Upgrade from the Note 4 to NOTE 8? Or wat until Note 9?

[mgbosshogg]

Despite Samsung's bad decision to abandon the removable battery, capacitive buttons and 16:9 ratio, at least they do have headphone jacks, no notches and microSD card slots.

More people desire higher and higher waterproof ratings than those looking for removable batteries I guess. Not a bad decision, just common sense.
If you need to carry a spare battery around, I suppose you can carry a power pack.

 

[Kilroy672]

I'm trying to as well. If it is out a couple weeks to a month sooner then it makes it less painful. I hope it's for sale by early August.

They better start real soon. August is a mear 5 months away. It'll be here before you know it.

 

[Kendahl Titcomb]

Honestly being a Note 5 owner going into the Note 8, people complaining about the battery don't understand the vast improvement this phone has over previous Note phones. Personally this phone is hands down the best phone I've ever owned besides maybe my Nexus 5. It has great battery life if you know what your doing and don't have everything turned on. By turning all the crap features off and playing games, taking photos, doing this kind of posting and just daily stuff I go from full around 7am to 20% by 7-8pm and with a 10min top of on the charger I can finish the day so yeah I think as a heavy user getting 5 hours plus of On Screen Time it's about as good as.it gets with any phone these days. Get the phone, because if you wait for the Note 9 and it's a minimal upgrade from the Note 8 your out the extra cash and maybe get an extra update at best.

 

[johnmcc0710]

This is my first Note but I did have the 8 + and the battery life for me is as good as the 8+. I love the phone.

 

[BlueSoap]

I just upgraded from a Note 4 that I had since Oct 2014 to a Note 8 yesterday. So far it is a giant improvement,battery lasts longer, and the new S Pen -to me- is much better.

 

[chyeo1979]

I've had my Galaxy Note 4 since it first released back in late 2014, I love this phone to death, but the Note 8 looks awesome... and I was wondering if I should make the switch to the new generation of Samsungs. I haven't really liked any other android phone besides samsung. I also didn't like their new design language starting with the S6 and Note 5. I am a heavy power user who can't have their phone plugged into a wall during the day, nor die on him. I actually carry 2 batteries and a rechargeable battery cradle with me, and I use a micro-SD card for my storage. The Note 8 looks awesome, but it doesn't have a home button or removable battery! I'm also not a huge fan of the curved screens.

Your qn seem to be should you stay on with Samsung phones, rather than should you get Note 8 or 9

 

[dlgus]

the only real problem I have had with my 8 is battery life. the note is supposed to be the workhorse of the phone world but it falls short. it really should have double the battery size. nearly every reviewer has said the same, they end up using the pixel because they don't have to charge it halfway through the day.

I could understand that if recharging were not so easy, and these days, fast.

 

[Bodestone]

My advice would be to keep asking this question until the 9 comes out later this year and then it become moot.

If you have no burning need for the 8 (dual camera options, iris unlock, Nougat upgradable to Oreo) Right now then it is worth waiting.
If the 9 suffers from alternate version bombs you stuill have a great phone in the 4.

The 4 is still a fantastic phone. The 5 I skipped due do no expandable storage. The 7 wasn't out when I upgraded to the 4 due to my 3 filling with water.
I messsed about with my 4 so much on root it started to show glitches in music playback causing system halt and rather than regress while fixing I got the 8, factory reset the 4 and sold it to a mate cheapo.

I have not regretted the 8 one bit and have no issue with battery. Though I would only rate as a moderate user I have the screen at Wicked Quality HD I run a black background and a dark theme which helps though. If you are a heavy screen on user of mainly white screens this will change but excellent options are available for curtailing battery usage and they will carry forwards to the 9.

If the 9 revealed at the time I still doubt I would have waited but it is so much closer now.

I don't see the Note 9 doing anything groundbreaking over the 8 as the 8 is over the 4 but it is likely to have many niggles resolved and come with Oreo, and thus Oreo optimised Touchwiz by default rather than an upgrade.

Readings on this indicate most Oreo updates are back end and not immediately noticable in user experience but there are some Touchwiz improvements I have not read about due to running an alternate launcher.

