There’s been plenty of publicity about the failure of Samsung’s last handset release in the Note range, 2016’s combustible Note 7. Due to this unfortunate (and hazardous) problem, fans of the Samsung Note will have to wait an extra year before getting their hands on the newest offering from the Korean giant. If you happen to be an Irish Note fan, the Note 5 wasn’t released on these shores at all, so oddly enough 2014’s Samsung Note 4 is the most up to date Note phone that you can get your hands on. 

In terms of the Note 8, Samsung have only officially mentioned that the phone will hit the market in the second half of 2017, but with the iPhone 8 expected to land on shelves in September, it’s rumoured that we’ll be seeing the Note 8 making an appearance in August. Some of these rumours are based on the fact that the phone will most likely be shipping with Android 7.1.1, rather than Google’s upcoming Android O. As Android O is launching in the Autumn, it would seem that Samsung are eager to have the Note 8 on the market late in the Summer, thereby giving consumers a month of having the option of the Note 8 before the iPhone 8 releases. 

As always, speculation is rife with what the design and specifications of the Note 8 might be, with the only leak worth considering seriously featuring an image of the rear housing of the phone, showing what looks like a dual camera lens. This would be a somewhat expected feature of the phone, based on how well received the dual camera on last years iPhone 7 Plus was. A 4,000mAh battery is expected, along with 128GB of internal storage, but we’ll have to wait patiently for another couple of months to get confirmation of this.