What’s a big smartphone supposed to be in the era of plus-sized, elongated phones with 18.5:9 display aspect ratios? Haven’t plenty of phone makers figured out how to squeeze a substantial amount of screen into a phone size that doesn’t give you hand cramps? These are the questions Samsung has to answer as it launches the new Galaxy Note 9 smartphone. Sure, the Note line of smartphones has evolved right along with the rest of the industry. But it’s still a big phone, and its bigness has to be justified. In the case of the Note 9, that justification comes in the form of an abundance of tech we’re already familiar with, rather than brand-new tech we’ve never seen before. The feature that will probably have the most impact on everyday life is the battery: Samsung is shipping the phone with the largest-ever battery in a Galaxy flagship smartphone. Yes I know, this is the same line of smartphones that shipped with fiery batteries two years ago. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t cross my mind when I flew across the country with a new Note 9 phone last week. But Samsung has instituted a multi-step battery check for its phones since then. So far, so good. The Note 9 has other draws, too: It’s super fast, comes with more storage than even obsessive photo takers or game players might know what to do with, and its S Pen stylus now doubles as a remote control. Samsung has somehow found ways to differentiate this phone from the Galaxy S9, it’s other flagship phone. It has justified the bigness. Phuc Pham It’s also charging for it. The base model of the Note 9, which will ship with 128 gigabytes of internal storage, costs $1,000. Bump that up to 512 gigabytes of internal storage and 8 gigabytes of RAM, and you’re looking at $1,250. Samsung says its Note customers frequently report that they love their phones. That’s some crazy in love. The Build At first glance, the Note 9 doesn’t look different from last year’s Galaxy Note 8—but there are some small changes. It still has an aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass on the front and back, but the frame around the edge-to-edge display is slightly tapered. The Note 9 weighs just a few grams more than the Note 8. The new phone is also a hair wider than last year’s model. The Note 9’s display size is the biggest physical difference. Last year’s Note 8 had a 6.3-inch display; the Note 9 has a 6.4-inch display. Considering the two phones are almost the exact same size, this means Samsung has upped the screen-to-phone ratio, an effort to keep up with broader smartphone trends. The display itself is bright, luminous, eye-grabbing. At a time when techies are switching to grayscale to attempt to cure their smartphone addictions, Samsung is luring all the kids back into the candy store.<doc-sep>This review is bought to you by the folks at Moment, who make excellent photo cases and lenses to elevate your smartphone photography to the next level. Get 20% off when you pre-order a Note 9 case and get 10% off all non-sale items using code AndroidAuthority. Be quick though, the coupon ends at 23:59 PST on Sunday August 26! Buy yours here: http://andauth.co/MomentNote9 Samsung has a habit of refining designs at least once before switching to something entirely new. This was the case for the Galaxy S4 and S5, Galaxy S6 and S7, S8 and S9, and now the Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy Note 9. Most of these revisions have been sensible updates. Samsung has a track record of listening closely to consumers and tweaking things ever so slightly to keep these updates worth buying. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is one of the most sensible revisions I’ve seen to date, and presents a lot of value for the consumer that wants it all. See price at Amazon This is our full Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review. Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review notes: I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 on Project Fi’s network in the U.S. for 12 days. Our Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is running Android 8.1 Oreo and Samsung Experience version 9.5 on the July 1, 2018 security patch. We’ll refrain from adding review scores until we can put the device through our full suite of tests. I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 on Project Fi’s network in the U.S. for 12 days. Our Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is running Android 8.1 Oreo and Samsung Experience version 9.5 on the July 1, 2018 security patch. We’ll refrain from adding review scores until we can put the device through our full suite of tests. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 used in this review were provided to Android Authority by Samsung. Editor’s note: This review was originally written in August of 2019. With the Samsung Galaxy S10 right around the corner, you may be wondering if it’s still worth buying. Ultimately it comes down to if you want the S-Pen. If the S-Pen is something you’re going to want, the S10 probably won’t fit the bill. In this case, either wait until late 2019 for the next Note or go ahead and pick up the Note 9. Even if it’s no longer brand new, it’s still a great device with tons of power. Even better, you can get it for as little as $709 in factory refurbished condition or $1,049 new (which is still much cheaper than it’s initial launch price for the unlocked model). Design Aesthetically, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is extremely similar to the Note 8. The untrained eye probably wouldn’t notice much difference, but small tweaks help the Note 9 function and feel much better than the Note 8 during daily use. The sides of the Note 9 are much flatter than the Note 8, making it easier to hold without a case. I was never a huge fan of the rounded edges of the Galaxy line, so this is a welcome change for me. A slight chamfer where the metal meets the rounded glass accompanies the flatter edges and makes the phone feel much grippier as well. I felt a lot more comfortable touting this device around without a case than the Note 8, though it got two decently-sized dents in the metal after the device fell while I was taking photos (it was propped up on the table and buzzed). Regardless of durability, tread carefully if you use the phone without protection. The device has slightly smaller bezels than the Note 8, increasing the size of the display to 6.4-inches from 6.3 inches. This means some apps need to be resized to fill the whole display area, but you’re only really adding about .1-inches of real estate. Regardless, it’s nice to see Samsung bumping the screen by a measurable amount, especially since the 6.2-inch display of the Galaxy S9 Plus blurred the lines between the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series of devices. Those smaller bezels make the phone look a bit more modern, and Samsung has once again opted to avoid the notch design in their products — further evidence that they are listening closely to what consumers want in a device. On the back of the phone, you’ll notice three distinct changes — a smaller camera visor, a secondary dual-aperture lens, and a fingerprint reader that has been shifted below the camera visor. Just like the slightly smaller bezels, the compacted camera visor helps the phone look much more premium. This feels like a purposeful addition to the Note 9’s relatively boxy design, blending into the aesthetic of the device instead of loudly announcing its presence. It’s also more centered than last year, which gives it a slightly more uniform design than the previous Note. The fingerprint reader looks and feels much better this year. The Note 8’s fingerprint reader positioning led to users resting their finger on the camera lens by accident, due to it being just to the right of the camera visor. Shifting it below the camera visor and rotating it 90 degrees lets users unlock their phones much easier, and my index finger lands directly where it should when holding the phone in my palm. However, I would have liked for the sensor to be just a bit bigger — it registered a lot of false negatives because the sensor only reads a portion of your finger. On the right side of the device, you’ll find the power button, but it’s just a bit too high up in my opinion. I would have liked to see this button more centered on the side of the device because I have to shift my hand in order to press it. This placement shouldn’t be an issue if you’ve got the fingerprint sensor enabled, but it can be frustrating to lock the device when you’re done using it. The best screen of any Android phone ever.<doc-sep>Photo : Sam Rutherford ( Gizmodo ) Since the beginning, the big honking screens on Galaxy Note phones have been their most memorable characteristic. But as the rest of the smartphone world caught onto the jumbo display trend and screen sizes from various makers started to converge around six-inch displays, the throne on which Samsung’s Note phones lorded over lesser devices just didn’t have the same kind of sway. So now, the question is: What’s the purpose of a big ass flagship handset in 2018, especially one that starts at pearl-clutching price of $1,000? Advertisement Smartphones Samsung Galaxy Note 9 What is it? A big, powerful, and expensive 6.4-inch phone Price Starts at $1,000, $1,250 for 8GB/512GB version (varies by carriers) Like Superb battery life, S-Pen functions as a mini as a remote, Dex mode is easier to use, best-in-class display, big specs Don't Like Isn't running Android 9 Pie, design hasn't changed much aside from new colors, Bixby button still not reprogrammable The answer is to give you everything. It’s as if on the Note 9, Samsung took the ridiculous excess of a stretch Ferrari limo, added back in the performance that prancing horse logo is supposed to deliver, and then went over everything with the kind of attention normally reserved for overly-tweezed Michelin star meals. So instead of getting what would otherwise be an S9+ with an S-Pen jammed up its butt, the Note 9 represents a top-to-bottom improvement on how much you can cram in a phone and what it can do. The Note 9 now sports a 6.4-inch display (0.2-inches larger than the S9+) that manages to look even more vibrant and colorful than any other phone screen on the market, which is quite impressive since Samsung is already the manufacturer responsible for the displays in its Galaxy phones and the iPhone X. Meanwhile on the inside, Samsung provides 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage standard, with the option of upgrading to an even higher-specced model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for around $1,250 (depending on where you buy it). That means better multitasking due to less closing of background apps, and the freedom to download and install whatever you want without fear of running out of room. Add in a microSD card slot that can handle another 512GB or more, and you’re looking at a phone that can hold north a 1TB. Yes, this is way more than anyone actually needs, but when you’re paying this much, there’s no reason to skimp. That Note 9's screen is simply the best. Photo : Sam Rutherford ( Gizmodo ) Samsung also paid attention to little things like Note 9's thermal management, and installed carbon fiber heat spreaders that are three times larger than the ones in the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 8. That means in addition to letting the Note 9's Snapdragon 845 processor run more freely, resulting in slightly higher scores in Geekbench 4 (9,012 for the Note 9 vs 8,414 for S9+), the Note 9 can also sustain that performance for longer periods of time. So after running my initial benchmarks, I tested this by taking the Note 9 and a Galaxy S9+ out for spin involving a few rounds of Fortnite, repeated runs of 3DMark’s Slingshot Extreme graphics test, and downloading a few torrents, all back to back. Basically, anything I could to stress out the phone and turn up the heat. Then, I ran Geekbench one more time to see how much each phone’s performance had been impacted. The Note 9 fell a bit down to 8,053 (a drop of around 10 percent), while the Galaxy S9+ suffered significantly more, with its score falling over 25 percent to 6,171. That said, it seems graphics performance doesn’t benefit quite as much from the Note 9's improved thermal management, because when I ran 3DMark Slingshot Extreme Unlimited one more time, both phones posted nearly equivalent marks of 4,974 for the Note 9, and 4,923 for the S9+, down from 5,021 and 5,033 respectively. Advertisement The Bixby button is still there, and like before, you can’t reprogram it. Photo : Sam Rutherford ( Gizmodo ) I do wish Samsung had done something, anything to change up the Note 9's design. Aside from a selection of new colors including ocean blue and lavender purple (which is essentially the same as the lilac paint job seen on the Galaxy S9), the main difference between the Note 9 and last year’s model is an almost imperceptible increase in heft. Advertisement Physically, the Note 9's 12-MP dual rear cameras are also more or less unchanged, though Samsung says it has rebuilt the phone’s image processing from the ground up, while also adding two new features to the phone’s camera app. The first is Samsung’s scene optimizer, which like we’ve seen on previous Huawei and LG phones, uses image recognition to detect objects in your shot, before adjusting the camera settings accordingly. At this point, the idea of using machine learning to help achieve optimal results isn’t exactly new, but the practice does help improve the quality of some of the most frequently snapped types of pics. The fingerprint reader is now below the camera instead of off to the side, but its horizontal position sometimes doesn’t feel quite right. Photo : Sam Rutherford ( Gizmodo ) Advertisement However, to all those people who continue to swear up and down about how the Pixel 2 is clearly the best smartphone camera, just stop it, it’s not. Between the iPhone X, the Pixel 2, the Huawei P20 Pro and the Galaxy Note 9, there isn’t a single smartphone that beats out its competition 100 percent of the time, or depending on the match up, even 75 percent of the time. I will say, that with Google’s advanced HDR+ processing, the Pixel 2 tends to has a slight advantage over Note 9 in bright, daytime situations. However, in low light, I ran into multiple situations where the Note 9 out shot a Pixel 2 XL.<doc-sep>Samsung introduce the new Galaxy Note9 FREE for the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up forfor the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 9 at the start of the month – the new phablet features a whopping 4,000mAh battery, up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage on the most expensive model. This trumps the South Korean tech giant’s Galaxy S9 and S9+ that came packing smaller batteries, less internal storage and not as much RAM. But it appears the Galaxy Note 9 is also beating the S9 and S9+ in a vital area that will surely please Samsung. Ahead of its highly-anticipated release, the Galaxy Note 9 appears to be bettering the S9 in terms of pre-order numbers. According to The Investor, that cited a source from a mobile carrier, the Note 9 could be seeing up to 50 percent more orders ahead of launch than the S9. The source said: “The number of preorders for the Galaxy Note 9 is roughly 30 to 50 percent higher than the Galaxy S9." The data reflects the Galaxy S9's pre-order figures in the run-up to its respective launch. Most notably the source did not clarify whether the numbers were referring to the smaller S9 alone or including its bigger brother. Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 9 at the start of the month However, the insider admitted the Note 9 was not doing as well as the Note 8 ahead of its release. They insisted the Note 9 is witnessing "80 percent" of pre-orders compared to its predecessor. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ launched back in March and touted a revamped camera system and a better internal processor. But since its debut the flagship has seen "slow sales", according to Samsung. The Note 9 is launching this week and hopes to continue its promising sales In a recent report detailing its second quarter results, the tech firm declared: “Amid the stagnant high-end smartphone market, the IT & Mobile Communications Division reported a drop in earnings, both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, over slow sales of the Galaxy S9. “The network business, however, achieved solid growth led by investments in LTE networks by key global customers.” Back in July it was confirmed the S9 and S9+ were failing to keep pace with the S8 and S8+ during their respective first months on the market. Analysts spoke with Reuters at the time and blamed the hardware's lack of "technological wizardry" for the soft sales. The Galaxy S9 and S9 launched back in March and touted a revamped camera system<doc-sep>
Samsung’s Galaxy Note phones have always been about more. More screen, more battery, more specs, more power, more features; if you want more of something, the Note is the phone to get. It’s a phone designed and built for the power user who won’t settle for anything less. The new Note 9 gives the most more of any Note phone. It has the biggest screen, the fastest processor, the biggest battery, the largest storage, and the most features. And it also costs the most — the Note 9 starts at $1,000 and goes up to an eye-watering $1,250. It’s easily the most expensive Samsung smartphone ever sold in the US and the most expensive Android phone on the market right now. To get the most, you’ll have to pay the most. What the Note 9 doesn’t offer is anything new — unlike Note phones of prior years, it doesn’t debut any new technology or design ideas. It just takes everything that Samsung’s been doing with the past few versions of its phones and turns it all up a notch. I don’t think this lack of new stuff is necessarily a bad thing — the Note 9 is the best phone Samsung has ever made and arguably the best Android phone you can buy right now. But it’s not for everyone. Our review of Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Verge Score 8.5 out of 10 Good Stuff Gorgeous, vibrant, bright, big display Fast performance True all-day battery life Lots of storage, even in the base model Bad Stuff High price tag Large, unwieldy size Duplicate apps and extra features that don’t add much value Buy for $999.99 from Samsung Buy for $999.99 from Amazon The Note 9 doesn’t look much different from the Note 8. It has the same overall design, with curved glass on the front and back, and a metal frame. The glass is not as curved as on the Galaxy S9, and it has squarer corners, which gives the Note 9 a larger footprint than Samsung’s other phones. This is a big phone, and there’s no getting around it: if you don’t like oversized phones or want something that can be used in one hand, this isn’t the device for you. Either way, it’s very well made and feels as premium as a $1,000 phone should. One appreciated change from the Note 8 is the placement of the rear fingerprint scanner. Instead of being up near the camera, it’s now below it, which makes it much easier to reach with your index finger. But because the Note 9 is such a large phone, it will still be hard to hit for those with smaller hands. The first bit of more you get with the Note 9 is more screen: the 6.4-inch panel is larger than any screen on a premium Samsung phone before it. It’s only a smidge bigger than the Note 8’s 6.3-inch panel, but Samsung was able to shrink the bezels above and below the screen even further, so the Note 9 isn’t meaningfully larger than last year’s phone, despite its bigger display. It also doesn’t have a notch or cutout at the top of the display, which bucks the trend of phone design this year and is sure to make some people happy. The display itself is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Samsung: it’s a bright, colorful, pixel-dense OLED panel with deep blacks and great viewing angles. It’s easily the best screen available on a smartphone right now and is just gorgeous to look at, indoors or out. Galaxy Note 9 Specs 6.4-inch quad HD OLED display Snapdragon 845 processor with 6 / 8GB RAM 128 / 512GB storage with microSD support 4,000mAh battery with wired and wireless fast charging Dual 12-megapixel rear camera with OIS and switchable aperture 8-megapixel front camera with autofocus Gigabit LTE Cat. 18 Iris, facial, and fingerprint biometric authentication Android 8.1 Oreo Inside, the Note 9 has more storage than any other Samsung phone: the base model offers 128GB of space, while the more expensive version has a whopping 512GB. Both versions have microSD card slots, so you can get up to a full terabyte of storage on your phone if you’re willing to pay for it. It’s also worth noting that Samsung is offering twice as much storage as the iPhone X at each price point. But the most important bit of more you get with the Note 9 is more battery life.