Samsung’s next flagship mobile device, the Galaxy Note 8, will be officially rolled out later this month, but technical details of the phone/phablet have already been leaked to VentureBeat’s Evan Blass. The phone will be both bigger and faster (of course) than the Galaxy S8, and its camera is getting a big upgrade. But in a move with particular resonance for Samsung, it will reportedly have a slightly smaller battery than the previous generation’s explosion-prone Note 7.
Along with its signature stylus, the Note 8 will feature a 6.3 inch SuperAMOLED display with a 1440 by 2960-pixel resolution and a thin curved bezel. The phone’s dimensions will be 162.55 by 74.6 millimeters and 8.5 millimeters thick. The phone’s U.S. Version will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 6 gigabytes of memory (compared to 4GB for the S8), and 64GB of internal storage, plus a microSD expansion slot.
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The leaked specs for the Note 8’s cameras are little changed from the S8. Two rear-facing cameras—one wide-angle and one with deeper zoom—will have 12-megapixel sensors, while the front-facing camera will capture images at 8 megapixels. The dual rear-facing cameras are expected to enable advanced imaging including depth of field, powerful optical zoom, better low-light images, and maybe even the ability to slightly edit a photo’s perspective.
The Note 8’s battery will be a fast-charging 3300mAh capacity cell, compared to the 3500mAh cell that powered the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung recalled all Note 7’s last October after widespread incidents in which they caught fire. After the recall, Samsung concluded that the batteries were to blame for the fires and released a Note 7 with a smaller battery in Korea last month. The smaller Note 8 battery, then, is likely linked to safety measures.
The battery will also reportedly, like the S8, include wireless charging. That’s significant because the Note 8 is likely to hit the market at about the same time as Apple’s iPhone 8. Recent rumors have suggested that the new iPhone won’t have wireless charging at release, potentially giving Samsung a leg up on its main competitor in the premium smartphone market.