Samsung Galaxy Note 8: What we know about Samsung's Note 7 do-over
It isn't often that a company as tight-lipped as Samsung confirms a future phone down to its very name, but extreme times call for extreme measures. Having had to toss out its entire Note 7 production in the wake of two combustible battery flaws, Samsung has apparently decided to reveal some details.
1. It's happening. Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh confirmed this to CNET. Both that the phone is coming as part of the Note's yearly release cycle, and that it will indeed be called the Note 8.
2. The Note 8 will use Samsung's new eight-point battery test, which the company instituted as part of a revised testing measure after discovering holes in its battery testing that led to the Note 7 failures. In fact, the upcoming Galaxy S8 phone will use it too, along with every other Samsung phone going forward.
3. The Galaxy Note 8 shouldn't be confused with the Galaxy S8, a separate phone that's expected to debut in March or April.
What else?
There haven't been a lot of other leaks so far. We're still expecting the Note 8 to come in August if it continues to follow Samsung's typical release cycle. Last year's Note 7 came a little earlier than usual (early August rather than late August), but the phone has been announced before Apple's yearly iPhone (early September) ever since the Note series began. In recent years it's shown up in stores before the iPhone, too.
Note phones represent Samsung's power user series. They're large-screen devices equipped with a digital stylus called the S Pen. The Note 7 was the first handset other than the experimental Edge series to feature a curved screen.
Now that the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are expected to also have large screens and curved sides by default, it's anyone's guess how the Note 8 will stand out from the S8 and S8 Plus, apart from that S Pen.
We do know that Samsung Note usually has specs that are a half-step above that year's Galaxy S device. It often gets new software features, too -- a sentiment echoed by Koh when he spoke to CNET:
"I will bring back a better, safer and very innovative Note 8," Koh said.
But with the S8 phones right around the corner and the Note 8 still months away, there's still plenty of time for rumors and leaks to form a picture of the future phone that could restore the Note family's charred reputation.
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