Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 - The 8-Inch Diary
Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 is an 8-inch Android tablet with an integrated Samsung S Pen stylus, making it ideal for those with productivity in mind (or anyone still playing Draw Something). It is however rather expensive at S$788 (LTE version). We find out if it lives up to its premium price tag.
Overview
Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 is an 8-inch Android 4.1.2 tablet with an integrated Samsung S Pen stylus, similar to the old Galaxy Note 10.1, making it ideal for those with productivity in mind (or anyone still playing Draw Something). It is however rather expensive at S$588 for the Wi-Fi 16GB version and S$788 for LTE 16GB model. We find out if it's worth the extra money.
Note: We will be reviewing the 16GB LTE version in this review.
Key highlights of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
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Design and Features
The Note 8.0 has a physical oblong-shaped home button at the bottom-front of the device, flanked by touch-sensitive Menu and Back buttons on the left and right - pretty much the design traits for most modern Samsung mobility products.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is essentially an oversized version of the Note II, sporting the same plastic build and rounded corners, as well as a physical oblong-shaped Home button. The Note 8.0 also gets touch-sensitive Menu and Back buttons on the left and right.
The silver trim running around the edge of the device looks extra plasticky, despite an attempt by Samsung to put a 'brushed metal' paint job on it. The back of the device sports a plain white, glossy plastic finish - some texturing would have been nice to aid grip as it can be a bit precarious to hold one-handed (although the 8-inch form factor is definitely easier to handle than the 10.1-inch Note 10.1). Samsung describes the Note 8.0 as the perfect size to accompany you on the go as it is "diary sized".
The 'brushed metal' paint job isn't very convincing.
On the bottom of the device you'll find the micro-USB port and dual speakers. The S Pen stylus also slots into the lower-right corner here.
On the right edge, you'll find the power/sleep button, volume rocker and an IR emitter.
On the left edge, the micro-SIM and microSD memory card slots are hidden behind plastic flaps.
On top, you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The back of the device is a rather plain, white glossy plastic, with just the Samsung logo and a fairly sizeable camera bump.
Display
The 8-inch TFT LCD touch display isn't up to the standard of the Super AMOLEDs seen on some of Samsung's other devices but it's not bad, with a resolution of 1280 x 800 and a pixel density of 189ppi, making it slightly better than the iPad Mini's 1024 x 768 resolution (163ppi) and on par with the 2012 ASUS Google Nexus 7, ASUS Fonepad and Toshiba Regza AT270 - although, do note that, with smaller displays, these tablets have a higher pixel density count. The display on the 2013 ASUS' Google Nexus 7 is much better, with a full HD 1920 x 1200 resolution (323 ppi).
In usage, the Note 8.0's display is fairly bright with good color reproduction, decent viewing angles and reasonable contrast, although at maximum brightness, there is some noticeable backlight bleed that can make blacks look a bit washed out. Fortunately, it isn't too bad at lower brightness levels.
It's hard to see any noticeable difference in clarity between the Note 8.0 and smaller tablets with the same resolution, but compared to the 2013 Google Nexus 7, the Note 8.0 was clearly inferior. In everyday general usage, the Note 8.0 is sufficient but there are definitely better displays out there.
Audio
Audio is supplied via two speakers located at the lower edge of the device. Overall audio quality was decidedly average, and somewhat on the quiet side. Additionally, the positioning of the speakers isn't the best for watching videos in landscape orientation.
Stylus
The Note 8.0 comes with an integrated S Pen stylus that slots into the lower right corner. Removing the stylus automatically launches the S Pen home screen, which shows all of the installed apps designed for use with it.
The stylus itself is slim, with a flat edge on one side, and a rounded profile on the other that makes it comfortable to hold. The flat edge also helpfully prevents the stylus from rolling away. Stylus input is pressure sensitive and accurate but can be slightly laggy, especially if your hand writing is particularly fast.
Like the Note II, the Note 8.0 has 'floating point' technology that detects the stylus when its about an inch or so away from the screen. Hovering over certain elements results in extra options, like picture previews in the gallery app. The display also has palm rejection recognition which makes it easier to write and draw on.
The Note 8.0 includes dedicated apps to use the stylus with, such as S Note, a note taking app which you can also draw in, S Planner, a diary/calendar app and Paper Artist, a fairly comprehensive drawing app.
A button on the side of the stylus can be used to open a quick command box by drawing an upwards line on the homepage. This uses handwriting recognition to let you search the internet, maps, email contacts and call or message people. Surprisingly, the handwriting recognition is quite good and the Note 8.0 was able to decipher most of this writer's chicken scratchings fairly successfully.
