Hello everyone. This year is coming to an end. But to start a new year and go forward, it is essential to look at our past to understand what the future has for us. To do so, I present the Galaxy Retrospect! Today, let's look at the new devices launched in Canada only in 2017.
Flagships-
S8, S8+ and Note8
The big and expensive guys. Their beautiful Infinity Display is compliant to the HDR-10 open standard, and the very powerful Snapdragon 835 keeps everything fluid. The Note has a dual camera, a first in the flagships. Storage became standard at 64GB and the USB-C transition was completed. Hopefully, Samsung judged idiotic to remove the 3.5mm jack, and this is a good thing. The Note series did not "explode" with the Note 7, quite the opposite. The Note8 is a wonderful device and has received critical acclaim and strong demand from all around the globe, while a year ago people reported the death of the line and the lost of the customers' trust.
Mid-range:
Galaxy J3 Prime (AKA J3 2017 USA, J3 Perx, J3 Pop, J327W) The little guy here is a very curious upgrade to last year's J3 2016. The 32 bit Exynos 3475 is replaced by the 14nm 64 bit Exynos 7570 Quad. Unfortunately, the Super AMOLED is replaced by a TFT display. RAM and storage is the same too. There no 5GHz WiFi either.
Galaxy XCover 4
While the US has the S Active rugged flagships, we get the fairly affordable XCover 4. With IP68 waterproofing and MIL-STD-810G, it can take anything, anywhere. The Exynos 7570 is back again with a 2800mAh battery. It has it's similarities with the J3 Prime.
Galaxy A5 2017 The A series is the successor of the Neo series. Indeed, while not as powerful, these devices take a lot from their flagship counterparts, and the 2017 iteration is no diffrent. The A5 has an IP68 certification and a glass body like the S7. It has 16MP camera both front and rear, but sadly no OIS. The Exynos 7880 Octa within can give you hours or even days of usage on a single charge. And AOD makes it's debut on the line.
Tab A 2017 After the Tab A 8.0 2015 (which I own, AKA Tab A S), Samsung released the A 2017 (AKA Tab A2 S). With UX8.5 (same as the older model) and Bixby support, the new decent and affordable device is a very interesting device. The Snapdragon 425 inside is a little left down. Why not some real upgrade like the Exynos 7880 or SD630, since the Tab S3 has a SD820? But the brave SD410 inside the original slate already did a great job keeping everything fluid while not draining too much battery, so we can pass on this.
Tab S3
Unlike 2015 and 2016, the flagship tablet is only available in one size. The new premium slate packs a powerful SD820 (why no E8890?), a 9.7 Super AMOLED, HDR-10 compliant screen, a big S-Pen for your precise drawings and UX8.0, a surprisingly good 13MP camera (rare in tablets), all in a slim glass body. It is however 300$ more expensive than the all-metal 5.3mm Tab S2 9.7, so you kind of have to put more into the package to sell it. The S-Pen inclusion makes the whole thing more professional-like. And the newly acquired AKG/Harman Kadron did a great job tuning the 4 speakers in the tablet.
Low end
Tab E Lite
There is no real low-end devices here except the J1 2016 and the Tab E Lite. Designed for the very less demanding customers and first time Kids using electronics, the Tab E Lite is a weak device with a low low price, and this is really fine. However, the KitKat OS version is quite weird in 2017.
Update 1: Added the Tab S3. Sorry for forgetting the flagship tablet!
This is a great write up! I think overall it has been a great year for Samsung, and I'm really looking forward to what's coming next year. I hope Samsung can continue to push the boundaries for the mobile market.
Thank you for the comment! I also liked how this year went and next year is looking promising, especially with the new A8 devices set to launch in January (you can look up here details about it I wrote about the phone and the E7885 in it too).
Be sure to come back tomorrow as I will address 2017's new software by Samsung, and then I will also address new hardware and tech. Thanks!
thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I can see this being very useful to new members who are looking to upgrade their device in early 2018. It has been such an amazing year for Samsung, they overcame the whole Note 7 Fiasco, which I knew them would. They still have everyone's support in making great ideas.
Samsung please do not stop, and never change, you are amazing!!
This goes out to everyone at @Samsung, @Nick, @Steven and @Shirley!!
