If you think that title looks familiar, it's because we had the same story up when the Galaxy S9 was released. Dolby Atmos is quite a useful feature to have on the stereo speakers and the AKG-tuned earphones on Samsung's latest flagships, but it comes disabled by default. That might be deliberate since Dolby Atmos doesn't always make a positive difference. But it can also mean that some users might not discover it as quickly as they should. So, well, if you have a Galaxy Note 9 or are looking forward to picking one up, don't forget to enable Dolby Atmos as soon as you get the chance!
Dolby Atmos is great, but you have to first enable it
Dolby Atmos usually works on the Auto setting, which tries to detect the kind of media being played and adapts accordingly. But the detection is rather wonky at times, like using the Movie mode when you're playing music tracks, so it's best to play around with the different modes (movie, music, and voice) to see which one works best for your current use case. Or, well, just leave it on Auto so you can reap the benefits without having to worry about it too much. As you would expect, it's more useful over the earphones, but the difference is noticeable even on the stereo loudspeakers.
In any case, you first have to enable Dolby Atmos. You can do that by using the toggle in the quick settings menu accessible by swiping down the notification shade twice. You can also enable Dolby Atmos from the Sound and vibration » Sound quality and effects menu in the phone's Settings app. You can then access the toggle in the notification shade when you're watching or listening to something on the phone to change the mode on-the-fly.
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