Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (Wi-Fi)
Do we doodle? If we consider best with a coop in your hand, Samsung‘s new Galaxy Note 8.0 is a glorious tablet available. Samsung‘s S Pen and a company’s extended support for essay and sketch still set a Galaxy Note line detached from each other inscription on a market. But a Galaxy Note 8.0’s super-premium $399.99 (list) cost in a universe of smaller, much-less-expensive tablets will make this a cult classic, not a blockbuster. It’s usually too expensive.
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Physical Features
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is done from plastic, yet it doesn’t feel flimsy. It’s unequivocally firmly built, silken and white, with chrome trim. The 8-inch, 1,280-by-800 LCD shade is surrounded by a surprisingly vast bezel. Considering that a tablet’s module includes an glorious palm-rejection feature, there’s no reason to have such a ample edge. The arrangement is splendid with loyal colors, nonetheless they’re not as hypersaturated as a OLED shade Samsung uses on a Galaxy Tab 7.7, for instance. A 5-megapixel camera sticks out of a behind with a slight bulge.
The Galaxy Note 8.0’s S Pen digitizer coop fits into a container in a dilemma of a tablet, and there’s also a MicroSD label container on a side panel. There’s no removable battery or SIM label slot, and we consider a miss of a removable battery contributes to a narrowing of a build. At 8.3 by 5.35 by 0.30 inches (HWD) and 12 ounces, it’s utterly gentle (if a tiny slick) when hold in one hand. That’s generally critical for a inscription like this, where you’re expected to be holding a inscription in one palm and a S Pen in a other.
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Android and Performance
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is unequivocally fast. It runs a heavily skinned chronicle of Android 4.1.2 on a rapid quad-core Exynos 4412 processor during 1.6GHz, with 2GB of RAM. In terms of tender processor speed, it’s a fastest Android inscription we’ve seen yet, scoring 16,604 on a Antutu opening benchmark and regulating a Sunspider Javascript benchmark in 10 seconds. A high Browsermark measure spoke to discerning Web browsing and GLBenchmark gaming support rate scores were unequivocally rival with other tablets in a class, yet it looks like they’ll be outpaced once tablets with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 processor come on line.
The Note 8 supports Wi-Fi on a 2.4Hz and 5GHz bands, and we had no problem joining to 802.11g and 802.11n routers. The inscription also packs Bluetooth 4.0 and satellite GPS, yet not NFC. International versions of this inscription offer mobile connectivity, yet that’s not accessible in a U.S.
There’s a lot of tradition module here. I’ll get to dual of a pivotal applications below, yet Samsung has customized each aspect of Android. We’ve got Awesome Note HD, a note-taking app; ChatOn, Samsung‘s discuss service, Flipboard, Samsung‘s Game Hub diversion store, Music Hub song store, Paper Artist (a sketching program), Polaris Office, tradition note-taking and calendar apps, and S Voice voice commands.
The S Pen, a cosmetic stylus with a symbol on it, wakes adult a inscription when we slip it out of a container in a corner. Twiddle some settings, and we can have calm submit default to scratch approval when you’re regulating a S Pen. we found that Note 8’s coop submit to be cleaner and some-more manageable than a coop submit on a Galaxy Note 10.1, substantially interjection to that additional processor speed. The coop uses Wacom technology, so it’s pressure-sensitive and has palm rejection. It still missed a occasional daub on a shade when we was perplexing to pull a lot of tiny dots, though.
But a participation of a coop unequivocally creates a Note live adult to a name. Add a support for split-screen multitasking (two apps on one screen), and we can take annals while surfing a Web or loll a striking to insert in an bureau document, for instance. Just as we found on a Galaxy Note 10.1, this inscription is glorious for productivity.
Samsung total some new S Pen facilities to compare a Galaxy Note II and a stirring Galaxy S4, many particularly AirView, a ability to float your coop over some forms of calm to preview it. As that doesn’t work in a Gmail app or Chrome browser, though, we didn’t find it terribly useful.