Basically, I think there will be little extra WOW in the 9 but it will be more up to date technology with a longer update shelf life.
If you can wait and there is no bad (removed ability to add storage, can only sign on by linking google account to myspace, can only be charged by the static of cats in a tumble drier) then wait for the 9 as a phone with updated technology and base firmware from the 8.

 

[selwinfrogit]

let my start by saying the note8 is a fantastic phone. it's my daily driver. However I can't help but feel that Samsung played it a bit safe after the note7 incident. The note9 is hopefully going to be Samsung back at its best ( pushing the limits of what a phone can be ). a few years ago I picked up a note3, 6months after it's launch. when the 4 came out I wished I'd have waited! my advice is if your 4 is still in good working condition and not frustrating you every day, then wait for the note9.

 

[Bodestone]

I think I'll keep my 8 until the Note Epsilon that folds out to a 16" touch screen and is powered solely from the background radiation of the big bang.

But yes, we agree. The 4 is still a great enough phone to use until the 9 is out. It's late in the game but they may rival Huwai and have the zomm lense upped to 3x (though I think that 2x is about right). There are advances in stabilisation tech but they are also mainly firmware and could come to the 8.

In the end though, even if spec differences are minimal it's still later tech, wrinkles ironed and updated for longer.

On the downside it will have the full price tag at release where the 8 can be bought for £200 less than original release price now.

You've waited this long. Query the differences over cost once the 9 comes out.

 

[recDNA]

If the Note 4 still works well don't ever change! It is the best Android phone ever built. Nothing else comes close besides Note 3

 

[Bodestone]

If the Note 4 still works well don't ever change! It is the best Android phone ever built. Nothing else comes close besides Note 3

OK, so my 3 now runs a modded S7 ROM and runs a 2 week battery usage as a kitchen clock with no antenna active.
It filled with water in the headphone hole and would not give me sound without wired headphones plugged in. I cannot do wired headphones. One of my trial custom OSs ran really hot, drained the batttery in half an hour but at least dried it out.
In the mean time I got my 4 for £40 instead of £400 on a pricing fail.

The 4 is a pile of awesome, wrapped in excelent, sprinkled with magnificent and then marred slightly with a couple of rediculous but minor changes to basic functionality I will not go into as they may have annoyed only me.

I kind of messed about with root stuff too much on my 4 and caused some glitches that would require a start from scratch and I needed a phone and had also reverted my 3. Bring on the 8 to set up fully while using the 4 until the switch.

The 8 abosultely, and with no question is so much better (with the usual caveat that the changed all the alarm tones again so back up first and a few others)

Speed: 8 did 97 app updates to the 4s 23 in the same time during setup.
Screen: just so much nicer.
Edge: turn it off if you want.
Camera: Wow, some Amazeballs, a sprinkling of some more Wow and a great deal of being extremely impressed at the diofference, especially in low light. Never mind the fancy doodads.
Aspect ratio. Was odd at first(it's long) but feels just right now.
UI: Not entirely sure as I use Next Launcher butr have also started using the edge thingy and find it nice for most common contacts and apps.
Pen: not much new but feels a little nicer in the hand.
Nougat: Realy superior OS, app and power management. It's a smaller battery but can get more out of it.
HW Buttons: Was over them in a day. Makes much more sense having them software.
Smart Lock: Bypass lock in trusted locations/bluetooth connextions etc.
Iris unlock. pretty damned reliabale and more secure than face unlock


Serious or blatantly annoying Note failure since the start:
Alarms on the 8 now sort by alarm time rather than last edited time
After the Not 2 you could not change the tone played at timer completion. You can on the 8

Exploits:
There are a shed load of android exploits that have never been patched on the note 4. This is only a problem if you download apps from dodgy places or on the rare occasions where stuff gets through the store..
The store is cleaner now but later versions of Android are safer against these.

My only complaint about the Note 8 over my 4 is that the play duration of alarm tones has gone from 1 to 5 minutes and there is no way to change it.
Oh and the tone for the timer now plays over the notification channel and not the alarm channel so cannot be played during quiet hours despite effectively being an alarm.

