Samsung Reveals Galaxy Note 8 With Dual Rear Cameras and 6.3-Inch AMOLED 'Infinity Display'

[rjohnstone]

Ok,
So apple has designed a good workaround for that on the iphone 8 then. Making the status bar around the notch, to achieve the look of symmetry with the borderless bottom.
Can' t wait to see all the reactions when samsung ditches the headphone jack next year.
That is essentially were the market is going right now.

If they keep the notch area black, it should blend very nicely.
The white mockups make the notch stick out like a sore thumb.

As for the headphone jack, I recall the same thing being said before the S8 was released and yet Sammy still kept it.
A lot of people still like it, and there's no real legit reason to remove it.

 

[jerryk]

Can' t wait to see all the reactions when samsung ditches the headphone jack next year.
That is essentially were the market is going right now.

You are probably right. And it is a shame. Bluetooth is OK, but the headphones I buy seem to only come in wired models.

 

[ValO]

If they keep the notch area black, it should blend very nicely.
The white mockups make the notch stick out like a sore thumb.

As for the headphone jack, I recall the same thing being said before the S8 was released and yet Sammy still kept it.
A lot of people still like it, and there's no real legit reason to remove it.

No,

Samsung has put themselves in a corner, by touting and making jokes the lack of the headphone jack with the iphone 7 in their own press events.
They have to stick with it for another year, because people don’ t forget.
Look at the reactions for the pixel 2. Google did the same, made jokes about apple, and now, a year later, they are abandoning the jack. Or look at the stylus remark of SJ, from a century ago, people keep on referring to that.
Samsung has to go wireless at some time, and they will. But they are just waiting until the market is ready with wireless solutions, and digital headphones, and then they’ ll Drop it.
We can all laugh at apple’s “ courage” comment when removing the headphone jack.
But what about a company that tries to make it laughable, let the other companies innovate, and a few years later, they do the same?
Is that courage? Or just a sign of weakness, no consistency and marketing spinning?
Even if they go without a headphone jack in 4 years, it is laughable, and should be judged as such. Considering Steve jobs said something about a stylus (in a different context), and that is still being held against them 10 years later, because he used it against competitors in a press event(like samsung did with the headphone jack in their press event)
Why would samsung get another treatment if they finally remove the headphone jack, even if it is in a few years?

 

[chagla]

Nice hardware, terrible software.

Have you used it? Can you cite specific examples of how it's terrible?

 

[rjohnstone]

No,

Samsung has put themselves in a corner, by touting and making jokes the lack of the headphone jack with the iphone 7 in their own press events.
They have to stick with it for another year, because people don’ t forget.
Look at the reactions for the pixel 2. Google did the same, made jokes about apple, and now, a year later, they are abandoning the jack. Or look at the stylus remark of SJ, from a century ago, people keep on referring to that.
Samsung has to go wireless at some time, and they will. But they are just waiting until the market is ready with wireless solutions, and digital headphones, and then they’ ll Drop it.
We can all laugh at apple’s “ courage” comment when removing the headphone jack.
But what about a company that tries to make it laughable, let the other companies innovate, and a few years later, they do the same?
Is that courage? Or just a sign of weakness, no consistency and marketing spinning?
Even if they go without a headphone jack in 4 years, it is laughable, and should be judged as such. Considering Steve jobs said something about a stylus (in a different context), and that is still being held against them 10 years later, because he used it against competitors in a press event(like samsung did with the headphone jack in their press event)
Why would samsung get another treatment if they finally remove the headphone jack, even if it is in a few years?

I can see your scenario and I agree.. Koreans hate to lose face.
At the same time, there is still a market for keeping it.
My wife still complains about her 7+ not having it as she forgets her headphones all the time and cannot steal mine (I still have a 6s+). The dongle for her phone was lost within the first week.

 

[bladerunner2000]

The device also keeps the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

That alone is reason enough to buy it over an iPhone.

 

[9081094]

I wish I was into Android.

The difference between Android and iOS isn't big nowadays. Most tech sites even prefer android over iOS in their latest reviews. Together with better services on the android side, cheaper and better hardware I don't understand why iPhone sales will sink harder.

