The Galaxy Note 9 hit retail stores worldwide in late August. Barring the two weeks of using the Galaxy A7 in between, the Galaxy Note 9 has been my daily driver for nearly two months at this point. The Galaxy Note 9's 4,000 mAh battery was one of the biggest reasons I had been looking forward to its release, and I feel battery life on the phone isn't as great as I had expected. But the Note 9 never leaves me worried, which is not something I can say for any other Samsung flagship since the Galaxy Note 4.
Galaxy Note 9 battery life ain't great, but it's dependable
I have been taking battery life screenshots at the end of each day for a couple of weeks now. And I noticed that I could always get at least four hours of screen on time and 14 hours of total time off the charger. On most days the phone would be sitting idle on a 4G connection for two hours or so as I played badminton; the rest were spent on my home's Wi-Fi network, with two SIM cards active at all times. And I have to admit that it's not the kind of performance I had expected from the 4,000 mAh battery, especially since it was mostly just moderate usage that didn't involve a lot of browsing, video viewing or other heavy tasks on any given day.
But then the Galaxy Note 9 battery does have to power high-end hardware. Samsung's newest Exynos chipset (the 9810) is based on the (albeit improved) 10 nm process that last year's Exynos 8895 was built on as well, so it's left to the higher battery capacity to improve things instead of major enhancements to efficiency under the hood. And it's also worth mentioning that Note smartphones offer a few extra software features over the Galaxy S smartphones.
If I had to vote in our poll about Galaxy Note 9 battery life, I would select the “it's good, but I expected more” option. Some of you might be wondering how I can have anything other than great battery life. Or how the screen time almost never seems to cross the 5-hour mark. That might be down to how battery life on Samsung phones seems to differ by country. Mobile networks here in India aren't very optimized and using a flagship phone with two SIM cards also takes its toll. You can imagine what people in India go through with a Galaxy S9, then, with that measly 3,000 mAh battery.
Dependable battery life on a flagship is enough for me
But the Galaxy Note 9 almost never has me worried about running out of juice. That's something I can happily live with, especially given how the Note 9 offers an excellent overall user experience as well. It may not be enough for everyone, but after years of seeing fast charging being offered as an alternative to long-lasting batteries, the Galaxy Note 9 is a breath of fresh air. Here's hoping Samsung will continue to keep battery endurance a priority on future flagship Galaxies as well.
Check out the screenshots below to see some of my battery life figures. Do tell me what your Galaxy Note 9 battery life is like in the comments section.
