Galaxy Note 8 needs to be Samsung’s best phone yet

Samsung phones are some of the best out there and have been for a long time. It seemed as though nothing would be able to knock Samsung from the pedestal they had built. Then came the Galaxy Note 7. The launch was such a disaster that there were some commentators who believed it could be the end of the Galaxy line. Samsung managed to pull off an absolutely incredible recovery with the Galaxy 8 and 8s. Now the Galaxy Note 8 needs to be Samsung’s best phone yet in order to cement this recovery and their reputation.

The Galaxy Note 7 launch hit Samsung hard

It was supposed to be the flagship phone of 2016. Instead it became one of the biggest launch disasters in the history of smart phones. Due to a massive design flaw the batteries overheated to the point where certain phones exploded the entire line had to be recalled.

This recall was absolutely devastating to Samsung. The company lost around $3.1 billion over the course of the recall. Even worse than that it severely damaged consumer confidence in the company in the short term. Even today, every article that mentions Samsung is almost obliged to make a joke about overheating or exploding.

The recall entirely took the Note 7 out of the phablet market and gave space for their competitors to take over the vacuum. Both Apple and Huawei took full advantage of Samsung’s misfortune. In fact the failure of the Galaxy Note 7 is arguably part of the reason Huawei has now cemented their place as one of the top three smart phone producers.

There will be fears at Samsung HQ that memories of the Galaxy Note 7 will scare off potential customers. A problem highlighted by a recent battery recall for refurbished Note 4s that will undoubtedly have made sales reps at Samsung squirm a little.

Samsung have bought their A-game and the Galaxy Note 8 is shaping up to be their best phone yet

Samsung seem acutely aware that they need to make sure that the next generation of Galaxy phones needs to do well. The Samsung Galaxy 8 and 8S are considered to be the best phones on the market right now. Samsung will be hoping that if they can repeat this success they’ll be able to wipe out the memory of the Note 7. It’s a pretty tall order but Samsung have a few tricks up their sleeve.

The Screen is supposed to be incredible

Leaks show that the Samsung Note 8 screen is impressive in more ways than one. For starters it looks like it’s going to be absolutely huge. In a break with previous versions all indications are that the Samsung Note 8 will have minimal bezels and be 6.3-inch 1440 x 2960 Super AMOLED display and a super-widescreen 18.5:9 aspect ratio. Some rumors even point to a 6.4 inch screen.

Not only is it huge but there are rumors that it might be one of the first smartphones with a 4K screen. This is a really big step for mobile headsets and will likely encourage other developers to begin designing with the Note 8 in mind. The Galaxy Note 8 needs to be Samsung’s best phone yet and a good screen would take them a long way.

The design will take after the Samsung 8 and 8s

It is likely that the Galaxy Note 8 will take after the Galaxy 8s, except the note will have a stylus. Judging from leaked renders it looks like it has a Galaxy 8-esque design, with curved corners and minimal bezels. Interestingly it looks like the Galaxy Note 8 has a pronounced Camera bump but later leaks imply that this will be eliminated in the final design.

While the renders show the fingerprint scanner being placed at the back we are fairly sure that rumors implying that the sensor will be embedded at the front of the phone, like in the Huawei P10, are more likely to be correct. Rumors also suggest that the Samsung Note 8 will have a pressure sensitive display that will bring up different menus depending upon how hard you press the screen.

The phone will also come in a number of different colors. Currently we expect to see Midnight Black, Maple Gold, Deep Sea Blue and Orchid Grey. Of course not all of these will be available at launch and we would expect to see other colors further down the line.

Samsung seem to be finally jumping on the dual lens camera band-wagon

Galaxy Note 8 needs to be Samsung’s best phone and in order to do that it needs to have a top notch camera. All indications are that the Samsung Note 8 will be the first of their phones to feature the dual camera lens. The most likely scenario is  that it will have two 12MP sensors, with the secondary one being an f/2.4 aperture telephoto lens capable of 2x optical zoom. This would give it comparable stats to the iPhone 7 plus camera.

The Note 8 will also have a powerful front camera for those easy selfies. Best guess is somewhere between 5 and 8 megapixels. This should be plenty for plastering selfies of your latest adventure all over Facebook and Instagram.

The battery looks like it’ will be conservative, with Samsung taking advantage of more efficient chips

This will be a touchy subject for Samsung. They need to pack in a battery small enough that consumers will trust it but big enough that it will keep the phone going all day. Given that it seems as though the Note 7 had two separate battery failures it seems likely that Samsung will be conservative with the battery. Most indicators put it somewhere in 3,300Ah.

Instead Samsung will be looking to take advantage of new chipsets and software in order to help keep the battery running. All indications are that Samsung will either go with a Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895 chipset, the same as the Galaxy 8 and 8S. This will hopefully give the efficiency savings that Samsung need in order to maintain a decent battery life.

The Galaxy Note 8 needs to be Samsung’s best phone and the battery is the elephant in the room. Fears of repeating the Samsung Note 7 disaster seem to have forced Samsung to follow a more conservative path and a 3,300Ah battery isn’t much for such a powerful screen. We won’t know the lifespan of the battery until the first phones come out but it seems likely that competitors will have a longer battery life.

There’s also some nice hardware updates and other extras

The rumors are also implying that Samsung throwing in a whole host of new hardware and other updates including:

• An upgrade to 6GB of ram
• A new stylus with a speaker and the ability to vibrate
• Brixby AI 2.0
• Dust and water resistance

This and everything else that has been uncovered so far mean that the Galaxy note 8 is shaping up to be Samsung’s best phone yet. It will likely have a price tag to match. Best estimates are placing the RRP at somewhere between $1,000 and $1,300 which places it in the same region as the Galaxy 8s.

The Galaxy Note 8 needs to be Samsung’s best phone in order for this release to go well. Samsung will be hoping that consumers will have forgotten the Note 7 debacle and are willing to shell out over $1,000 for the Galaxy Note 8. Anything less could be considered a disaster for the smart phone giant.