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I had a chance to play with the Note 8 at Staples two days ago. I can only say from first touch I was sold. The feel in my hand was tremendous. Solid but not heavy. I never felt like I would drop it either. One of the guys who works the computer section is pretty cool so he untethered it for me so I could get a truer sense of the thing in my hand. All of the above were made even better.
I found the display to appear higher resolution than it's spec. I had my TF700t (Asus Transformer Infinity) and it's nifty 1920x1200 display with me. Side by side the Note 8 looked every bit as crisp as the Infinity. The color temperature of the Note 8 is quite a bit warmer (leans toward red spectrum in this case a warm yellowish like old incandescent light bulbs) than the Infinity panel which tends to a cooler color temp (meaning more toward blue spectrum). Neither devices is really all that great at color accuracy though. This is one of my biggest frustrations with the Android devices I've owned. I would add there was far less, if any, color banding on darks/blacks with the Samsung, especially compared to the Infinity. I still prefer the look of the Infinity panel but that might simply be because I've gotten used to it and the warmer look feels a bit off. However for reading and note taking I think the warmer Note 8 panel would be a lot nicer to work with.
The Note 8 was quite snappy performance wise with no perceptible lag. I did not load any new apps though I was able to connect to the Play store. I don't think this is something you can judge in store. Only when you really load up your device with apps will ya know if it's up to dealing with the matter of lazy coding by so many Android developers when dealing with performance. I've had higher hopes in this area but at least the Note 8 does something right even if it's slight-of-hand when looking at responsiveness.
Note taking, I had doubts an 8" device would be big enough. After playing in S-Note for over 30-mins I am confident it would serve my needs very well. I would not want to write long papers on it but for jotting down brief notes and reminders as well as diagramming whatever the beastie is pretty much idea. The sense I had from picking it up was that of a "steno pad" in terms of size. That form factor has worked very well for a LOT of decades and no reason to move away too far. I did find myself wishing it was about a half-inch longer and maybe a couple inches taller/longer in portrait orientation. I could see that becoming a non-factor after daily user.
I didn't even mind the white case, and I HATE white cases...still if they did not cheap out and went back to their laptop design morgues to for the formula of a good magnesium case it would feel perfect plus be far more durable and protective.
Last, depending on the ability to get notes moved to your PC (whatever your OS orientation) the danged thing is almost a must have for a student, researcher or anyone who wants to truly move to a paperless note taking setup. Based on my 45-mins it feels like, for me, the ultimate companion device. I could see myself being happy with something like the Note 8 and a larger tablet as my only to work devices. I really was blown away and that never happens anymore because devices all seem at most minor incremental upgrades from previous models or those of competitors.
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