Gadgetory

it seems like there are tablets and smartphones for just about any size nowadays Samsung has certainly been making the rounds with their tab and note devices of which there is now an 8 inch version and as a note tablet it brought a little friend along age Josh of Agartha manager authority what's going on everybody and this No is the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 if you've gotten used to 7 or 10 inch form factors the note 8 is in the middle and it's most similarly sized competitor is probably the iPad Mini what you get here is Samsung's signature plastic design that is prone to fingerprints and can be a little slick to the touch the 8 inch screen is surrounded by a decent bezel with the quintessential button layout at the bottom the tactile home button flanked by back and menu the rounded look is basically all around though the sides are thicker and flat enough to grip around the back is just the 5 megapixel camera and down in the corner is of course the s-pen as far as tablets go this is a pretty thin device and 8 inches it's about as big a device can get before one-handed grips are impossible it is really pushing it though the point of it however is that you can lay the note 8 in one hand or just barely grip it so that the other one can tap in right away with the pen for a reasonably priced 8-inch tablet Samsung had to obviously make some concessions this does sort of start with the display with the barrage of 1080p displays coming out these days the note 8 instead sports a TFT capacitive screen capable of 1280 by 800 resolution and 189 PPI you can pretty much see the difference right away due to the bloated TouchWiz icons there is a decent contrast and the saturation while quite colorful still doesn't rival the Super AMOLED found in Samsung smartphones the pixel density leaves text looking decent but somewhat pixelated when zoomed in just right ultimately this is definitely a good screen for reading and when viewing pictures and videos it still proves quite enjoyable it's not a bad screen by any means you can just say it just matches its price point now performance on the note 8 happens to be quite good a 1.6 gigahertz XC nose for a quad-core processor powers this tablet and does a good job of it rolling through the elements brought little-to-no stutters and any pauses I might have run into were more due to updating apps than sheer performance antutu gave this Note 8 a score close to 18 thousand which is still an impressive score the mali-400 MP graphics and 2 gigabytes of RAM helped make gaming and multitasking easy overall the note 8 should please pretty much anyone looking for snappy tablet experience the compromise is taken to keep the note eight decently price to continue with the hardware I should note that while there is a phone capable version available overseas we get the Wi-Fi version here in the states and in it you get the usual list of connection capabilities like Bluetooth GPS though in this version there is no NFC and thus no SP 16 or 32 gigabyte variants are available though a microSD card slot on the side allows for expansion of course the big story here is the S Pen snapped into the bottom corner the S Pen is a fixture of the note 8 and it certainly awakens the tablet when removed for the uninitiated the S Pen is essentially a stylus with a button for added functionality its presence can be registered through taps drags and even hovers over the sensitive screen writing diagramming and even general navigation are possible with the S Pen and it is a big draw for this line of Samsung's devices it's a very handy piece of hardware to have and before long you could start using it more than your finger it's also worth noting that you can now use the S Pen on the capacitive keys despite the portions of this tablet that have been removed for affordability the S Pen is definitely its ace in the hole you would think that a 4,600 milliamp hour battery could last for a really long time for the non removable battery unit in the Galaxy Note 8 however that is mostly true after using this tablet for about a week I was happy to see that a whole day of moderate to heavy usage was really no problem however once I had the device ready for another day's work it wouldn't last for too long on that second outing average users will definitely get just over 2 days from the note 8 which is good but power users might even be able to drain this battery in one very busy day so battery life is only very decent despite the high capacity that the note hate is packing the camera on the note aid works just about how you would expect for tablet optics the 5 megapixels and the lack of a flash should give some of the story away already though we all know taking pictures with the tablet is a little weird it's really there just in case you need it that being said it gives only decent photos and there are only a few modes in the app like panorama or burst shot it's not an exceptional performer and is definitely there more as a required feature than selling point which brings us the software which is TouchWiz through and through the bloated and colorful elements returned with a few adjustments in this jellybean 4.1.2 build you have the power widgets up top in the notification drop-down and a couple navigation additions like the Palm motions as a straight user interface there is not much else to say until you factor in the s-pen with this stylus you get a bevy of new ways to perform multiple tasks a page body function immediately shows you what you can do with the s-pen the moment you remove it as snow gives you a ton of different ways of jotting down notes or doing quick drawings but there is more that the S Pen allows in navigation for instance an air View function gives you previews as you hover the pen over certain elements and a quick commands pop-up allows you to quickly jot down search term or location to jump to the button on the s-pen is important for some of these extra functions as pressing it down while doing the motion will trigger the gesture my favorite in particular is the cutout which lets you surround a portion of the screen and only capture that part the resulting image can then be used for scrapbooking or quick messaging as I said before it doesn't take long for the S Pen to become an extension of your fingers and it's added functions do make it pretty fun when you take it away however this is just a classic Samsung experience whether or not the S Pen will matter is entirely up to you and finally price as I've mentioned earlier that our concessions made to ensure that the note 8 remains decently priced in the end this Wi-Fi version of Samsung's tablet comes in at $399 u.s. and so there you have it it really boils down to just one question how much are you willing to pay for the s-pen it's obvious that this is the main appeal for this tablet with its lackluster camera only decent battery life and the pretty typical TouchWiz experience especially when you take away the S Pen but in its size market the Galaxy Note 8 does bring a pretty good screen along with above-average performance so for the average user doing things like media consumption or ebook reading will turn out to be a pretty fun experience the S Pen does add some functionality for productivity but it's really up to you whether or not that puts the Galaxy Note 8 over the top keep it tuned to Android Authority for all the best coverage and reviews drop us a like on the way out and then subscribe to our channel because we are your source for all things Android