The Note 8 wasn’t cheap, so you might as well get the most from it with these power-user tips and tricks.
Samsung has come back from last year’s Note 7 disaster with the Galaxy Note 8, a phone so jam-packed with features, you might still be learning things about it when the time comes for your next upgrade. The Note 8 includes all the cool stuff Samsung bakes into all its phones, and then adds all the S Pen stuff.
So why not accelerate your learning process? Here are 10 tips that will guide you to the very best features the Note 8 offers.
There are four different modes from which to choose, including Adaptive, AMOLED cinema, AMOLED photo, and basic. There’s a demo picture at the top of the screen so you can see how each one will look. Adaptive mode gives you the most options. At the bottom of the list you’ll find a slider to make the colors cooler or warmer. Tap the advanced checkbox, and you get sliders for the red, green, and blue channels.
The Galaxy Note 8 affords granular control over exactly how its AMOLED display will look.
You should also check out the “Screen zoom and font” menu. The default zoom level is a little large for a device as big as the Note 8, but you can lower it by dragging the slider left so more content fits on the screen. If you have trouble seeing everything at the default zoom, you can also make it larger by dragging the slider to the right.
For everyone frustrated by Samsung’s navigation button layout, you can seek relief in this settings menu.
You’ll need to experiment with the pressure-sensitive home button, which works even when the phone is in full-screen mode or asleep. The default pressure level is 3 out of 5, but you can make it easier (or harder) to trigger. You can also set the hard-press home button to skip the lock screen entirely when your phone is not securely locked.
The Note 8’s Air Command popup is where you access all your favorite apps and features for the phone’s S Pen. All you need to do is remove the S Pen from its holder to bring up the floating Air Command icon. But what if you don’t want it to always be there on the screen? That requires a trip into the settings.
You can edit your Edge Panel apps (shown on the far left) via granular controls in Settings.
Samsung includes almost a dozen panels, and you can get more from the Samsung app store. Tap the checkbox above each panel to turn it on or off, and long-press on any panel to enter reordering mode. Many of the panels—for example, weather and the clipboard manager—have additional settings to configure. Look for the edit button at the bottom to access those settings.
To change the appearance or location of the edge panel handle, tap the menu button and select “Handle settings.” This screen lets you change the location, opacity, and size of the handle.
Even if you make tweaks to Air Command, you’ll definitely want to keep Smart Select in the mix. Among other tricks, this S Pen feature lets you grab a cropped screenshot in just a few seconds. After launching Smart Select, you’re shown a selection bar at the top of the screen with options for square, round, lasso, and GIF selections. The first three are just regular screenshots, so use the S Pen to highlight what you want. You can also draw on the resulting image before saving.
Note 8 Smart Select: Come for regular image cropping (as shown here), but stay for the super simple animation creation.
The GIF capture is great for sharing quick video clips with friends, and it works similarly to the static capture methods. Move the selection box where you want to capture the GIF, and check your quality setting at the bottom. Hit record when you’re ready to go, and stop when you’ve recorded what you want. You can then draw directly on top of the GIF, and save or share the resulting animation. Bottom line: It’s one of the quickest, most convenient tools around for making animated GIFs.
The S Pen makes drawing and annotating a breeze, but what about inputting text? Samsung has built handwriting input into the core of the Note 8, so you can use the S Pen in almost any text field. To open handwriting input mode, simply hover the S Pen over a text field and tap the blue icon that appears. A writing area will replace your keyboard, and then you can go to town.
Hey, you have a pen, so why not use handwriting recognition to transcribe digital ink?
If you need to jot down a quick note, don’t even bother unlocking your phone. Pop out the S Pen, and the Note 8 automatically enters screen-off memo mode. You get a black screen with a basic pen tool and an eraser. Write your note, and tap the button in the corner to save it to the Samsung Notes app. You can set up this app to sync to the Samsung Cloud so you don’t lose your notes.
The Note 8’s screen off memo feature lets you quickly jot down handwritten notes, without even unlocking your phone.
All Android phones running the Nougat system or higher have split-screen mode, but Samsung goes one better on the Note 8. You can open almost any app as a resizable floating window in Pop-up View. There are two ways to launch this. The easiest is to open the overview screen and long-press on the app you want to open in a window. Drag it down to the middle of the screen and release in the indicated box to launch it as a Pop-up. Alternatively, you can open an app in Pop-up from split-screen mode. Tap in the middle between the two apps and press the Pop-up View button.
Pop-up View gives you flexibility over app placement on the large Note 8 display.
When an app is in Pop-up View, it can be moved and resized freely just like a window on your computer. The buttons at the top of the floating window let you close, maximize, and minimize the app. Minimized apps stay on the screen as a floating icon, which you can tap at any time to re-open.
Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant means well, but the placement of the physical button can be annoying. It’s on the left edge of the phone, right under the volume rocker. An accidental press opens the Bixby Home panel, interrupting what you’re doing. Luckily, however, a few tweaks can make Bixby less annoying while preserving functionality.
In Bixby Home, check your settings and activate the Bixby Voice features.
