What We Have Covered in This Article
Last Updated on September 11, 2018 by Editor Futurescope
The market has many big phones to offer, but most of them are smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. The phone is also expensive and boasts numerous high-end features. Immediately you see it, you are likely to think that it is the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 or the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, but it is much better and possibly worth its $999 price tag.
The design and display
If the Note 8 is not new to you, then you already know something about the display of Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Samsung adopted the designing of Note 8 on their new Note 9 smartphone. Even though the design has existed for one year, the sandwiched metal rim and the curved front are still distinctly modern. Some phones have also adopted the design, but none of them will feel finished and engineered to perfection.
The glass has not changed: it is still a smudge magnet. The manufacturer has placed the fingerprint sensor below its camera. The small change will reduce the chances of smearing your camera sensor each time you need to unlock the device.
The glass back has enabled wireless charging, the Galaxy staple, and other loved features like the IP68 water-resistance rating, the expandable storage and the headphone jack will make you happier. And including with the super-slim bezel that runs around 6.4-icnh screen, the device is still standing as one of the biggest phones in the market.
Samsung’s colour choice is not as bold as that of other companies, but things have changed with the Note 9. The first thing that is likely to grab your attention is the headline-grabbing colour combo – the sharp-yellow S Pen and the blue handset. The other colours include standard black, lavender purple and copper hue. That shows that Samsung has started focusing on the taste of their customers.
The display is 2960 x 1440 panel that supports HDR content and characterised by sloping ‘Infinity’ edges. The smartphone has an OLED panel, which unlike LCD uses lesser power and displays the needed pixels, thus displaying the right blacks. That means that when watching content with many dark scenes, they will look black and not slightly washed out. The black also boosts in the super-black environments making your reading easier.
The S Pen
S Pen is likely to remain the biggest selling point for Samsung Note smartphones. For the Galaxy Note 9, the manufacturer decided to enable Bluetooth on the S Pen and in various colours. A quick example: the Ocean Blue Note 9 boasts a yellow-coloured S Pen, the lavender and black handsets sport colour-matched S Pens.
The Bluetooth is a bigger addition to the S Pen. With this new feature, you can complete a few tasks when the device is a few meters away. For example, to take quality selfies, you just need to place the phone where you want it to be. Use the S Pen as your shutter button. You can also use it to skip tracks. Moreover, the S Pen feature has remained screen-off memo. With the phone’s display off, you will just need to pop out your S Pen and start your note-taking process. To save the notes, slide the pen back. Use the offered S Pen apps.
Performance of this device
The Note 9 device packs 6 GB of RAM, Exynos 9810, and 128 GB of storage. That means that this device is lightning fast after the set up process. The manufacturer has banished the lag that dominated their software for a number of years and replaced it with a smooth UI. The UI reacts instantly to each tap or swipe.
If you are a gaming enthusiast, expect the same performance when trying your favourite games. Samsung collaborated with Epic Games to improve the gaming efficiency of the Note 9. The pre-installed installer makes the process of installing games easier. However, the display’s curved edges might make it difficult to hit on-screen controls accurately.
The software
TouchWiz, now known as “Samsung Experience,” is now among the best Android skins thanks to the nice design and serious depth. It is almost close to what Google’s Android offers, but it offers better things. Your swiping processes will be fluid and natural and the widgets and icons match the phone’s aesthetics. The offered customization options will help you alter the resolution to save more power. The performance mode will help you stop any extraneous processes, particularly when gaming.
The battery saver modes allow customization of various areas that affect the usage. For example, you can tweak the lowered brightness, change the background data usage and throttle its CPU speed. Again, you can opt to use the iris scanner, facial recognition or the fingerprint sensor.
The manufacturer wants the users to forget everything about Google’s Android, you will find many duplicate files. Expect to find two browsers, clocks, app stores, email clients, payment services and calculators. The voice assistants are two Google Assistant and Bixby.
The camera
On the Note 9’s back, you will find a unique 12-megapixel camera system with a variable aperture (F/1.5 + F/2.40). Next to it, you will find another 12-megapixel camera that has longer focal length to allow 2X zooming. Samsung has optically stabilised the primary sensor with a smaller amount of RAM that speeds up things. They have also stabilised the secondary sensor.
The pictures are saturated reds and bright greens in addition to extra sharpening. The camera adjusts to match various shooting situations with the help of its new scene-detection mode, which adjusts depending on whether you are shooting portraits or landscape. The 4K video recording offers great results – stable, steady and higher-resolution footage.
The battery life
In the Galaxy Note 9, expect a 4000mAh battery. The cell is very large such that no other flagship device in the market houses a similar sized unit. The battery is similar to the Huawei P20 Pro’s battery size and exceeds that of Note 8 (3400mAh) and that of Galaxy S9 Plus (3500mAh). Things will level out within a few days, and you will be able to use the device the entire day on a single charge. The screen on time averages at 5-6 hours.
Pros
- The battery will comfortably last for the whole day
- The fantastic huge display that works efficiently
- The S Pen feature is still unique
- Samsung has offered software with several handy features
Cons
- The Bixby button will be an annoyance
- The design of S9 Plus is better
The phone’s battery will last for many hours, the display is fantastic and the manufacturer has maintained a unique S Pen, which comes with an added Bluetooth feature. If you are photography fancier, the phone is a great choice.