 

[ApostolisApo]

No,

Samsung has put themselves in a corner, by touting and making jokes the lack of the headphone jack with the iphone 7 in their own press events.
They have to stick with it for another year, because people don’ t forget.
Look at the reactions for the pixel 2. Google did the same, made jokes about apple, and now, a year later, they are abandoning the jack. Or look at the stylus remark of SJ, from a century ago, people keep on referring to that.
Samsung has to go wireless at some time, and they will. But they are just waiting until the market is ready with wireless solutions, and digital headphones, and then they’ ll Drop it.
We can all laugh at apple’s “ courage” comment when removing the headphone jack.
But what about a company that tries to make it laughable, let the other companies innovate, and a few years later, they do the same?
Is that courage? Or just a sign of weakness, no consistency and marketing spinning?
Even if they go without a headphone jack in 4 years, it is laughable, and should be judged as such. Considering Steve jobs said something about a stylus (in a different context), and that is still being held against them 10 years later, because he used it against competitors in a press event(like samsung did with the headphone jack in their press event)
Why would samsung get another treatment if they finally remove the headphone jack, even if it is in a few years?

I don't like fanboys, although to many I would seem like one, and I don't like whiners and know-it-alls. I can see why people say that Tim Cook lacks Jobs' charisma, but I have to say this:
the AirPods may well be his absolute greatest magnum opus as CEO. I absolutely love them and can not see me living without them now.
Also, it's funny because all the people who rushed to condemn Apple for its "courage" comment, are exactly confirming that yeah, it takes courage to remove an input port used by literally the whole mankind *until last year* and then seeing your innovation having 97% satisfaction rate and being adopted by many of your competitors..

 

[mi7chy]

Are you really comparing a 2+ years old phone versus the latest?
My 7+ with 2GB caches several web pages with no hassle. So what?

On average, Android requires double the memory of iOS for the same functionalities.

The Galaxy Note 2 from 2012 has 2GB DRAM. I went from an iPhone 4S with 512MB that constantly reloaded to Note 2 with quadruple the DRAM and no reloads.

Don't know where you pull your info from but using double the memory is wrong. Samsung has more features so it uses more memory but not double. Even with pen, pen to text transcription, split window multitasking, background multitasking, etc. that iPhones still lack the Note 2 uses less than 1GB with 1GB free.

Samsung tend to future proof their devices while Apple's approach is offering bare minimal with emphasis on higher profit.

 

[jamesrick80]

The Galaxy Note 2 from 2012 has 2GB DRAM. I went from an iPhone 4S with 512MB that constantly reloaded to Note 2 with quadruple the DRAM and no reloads.

Don't know where you pull your info from but using double the memory is wrong. Samsung has more features so it uses more memory but not double. Even with pen, pen to text transcription, split window multitasking, background multitasking, etc. that iPhones still lack the Note 2 uses less than 1GB with 1GB free.

Samsung tend to future proof their devices while Apple's approach is offering bare minimal with emphasis on higher profit.

I agree. I also think that I will be keeping my Note 8 for next 2 years since it is future proof. Upgrades will definitely slow down since phones are doing so much. I really can't ask for any more than what the Note offers.

 

[Enygmatic]

Drool... (still can't come to love Android, no matter how much I use it; love the improvements, but iOS any day of the week for me) This will replace my S8.

Apple's up next.

 

[ChrisCW11]

Yeah no thanks. The iPhone 6 has literally better RAM management with 1GB of RAM than Sammy has with 6GB of RAM. It's embarrassing at this point. Looks good though.

Ever wonder why you can't dock two apps on an iPhone and have the run at the same time....not enough RAM.

Galaxy Note is a "power user" device, allowing you to dock multiple apps and use the pen to drag and drop between them. Apple runs only one app at a time and suspends the others and allows some background tasks that do not consume a lot of RAM, has nothing to do with "efficient" design, just limited innovation. Why did iPhone 7 double the RAM, 7 Plus triple it, iPhone 8 will be at least 4 GB.

It's actually embarrassing when people try to justify why Apple when they are at least 3 years behind their competition on many features, and then still has the audacity to try and charge $1000+ for a phone. Having 1 GB b of ram in a "modern" phone is a joke and Apple only does it to shave $0.25 off their component costs so they can put more in the bank, not out of respect for their customers or excellence in OS engineering.

 

[ValO]

Ever wonder why you can't dock two apps on an iPhone and have the run at the same time....not enough RAM.

