Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review

The Note 9 is all about going big with a lot of minor upgrades. Bigger than previous Note phones in every way, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has a larger screen, heftier battery and a massive 1TB of storage option. The camera is poised to be better and the Bluetooth-connected S Pen can activate customizable shortcuts remotely. But its price matches (and even tops) what you’ll pay for an iPhone X.

Pros:

Beautiful 6.4-inch Infinity Display

Big battery and storage options

Promising camera enhancements

Bluetooth S Pen shortcuts

Cons:

Expensive

A lot of small upgrades

No HDR video recording

Expensive

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a little bigger, a little more colorful, and a little more powerful than all prior Note phones, but be warned: it’s also a lot more expensive.

It’s the biggest Android phone that will grab your attention in 2018, with a sizeable 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, a huge 4,000mAh battery for all-day performance, and up to 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.

Slot in a 512GB microSD card (which Samsung will gladly sell you), and you can have the first mainstream 1TB phone in your hands. You won't get to use all of that as the system data and existing apps will take up some of that space, but it's unlikely you'll be disappointed with the amount of storage on your phone.

Good news – the Note 9 doesn’t actually feel any bigger than last year’s 6.3-inch Note 8, and it inherits a bunch of this year’s 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and 6.8-inch Galaxy S9 Plus features. 

The camera is better, with a dual 12MP rear setup that has dual-aperture technology, and can record Super Slow Mo videos. AR Emoji is back with some finer avatar customizations, but rest assured, your avi will still look nothing like you, according to our early tests.

Exclusive to the Note 9 camera are automatic scene optimizer and flaw detection features that enhance photos (Samsung has a habit of rolling these features out to older phones later on). 

The S Pen now has Bluetooth for remote-controlled shortcuts that, unlike the Bixby button, are customizable. Want to pose for a photo 30 feet away? This S Pen can help you do that and more.

Bad news – the price feels much bigger. Get ready to pay iPhone X-level prices for the entry-level 128GB and 6GB model. Ouch. The Note 9 is meant for power users, according to Samsung – the physical size, storage size, price, and battery capacity all tell us that. 

The company sees Note 9 buyers as people who spend a lot of time on their phone and want the best of the best – they buy the best AV receiver, the best TV, and so forth.

We’re continuing to test the Note 9, but we can already tell that it’s a contender to unseat the Galaxy S9 Plus as our top smartphone recommendation – that is, if you want to own a giant, feature-filled phone with a stylus and hate saving money. 

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 release date is on August 24, sooner than anyone had expected a year ago.

New S Pen magic tricks

• Bluetooth stylus has custom shortcuts
• Great for remotely taking photos, works up to 30 feet away
• Charges quickly while embedded in the phone

The new S Pen is the star turn of the Note 9 show, capable of performing Bluetooth-connected magic tricks from up to 30 feet away. 

Samsung has managed to squeeze a small battery and tiny Bluetooth Low-Energy antenna into the otherwise unchanged stylus so that it can perform various remote functions, and we're impressed.

Samsung is making S Pen shortcuts customizable. Here are the ideas mentioned:

• Camera: Flip the camera / take a photo
• Camera: Flip the camera / record a video
• Music Player: Play and pause music / skip to the next track 
• Photo Gallery: Advance to the next photo / cycle back to a previous photo
• PowerPoint: back and forth through presentation slides

Samsung is putting a software development kit (SDK) out there for non-core third-party apps to take advantage of this shortcut, so the shortcuts will be customizable as long as app developers support the functionality. 

The S Pen does need to be charged, but Samsung claims 40 seconds of charge time will net you 30 minutes of standby battery. 

Samsung says the Bluetooth functionality allows for the evolution of the S Pen, but we can’t help but notice another contrast. 

Shortcuts like snapping selfies remotely can ‘unlock a whole different level of photography’, according to Samsung, and while that sounds useful for dramatic selfies (the example given is laying tired on the couch and taking a hands-free photo), the business-class Note 9 may not be the right audience for that. But it’s a nice idea nonetheless.

Enterprise users will find one use case from the new S Pen: running a PowerPoint presentation without having to fetch and pair a Bluetooth remote. Those things one-trick ponies, so if an S Pen can replace this for you, that alone may be worth it.

Everyone can benefit from the Galaxy Note 9 screen-off memo feature, too. It's not a Bluetooth functionality or new (it appeared on the ill-fated Note 7), but it deserves a mention. Pop the S Pen out of the Note 9 when the screen is off and it'll automatically launch a note-taking feature. This allows you to jot down notes, and save them to the phone, without the need to unlock the Note 9 and launch a specific app. It makes noting taking much quicker and easier, and while it may be a simple offering we can see ourselves using it frequently.

Popping the S Pen in and out isn't always the most seamless experience. During our hands-on time with the Galaxy Note 9 we found that a certain level of accuracy is required to ensure it's properly holstered.

Your first 1TB-ready smartphone

• 512GB of internal storage with 8GB of RAM
• 128GB of internal storage with 6GB of RAM
• Additional 512GB microSD card can up storage to 1TB

It’s no surprise that Samsung, among top manufacturers, is the first to produce a 1TB-ready smartphone, a capacity that rivals that of most laptops people buy today. 

Samsung makes both the internal 512GB flash drive and a variety of 512GB microSD memory cards.

