 This is Dan Seifert with The Verge and we're here in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress and we're checking out the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 right now. The Note 8 is the latest member of Samsung's Galaxy Note family and obviously by its name it's got an 8-inch display which kind of sits in between the Note 2 and the Note 10.1 which have been previously released. For specs wise it's got a 1280 by 800 pixel display. It's pretty thin, it's only about 7.95 millimeters so it's under 8 millimeters thin and it's really light in your hand. Of course it is all plastic as many Samsung devices are, it's kind of got that glossy typical Samsung finish. On the back here we've got a 5 megapixel camera while up front there's a 1.2 megapixel camera. The device is powered by a quad core Samsung Exynos processor clocked at 1.6 gigahertz and it's got 2 gigabytes of RAM and Samsung's going to be offering this in 16 or 32 gigabyte versions. Of course since it is a Galaxy Note it comes with S Pen functionality which you can access with the S Pen digitizer here. What is new about this is that you can use the S Pen on the hardware keys which you couldn't do on the older Note devices. So that's new for the Galaxy Note 8. A couple of other things are new software wise. Samsung is bundling the awesome Note software which is a note taking software that has been pretty popular on iOS. This is the first time it's on Android and Samsung is including it with the Note 8 for free. So the other new feature here is the ability to hover over content when you're using a third party app. The first app that's optimized for that is this flip board app that's been optimized to be able to show you headlines while you just hover the pen over the device without having to click into it. Samsung says it's going to bring this to other apps in the future. The other unique part of the hardware here is an infrared blaster on the side. Samsung has included a version of the peel software so that you can control your home entertainment center and television using the IR remote on the side of the device. It's the same software that HTC is actually using for its Sense TV product on the new HTC One device. The Note 8.0 also features Samsung dual view feature which we saw on the Note 10.1 and also on the Note 2. It's much less lag with the Note 8.0 in this mode than we saw with the Note 10.1 so it seems that Samsung has improved the software greatly here. Samsung isn't quoting a battery life for the Note 8 but it is saying that there's a 4,600 milliamp hour battery included. Usually most companies say that will last about a day but we'll have to see how this runs when we actually get a tester unit in for review. The Galaxy Note 8 International version can actually make phone calls. You can see it's got an earpiece here and there's a microphone at the bottom so if you really wanted to you could use this as a calling device with the 3G equipped model. Samsung is also going to be releasing a Wi-Fi version and an LTE version. The company says that the Note 8.0 will be available by the end of the second quarter this year but it's not yet talking price and we don't exactly know the final specs for the US version.
 This is Dan Seifert with The Verge and we're here in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress
 and we're checking out the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 right now.
 The Note 8 is the latest member of Samsung's Galaxy Note family and obviously by its name
 it's got an 8-inch display which kind of sits in between the Note 2 and the Note 10.1 which
 have been previously released.
 For specs wise it's got a 1280 by 800 pixel display.
 It's pretty thin, it's only about 7.95 millimeters so it's under 8 millimeters thin and it's
 really light in your hand.
 Of course it is all plastic as many Samsung devices are, it's kind of got that glossy
 typical Samsung finish.
 On the back here we've got a 5 megapixel camera while up front there's a 1.2 megapixel camera.
 The device is powered by a quad core Samsung Exynos processor clocked at 1.6 gigahertz
 and it's got 2 gigabytes of RAM and Samsung's going to be offering this in 16 or 32 gigabyte
 versions.
 Of course since it is a Galaxy Note it comes with S Pen functionality which you can access
 with the S Pen digitizer here.
 What is new about this is that you can use the S Pen on the hardware keys which you couldn't
 do on the older Note devices.
 So that's new for the Galaxy Note 8.
 A couple of other things are new software wise.
 Samsung is bundling the awesome Note software which is a note taking software that has been
 pretty popular on iOS.
 This is the first time it's on Android and Samsung is including it with the Note 8 for
 free.
 So the other new feature here is the ability to hover over content when you're using a
 third party app.
 The first app that's optimized for that is this flip board app that's been optimized
 to be able to show you headlines while you just hover the pen over the device without
 having to click into it.
 Samsung says it's going to bring this to other apps in the future.
 The other unique part of the hardware here is an infrared blaster on the side.
 Samsung has included a version of the peel software so that you can control your home
 entertainment center and television using the IR remote on the side of the device.
 It's the same software that HTC is actually using for its Sense TV product on the new
 HTC One device.
 The Note 8.0 also features Samsung dual view feature which we saw on the Note 10.1 and
 also on the Note 2.
 It's much less lag with the Note 8.0 in this mode than we saw with the Note 10.1 so it
 seems that Samsung has improved the software greatly here.
 Samsung isn't quoting a battery life for the Note 8 but it is saying that there's a 4,600
 milliamp hour battery included.
 Usually most companies say that will last about a day but we'll have to see how this
 runs when we actually get a tester unit in for review.
 The Galaxy Note 8 International version can actually make phone calls.
 You can see it's got an earpiece here and there's a microphone at the bottom so if
 you really wanted to you could use this as a calling device with the 3G equipped model.
 Samsung is also going to be releasing a Wi-Fi version and an LTE version.
 The company says that the Note 8.0 will be available by the end of the second quarter
 this year but it's not yet talking price and we don't exactly know the final specs
 for the US version.