Galaxy Note 8 packs fresh features in new package

JAKARTA. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which only just hit the stores in Indonesia, is Samsung’s move into the 8-inch screen world. The South Korean manufacturer has jam-packed the Note 8 with new and improved features.

When you get the new Galaxy in your hand, it’s obvious why this size of tablets, like Apple’s iPad Mini, have been a hit. These tablets are big enough for laid-back reading, and small enough to grip with one hand allowing you to play around with texts, images and videos displayed at a reasonable size for agreeable for viewing.

It’s not all brilliant though. The Note 8’s plastic body makes the product feel flimsy and cheap. The rear camera, perched on the top-middle of the tablet and the front control buttons, strung across the bottom edge, provide limited space for the fingers to hold the device steady while taking pictures. 

Samsung makes up for these minuses by stuffing the tablet with features, the gizmo’s main selling point. 

The Note 8, unlike its competitor, has a phone and a memory slot to easily expand memory capacity. The tablet can also display multiple screens simultaneously and hand motion sensors let you pause media with a touch of the palm, but not un-pause.

The ultimate warhead of the Note 8, which runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, is the upgraded S Pen, Samsung’s stylus technology which many of the tablet’s features revolve around. The S Pen, when hovered over the screen, will display previews of emails, videos and appointments, a function named Air View. 

The most fun function of the S Pen is for freehand drawing and writing on the S Note, a pre-embedded note-taking application which allows you to choose from several templates, pen types and colors.

The S Pen’s high sensitivity and responsiveness to hand pressure and movement allows the smooth capture of every line and curve drawn; even handwriting gets captured as it is. Handwritten notes can then be turned into typed text, as long as the handwriting is legible in the first place.

The S Pen makes the tablet a powerful tool for those who do a lot of design work, either by profession or by hobby. 

Another feature for creative types — and organization fanatics — is the Awesome Note, a pre-installed application that offers a gamut of organization functions, from to-do lists to anniversary schedules. You can choose from 18 backgrounds — including rosy pink — as note wallpapers.

The trimmings that come with the Note 8 reflect the conceptual difference between Samsung and Apple. The Note 8 comes with approximately 47 pre-installed applications, including document writer, Polaris Office. A benefit of this application bounty is that it saves you from having to download additional applications — sometimes at a cost.

On the other hand, the iPad Mini, which ships with approximately16 installed applications, leave you the decision to stock up on the applications that you desire, and the App Store does boast a wide array of freebies.

Nevertheless, the presence of the Note 8 on the market has expanded consumer choice in tablets. The fact that the iPad Mini is not even officially on the market means that Samsung can grab an even larger share of the tablet market where they have already claimed the lead.

The Good:

• Compact while remaining good for media viewing
• Sensitive S Pen
• Multi-screen displays for multi-tasking
• Expandable memory

The Bad

• The plastic body
• Buttons and camera placement make horizontal photo-taking cumbersome
• Hand controls are limited to pausing/muting media and screen capture

(Mariel Grazella/The Jakarta Post)