The some-more we use (or wish to use) a S Pen, a some-more you’ll like this tablet. My mother is an artist, so we see a interest immediately; a ability to pull with accurate vigour attraction and palm rejecting in a operation of art apps, or baloney discerning annals in S Note, is something no other inscription can compare yet dear add-ons. This is a best consumer coop inscription we can buy.
Battery life was disappointing. In a battery test, we play behind a video with a shade set to limit liughtness and Wi-Fi switched on, and a Galaxy Note 8.0 got a shortest outcome in a class, usually 5 hours, 35 minutes. Compare that with a Amazon Kindle Fire HD‘s 7 hours, a iPad mini‘s 7:37 and a Nexus 7‘s 10:50 and you’ll see a issue.
Cameras and Multimedia
Like with many tablets, a Galaxy Tab 8.0’s dual cameras are lackluster. Samsung should have substantially wanting a 5-megapixel categorical camera to cut a high cost down. It shoots entirely common photos. They’re excusable in full outside light, nonetheless there’s manifest exaggeration during a edges of frames. In pale conditions, shiver speeds get a bit low, and indoors, shiver speeds are generally always low adequate to safeguard softness. Dynamic operation issues cleared out splendid backgrounds. The 1-megapixel front camera is grainy and also had unequivocally low shiver speeds indoors.
The categorical camera annals 720p video, while a front camera does VGA. Indoors and out, we got washed-out 30-frame-per-second videos on a categorical camera and 25fps on a front camera.
Media playback is a many happier story. The Galaxy Tab 8.0 comes with 16GB of inner memory and a MicroSD memory label container that supports adult to 64GB cards. Samsung‘s video actor has always been tip of a line, ancillary MP4, H.264, DivX, Xvid and WMV files adult to 1080p; we can play them on an HDTV by an MHL wire or DLNA wireless.
Music format support is likewise comprehensive, and Samsung‘s song actor has a good multi-pane interface, a garland of equalizer settings and a fun, stupid choice called “music square” that attempts to arrange your song by mood. Audio by both connected and Bluetooth headphones was fine. The bottom-ported stereo speakers aren’t as punchy as a Galaxy Note 10.1’s front-ported pair, yet they’re also fine.
The tablet’s concept remote facilities are a second large focus. Like a Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, a Galaxy Note 8.0 has an infrared blaster that can control TVs and home museum equipment. It works best with Samsung‘s WatchON app; a tabet also comes with Peel Smart Remote, yet we couldn’t get it to work scrupulously and Samsung couldn’t figure out why.
WatchOn does a good pursuit of display we engaging programs we can watch, total with a some-more traditional, grid-style electronic module beam with filters and favorites. The module had no problem determining Samsung or Sharp TVs and Dish and TiVo boxes in a lab.
You can also flip over to lists of cinema and TV shows accessible by Blockbuster or Samsung‘s Media Hub app. I’ve listened Netflix support competence come soon, too, and that will make it even better. To watch video-on-demand calm on your radio rather than your tablet, though, your TV needs to support DLNA.
But for DVR owners, WatchON has a a same deadly smirch that identical solutions on Samsung, HTC and Sony inclination all do: The essence of your DVR are totally opaque. You can’t report recordings; rather, if we tell it we wish to watch a uncover later, it sets a calendar alert. That feels insanely primitive, a 1990s proceed for a 2013 tablet.
Conclusions
When Apple launched a iPad mini, we pronounced it inaugurated a new age of premium-priced tiny tablets. So what should we call a inscription that costs 20 percent some-more than Apple’s?
The Galaxy Note 8.0 has a garland of facilities we don’t see on Apple’s tablets, a Google Nexus 7, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) or a Amazon Kindle Fire HD, many particularly a S Pen and infrared TV remote. While we can duplicate those functions with other tablets, they need costly, clunky accessories.
In a universe where we can get a top-notch Android inscription for $200 and an iPad mini for $329, though, it’s usually too tough for me to suggest that we spend $400 instead. Artists, especially, will venerate a Galaxy Note 8.0. But a Editors’ Choice for tiny tablets, a best mainstream choice, stays a many reduction expensive, still very-capable Google Nexus 7.
