The Galaxy Note 8 will go on sale starting September 15, and a few customers are already starting to receive their units. The folks at iFixit have managed to get their hands on a unit, proceeding to tear it down to give us a look at the innards.
With Samsung switching to an extra-tall Infinity Display, there's more room to house the internal components. The company opted to go with a 12.71Wh battery (3300mAh at 3.85V) on the Note 8, which is 6% less than the one it used in last year's device and slightly more than the 12.32Wh (3200mAh at 3.85V) battery featured in the Note 7 Fan Edition.
Like previous years, the battery is sealed in with copious amounts of adhesive, but Samsung moved the location of the battery to dead-center at the back, with the vibration motor now located at the bottom right.
The phone has a total of four cameras — a front 8MP camera complemented by an iris scanner, along with two cameras at the back. Samsung's dual camera setup at the back consists of a wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens, with both sensors offering OIS (which iFixit was able to confirm).
As for the rest of the hardware, the Note 8 features Samsung's own LPDDR4X memory module and UFS flash storage, Avago's ICs, and a whole lot of Qualcomm components:
- Samsung K3UH6H60AM-NGCJ 6 GB LPDDR4X SDRAM layered over a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
- Samsung KLUCG4J1ED-B0C1 64 GB UFS flash storage
- Qualcomm WCD9341 Aqstic audio codec
- Skyworks 78160-11 power amplification module
- Avago AFEM-9066 power amplification module
- Wacom W9018 touch control IC
- Qualcomm WTR5975 RF transceiver
- Avago AFEM-9053 power amplification module
- Skyworks 77365 quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE power amplification module
- Qualcomm PM8986 PMIC
- Murata KM7628048 Wi-Fi module
The phone retains the 3.5mm jack, and the port is completely modular, which means you'll be able to replace it with ease should the need arise. The front-facing sensor assembly is also similarly modular. The Note 8 uses Phillips screws for the mid-frame and the NFC antenna, which should make it easier to conduct repairs.
However, the 6.3-inch display and the rear glass panel are held together by a large amount of adhesive, and the fragility of the panels means it'll take a lot of effort to access the internal hardware. Overall, the phone picked up a repairability score of four out of 10.
