Last year was not a good year for the Note line. The Note 7 was released to glowing reviews and was initially on its way to being crowned phone of the year, and then the wheels fell off. We won’t rehash the story, but it was an explosive ending. Now Samsung is back with the Note 8 to resuscitate the line and erase its past sins.

Before the drama ensued with the Note 7, it was the smartphone to beat in 2016. It boasted a 5.7-inch QHD display, 12-megapixel camera, 4GB of RAM and a 3,500mAh battery. And all of that inside of a gorgeous design. Samsung had molded its glass and metal build to perfection. It was the best smartphone to date, and we stood by that statement in our review of the device.

That was until it started to blow up and it’s short-lived illustrious lifespan came to a crashing halt.

Samsung won’t have to try too hard to make people forget about last year’s dumpster fire—the Note 8’s design will do that by itself. It’s a direct descendant of the already gorgeous Galaxy S8 design, a slight few tweaks externally and a ton of improvements internally. The edges are slightly less round with a boxier feel. At the bottom is the S Pen and in the back the new dual 12-megapixel telephoto and wide-angle camera that promise to take gorgeous pictures.

Inside the Note 8 is a 6.3-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity Display, Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM, 3,300mAh battery and 64GB of storage with expandability. The only spec the Note 7 still beats the Note 8 is with battery size (3,500mAh vs. 3,300mAh).

The better phone is obvious: it’s the Note 8 by a landslide. Everything about the Note 8 is improved over the Note 7.

Unfortunately, we can’t compare the two because the Note 7 is a mythical beast that no one possesses anymore because it’s a fire hazard. Unless you got your hands on Galaxy Note FE, which we sadly don’t.

With the Note 8 the undisputed winner, the gallery and chart below show off how much Samsung improved the design and specs to create a phone that hopefully doesn’t blow up.

Samsung - Galaxy Note 8 Samsung - Galaxy Note 7
Display Size 6.3-inch, 2960 x 1440 pixel display (522 ppi) 5.7-inch, 1440 x 2560 pixel display (515 ppi)
Resolution X 2960 1440
Resolution Y 1440 2560
Display Type Quad HD+ Super AMOLED
Operating System Android 7.1.1 (at launch) Android 6.0.1 (at launch)
Processor Octa core (2.3GHz Quad + 1.7GHz Quad), 64 bit, 10 nm processor/Octa core (2.35GHz Quad + 1.9GHz Quad), 64 bit, 10 nm processor - Differs by market Quad Core (2.15GHz Dual + 1.6GHz Dual), 64 bit, 14 nm process
RAM 6GB 4GB
Storage
  • 64GB
  • 128GB
  • 256GB
  • 64GB
External Storage Yes Yes
External Storage Specs
  • microSD up to 256GB
Main Camera (Back) 12MP 12MP
Secondary Camera (Front) 8MP 5MP
Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.0 LE Bluetooth 4.2 LE
Battery 3300mAh 3500mAh
NFC Yes Yes
Connectivity
  • 3.5mm Headphone jack
  • MST
  • USB Type-C
  • 3.5mm Headphone jack
  • USB Type-C
Sensors
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
  • Barometer
  • Fingerprint
  • Geomagnetic
  • Gyroscope
  • Hall
  • Heart rate
  • Iris
  • Proximity
  • Pressure
  • Barometer
  • Fingerprint
  • Geomagnetic
  • Gyroscope
  • Hall
  • HR
  • Iris
  • Proximity
  • RGB Light
GPS
  • BeiDou
  • Galileo
  • Glonass
  • GPS
  • Beidou
  • GLONASS
  • GPS
Height 162.5 mm (6.40 inches) 153.5 mm (6.04 inches)
Width 74.8 mm (2.94 inches) 73.9 mm (2.91 inches)
Depth 8.6 mm (0.34 inches) 7.9 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 195 g (6.88 oz) 169 g (5.96 oz)
Colors N/A black, gold, silver, blue
Supported Audio Formats MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA, DSF, DFF, APE MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA
Supported Video Formats MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM