Samsung has finally unveiled the Note8, successor to the notoriously-explodable Note7. We've already gone hands on with the phone, which is launching in Australia next month, but how does it stack up against Apple's iPhone 7 Plus? Is it better? Worse? Prettier? Faster? More powerful? Let's take a good, hard look.

We should note from the outset that the iPhone 7 Plus was released on September 16 2016, so it's been available for almost a full year, giving the Note8 the benefit of time. Technology advances at an alarmingly fast rate so it's no surprise that the Note8's internals are significantly improved over Apple's competing smartphone.

Although Apple is likely to unveil the iPhone 8 in the near future, the Note8's current competitor remains the iPhone 7 Plus. So what are the major differences?

Here's the pure specs for how the two match up:

The most obvious thing is, of course, the size of the Note8, which is just a bigger beast than the iPhone 7 Plus. Samsung is touting this as its best phone ever, and sometimes, the best has to be the biggest. The Note8 is heavier, much taller and slightly thicker than Apple's counterpart, but actually comes in slightly slimmer. Samsung's decision to practically remove the bezels from the front of its phone (which we first saw with the Galaxy S8) makes way for a massive 6.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, with superior resolution and pixels-per-inch over the iPhone 7 Plus.

If you're the kind of person that worries about your phone's battery dying before afternoon tea, then battery life is a key buying criteria. The Note8 has a 3300mAh battery, edging out the iPhone 7 Plus' 2900mAh battery, but as of yet, Samsung hasn't officially revealed how much battery life this will equate to. With such a much larger screen and energy-intensive software built into the device, there's a chance that overall battery life will be quite similar between the two models. We'll update this post when we know a little more.

For the first time, Samsung has included a 12MP dual rear camera that uses two different lenses: a wide-angle lens of f/1.7 and a telephoto lens of f/2.4, both with optical image stabilisation, plus a front-facing 8MP camera. The iPhone 7 Plus uses slightly less-bright lenses — of f/1.8 and f/2.8 — so if you're routinely using your phone for photography the Note8 is the clear winner here.

Lastly, the Note8 is the most expensive Samsung phone yet and will retail at $1499 for the 64GB model. Samsung did announce 128GB and 256GB models, but these will not be available to purchase in Australia. Though the iPhone 7 Plus doesn't have a 64GB model, 32GB will set you back $1269, 128GB comes in at $1419 and the 256GB model retails for $1569. One of the key differences, in terms of storage, is the fact the Note8, like the Galaxy S8 and S8+, has a microSD card slot that is capable of carrying 256GB of extra storage. However, tacking a large SDXC card on top of the retail price starts to really push the price up.

We haven't even discussed the Note8's stylus, which is a core component of Samsung's Note range. The touch-sensitive stylus comes bundled with every Note8 and tucks away conveniently in the phone's base, next to the USB-C charging port and the headphone jack. Oh, yeah, there's that too. The Note8 still has a headphone jack.

Overall, the Note8 is clearly a superior phone if you look purely at the specifications but with the iPhone 8 just over the horizon, we're likely to see the playing field even right out again.

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