Reviews
Dean Quinn
17:51, 12 Jun 2013
The latest addition to the the Samsung Galaxy Note stable is not a phablet but a full slate device - we see what it has in store...
Typical Price:
£350.00
Pros:
S-Pen stylus, high-res display, expandable memory, note-taking functionality
Cons:
High price tag in context to similar devices, non-premium built materials, bloatware-laden
Verdict:
If you're dipping your toes into the tablet pool for the first time then the cheaper Nexus 7 might be a better option (or even an iPad Mini if you're after 'a name'). For those that want a stylus however, the Galaxy Note 8 could be just what you've been waiting for.
More Info:
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Microsite
Samsung's Galaxy range is so far entwined with the Google mobile platform which power the devices that consumers reportedly struggle to differentiate between an Android smartphone and a Samsung smartphone, with many simply asking for 'a Galaxy' in stores up and down the country.
Great news for the Korean manufacturer, but no so great news for the muddled purchaser as upon asking for 'a Galaxy' they'll be presented with a myriad of choices, something that Samsung hasn't looked to make any simpler by adding the Galaxy Note 8 to its arsenal.
Those already aquainted with Samsung's Note series may well be aware of the Note and Note 2 phablets but the family also has some lesser known members that occupy actual tablet territory, the latest of which is the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.
Priced at around £350 can this tablet do enough to cause the cheaper iPad Mini to look over its metaphorical shoulder? Read on to find out...
Design
If you've ever seen either of the Note devices we alluded to earlier, or indeed the Galaxy S3 or recent Galaxy S4 flagship, you'll instantly recognise the design elements on show here.
The Note 8.0, as its moniker suggests, sports an 8-inch 1280x800 pixel resolution display of Samsung's Super AMOLED variety, neatly enveloped within a pristine white plastic frame.
The influence of Samsung's later Galaxy devices is clear here as, other than some slightly more rounded corners and the absence of a cambered rear, the Note 8 looks a lot like a massive Galaxy Note 2.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 LTE review
Unfortunately, Samsung has opted to go with the same high-gloss polycarbonate for this latest tablet and although it is hardwearing enough, we can't help but think that the whole of the recent Galaxy range would benefit from a more premium-looking (and feeling) build material.
That said, the Note 8 does claw back some kudos in the style stakes owing to the sleek metal bezel that snakes around the perimeter of the device, although the continuity is broken in the bottom left corner by the end of the S-Pen stylus which again is made from plastic.
Elsewhere, the generally minimalist stylings are punctuated only by the front-facing camera at the top of (and slightly towards the left edge) of the screen whereas at the foot of the display sits a centrally positioned Home button flanked by Back and Menu softkeys.
Whilst this set-up is in keeping with the rest of the Korean firm's Galaxy wares, we can't help but think that the days of tactile keys have passed - yes Apple may persist with one and we all know how successful iDevices are - but smooth front fascias without any protrusions just look so much better, no?
Apple iPad Mini review
On the subject of protrusions, Samsung has made a much better job of incorporating other necessary physical controls into the right hand side of the Note 8 with the power button and volume rocker arranged in ascending order with an IR blaster situated just below that. With the obvious exception of the infra-red LED, these are the same silver hue as the rest of the bezel, so why couldn't Samsung have made the S-Pen cap this colour too? The left edge houses only a microSD slot although this isn't combined into the bezel but positioned slightly below, almost on the rear cover but not quite.
The bottom edge of the device sees two barely noticeable yet adequately powerful speaker slits with the microUSB port found nestling inbetween, while at the opposite end of the tab sees just the 3.5mm audio jack infiltrating that aesthetically pleasing band of silver.
Samsung Galaxy S4 review and best prices
Onto the rear then and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 features a back panel similar to that seen the Galaxy S4. The rear cover on those devices was constructed from a flimsy high-gloss plastic but here it's slightly less flimsy, possibly due to the fact that rear fascia is not removable as it was on the Galaxy S3 and there's a wealth of innards sitting beneath the cover that give it some substance.
All in all, the Galaxy Note 8 is a well put-together tablet and if you don't mind the lack of the premium grade materials that make the rival iPad Mini feel so classy, you'll get on just fine with this Sammy offering.
Display
When it comes to this tablet proving an adequate competitor to the iPad Mini, the 8-inch form helps out as it features a 1280x800-pixel resolution - higher than the iPad Mini's 1024x786 set-up.
Of course, this being a Samsung creation, Super AMOLED technology is in place and whilst some say that this screen type renders everything in a slightly bluish hue, there's really not that much difference between the performance offered by the iPad Mini (despite its marginally higher ppi of 189).
