Galaxy Note – Long Live the King

Reasoning about ruler potential or lack of it

Galaxy Note - Long Live the King

According to general reviews, the Galaxy Note 8 can be called a perfectly satisfying smartphone from a reliable manufacturer. Samsung will sell millions of Note 8s to Note fans around the world and, quite logically, make a ton of money from it, putting the industry on its head again. But behind the restrained and smoothly positive reviews and a sound business model, there is a truth that cannot be avoided: Galaxy Note, by and large, no longer makes sense.

Overlapping devices

The Galaxy S8 +, launched at the same time as the S8, has a screen that is one-tenth of an inch smaller than the Note 8, a 200mAh battery, and an overall comparable experience in terms of software. It has the same processor, the same amount of internal memory, the same type of display panel, the same wireless standards, and the same set of general functionality. The S8 + lacks a dual camera layout and stylus, but these phones are so similar that non-smartphone people won't be able to tell the difference.

Galaxy Note - Long Live the King

The bottom line is that the untethered Note 8 will retail for $ 930 in the US. You can now purchase the S8 + directly from Samsung for $ 675. The benefit is $ 255. Would you pay $ 250 for a slightly larger display, stylus, and an additional rear camera? Of course not, they wouldn't even think about it. Let's be honest, Samsung will add a free 128GB microSD card and wireless charging dock to your order (or a Gear 360 camera instead of those two) in case you pre-order the smartphone and pay full price. Thus, part of the money will be returned to you in the form of a bonus offer. Moving away from the topic, I would like to express the idea that it is better to wait for the end of these promotional offers, because at this time discounts for the device most often begin to appear, which will save real money.

Factor iPhone

If iPhone 8 is announced this fall (and even if it doesn't, to be honest), Samsung will only have to increase discounting and motivation. Now there is almost no doubt that the next iPhone, regardless of any omissions and problems, will attract the maximum attention of smartphone users and will remain the leader until the end of the calendar year (if we assume that the announcement is not postponed). According to rumors, we will see the most visually striking iPhone in many years. Samsung has done a good job on the Infinity Display and its thin bezels, but in my opinion it is clear that iPhone will attack all kinds of media spaces in order to fill them with information about their new product, attracting more and more attention.

Galaxy Note - Long Live the King

This puts the Note 8 in a perilous position. Things are not going well: visual differentiation with other flagship Samsung smartphones is as low as ever, the smartphone is more expensive than ever, and all this is opposed iPhone, which is likely to become the most aggressively promoted in history. Can we expect that the Note 8 will become a growth engine in the premium segment, when the device is simultaneously struggling with Apple and suffers from the fact that devices from the same manufacturer 'eat off' a share of sales?

The short answer is that Samsung may not expect the Note 8 to see a radical gain in market share, and this serves as a kind of hint that the lineup is running low.

Every Note is now a Fan Edition

In the past, Samsung has used the Note series to bring its new processor, comparatively better displays with larger diagonal sizes, a larger battery, more memory space, and other high-level improvements to the world, in order to draw a line with the Galaxy S. The Note has never really focused on the stylus, but there are many loyal S-Pen fans out there. The Note has always been the company's best phone in a calendar year, both in terms of features and purchase.

Galaxy Note - Long Live the King

The Note 8 doesn't have a faster processor. Its battery capacity is even less than that of the S8 +. It's not even clear if the cameras have been improved, there are simply more of them and they are different. The display is not much larger, but almost no better. I repeat myself, but this is my thought: Samsung has personally reduced the need for the Note line to zero. It exists to satisfy fans who are used to buying devices under this brand. It is difficult to foresee the further development of the line at this stage, especially after the fiasco with the Note 7, after which many fans 'moved' to the S8 / S8 +. Of course, the company will sell a sufficient number of Note 8, but this is a path of diminishing profitability.

If Samsung continues to release its Note series smartphones as slightly more expensive versions of existing flagship devices, then consumers will quickly learn it. Retailers who do not take risks with an incredibly expensive device that doesn’t offer much new for its price and could potentially hinder sales will also understand everything. As a result, there will be a handful of hard-core fans, a very small group, for the sake of which it would be inappropriate to support the development and promotion of a smartphone (unless you believe in the coming stylus revolution in the foreseeable future).

What to do with Note?

Will we see Note 9? Maybe. Note 10? I would say that there is a degree of probability. But I suspect we will see a shift in the Note brand – from the uncompromising, pushing the boundaries and the most technologically advanced 'king' to something closer to life. In the presentation itself, this point was obvious: the phrase 'Note lovers' was used probably fifty times. The idea was that the Note was a device for a particularly loyal Samsung user who wants the very best of Samsung … and a stylus.

Note in the sense in which many recognized him has already disappeared. There are many smartphones on the market with large screen sizes and some are even better at coping with the daily tasks of users. The Note 8 can easily be called a great smartphone, but it almost doesn't stand out in any way, as the representatives of the line stood out a few years ago, when phablets were not so popular. Most importantly, the Note doesn't stand out in Samsung's portfolio of large premium smartphones either. The S8 + overtook it by five months.

So if you're a smartphone enthusiast who doesn't feel a lot of excitement from the Note 8, then you're not alone. Clearly, Samsung has begun to focus on foundational technical advances in the Galaxy S line, leaving the Note as a secondary and later thought of premium branding. And given the fact that the S-series has become more Note-like in many ways, it's not all that bad.

Original material by David Ruddock

The material confirmed many of my thoughts from an alternative view of the Note 8, which is a little upsetting, I didn't really want to believe it. However, this is the reality. SGN 8 is as close as possible to the flagship S8 / S8 +. In its announcement, there is a certain tactical component, adhering to which Samsung did not allow all attention to focus on the autumn announcement from Apple.

What we expected from the Note 8 (like the fingerprint sensor under the glass of the display) did not happen and we got a slightly modified version of the S8 +. The price unpleasantly surprised many, but did not stop. It is quite possible that Samsung appreciated the market conditions in time, for which phablets were no longer unusual and decided to set a new trend. As a result, a cool, powerful, expensive, but no longer evoking such emotions 'business flagship' can become the end of the line. Or the beginning of a new one.

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