Samsung Galaxy Note 8 fails to impress

Samsung unveiled its highly-anticipated Galaxy Note 8 today in New York City, and we finally find out if all the leaks and rumours surrounding the much-hyped device came into fruition.

Though the South Korean tech giant bounced back with its Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices, which were launched in late March, it's the Note 8 that everyone has its focus on, thanks to the dreadful fate the fire-prone Note 7 suffered last year, forcing Samsung to pull out the high-end device and abruptly end its production.

We've covered much about what to expect here, here and here. Here's our blow-by-blow updates from the Big Apple.

This is Samsung's first smartphone to feature dual camera set-up at the rear with portrait mode and dual optical image stabilisation (OIS). It also comes with "Bixby" intelligent assistant, water and dust resistance and iris scanner.

Similar to the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+, the Note 8 also sports "Infinity Display" with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9.

The 6.3-inch screen is Super AMOLED with a resolution of 1440 x 2960 pixels.

Note 8 sports top-notch features such as 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 octa-core chipset with 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage.

Galaxy Note 8 will come with 64-bit Exynos 8895 octa-core processor in regions like India and other Asian countries.

The dual cameras at the back include a 12MP wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/1.7 and a 12MP telephoto lens with aperture of f/2.4.

The 8MP front camera also comes with optical image stabilisation.

The "S Pen" stylus with Galaxy Note 8 comes with a latency of less than 50 milliseconds.

The smartphone also comes with USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer. A 3,300mAh battery powers the Note 8 with support for fast-charging and wireless fast charging.

The handset also houses a microSD card slot for expandable storage.

Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and GPS.

Note 8 runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS with Samsung's TouchWiz UI on top.

The smartphone will be available in Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Deep Sea Blue and Maple Gold colour options.

To regain the customers' trust, the company is believed to have enhanced safety checklist by using in-house '8-point battery test'.

The fiasco over Samsung's Note 7 caused the firm operating losses of some $5 billion.

Source: Khaleej Times