Alleged Note 8 specs and schematics tip 6.4" 4K display, 6GB RAM, mysterious perforations

With the Galaxy S8 and S8+ already behind us, we can safely turn our prophetic gaze into the future, namely the Galaxy Note 8. We kid, but there have been so many leaks and tips about the upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship that there's barely a thing we still don't know or suspect with а good degree of certainty. The Note 8, however, is a totally different matter, as we only have the immortal words of Samsung's DJ Koh: "I will bring back a better, safer and very innovative Note 8," uttered way back in January.

While we already speculated a bit over what the "innovative" term might mean, today the Chinese tech blogosphere spat out an alleged schematic drawing of the device, apparently from the early stages of its engineering verification phase. Thankfully, the insiders also tipped some specs info to go along with it, which are nothing groundbreaking, yet sound credible precisely on account of that fact. Let's break them down!

Allegedly, the Note 8 will arrive with a Snapdragon 835 or an Exynos 9-series chipset. While the 835 is a no-brainer, especially if Samsung wants to sell the eventual phablet in the US, a true 9-series hasn't even been announced yet. The only thing we've seen so far, is a listing of a mysterious Exynos 9810 processor on the LinkedIn profile of a testing engineer. The last Exynos Samsung announced was the 8895, and that's the one that is expected to power the Galaxy S8 when it lands globally. It's still part of the 9-series, as per Samsung's press release upon unveiling, and yet its model number isn't 9XXX, so the Note 8 may get a more souped-up chippery than the S8.

Moving on to the screen, the source tips a 6.4" Super AMOLED panel with, wait for it... 4K resolution. That's 3840 × 2160 pixels, but, judging from the schematics you see above, the Note 8 chassis could be an evolution of the Galaxy S8 design, meaning that Samsung should go along with the expected 18.5:9 aspect ratio it has shoehorned the 5.8" S8 panel in. If we take the alleged S8 and S8+ 2.05:1 ratio, a 4K panel on the Note 8 could be 4428 x 2160 pixels, with the on-screen buttons strip occupying a hundred pixels or so at the bottom. Just like with the S8 resolution, Samsung could mark this UHD+ or 4K+. Let's not forget that we already had multiple rumors pegging the S8 as arriving with 4K UHD resolution and dual camera, which apparently won't materialize, but they could have actually been referring to the Note 8.

The last but by no means least category in the specs list that accompanies the leaked schematic, is the memory situation. The Note 8 is said to come with 6 GB of RAM, and "up to 256 GB" of storage." While the RAM amount is certainly believable, given that Samsung already has the C9 Pro with 6 GB RAM in the Chinese market, and the S8 is rumored to have a 6 GB version there as well, we'll have to see the 256 GB storage offer to believe it. There have been rumors about these elusive 256 GB-laden Samsung flagships for a while now, and they are yet to bear fruit.

Looking around the sides, we can see an S-Pen silo, a USB-C port and regular 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom, a SIM/microSD slot at the top, and a Bixby button on the left, underneath the volume buttons. At the front, we can see the face-scanning and selfie cameras, too. This is pretty much the Galaxy S8 setup, or what we know about it from all the leaked renders and videos, so it would be pretty exciting to learn in what chassis size has Samsung might have managed to shoehorn the eventual 6.4" 4K Infinity Display of the Note 8.

Don't, however, ask us what all those perforations are at the lower bezel, at the top and on the bottom. These could all be speakers, for all we now, for some funky surround sound setup resulting from Samsung's purchase of Harman-Kardon, and partnership with AKG for audio. Do you like what you see and hear about Samsung's eventual high-end phablet, if this rumor holds water in the end?