However, when you turn the Galaxy Note 9 on for the first time you'll find that it's already gobbled up at least 19GB of space. That means that while there's theoretically 1TB of space when the 512GB Note 9 is combined with the same size microSD card, you don't actually have 1TB of space to play with.

This isn't a surprise, as the advertized storage space on any smartphone these days isn't the amount of space you actually have to use - but it does slightly dampen Samsung's 1TB headline.

The Note 9 is billed as the phone that will never run out of physical storage space. Uninstalling games and deleting movies you’ve downloaded isn’t something you’ll need to worry about here – take all the photos you want at full resolution, and all the 4K video you want, no compromise needed. 

8GB of RAM is also likely to work best for Samsung’s Dex desktop mode, second screen workflows, and virtualization software.

The 4,000mAh battery

• Much larger battery at 4,000mAh
• Galaxy S9 had 3,000mAh and S9 has 3,500mAh
• Fast Charging and Fast Wireless Charging supported

The Note 9 battery capacity has also been unshackled, breaking through the 4,000mAh ceiling. Battery life is being touted as all-day, and that's for Note power users, which means moderate use should see you into day two without a problem.

While the storage sizes come in two configurations, the battery size, thankfully, is common to both devices. You also get Fast Charging and Fast Wireless Charging capabilities.

Design, display and other specs

• Expansive 6.4-inch display and minor dimension changes
• Includes fingerprint sensor, microSD slot and headphone jack

Samsung’s Super AMOLED display doesn’t need to change to look great. It’s consistently the best smartphone screen in the world until the next Samsung phone launches, every year. The nearly bezel-less Infinity Display is bright and punchy. And, even if the tall 18:9 aspect ratio (or in this case 18.5:9) is on just about every flagship phone in 2018, Samsung’s curved edges are unmatched.

Here are two features Samsung gives you that you don’t get on a similarly priced iPhone X: a headphone jack and a microSD card slot for expandable storage. 

The Note 9 is IP68 water- and dustproof, and that resistance rating stays the same whether or not the S Pen is embedded. New to the Note 9 over the Note 8 are stereo speakers (just like on the S9 and S9 Plus).

The good news is the fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy Note 9 is much easier to locate, and our forefinger landed nicely on the scanner - although the landing area is a touch on the small side. 

We'd have preferred a larger target area that the circular design offers, but Samsung has tried to keep the aesthetic cohesive on the rear of the Note 9 and we can't knock it too much for that.

Camera and battery life

• Inherits the S9 Plus camera dual-aperture features
• Wide-angle and telephoto dual camera lenses on back
• AI-backed scene optimizer enhancements show promise

Samsung is carrying over its camera prowess to the Note 9, with low-light defeating and telephoto-zooming camera lenses on the back. 

The S9 Plus gave us a good idea of what to expect, but Samsung is promising even higher photo quality from the Note 9. The dual 12MP rear camera uses dual aperture technology to switch between an f/1.5 aperture for low-light photography and an f/2.4 aperture for normal lighting conditions. The S9 Plus gave us positive results even in the darkest settings, boosting its rank as the best camera phone you can currently buy.

The secondary rear camera allows for a 2x optical zoom, giving you sharp telephoto snapshots for when you’re standing too far away. The aperture here is always set at f/2.4, and like the main lens it has optical image stabilization (OIS) to make up for your shaky hands.

The Note 9’s front-facing camera does selfies at 8MP and includes autofocus, a first for a Note phone. Samsung fills its camera app with an endless number of mode options, too: AR stickers, wide group selfies, and Super Slow Motion video at 960 frames per second at a 720p resolution. It’s one of the most robust camera apps in the business, yet easy to use. The camera is supposed to understand what it’s looking at, and it uses the same technology to correct flaws, including eye blinking, image blurring, lens smudges, and backlight. 

Sometimes it’ll pick the best photo of the bunch, and other times it’ll have a pop-up warning message, telling you to clean your dirty camera lens.

While rival Android handsets are supporting mobile HDR video recording, we don’t see signs of that here – we’re probably going to have to wait until the Galaxy S10 for superior, color-rich video

Android, interface and apps

• Android Oreo, just misses Android Pie
• Fortnite exlcusive (for a very limited time period)
• Smasung Pay, Bixby AI, and AR Emoji present

Samsung just missed the Android 9 Pie launch this week, meaning the Galaxy Note 9 comes with Android Oreo. Not that you’d notice, as Samsung puts its own spin on Android.

That’s not a bad thing any more. The Samsung Experience software is well refined in 2018, with helpful cues on how to navigate a deep and complex operating system. It’s much better than the bloated Samsung TouchWiz firmware on its old Android phones, and everyone who hates on the software today likely hasn’t touched a Samsung in years.

Early verdict

The Note 9 offers a lot to like – and a price hike to utterly dislike. The S Pen has new remote-controlled tricks, the maximum storage size is unbeatable, and the battery life and AI-enhanced camera are both promising. 

The latter two perks require more review testing, but our initial impressions are quite favorable.

It’s just that you’ll pay through the nose for this bundle of little upgrades at a time when the Note 8 is a fine phone at a discounted price. When Samsung told us that the ideal user for the Note is someone who wants to own the best AV receiver, Best TV, and so forth, they may have left out the best airplane, the best yacht, and the best sports car.

The iPhone X drove prices to this level, and we complained then, too. Samsung is at least giving you more ‘big’ for your money.

©TechRadar