New York: Samsung joins the dual rear cameras bandwagon and the last major manufacturer to do so with the Note 8.
Huawei, Apple, LG, Motorola, Asus and OnePlus already sell phones with dual lenses.
The dual cameras are useful in depth sensing and for portrait mode.
The launch of the device is important and a chance to reclaim its reputation after the total recall of its Note 7 devices due to explosive batteries.
Loyal user base
Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, told Gulf News that Note 8 is a major launch for Samsung as they have a created a niche and loyal user base for the device.
The Note is a completely new device with a stylus and large screen, which is not seen in other phones, and that creates a new niche user segment.
Samsung did not have a new Note series for almost a year as many customers were planning to upgrade their devices and could not do due to the Note 7 recall and opted for other devices.
“There is still a large user base who wanted the Note device. Not only looking from a Samsung’s perspective, the launch is also an important one for its loyal fans. The sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 series, launched in April this year, is doing good and made up for some of the lost sales due to the absence of Note 7,” he said.
Koh Dong Jin, President of Samsung’s Mobile Communications, said that no one will forget what happened last year, but “we also won’t forget the millions that stuck with us.”
Samsung lost more than $6.5 billion due to the exploding batteries of Note 7.
According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), Samsung remained the leader in the global smartphone market in the second quarter by grabbing a 23.3 per cent share and 1.4 per cent year-on-year growth.
Samsung’s revenues from mobile business increased by 11 per cent in the second quarter, but it said in its profit forecast that earnings in the third quarter are expected to decline due to increased marketing costs related to the launch of the new Note device — and with reduced profit contributions from the Galaxy S8 series.
Important role
Ryan Reith, program vice-president at IDC, said that the new S8 and S8+ played an important role in the quarter as the flagship brought a new design and screen aspect ratio (18.5:9) to the table, which could transform the industry in the months ahead.
“Consumers have responded well to the edge-to-edge display and we expect numerous other vendors to bring out similar designs heading into next year,” he said.
Gupta said that fierce competition always happens during the end of the third quarter with many other makers such as Apple, LG, Huawei and Google launching their flagship devices in preparation for the upcoming holidays. The market is competitive even otherwise also.
Sales during the early part of the third quarter are always down and it picks up from September to December.
Daniel Gleeson, senior analyst for consumer technology at research firm Ovum, said that Samsung has a fine line to walk in reassuring consumers about the safety of the new devices as this could also serve to just remind people of the Note 7 debacle. The Note 8 is very important for Samsung and the continuation of the Note brand,” he said.
Samsung started the Note series in 2011, the so-called phablet segment, with a 5.1-inch large screen size.
“The Note range is one of Samsung’s most distinct products and of course also serves as its direct competition to the new iPhone launch [expected in mid-September]. The problems faced by the Note last year make this an even more important launch for Samsung as it needs to prove to Note users who remained loyal throughout the last year that the wait was worthwhile,” he said.
He added that reports last year indicated that Samsung had ramped up manufacturing of the Note 7 up to three million units a month before needing to stop; double the initial manufacturing run of the Note 5. If the Note 8 performs like the Note 7 was expected to, then it should give Samsung at least $7 billion in revenues by the end of the year.
Kim Dong-won of financial investment company KB Securities Co, expects Samsung to sell 3.5 million and 7.5 million Note 8s in the third and fourth quarters respectively.
Salient features
Display size: 6.3-inch (83.1% screen-to-body ratio)
Resolution: 1440 x 2960 pixels (522 pixels per inch density)
Screen: Corning Gorilla Glass 5 front and back
Processor: 2.3GHz Exynos 8895 in EMEA and Snapdragon 835 in US, Korea and China
Storage: 64/128/256GB and 6GB RAM
microSD: 256GB
Cameras: 12MP dual rear with f/2.4 telephoto lens and f/1.7 wide-angle lens; 2x optical zoom and 10 x digital zoom; 8MP front camera with f/1.7, dual video call and Auto HDR.
Battery: 3,300mAh
Sensors: Iris scanner, face scanner, fingerprint (rear), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer and heart rate.
Weight: 195 grams
Colours: midnight black, maple gold, orchid grey and deep sea blue later.
Stylus: Water and dust resistant with 4,096 pressure sensors