Galaxy Note is a "power user" device, allowing you to dock multiple apps and use the pen to drag and drop between them. Apple runs only one app at a time and suspends the others and allows some background tasks that do not consume a lot of RAM, has nothing to do with "efficient" design, just limited innovation. Why did iPhone 7 double the RAM, 7 Plus triple it, iPhone 8 will be at least 4 GB.

It's actually embarrassing when people try to justify why Apple when they are at least 3 years behind their competition on many features, and then still has the audacity to try and charge $1000+ for a phone. Having 1 GB b of ram in a "modern" phone is a joke and Apple only does it to shave $0.25 off their component costs so they can put more in the bank, not out of respect for their customers or excellence in OS engineering.

Which modern phone? The iphone 6 is around 3 years old now. What the ... you are talking about?

 

[cracksoup]

Ever wonder why you can't dock two apps on an iPhone and have the run at the same time....not enough RAM.

Galaxy Note is a "power user" device, allowing you to dock multiple apps and use the pen to drag and drop between them. Apple runs only one app at a time and suspends the others and allows some background tasks that do not consume a lot of RAM, has nothing to do with "efficient" design, just limited innovation. Why did iPhone 7 double the RAM, 7 Plus triple it, iPhone 8 will be at least 4 GB.

It's actually embarrassing when people try to justify why Apple when they are at least 3 years behind their competition on many features, and then still has the audacity to try and charge $1000+ for a phone. Having 1 GB b of ram in a "modern" phone is a joke and Apple only does it to shave $0.25 off their component costs so they can put more in the bank, not out of respect for their customers or excellence in OS engineering.

iOS runs two apps live side by side since 2014 with the iPad Air 2. Phones are simply too small to be usable for split view (imo). Never used it on my Note 3 and never miss it on my iPhone. So 2GB of RAM is still more than enough for iOS because it simply has a good way of keeping programs in memory. It works for me and millions of iPhone users and it's not something that's gonna change.

If you don't think iOS is efficient, you're just another laggard.

"Apple are at least 3 years behind their competition in many features"
Alright which features are you talking about? The thing you guys call wireless charging? Laughable.

 

[heretiq]

So your saying that Android the OS reads other applications data then shares it? So for example Android can read your Microsoft Word application data and share it with google? I guess what I don't understand is what a free service like Google Photos has to do with other apps installed on the device? Is it because you feel Android apps aren't sandboxed like Apple apps?

I didn’t say any of those things.

But what I will say is that Google makes most of its money (profits) from selling your personal information — information it collects through google apps and services you use directly (email, search, etc.), and information it infers about you by tracking what you do and who you interact with through its services that you knowingly and unknowingly use indirectly (DNS, and I suspect OS services used by non-google apps, etc.).

They have been caught violating what little user privacy they profess to honor so many times that it’s obvious to me that everything they do is optimized to extract every bit of personal information they can with every transaction. That is what I would expect a company that makes most of its profits from advertising to do. That is why I choose to avoid the google ecosystem or minimize my exposure to it.

 

[zone23]

I didn’t say any of those things.

But what I will say is that Google makes most of its money (profits) from selling your personal information — information it collects through google apps and services you use directly (email, search, etc.), and information it infers about you by tracking what you do and who you interact with through its services that you knowingly and unknowingly use indirectly (DNS, and I suspect OS services used by non-google apps, etc.).

They have been caught violating what little user privacy they profess to honor so many times that it’s obvious to me that everything they do is optimized to extract every bit of personal information they can with every transaction. That is what I would expect a company that makes most of its profits from advertising to do. That is why I choose to avoid the google ecosystem or minimize my exposure to it.

So you use like Bing or something as a search engine then?

 

[cedsim]

All of those specs and the software will never truly take advantage of the hardware. Suspect ecosystem, fragmented OS structure, and a shady company. I'll stick with the iPhone from last year before possibly putting a time bomb in my pocket!

 

[brdeveloper]

The difference in audio quality also has to do with iPhone recording in mono and Samsung in stereo.

Don't know if this is the case. Actually there were low-end Lumia phones (like the Lumia 630) which recorded in mono, but were able to do HAAC audio (high amplitude audio capture). Nokia approach consisted on using two microphones, one of them more sensitive to low amplitudes and the other one to high amplitudes. Later, both recordings were merged into a single track. I presume Samsung uses a similar approach.

I prefer a mono capture capable to register a rock gig without distortions than a stereo capture which distorts anything louder than speech volume.

 

[lordofthereef]

For the phone enthusiast this is fine. They’ll replace it in a year, not unlike what apple super fans do. If I was looking for a 2+ year old longevity, Samsung wouldn’t be it though.

 

[rjohnstone]

If I was looking for a 2+ year old longevity, Samsung wouldn’t be it though.

Why would you say that?
I know plenty of people with Samsung phones older than two years and they work just fine.
Remember, most up until the S6 had replaceable batteries, which tend to be the first thing to go on a phone.

Hell my Galaxy S4 is still used for app testing. It's running AOKP build of Android 7.1.2.
The hardware is plenty capable and it has 2GB of ram, so it rarely gets bogged down.

 

[lordofthereef]

Why would you say that?
I know plenty of people with Samsung phones older than two years and they work just fine.
Remember, most up until the S6 had replaceable batteries, which tend to be the first thing to go on a phone.

Hell my Galaxy S4 is still used for app testing. It's running AOKP build of Android 7.1.2.
The hardware is plenty capable and it has 2GB of ram, so it rarely gets bogged down.

If you know what you’re doing and know how load various android builds that’s great. That sort of falls into the “enthusiast” class for me. I used to be that but not anymore; have other priorities now. My favorite was cyanogen, I don’t even know if that’s a thing still. )edit: looks
Like it’s not) Many folks get frustrated with lack of updates (for better or for worse) and their phone slowing down doing absolutely no maintenance (things don’t get deleted, plenty of crap getting installed, etc).

I run android on my work device and have little desire to tinker. I personally prefer something that easily loads vanilla (or damn near it) over the air. Samsung’s hardware would be at the top of my list if it didn’t require additional effort. Particularly for a work phone I need it to just work.

 

[kdarling]

But what I will say is that Google makes most of its money (profits) from selling your personal information —

No, Google does NOT sell personal information, any more than Apple does with its iAds.

In both cases, they sell anonymous ad slots to advertisers.

E.g. an advertiser says, here's an ad, please show it to people between the ages of 21-25, with middle income and an interest in sports. Then Apple/Google, using the information they have collected to put us into prearranged slots, shows the ad to the correct users.

The advertiser does not know to whom their ad being shown, nor any personal information.

In fact, Apple/Google are not about to sell the info they have on us, because keeping it secret is exactly what makes it so valuable.

 

[lowendlinux]

iOS runs two apps live side by side since 2014 with the iPad Air 2. Phones are simply too small to be usable for split view (imo). Never used it on my Note 3 and never miss it on my iPhone. So 2GB of RAM is still more than enough for iOS because it simply has a good way of keeping programs in memory. It works for me and millions of iPhone users and it's not something that's gonna change.

If you don't think iOS is efficient, you're just another laggard.

"Apple are at least 3 years behind their competition in many features"
Alright which features are you talking about? The thing you guys call wireless charging? Laughable.

And Android runs fine on 2GB also

 

[rjohnstone]

Many folks get frustrated with lack of updates (for better or for worse) and their phone slowing down doing absolutely no maintenance (things don’t get deleted, plenty of crap getting installed, etc).

I run android on my work device and have little desire to tinker. I personally prefer something that easily loads vanilla (or damn near it) over the air. Samsung’s hardware would be at the top of my list if it didn’t require additional effort. Particularly for a work phone I need it to just work.

My father-in-law is still running a Galaxy S5 I gave him last year, it's completely stock.
Still works the same as it did the day I gave it to him. Sammy is still pushing security updates for the S5, so I haven't pushed him to upgrade yet.
I think he's more representative of the average user. I ask him every once and a while if he's having any problems. So far none to report.
Trust me... I would get a phone call if it were having issues.

Anecdotal of course, but I think people toss perfectly good phones way too early.

And yeah... I'm a tech nerd.
Still have my first Sammy (S2 Skyrocket) that still works. (Stock software)
I also have a pile of assorted Windows phones and iPhones including my 1st gen iPhone.

 

[lordofthereef]

Anecdotal of course, but I think people toss perfectly good phones way too early.

I can agree with you on this haha.

I base a little bit of my info on what my wife tells me. She manages a Best Buy and the most complaints they have are regarding Samsung phones. It’s the most frequently “traded up” device too. Granted, iPhones are up there too in the upgrade field haha. Makes sense right? Two most popular manufacturers out there, when it comes to smartphones.