Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Might Be Powered By Unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 CPU

Instead, the Galaxy Note 8 is said to be powered by a faster, unannounced processor from Qualcomm: the Snapdragon 836. Similar to last year’s Snapdragon 821, which was a higher-clocked variant of the Snapdragon 820, the Snapdragon 836 will reportedly increase maximum clock speeds from 2.45GHz to 2.6GHz. The Adreno 540 GPU is also said to get a boost in clock speeds to 740MHz (up from 710MHz). In the grand scheme of things, that not a huge increase for the octa-core processor and GPU, but it would be enough to give the Galaxy Note 8 bragging rights over the “lesser” Snapdragon 835-powered Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

The Galaxy Note 8 will likely feature a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display that will have the same odd 18.5:9 aspect ratio as the 5.8-inch Galaxy S8 and 6.2-inch Galaxy S8+. While the display is only slightly larger than that of the Galaxy S8+, it’s a nice upgrade from the 5.7-inch display on the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. There is no word, however, on the resolution of the display.

The smartphone will hit the retail market with between 4GB to 6GB of RAM, up to 128GB of onboard storage, a microSD slot for expansion, and facial/retina recognition. A recent report has thrown some cold water on the rumors that a fingerprint reader will be embedded into the display, but we’ll just have to wait to see if Samsung is able to work out any last-minute issues with the Synaptics Natural ID FS9100 optical sensor before production kicks into full swing.

Interestingly enough, the Galaxy Note 8 won’t be the only “new” stylus-equipped flagship arriving this year. Samsung will also sell refurbished Galaxy Note 7 R smartphones with smaller batteries in select markets to help recoup some its losses from 2016’s massive (and fiery) recall.