As with the rest of the Galaxy range, be it tablet or smartphone, visual aspects present no problems at all - widgets and app icons are crisp and clear and viewing video content, either via the likes of YouTube or footage you've captured yourself using the 8-megapixel camera, have decent image and colour reproduction across the board.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 announced
Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 official with Android Jelly Bean
People tend to bang on about viewing angles quite a lot when talking about tablets and although the Note 8 is generally glossy throughout, the screen is perfectly usable in most situations and isn't affected by glare too much. So long as you don't expect to watch anything of particular length in direct sunlight or with the device suspended a few feet above you, you'll be fine.
Operating system and UI
Given that Samsung is the heavyweight champion of the Android world it's quite a surprise that the latest version of Google's mobile platform doesn't crop up here. For the uninitiated, that latest version is Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 - the Note 8 runs Android 4.1.2.
All the garnish you get from the Big G is still present though - Google Now, Gmail and Google + integration, maps and the rest, not to mention the countless third party apps available from the extensively populated Google Play Store. Just would have been nice to see the freshest Android iteration out of the box that's all.
Has Google finally broken the Android update cycle?
Samsung's TouchWiz UX has always been much of a muchness to this particular reviewer and aside from a few splashes of variation on things such as quick settings menus and some graphical elements within the interface, there isn't really anything to write home about.
That's not to say that it's a frivolous inclusion as it does neatly compliment the many Samsung native apps - some of which are there to get the most out of the S-Pen stylus - and generally speaking it's one of the more useful Android skins.
Elsewhere, the usual Samsung Hubs take their now familiar place and group all your games and music together in sepatate easy to reach clumps, meaning you don't have to go firking around digital nooks and crannies to find where certain stuff is stored.
The main thrust about this one though is the extra software Samsung has thrown in to enable the whole stylus element, which, if we're honest, is perhaps the only reason you'd opt for the Note 8 over an iPad Mini, Nexus 7, or members the Galaxy Tab range for that matter.
S-Pen and related software
As mentioned earlier, you'll find Samsung's S-Pen stylus neatly tucked into the frame of the Note 8 and upon unsheathing it, you'll open up a world of functionality.
Ok, so the extra dimension it adds may not be earth shattering, but once you get to grips with it, you can put it to good use annotating web pages, scribbling notes using S Note and drawing stuff in Sketchbook and the like.
There's also the Paper Artist app that appeared on the Note 2 and later Galaxy Tabs and this'll no doubt satisfy those who like nothing more than putting weird pencil shadings onto photographs and all that kind of jazz.
S-Note is where it's at though and extends the functionality of the device no end by allowing the writing of general notes as well as scrawling onto screenshots, maps, webpages and pretty much anything else. Importing those things is fairly straightforward and the icon-based interface is easy to get your head around. You've also got some nifty handwriting recognition.
Also related to the S-Pen functionality is the Air View feature that allows content housed in specific tabs or windows to be previewed by simply hovering the magic digital poking stick over it.
When this feature made its debut on the Note 2 we were initially a bit sceptical as to the practical uses but having played with it in greater depth on subsequent Galaxy devices we can kind of see the point to it.
Have you ever been cooking and following a recipe from your smartphone only to realise that you've got to scroll down with food smeared all over your hands? Air View is your friend in situations like these.
It's also useful for jumping to points in videos without having to muzz up the screen with finger grease, as well as previewing the day's appointments within the S-Planner calendar app.
How to use Air View on your Samsung Galaxy Note 2
As with other stylus-equipped Galaxy kit, gesture commands are supported meaning that you can create and assign certain doodles to certain functions. By scrawling a word or crudely drawn phallus or whatever it is you assigned as the gesture to open, say, the email client, it will magically open.
This feature isn't especially useful if you don't happen to be using the S-Pen for something else at the time, but when it's in your grip and you feel the need to hop out of one thing and into another it does save you time.
Another returning piece of functionality is Samsung's friend Pop-up Play, a feature that lets you continue watching a video whilst delving into another area of the phone without having to pause and navigate elsewhere. If you get an email whilst watching a movie for example, just engage Pop-up Play and you can carry on watching in a minimised window as well as composing your reply.
Multitasking prowess continues with the ability to have two apps open simultaneously. Again, this is especially useful for email-based situations as it'll allow you to click on a link contained within an email and have the webpage open whilst still reading the message. Or you could just try and play two games at once, Rain Man style...
TV remote and IR blaster
The notion of an infrared LED on a phone or tablet is slightly retro to many but the things seem to be making resurgence of late with recent flagships from the likes of HTC including them. Never one to miss out on the latest tech trend, Samsung chucked one in on the S4 and has repeated the trick here so as to take advantage of the Peel-powered Samsung WatchON TV app.
This feature hasn't previously appeared on Note devices, although Samsung WatchON has minus the TV remote functionality. Much like the excellent HTC TV exhibited by the HTC One, WatchON works with most televisions regardless of make and model and once set up, allows the user to control their set by poking at the TV remote interface on the tablet.
Unlike HTC's offering however, Samsung's WatchOn is temperamental to say the least and whist a vast array TVs are supported, getting it to work without hitch is not always easy.
