Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 with 8 inch has released now with much
fanfare.
Today I test my friend's brand new Galaxy Note 8.0 to find out
whether its worth it..
Samsung has introduced the Galaxy Note 8.0
which is another tablet with pen input. With its 8-inch display Samsung
closes the gap between the 5-inch devices and the 10-inch tablet
equipped with a stylus. We tested among other things, whether the size
of the tablet with the stylus operation plays a role.
Hardware
On the
hardware side, the Galaxy Note 8.0 up to date A four-core processor
drives the tablet at a clock rate of up to 1.6 GHz on. The Geekbench 2
benchmark comes to 2,138 points and is therefore far better than that of
the iPad Mini with its dual-core processor with 750 points and the
Nexus 7 and its Tegra 3 quad-core together with 1,451 points. In
JavaScript benchmark Octane, we have carried out in each Chrome browser,
but the Nexus 7 is an average of 1,300 points a little before the
Galaxy Note 8.0 with 1,259 points.
There are no issues with the
location nor the brightness sensor.The Smart feature-called eye
detection, which only darkens the screen when the user no longer sees
it, is very reliable.
The RAM is 2 GB, internal memory has an
option of either 16 or 32 GB.At the side of the Phone casing is a slot
for a micro SD card which can hold up to 64 GB in size.
Bright screen and Plastic Casing
The
screen shows rich, vibrant colors and viewing angle is stable. In
comparison, the display of the Nexus 7 is much darker, less contrasty
and shows verwaschenere colors. The display of the iPad Mini is only
slightly darker than that of the Galaxy Note 8.0. On the small tablet of
Apple, the colors are natural, but the jaggies are clearly visible on
the iPad mini.
A comparison with the graphics benchmark
GLBenchmark shows that the Galaxy Note 8.0 has only an average
graphics performance despite low resolution-17 fps in off-screen mode.
Smooth plastic
The
display is surrounded by a shell from the typical Samsung plastic.
Because of the smooth back, the Galaxy Note 8.0 does not feel quite as
grippy like the Nexus 7 with its grooved back cover or the iPad, whose
back is made of brushed aluminum. Due to the plastic cover ,a
significant, but not excessive heat is felt at high computational load.
The
cover of the Galaxy Note 8.0 is built solid as the other devices, the
battery can not be change without 'further notice', which I thought was
quite awkward. The lithium-ion battery has a rated load of 4,600 mAh.
Under full load the tablet held by four hours, a good but not above
average value.
Compact Model
The case measures 210.8 x
135.9 x 7.95 mm, which is as wide as that of the iPad Mini and a few
millimeters longer than that actually. The Nexus 7 is 198.5 x 120 mm,
about 12 mm in height and nearly 16 mm in width smaller than the Galaxy
Note 8.0. Samsung's tablet pen is one millimeter thicker than the iPad
Mini's body, the Nexus 7 about 2.5 millimeters thicker than the Galaxy
Note 8.0.Of all three devices, the iPad Mini with about 305 grams, has
the lightest weight, followed by the Nexus 7 with about 335 grams and
finally the Galaxy Note 8.0 with 340 grams, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is
about 600 grams--almost twice as heavy. Is pushed onto the display
cover, the case creaks a little.
Camera without flash, slightly distorted sound
The
rear 5-megapixel camera takes above average photos that have little
noise. The autofocus responds quickly and reliably,except for in
difficult lighting conditions.It lacks a flash but neverthless that is
fine.The recorded 1080p videos were also consistently sharp, but the
colors were a bit washed out.
The two speakers are located on the
bottom edge of the tablet. The sound is slightly distorted, there is
little separation between bass and treble, but they can be easily
overlooked.The tablet has one of the best sounds in its category. But
with headphones it is perfect.
Stylus - Rich with features
The Galaxy Note 8.0 runs
Android 4.1.2 together with Samsung's extensions, such as the Touchwiz
interface, speech recognition and voice , which is required for use with
the stylus.The home key on the other hand is the same old thing.
The
1,024 levels of pressure for the stylus,is not needed for most people.
It only matters when we set the line thickness to high values. The lines
then vary in thickness ,at the same time also losing opacity.
Comparing
it to the Galaxy Note 10.1 , we tested the distance between the outer
glass and the actual display and found that it is significantly lower.
Therefore there is no resulting parallax effect- it is as good as gone.
Furthermore, the stylus for input does not have to be held vertically,
but also can be used for writing with minimal line width in the natural
slope.Palm does not interfere with typing. The handwriting recognition,
however, is still outstanding. She's even pretty well with bad
handwriting.
The two-window mode
On the big screen, the
use of so-called multi-window mode is pretty handy. So that two
applications can be placed side by side on the screen. The buddy list
shows which apps can be displayed together on the screen.It can be
opened via a laterally placed tab. Applications are listed there that
offer advanced options such as sharing on a screen. First, an
application has to be started. Then another application using
drag-and-drop can be drawn from the buddy list on the screen. Thus, for
example, the mapping service maps and the browser or email program
including calendars can be used simultaneously. The function itself is
not new, however, it was introduced with the update to Android 4.1.2 for
devices from Samsung and was already available on the Galaxy Note 10.1.
However,
the number of apps that can be used together on the screen, increased
significantly.The gesture control on the other hand- is successful with
the stylus.
The Remote Control
Samsung's tablet can be
used with its infrared lamp as a universal remote control. This allows
not only control of Samsung TV but many others as well. The
corresponding application offers an impressive selection of devices from
different manufacturers. The list fetches the application from a server
for initial configuration so an Internet connection is required.the
associated application Smart Remote showed, despite correct regional
settings only shows from the United Kingdom not from India.
Conclusion
With Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, Samsung has created an almost perfect size for a tablet with pen input. It is so easy that it can be held in one hand.This is not easily possible with the Galaxy Note 10.1---10 inch tablet with an almost twice as much weight. The screen size has also more space for delicate scribbling, and the input with the pen is less fiddly than on the 5-inch devices.
In most applications, the digitizer is still only a substitute for the finger and it does not make use of the special pen and its buttons.The enclosed pen is also more precise than a usual capacitive one.
Also, the lack of flash, and occassionally slightly creaking phone case are a downside. We would have also liked to see a slightly higher resolution and smoother display with more frames per second.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is all in all, but well made, lightweight and compact. There was no stuttering, all the apps we tested started quickly and ran smoothly.The stylus has significantly improved over the previous note series.
So that's the end to my long and detailed review on the new Galaxy note 8.0.If you have used it please share your thoughts below in the comments section.. Thank you guys..
