It's finally official - the Samsung Galaxy Note9
takes its place at the helm of Samsung's smartphone lineup. At first glance the
new Note looks like a small update over the Galaxy Note8, but there are a host
of meaningful improvements.
To start with the Samsung Galaxy Note9 has mostly
retained the footprint of its predecessor but added a bigger 6.4-inch screen
(notchless, naturally) and a 20% bigger 4,000mAh battery. The display is the biggest
flagship screen Samsung has ever put on a phone. At 6.4-inch it's just 0.1-inch
bigger than the Galaxy Note8's and it shares its 1440x2960px resolution,
resulting in a meager deduction of 5ppi. The Super AMOLED unit is HDR10
compliant and supports Always On Display.
There's no under the display fingerprint scanner on
the Galaxy Note9 but the rear-placed one has moved to a more sensible center
position under the dual camera module. That camera array was bumped up
to the Galaxy S9+'s system of a 12MP dual-aperture f/1.5-2.4 wide and 12MP f/2.4
telephoto cameras - both optically stabilized and both polished with Samsung's
new Intelligent Camera, which will detect scenes, optimize colors and contrast
and detect flaws such as a smudgy lens or subject that has closed his eyes. The
selfie camera has remained the same 8MP f/1.7 snapper.
Other carryovers from the Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ is
the chipset - Exynos 9810 Octa - and the inclusion of stereo speakers
(finally). The Galaxy Note9 is of course IP68 water resistant, as is the S Pen
itself. Samsung knows that the S Pen is probably the biggest reason people
buy Galaxy Note phones, so they made the newest one much smarter.
This is the first Bluetooth-enabled S Pen and it can
act as a remote shutter for the camera. The S Pen has a range of 10 meters and
a battery power of about 30 minutes (or 200 clicks). It recharges in only 40
seconds in its holster inside the phone. The S Pen now supports three inputs -
short press, long press and double press.
Samsung has updated the DeX on the Galaxy Note9.
First off there's no longer a need for a DeX Dock and a physical keyboard and
mouse - the Galaxy Note9 can enter DeX mode through a single USB-C to HDMI
cable. In DeX mode the Galaxy Note9 is fully functional and can be used as a
keyboard and trackpad.
It's shame that the bigger battery can be topped up
at the outdated Quick Charge 2.0 speeds. The Galaxy Note9 supports Fast
Wireless Charging as well. Samsung Galaxy Note9 in Lilac Purple Samsung Galaxy Note9 in Lilac
Purple The base model Galaxy Note9 comes
with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and if that doesn't seem enough you can
always expand it through the microSD card slot. The range topper is a Galaxy
Note9 with 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy Note9 comes in
Ocean Blue, Midnight Black, Lavender Purple and the new Metallic Copper. The
price for the 6GB/128GB Galaxy Note9 costs US$ 999 while the 8GB/512GB model will
jump up to US$ 1,250.
