The Note 8's stylus has some neat new tricks
With the S Pen, you can draw live messages and translate words on screen in real time.
- Shortlisted for British Photography Awards 2022, Commended in Landscape Photographer of the Year 2022
The Note 8 is packed with bleeding-edge new tech, but it's the S Pen stylus that makes this phone stand out from the crowd.
Samsung has equipped the latest iteration of the stylus with a few cool new tricks. One of the best features is the live translate tool. Simply hover the S Pen nib over a word on screen and, using Google's translate technology, you'll see the translation hovering above the word. You can select the language you want it to translate to, of course, and there's also the option to select entire sentences.
You'll also be able to hand-draw replies to messages, which will then play back as a moving GIF. This is mostly a bit of fun, but it could be really handy to screenshot a map, then draw a route for a friend to follow. When they watch the image, they'll see the line you drew directing them step-by-step to their destination. Lovely stuff.
The pen itself has seen some updates, including a finer nib and more levels of pressure sensitivity. Samsung says this makes using the S Pen feel much more like writing with a real pen.