 

[Blues Fan]

First benchmark for Note 9 out.

Sounding like we might get the July launch! I'd hold off on getting a Note 8 or s9 plus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdMAmTrsv_M

 

[recDNA]

First benchmark for Note 9 out.

Sounding like we might get the July launch! I'd hold off on getting a Note 8 or s9 plus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdMAmTrsv_M

I'm thinking of gettin a Note 9 at xfinity mobile this summer.

 

[Bodestone]

What is it with Samgung and camera strip orientation? Vertical, horizontal and back again.

I keep the phone in my shirt pocket so I can turn the torch on with the watch if the stair light goes and I have shopping. The LED on the 4 barely peaked out of the top. The 8 was back in view again.

Looks like the 9 is yet another design with the 2 cams vertical next to the flash and sensor vertical. Not that I will upgrade having only just done so.
I know these are only leaks so far but it would seem to indicate that the fingerprint has been moved sub screen.

 

[anon(5506951)]

The thing that tempts me about the Note 9 is the rumored 3850 mAh battery, which is quite a jump from 3300 mAh. There are also rumors going around that the Note 9 will have 8 GB of RAM, as well as a 120hz display, a la the Razer phone.

 

[bassplayrguy]

The thing that tempts me about the Note 9 is the rumored 3850 mAh battery, which is quite a jump from 3300 mAh. There are also rumors going around that the Note 9 will have 8 GB of RAM, as well as a 120hz display, a la the Razer phone.

This would be awesome

 

[Bodestone]

The thing that tempts me about the Note 9 is the rumored 3850 mAh battery, which is quite a jump from 3300 mAh. There are also rumors going around that the Note 9 will have 8 GB of RAM, as well as a 120hz display, a la the Razer phone.

The leaked benchmarks above indicate 6MB which I think is plenty, even on Dex.

Yes the Note 8 has a smaller battery capacity than the 4, and even the S8 (room for pen) but the Nougat core improvements and added battery optimisation (though I am running at full res so can't use fully) are truly impressive over previous android versions.

I'm experiencing 15-38% battery usage over my 12 hour day with 4 hours bluetooth music, 2 hours bright but low end game usage (WWF/Draw Something) and 1-4 hours general on screen usage (Messing about wirh settings and checking things from the forums)
I also carry a 27k MaH backup with me so not so not so in need of a larger life in the phone
It was trying to stuff that much more energy density into the 7 that made it catch fire so I would worry and delay if it were true unless I read conclusively that they were using a new, safer technology, and even so it would be untested in public.

It might be that they have changed to a more stable battery composition at expense of fast charging speeds, something I have never used anyway.
There are several types of Lithium Ion batteries that are a combination of trade-offs between stability, storage capacity, retained performance over number of charges, maximum discharge rate, maximum charge rate.
It's not quite that simple and I have only paid attention to what I needed to know to not make my vaped blow my face off.

Needless to say the push to put a higher capacity battery than had been tried before into the 7 was the cause of the fire of sevens. Stability of the battery was compromised for storage capacity alongside overly tight fitting.

We really have to assume Samsung have learned their lesson from the 7 so at this stage with no breaking news stories on the tech circuit that I have seen on a new advancements in LIon battery tech I would be sceptical of the rumour, and if true of the phone.

 

[strikeIII]

Battery life will always be subjective. Not one of these flagships will last me a whole day with my usage. So I carry a quick charge 10k mah battery pack or sometimes carry around the Mophie Juice Pack case. If you haven't pulled the trigger yet on the Note 8 then you might as well wait for the Note 9 at this point. I hope they do give it a bigger battery and if that means making the phone a little thicker then I actually wouldn't mind that.

 

[AXEL314]

My precious Note 4 finally needed upgrading (the USB port is dead - I could replace later on). I decided to make the jump to the Note 8 and - wow! Beautiful device, great Samsung Rugged Case, and sweet Whitedome glass. I'll keep my Note 4 around as a backup, I've still got three spare batteries I can easily slap in.