The Galaxy Note 8 begins shipping this week and Samsung have set an aim of selling 11 million units. It seems that the firm is well on its way, as the smartphone manufacturer has announced that pre-orders for the new phablet have broken company records, the highest-ever for the Note series.

The new device has beaten its predecessor by reaching 2.5 times the pre-orders that the Note 7 received over just five days. These numbers bode well in the wake of Apple’s impending iPhone launch later today, which threatens Samsung’s current market dominance.

Pre-orders for the Note 8 have reached approximately 650,000 handsets from 40 countries, to which president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile division, DJ Koh says is “very encouraging.” This isn’t just about market dominance for the company, however, as it is battling against its own destroyed reputation after the Note 7 fiasco.

The Galaxy Note 7 was notable for its hazardous, short lifespan in which the batteries within the devices posed safety risks to the user. These incidents of battery fires caused the company to issue a mandatory recall, pulling the devices from the market and costing the company billions.

The Galaxy Note 8 will have a monumental task of clawing back market share across the world, particularly in China, where local companies such as Huawei have helped reduce Samsung’s share to just 3 percent.

At a price point of $930/£850, however, this might be a task in and of itself, especially as hardware of the higher end handsets tends to overlap in the market nowadays. And there’s the fact of iFixit scoring the device’s repairability an astonishingly low 4 out of 10 due to copious amounts of glue. Only time will tell if they can hit the 11-million-unit target.

KitGuru Says: While this is a lovely looking handset, the sheer expense is staggering in comparison to what the company used to let them go for. Do you think that the Galaxy Note 8 will redeem the company?

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