The Galaxy Note 8 is coming soon, and the rumor mill has started to churn.
Samsung will debut the Galaxy Note 8 in mid-September, two weeks later than previously rumored, and after the hubbub of IFA has died down. It would also be a year and a month later than the Galaxy Note 7’s August debut, lining up with a later-than-usual March announcement of the Galaxy S8. This according to typically-reliable leaker, Evan Blass, of Venturebeat.
His sources go on to say that the phone will be priced around €999, which may translate into a U.S. street price of just over $900, a considerable premium over the $725/$825 of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, respectively.
Inside, a smaller 3300mAh battery will likely assuage worries of another recall.
As for the phone itself, it’s not a surprise that the Note 8 appears to be on its way to looking like a larger Galaxy S8+: a 6.3-inch edge-to-edge Infinity Display in an 18.5:9 aspect ratio will mean slim top and bottom bezels and curved sides. Internally, Samsung is testing the Note 8 with the same processors as the Galaxy S8, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 in the U.S. and its well-received Exynos 8895 SoC for the rest of the world. That combination will be paired with 6GB of RAM, however, which should provide ample power for even the most multitasking-heavy activities.
Likely the most interesting and exciting feature of the Note 8, and something that has been rumored before, is the inclusion of two camera sensors. According to the report, both 12MP sensors will be optically stabilized, which will be an industry first for a dual-camera setup, though it’s not clear whether their focal lengths will differ. The fingerprint sensor will remain on the back of the phone, corroborating previous reports that Samsung’s under-the-screen fingerprint solution will have to wait until 2018, but the Note 8’s is reportedly more clearly separated from the camera assembly.
As for battery, the phone will have a relatively small 3,300mAh cell, likely to assuage worries of another battery-related recall.
The phone’s eponymous S Pen will also have a new set of features, including “full-sentence language translation and currency conversion), and added the ability to pin handwritten notes to the always-on display,” according to Blass. DeX dock support will also likely be beefed up. As for Bixby, it’s a safe bet that we’ll see a left-side button to activate the on-device assistant — this helper isn’t going anywhere!
That’s all we know of the Galaxy Note 8 right now, but the spigot is open, and we’ll likely see prototypes of the actual phone leak in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
