Without Visible Innovation
When the Galaxy Note 8, a new premium smartphone of Samsung Electronics, was unwrapped in the Galaxy Note 8 Unpack Event at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City on August 23 (local time), some of the audiences said, “The Galaxy Note 8 is not different from the Galaxy S8."
It was expected that Samsung Electronics will make attempts to load the Galaxy Note 8 with innovative functions to offset the failure of the Galaxy Note 8. But their response meant that the Galaxy Note 7 was somewhat different from what they anticipated. It is also said that Samsung Electronics chose stability over innovation pursuing newness.
It is said that there is no new innovation in the Galaxy Note 8 because a dual-camera has been already tried by its competitor Apple even though the Galaxy Note 8 comes with a dual-camera for the first time among Samsung smartphones. The Infinity Display, which minimizes the bezel of a smartphone, also has been introduced by LG Electronics. "It seems that the Galaxy Note 8 has a bigger screen than Galaxy S8 and is equipped with S Pen,” said an American visitor who watched the Unpack Event on the day. “There was no innovation that I expected.”
In particular, they say that there are many similarities between the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S8 launched in the first half of this year. The Galaxy Note 8 is loaded with not only biometric functions such as fingerprint, iris and facial recognition functions but also Bixby, an AI interface and its battery capacity is 3300 mAh, the same as Galaxy S8.
"The Galaxy Note 8 is loaded with the Android OS 7.1.1 and its overall software experience is basically the same as that of the Galaxy S8," said the Verge, a US IT media channel on August 23 (local time).
In addition, the Galaxy Note 8 features an infinity display which enlarges its screen by minimizing its bezel like the Galaxy S8. The Galaxy S8’s edge-type screen, which was curved visually upward and downward and left and right, has also maintained on the Galaxy Note 8. In the process of minimizing the bezel, the front home button disappeared. Instead, a pressure sensor is mounted at the position of the home button like the Galaxy S8.
It is said that a bigger screen makes the Galaxy Note 8 better but its grip is not better than those of current products. The Galaxy Note 8’s screen size is 6.3 inches, 0.6 inches larger than the previous Galaxy Note 7, and 0.1 inches larger than the Galaxy S8 Plus. The Galaxy Note 8 is 8.6 millimeters thick, 0.7 mm thicker than the Galaxy 7 which is 7.9 mm thick.
As the Galaxy Note 8 is bigger than the Galaxy Note 7, the former outweighs the latter. The Galaxy Note 8 weighs 195 grams, 26 grams heavier than the Galaxy Note 7 which weighs 169 grams. The Galaxy Note 8 is 23 gram heavier than the Galaxy S8 Plus (172g) which has a screen as large as that of the Galaxy Note 8.
Samsung Electronics was evaluated to take the lead in the market with a focus on innovation whenever the company launched new products. First of all, it was the results of innovation led by Samsung to open up the era of phablets by launching the Galaxy Note series with a pen function. In 2014, Samsung launched the dual edge screen era by releasing a model with a curved edge on one side of the Galaxy Note 4. Samsung took the initiative in commercializing waterproof, dustproof and wireless charging functions.
On top of that, recently, Samsung Pay, a mobile settlement platform, was launched, combining mobile and financial services. Samsung advanced the AI smartphone era by developing Bixby, an AI interface. It was also Samsung that first raised security to the highest level by introducing iris, fingerprint and face recognition functions to smartphones.
But this time, it was different. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which came out after the failure of the Galaxy Note 7, did not have major innovation to draw much attention from people. Rather, it is said that Samsung did not make a big difference between the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S8 in order to focus on enhancing product stability.
Samsung Electronics has come to provide the world’s first advanced camera experience by applying optical image stabilization (dual OIS) to all of the Galaxy Note 8’s dual cameras. But although the dual camera is a new feature in the Galaxy Note 8, Chinese smartphone makers such as ZTE, Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi launched already smartphones with dual cameras two years ago and LG Electronics also introduced a dual camera (G6) in March this year. Apple also introduced a dual camera to its iPhone 7 Plus launched last September. The Infinity Display introduced by Samsung Electronics as a new feature of Galaxy Note 8 was also first introduced by competitor LG Electronics at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in February.
"Since Samsung bet all on the Galaxy S8 launched after the discontinuance of the Galaxy Note 7, everything innovative of Samsung may have loaded into the Galaxy S8," said an official of the electronics industry. “I think it was a real challenge for Samsung to prepare innovative new technology for the Galaxy Note 8."
"Samsung already proved its battery safety through the Galaxy S8, and the main target customers of the Galaxy Note 8 are Galaxy Note series fans so Samsung must have focused on strengthening the S Pen to satisfy them," he said. “I think that they developed the Galaxy Note 8 while focusing on stability rather than innovation.”
After the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Unpacking Event, the market's attention is turning to the iPhone 8 of Apple, Samsung's archrival. Apple's next smartphone, the iPhone 8 is expected to be released in October or November as a product developed in honor of the tenth anniversary of the iPhone launched in 2007. The iPhone is said to have the first organic light emitting diode (OLED) display in the history of the iPhone.
In addition, it was reported that the iPhone 8 will feature a dual camera, a front virtual home button, a side fingerprint sensor, a face recognition 3D sensor, an IP68 rated waterproof and dustproof case, an A11 processor and a wireless fast charging function using WiFi.