iPhone 8 vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 8

September has seen the release of two flagship handsets by the two biggest smartphone rivals out there. Samsung and Apple have gone head to head with two great phones released within weeks of each other. Samsung was first to release their all new Note 8, followed shortly by Apple’s launch of the eagerly anticipated iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

We’ve been keen to get our hands on these devices since we first heard rumours of their release, so now we have both of them here in the test lab, we thought we’d take a friendly comparative look at the two phones.

iPhone 8 & 8 Plus

They’ve arrived! Zoonou has got their hands on both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. The iPhone X is also set for release in November, however it’s key to remember that all of these phones are powered by Apple’s new A11 Bionic chip, a neural engine, and the M11 motion coprocessor. In reality they are all the same phone but with the iPhone X being capable of facial recognition.

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus support fast charging and wireless charging for the first time. Apple have now changed the design of their iPhone quite dramatically by incorporating a glass rear case to enable the wireless charging functionality. This is a feature that Samsung has had for a long time and Apple seem a little slow off the mark, but it’s good to see that they are catching up.

iOS 11 looks to have some nice features (including inbuilt screen recording functionality – which is a nice tool for testing!), but updates feel incremental for the most part rather than game changers.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

There has been a lot of excitement in the office surrounding the arrival of the Note 8. In terms of design, the Note 8 is head and shoulders above the competition, and Apple has a lot of ground to make up. The look and feel of the device is second to none. The Note’s front face is almost entirely screen and its sloped edges blend seamlessly with the handset’s black glossy frame.

One of the features that we really love is the ability to resize browsers and split the screen for multitasking. App Pair lets you hook a pair of apps to each other and open them both at the same time, in a split-screen view, with a single tap of your finger.

Split-screen is available on a number of large-screened phones, but it can be a bit of a hassle to use. App Pair is a real time-saver, and makes split-screen a little bit easier to get your head around.

If we had to nitpick, for people with smaller hands, the phone may feel a little on the large side, and having to reach even further up the back of the phone for the fingerprint scanner is not ideal.

Spec Comparison

Conclusion

With the few days we’ve had so far with the iPhone 8, we feel that the Note 8 is a clear winner and Apple seem to be lacking any groundbreaking new features.

When compared to previous iPhone releases, the 8 is faster, brighter and includes a better camera and wireless charging. In our eyes though, this is still no match for the Note 8. That’s just our opinion though! With the Apple/Samsung debate still rolling on, we’ll let you decide which one you prefer!

For more information on our Device lab and the large range of devices we have available to test on, please see our Device Lab page. For more details on our compatibility testing service please contact us at info@zoonou.com and one of our team will get back to you. If you’d like to get in touch about anything else, please head over to our Contact page.

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