14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung will launch the Galaxy Note 8 in September, according to a new report, and will cost nearly as much as a top iPhone 7 Plus.
Serial leaker Evan Blass writing for VentureBeat reveals that the Galaxy Note 8 will officially see daylight in the second half of September, which means that this time, Samsung won’t beat Apple to launching the company’s latest-generation flagship. Last year, Samsung rushed to unveil the Note 7 before Apple’s iPhone 7 and it all turned out to be the firm’s biggest fiasco due to exploding batteries.
The Galaxy Note 8 will boast a 6.3-inch AMOLED display with 18.5:9 aspect ratio, just like the Samsung Galaxy S8 series, though this time the South Korean firm goes for a slightly bigger screen.
On the other hand, Samsung is planning to make a bigger difference between the S lineup and the new Note, so it will upgrade RAM from 4GB on the models currently on the market to 6GB (the Korean version of the Galaxy S8 Plus also comes with 6GB RAM). Power will continue to come from the Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895 processors, depending on market, while the fingerprint reader will stay on the back, though Samsung will move it slightly closer to the edge of the phone.
Smaller battery due to overheating concerns
Just like Apple, Samsung considered embedding the fingerprint sensor into the screen, but this technology won’t be ready when the Note 8 sees daylight in September. Apple will thus be the first large company putting a fingerprint sensor inside the display on the OLED iPhone 8.
The Galaxy Note 8 will also come with a dual-camera configuration, with the report claiming Samsung will go for 2 different 12-megapixel units with independent optical image stabilization. The cameras will be placed horizontally, while Apple will install them vertically on the iPhone 8.
In terms of battery, which has become one of the critical parts of a Samsung phablet following the Note 7 fiasco, the South Korean firm will use a rather small 3,300 mAh unit, but it’s believed the firm didn’t go for increased capacity in order to avoid overheating as it happened with the previous generation.
The Galaxy S8 Plus will hit the shelves in Europe for €999, while in the US, it could cost approximately $900. This will make it nearly as expensive as the top iPhone 7 Plus, which can be yours right now from Apple for $969.