In the know: Are the HTC One's key features all they're cracked up to be?
Nevertheless, the other elements of WatchOn are very useable and useful - recommended shows based on your viewing history, seamless channel browsing and supplementary info about what you're watching are all on hand.
We can see why Samsung has opted for the Peel tech and IR blaster here given the growth in 'second screening' (techspeak for sitting on the sofa watching TV whilst snarkily tweeting about it at the same time), we'd just hoped that it'd have ironed out the creases before going to market with this device.
Performance
The Galaxy Note 8 rocks some impressive specs and under the glossy sheen of its outer casing you'll find a Exynos quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz, supported by 2GB of RAM. This, aided and abetted by the Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 OS makes for a pleasantly responsive user experience and thanks to the magic of Google's Project Butter, means that hanging and lag are almost non-existent.
As explored elsewhere in this review, multitasking proves no problem at all and even when subjected to some heavy duty, processor intensive gaming - old favourite Real Racing 3 was wheeled out again - there was no stutters to be had.
The same can be said of video streaming at 720p and 1080p, and web use. Sunspider clocked the Note 8 at 1387.8ms, which is in the same ball park as the Galaxy S4 and a bit of an improvement on the iPad Mini.
With the Note 8, you're spoiled for choice when it comes to browsers with Chrome and Samsung's own effort as standard. There's no Flash support for either though, but that's not so much of a problem these days given the ever quickening switch to HTML5.
Samsung is to be commended for equipping this slate with a reasonably decent main camera - 5-megapixels to be exact - and a 1.3-megapixel front-facer that's more than adequate for Skyping.
Video footage can be captured at 720p from the rear lens and general photography is easily handled with images produced being crisp and featuring decent colour saturation under normal conditions. Low light performance could be better as snaps look a tad fuzzy and lack definition. Not that it matters though as tablets aren't used as imaging devices all that much.
The Note 8 rocks Samsung's fabled Exynos quad-core 1.6GHz processor, and that means that this little slate is fast. We've already covered the web benchamark scores and you'll be pleased to read that AnTuTu returned equally impressive results with the Galaxy Note 8 chalking up a score of 14046. Told you it was swift.
Battery longevity is often a sticking point with mobile devices regardless of which category they fall into but Wi-Fi tablets generally fare better given that they're not used for calling or continually searching for celluar signals.
The Note 8 does come in a 3G version but we can only comment on the Wi-Fi only version and whilst not ripping up any trees in terms of stamina, the length of use we got out of it from one charge was pretty much standard.
Day-to-day usage - scouring the web, a bit of Angry Birds Star Wars, a Skype call or two and a couple of 30 minute TV programs via BBC iPlayer - had the battery level down to around half.
So, by that reckoning, you'll get around two days from one juicing up from the mains. Subject the Note 8 to an extended. processor-intensive gaming session on top of this however and it will likely impact performance.
Connectivity
We've an inkling that Samsung realises that this (and most of its tablet output) will mainly be used in the home and as such has equipped the Note 8 with all it needs to feature at the heart of users' entertainment setups. This means that web is covered by 802.11g and 802.11n connectivity and both Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS are also supported.
For those that like to use their tablet as a content hub, and let's face it - who doesn't, DLNA and MHL are on hand to allow the Note 8 to be hooked up to a massive HD TV, so it can take full advantage of that 1080p playback.
The video player itself supports MP4, Xvid, H.264, DivX and WMV files whereas MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AC3 and FLAC formats are for music. The built-in speakers aren't the best but a 3.5mm audio jack means that you can wire up some external ones should you so wish.
Overview
Samsung clearly knows its onions when it comes to Android devices and that's clear to see here. Its screen is impressive and the multimedia chops it can pull off make it an appealing prospect for those who'd utilise it as a central hub within the home.
Whilst the plasticky feel and glossy whiteness might put some off, as will the price tag a bit more than the iPad Mini, but the extended functionality offered by the S-Pen stylus goes some way to remedy this. If you're dipping your toes into the tablet pool for the first time then the cheaper Nexus 7 might be a better option (or even an iPad Mini if you're after 'a name'). For those that want a stylus however, the Galaxy Note 8 could be just what you've been waiting for.
Specifications
Length
210.8mm
Width
135.9mm
Thickness
8mm
Weight
338g
Screen Colours
16m
Screen Size
8-inches
UK Launch
April 2013
Typical Price
£350
Website
http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote/note8.0/
Designer Lens
No
Camera Resolution
5-megapixel
Video Resolution
720p
Flash
No
Zoom
No
Music Formats
MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AC3, FLAC
Song Storage
16GB
Speaker
x2
Samsung
Devices
Tablets
Android
Samsung Galaxy Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
Samsung TouchWiz
Apple iPad Mini
Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Samsung Air View
Samsung Galaxy S4
Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2