Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Leaks Galore With HTML5 Browser Benchmarks And 8GB RAM Emperor Edition

Even though Samsung likely won’t officially unveil the Galaxy Note 8 until late August or early September, that isn’t stopping leaks from spilling the goods on the upcoming flagship smartphone. Today, we’ve got a wealth of information about the smartphone including supposed browser benchmarks of the beastly device and hopeful confirmation of 8GB of RAM onboard for some models.

First off, the Galaxy Note 8, which has the internal product name of SM-N950F, was found in the HTML5Test database running Android 7.1.1. Although many would probably have preferred to have seen the device launch with Android 8.0 (aka Android O), it’s understandable that the Galaxy Note 8 would launch with the seasoned Nougat operating system, with an OS update likely to come late in 2017 or early in 2018.

According to the HTML5Test benchmark, the Galaxy Note 8, which was running the Samsung Internet 5.2 web browser, scored a total of 488 out of 555 points. For comparison, an iPhone 7 Plus scores 415 points on the same benchmark.

Another leak suggests that there will be at least two versions of the Galaxy Note 8 released into the wild. One will feature 6GB of RAM, and will likely be destined for the U.S. market. The other variant will feature 8GB of RAM, and will primarily be sold in China. Chinese consumers are fond for the “bigger is better” philosophy when it comes to smartphone specs, and Samsung already sells a 6GB version of the Galaxy S8/S8+ in China when the rest of the world is relegated to 4GB.

Just over a week ago, it was rumored that the Galaxy Note 8 will be powered not by the still-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, but by a slightly more powerful Snapdragon 836. The Snapdragon 836 allegedly retains its 8-core design, but features a CPU clock of 2.6GHz (an increase from 2.45GHz) and a GPU clock of 740MHz (an increase from 710MHz).

Other rumored specs for the Galaxy Note 8 include a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display (18.5:9 aspect ratio) that has a fingerprint sensor embedded. This feature was rumored in the lead-up to the Galaxy S8 launch, but was sidelined due to problems with Synaptics’ Natural ID FS9100 optical sensor. Although it’s widely expected that the Galaxy Note 8 will ship with 128GB of onboard storage (and a microSD slot), it’s highly possible that a 256GB version will be offered as well (see Samsung’s 64-layer 256Gb V-NAND announcement).

The Galaxy Note 8 will also of course support Samsung’s S-Pen, which will give it yet another advantage over its “lesser” Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ siblings. It’s also expected that the Galaxy Note 8 will become the first flagship smartphone from Samsung with dual rear cameras.