The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 arrived in my life late yesterday morning, I’ve had a chance to play with the device and start setting it up. While a full review is likely around 2 weeks away, I try to share my first impressions of a review device fairly quickly so here we go.
The first thing that really struck me when I opened the box was the dazzling white bezel around the screen. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of personal opinion. I’m personally not a fan of light coloured devices, I’ve had bad experiences with white phones in the past and have been hesitant about them ever since.
It’s a very distinct look and the Galaxy Note 8 has a distinctly Samsung flavor about it. The second thing was how light the device is, being notably larger than my ever faithful Nexus 7 I guess I expected it to be notably heavier too; it’s not, in fact it feels ever so slightly lighter. It really is a lovely looking device and would look the part in the arsenal of any travelling business man’s case for quickly checking emails, reading on planes or pretty much anything that you could accomplish without the need for a keyboard.
The Specs
The device itself is nothing ground breaking or special by current standards, but it’s in the right area:
- 1.6Ghz Quad-Core processor
- 2GB Ram
- 5MP rear facing, 1.3MP front facing camera’s
- All the connecticity you’d expect; wifi, bluetooth, GPS etc.
- 8″ 1280 x 800 LCD Screen
- Massive 4600mAh battery
For a tablet it’s nothing earth shattering, does it evince a complacent “they’ll buy it because it’s a Galaxy device” attitude from Samsung. It hits the mark with regard to current market expectations on spec.
Hardware and Aesthetics
The hardware is really nice, in the usual Samsung way it has their own look and feel about it, so if you’re a lover of Samsung you’ll love this tablet. From a pure device review perspective, it not only looks good but it feels good too. It’s a great device that gets noticed when you whip it out. It’s a surprisingly slender device for an 8″ screen and so far has really impressed me with it’s look and feel. I have a painfully cute image to put in perspective how sleek and slender the device actually is. Due to my own complacency and lack of forethought as to how mobile my 8 month old daughter actually is, I left it (I thought) out of arms reach and discovered to my horror a short time later that it was in fact attainable to her level of mobility.
Performance
The OS performance is impressive, very impressive! It’s snappy and responsive to touch as well as being easy on the eye when displaying HD videos via DLNA streaming or YouTube. The voice recognition is quite impressive and very accurate, I’m even using it right now to write this article with children in the house, Sesame Street on the television and other ambient noise. While it’s still early days with the device for me and no doubt in the coming couple of weeks I’ll find some annoyances, at this stage based on my first impressions of the Galaxy Note 8 I’d be happy to recommend it to “every day” users. Whether or not I’d recommend it to power users or serious tech heads remains to be seen.
Are you in the market for a new tablet? Let us know what you want from your tablet in the comments below and we’ll try to address questions in the upcoming review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