Operating System
The Note 8.0 is running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and Samsung's TouchWiz interface, which includes all of the usual tweaks, including the ripple effect on the lock screen and pull out shortcut bar on the left side of the screen, which you can access by pressing a small tab. You can also hide the tab by holding down the back button. The Note 8.0 also includes a few features taken from the Galaxy S 4, including Smart Stay, which uses the front-facing camera to detect whether you're looking at the device and keeps the screen on if you are.
Samsung has included a Reading Mode for the Note 8.0, which is stated to automatically optimize the display for a better reading experience. By default, only Samsung's own Reader's Hub is set to turn on Reading Mode automatically, however, you can add other apps to the list. Unfortunately there aren't any options for configuring Reading Mode (it's either on or off), but it appears to dim the display and make colors a bit warmer.
There's some multitasking functionality available with Samsung's MultiWindow app that allows for two apps to run simultaneously onscreen with a fairly deep pool of compatible apps, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
As mentioned above, the Note 8.0 also includes an IR emitter, which can be used with Samsung's SmartRemote app to turn the Note 8.0 into a universal remote.
One thing we did note was that the OS and pre-loaded apps seem to take up a rather large amount of internal storage space. Our 16GB unit, fresh from the box, had only 8.68GB of available storage remaining.
Performance Benchmarks
The Note 8.0 is powered by a powerful quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A9 processor and includes 2GB RAM. This gives it a higher clock speed than all of its competitors, including the newer 2013 ASUS Google Nexus 7.
Quadrant
Quadrant is an Android OS benchmark that evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performance.
The Note 8.0 lived up to its fast clock speed, outgunning the Google Nexus 7 with an impressive score of 6813.
3DMark 2013
Originally developed as a PC benchmarking tool, 3DMark is now expanded to support multiple platforms including Android OS. The Ice Storm benchmark is designed for smartphones, mobile devices and ARM architecture computers.
For an in-depth understanding of 3DMark for Android, do head over to our article, "3DMark - Android Device GPU Performance Review." In a nutshell, 3DMark consists of two test sections:
3DMark Ice Storm is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark test that uses fixed off-screen rendering at 720p then scales the output to fit the native display resolution of your device. Ice Storm includes two graphics tests designed to stress the GPU performance of your device and a physics test to stress its CPU performance.
3DMark Ice Storm Extreme raises the off-screen rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets.
The Note 8.0 didn't perform as well here, being easily beaten by the Nexus 7, suggesting that its Mali 400 GPU is no match for the Nexus 7's Adreno 330. Having said that, it still outperformed the older ASUS Fonepad and Apple iPad Mini.
SunSpider Javascript
SunSpider Javascript measures the browsing performance of a device. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience.
The Note 8.0 performed better here, scoring slightly better than the Nexus 7. In actual usage, browsing performance and interface navigation was smooth and lag free - like most other devices.
Camera
Tablets aren't really known for their cameras and the Note 8.0 is no different. Samsung has thrown in a 5-megapixel shooter, but doesn't include an LED flash, which somewhat limits its abilities. Nevertheless, let's take a look at the sample picture.
Image quality was passable (for a tablet), but not fantastic. There's visible noise and colors look washed out and flat. In the end, cameras on tablets are for auxiliary use.
Battery Life
Our standard battery test for tablets includes the following parameters:
• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter
With a 4600mAh capacity battery, the Galaxy Note 8.0 has a larger battery capacity than most of its rivals. However, in our battery life benchmark it was only average, lasting just six hours. While it's on par with the Nexus 7, take note that it has a much smaller capacity battery and it has to power a Full HD display.
Power consumption was quite high, however, with its 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display and only average volume speakers, we're not sure what would be draining so much battery.
Subsequently, it also fared worse than the other comparison tablets on our portability index.
Conclusion
All things considered, the Galaxy Note 8.0 isn't a bad tablet; it just isn't impressive enough in any area to warrant its premium price tag. The all plastic build and uninspired design are a bit disappointing for a device of this price. Similarly, while the 8-inch display was bright, viewing angles weren't fantastic, and clarity could have been better too - it is also clearly surpassed by the much cheaper Google Nexus 7 (2013). We were also concerned by the lack of available storage space, with only 8GB of the advertised 16GB available for use, fresh out of the box.
The only real advantage the Note 8.0 holds over its competitors is its S Pen stylus. The stylus itself is thoughtfully designed and accurate and Samsung has included plenty of extra utility and apps to make the best use of it. But are you prepared to pay this much more for a stylus? That depends on your personal usage, but if you think you'll only be using it occasionally, there are probably better ways to spend your money.
Not a bad tablet, but there are better (and more affordable) choices out there unless you really need a stylus.
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