks before my laptop receives the Creators Update. Microsoft has to test the Creators Update to various hardware configurations before releasing them over the air to squash bugs and prevent bricking of computers. This is not like the typical bug fixes and security patches that Microsoft can release to all PCs at the same time. Also, as not to hammer their servers.

[Jito463]

6 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Not all the time. When Microsoft released the Windows 10 Creators Update in April 5, 2017, I waited at least 3 weeks before my laptop receives the Creators Update. Microsoft has to test the Creators Update to various hardware configurations before releasing them over the air to squash bugs and prevent bricking of computers. This is not like the typical bug fixes and security patches that Microsoft can release to all PCs at the same time. Also, as not to hammer their servers.

Well, yes.  I was generalizing, though there are certainly exceptions to every rule.

[8uhbbhu8]

3 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

Looks like it's priced close to $1000 so I'm in two minds whether I should get one or not and there's the upcoming iPhone event. Meanwhile, both my sub box and recommendations in YouTube is filled with Galaxy Note 8 videos. ?

lol honestly its way out of my price range for a phone bu since i'm probably going for a 2 year contract it'll be spread out to ~$500 a year so its far more affordable.

Same for the Youtube recs lol 

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

 

Canada usually gets Exynos chips, btw

Hmmm never used a Exynos chip. wonder how it compares in RWP to the Snapdragon

[captain_to_fire]

14 minutes ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Hmmm never used a Exynos chip. wonder how it compares in RWP to the Snapdragon

North America (including Canada and Mexico) will get Snapdragon 835 variant 

[Drak3]

4 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

Why do people in North America have to get the Snapdragon 835 variant whereas the rest of the world has to get the Exynos 8895 variant?

What @dizmo said might play into it. But it's more than likely licensing issues with Qualcomm, and Samsung would rather avoid stupid legal battles if the qualcomm chip is acceptable (the 810 wasn't, as the US version of the S6 was an Exynos chips. Samsung has gotten enough stupid legal action with Apple over the years.

 

2 hours ago, hey_yo_ said:

Well you guys in North America are lucky to get the Snapdragon 835 variant whereas the rest of the world will get the Exynos 8895. As Anandtech pointed out, the Snapdragon 835 is slightly better when it comes to battery life than the Exynos 8895. Also, the screen is bigger so I don't think it can make 5+ hours of screen on time.

Asides for the 8895, the Exynos was usually the better performer. It would appear that that isn't quite the case this time around, other than NAND performance, and them tackling different aspects of GPU heavier tasks and trading blows over all.

 

For what its worth, the S6 didn't get a Snapdragon variation, and that wasn't the major factor in battery life complaints.

[D13H4RD]

Honestly, I really like it. Then again, I owned the Galaxy Note7 and I loved that thing up to the point where I had to return it due to all the fires and the recalls.

 

Though $1000 is more than mere chump change for a smartphone, and the Note line ever since the Note5 doesn’t seem to have major differentiating points from the S-line device compared to the 3 and 4. The Note5 was more-or-less identical to the S6e+. The Note7 had an iris sensor and a second ambient light sensor plus double the internal storage on the base model while the Note8 has a secondary zoom camera and 6GB of RAM. All nice things, but in the days of the Note 3 and Note 4, they had beefier silicon and everything but the kitchen sink.

 

Perhaps this is a sign of a maturing market. Where they can’t just cram in the best of everything as there isn’t anything overly new as the year progresses.

 

(Pic of my Note7 to relive the times)

[Drak3]

2 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Note line ever since the Note5 doesn’t seem to have major differentiating points from the S-line device compared to the 3 and 4.

That's because there aren't any more worthwhile features to add right now. Either due to hardware/software limitation or practicality. But the Note line doesn't really need much other than the pen and its various functions. Though I'd welcome another Note Edge.

[D13H4RD]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

That's because there aren't any more worthwhile features to add right now. Either due to hardware/software limitation or practicality. But the Note line doesn't really need much other than the pen and its various functions. Though I'd welcome another Note Edge.

I feel that this is exactly why the Note line isn’t much different. There’s nothing much to add.

[dizmo]

13 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

North America (including Canada and Mexico) will get Snapdragon 835 variant 

At least Canada gets the blue variant though

[Drak3]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

I feel that this is exactly why the Note line isn’t much different. There’s nothing much to add.

Being quite honest, only thing worth while to the older Note models, other than the edge screen, was the pen. Bigger batteries went to powering the bigger screens, and Samsung did have the Galaxy MEGA versions, which dwarf every Note phone to date.

Everything else seemed like a tech demo for the next S model.

[captain_to_fire]

3 minutes ago, dizmo said:

At least Canada gets the blue variant though

If I'm buying a Note 8, I'd either pick the Orchid Grey or the Midnight Black. Those colors are things of a beauty 

[Drak3]

2 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

If I'm buying a Note 8, I'd either pick the Orchid Grey or the Midnight Black. Those colors are things of a beauty 

I wouldn't pick up Midnight Black, the finish is starting to rub off on my Black, work S8.

[Zodiark1593]

12 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Thats with the quick charger I assume. I try to not use those unless I'm hurting for more battery. From my experience with RC hobby truck racing, fast charging a battery diminishes it's capacity and duration over time, especially on a device that in theory will last you two years

I tend to use the quick charger in short bursts. Leave my phone off the charger overnight, just give it some power when I'm getting ready to work. Often, I leave the house with somewhere between 70-80% which is enough for two days (about 40% in a half hour on charger). I do have a 4K mah battery though, so even 4 amps would fall within the 1C mark. I only fully charge it if I plan to be away for more than a day.

 

Rc batteries can be charged in excess of 3c (full charge within 20 minutes), though I'd hesitate to do so outside of competition.

[8uhbbhu8]

53 minutes ago, dizmo said:

At least Canada gets the blue variant though

Ooooo Yay!!!! That's the one i'm most excited about although I really like the gold and grey variants....

 

 

I just hope we get the dual sim variant

[captain_to_fire]

@dizmo @8uhbbhu8 My bad, only the US will get the Snapdragon 835 the rest of the world (including Canada & Mexico) will get the Exynos 8895. 

 

http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-specs-795308/ 

[Jito463]

2 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

lol honestly its way out of my price range for a phone bu since i'm probably going for a 2 year contract it'll be spread out to ~$500 a year so its far more affordable.

Be aware that when you buy on a contract like that, the cost of the phone is far more than $1k.  You can spend 1/3 to 1/2 more than the list price of the phone.  Not to mention that a contract will prevent you from changing your plan to something better if they restructure their pricing.

[captain_to_fire]

6 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

Be aware that when you buy on a contract like that, the cost of the phone is far more than $1k.  You can spend 1/3 to 1/2 more than the list price of the phone.  Not to mention that a contract will prevent you from changing your plan to something better if they restructure their pricing.

I think Canada still does 2-year contracts unlike in the US where you can ditch a carrier anytime.