Gadgetory

Apple has largely dominated the tablet market so far but Samsung isn't pulling any punches with its latest tablet I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the Galaxy Note 8.0 review all of Samsung's Galaxy devices from the smallest low-end smartphone to the full-size Galaxy Note in share a strikingly similar design and they're all built using the same quality hyper glazed plastics with faux metal trim they feature the same capacitive back and menu buttons with a physical home button in the middle the Galaxy Note 8.0 is no exception in the hand it feels like a larger Galaxy Note 2 and it looks like a blown-up Galaxy s4 it's just the right size to hold one hand it in portrait with a firm grip although it would be easier to hold if it were just a tad narrower there are only two true sore points with the design there is no excuse for the camera to be so accentuated seeing as it's not a primary feature and the camera sensor itself is only 5 megapixels there are larger camera sensors crammed in smaller devices that don't require a home for the camera and the speakers along the bottom edge are rather easy to cover up unlike the Samsung made Nexus 10 with front-facing speakers the specifications on the Note 8.0 are solid it has the same 1.6 a gigahertz quad core Exynos chipset as a galaxy note 2 2 gigabytes of RAM 16 or 32 gigabytes of built-in storage with a micro SD card slot and a 46 hundred million power battery but there's one specification that is undeniably poor the display it measures 8 inches diagonally yet it only hosts a WXGA pixel resolution 1280 by 800 pixels for rating of 189 pixels per inch after staring at 1080p smartphones around 5 inches or smaller slightly larger as well everything on the note 8.0 looks fuzzy individual pixels are visible and there is noticeable pixelation around the corners of icons and text that said and despite the fact that this is a TFT panel not AMOLED the color saturation is high blacks are fairly inky they're still a little more gray than a true black and contrast is relatively high unless you're a pixel junkie spoiled by smartphones with 300 to 400 and 70 pixels per inch the display on the Galaxy Note 8.0 will suit your needs lastly the S Pen is easily the standout feature of the Note 8.0 it's what makes it a note over say just a Galaxy Tab it's tucked away in the lower right corner and haptic and audio feedback are provided when the S Pen is removed like all previous notes the S Pen is inductive extremely accurate and comes with a horde of S Pen specific software features but more on that in a bit the Note 8.0 may not feature the best or most notable design and build quality but it does pack a punch with some impressive specifications and the utility of the S Pen software is where the Galaxy Note 8.0 truly shines it ships with Android version 4.1 to beneath the TouchWiz interface if you've ever used a TouchWiz device in the past the software on the Galaxy Note 8.0 will make you feel right at home the interface while upgraded for the larger display is almost identical to TouchWiz on the note 2 or even the galaxy s4 from the notification shade down to the lockscreen mostly everything is the same same icons wallpapers widgets and animations the downside is content fortunately more and more tablet applications of finding their way to the Play Store but there is still a shortage of beautiful tablet applications a content gap if you will and many like Facebook or Spotify still use the phone UI instead of the tablet optimized layout the best part of the software however is multitasking it comes with multi window onboard which allows two applications to run side by side em with the s-pen you can open s note atop laney application open quick command which allows you to open quick shortcuts or quickly search the internet or annotate screen captures these make great use of the larger display thanks to the monster specifications the Note 8.0 pers along just fine cutting through graphic intensive games and even everyday activities such as browsing the web or taking notes without a hitch no sign of lag or stuttering was present at our time with the Note 8.0 and it performed decently well even in synthetic benchmarks inside the Galaxy Note 8.0 has a 46 hundred million power battery keeping the show running in our time with the device the battery performed quite well easily lasting a full day of moderate to heavy usage remember there's no wireless data to consume power only Wi-Fi the standby time is great that said if you crank up the brightness and get those four cores running at full speed for say graphic intensive games the battery will drop rather quickly the speakers on a media tablet are vital the speakers on the Note 8.0 are plenty loud and only slightly tinny the problem is their placement there towards the bottom and entirely too easy to cover up by accident I found myself accidentally covering them up playing video games even just listening to music or watching videos so their placement is pretty poor lastly the camera it's a tablet with a five megapixel sensor so you can expect superb quality pictures it's mainly going to be used for snapping pictures and a pinch maybe of documents or showing people on a video call your point of view but if need be the camera performance on the note 8.0 isn't bad the color reproduction is great low-light performances mediocre and details are pretty lacking but for a tablet something that's not primarily used for taking pictures it's nothing to scoff at at the end of the day the Galaxy Note 8.0 isn't necessarily the best designed tablet and it doesn't exactly feature the best build quality we've seen in a tablet chances are it won't be the cheapest either it hasn't launched here in the States yet but the Wi-Fi model in the UK is selling for 340 pounds or roughly 520 US dollars however it packs quite a wallop if you can look past the low res display it features some of the best specifications we've seen in a midsize tablet or any tablet for that matter its performance isn't off the charts but it handles even the most graphic intensive games without breaking a sweat we give the Galaxy Note 8.0 a seven point four out of ten that's all we've got for now so if you liked the video be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel and stay tuned for more Galaxy Note 8.0 coverage you can also find us on all of your favorite social networks Google+ Twitter and Facebook and pocket now I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time