Introduction
The Galaxy Note 9 perfected the solid comeback that Samsung pulled off with the Galaxy Note 8. The 2017 flagship phablet steered the Note lineup out of troubled waters and brought it into the modern age with a dual rear camera and an Infinity display. 2018's Galaxy Note 9 perfected it with meaningful new features, subtle design changes and a chunky battery.
Samsung got a lot of praise for the Galaxy Note 9. It was highly regarded in reviews as well and many felt that it set the standard for Android flagships to beat in the second half of the year. The Galaxy Note 9 really is that good.
Design
One noticeable difference for those who have seen the Galaxy Note 8 is the placement of the fingerprint sensor below the rear dual camera system. It allowed for easier access and addressed many complaints from users about the sensor's placement on its predecessor. Even though the Galaxy Note 9 is slightly thicker and wider than the Galaxy Note 9, you'll hardly notice it when using the phone every day. The diamond-cut edges that Samsung utilized to make the phone slimmer than it really is do work their magic.
The Galaxy Note 9 measures 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8mm and weighs 201g. It has a familiar glass and metal construction that we've been seeing on Samsung flagships for a few years now. There's a USB Type-C port at the bottom along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and the S Pen. The frame houses the hybrid dual-SIM and microSD tray at the top.
Display
Samsung gave this device the largest display ever on a Galaxy smartphone at that time. The Galaxy Note 9 touts a 6.4-inch 2960×1440 pixel resolution Super AMOLED Infinity Display. It's a beautiful dual-edge curved panel with Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. HDR support is present as well.
Unsurprisingly, this device was found to have the best smartphone display ever at that point in time. The Galaxy Note 9 display set a new record for absolute color accuracy. It was also 27 percent brighter and 32 percent higher in contrast compared to the Galaxy Note 8. The displays on Samsung's flagship smartphones hardly ever give you cause for complaint and that's the case for this handset as well.
Specifications
The 2018 flagship was an absolute beast in the performance department as well. It ran on the Exynos 9810 processor in all markets except the US, China and Japan which got the Snapdragon 845. It's the first Samsung flagship smartphone to ship with 8GB of RAM. It's also the first to offer 512GB of internal storage. Samsung promoted this fact heavily after launching, pointing out that you could have 1TB of storage in your pocket by popping in a 512GB microSD card into the 512GB Galaxy Note 9.
Samsung also promoted it as a great device for gaming on the go. It made a new water cooling system for the Galaxy Note 9 which reduced chances of overheating during gaming and heavy usage by 21 percent. Improvements were also made in the networking department with support for Gigabit Wi-Fi and Gigabit LTE.
For the complete list of Galaxy Note 9 specs, you can go to the device specifications page.
S Pen
Samsung introduced the biggest update ever for the S Pen with the Galaxy Note 9. This is the first S Pen from Samsung with Bluetooth support. This allows the stylus to offer functionality never seen before on a Galaxy Note handset. The new S Pen has a Bluetooth Low-Energy module and antenna which allow it to double as a remote control within a 10-meter radius of the phone. It can be used as a shutter button for the camera, a clicker during presentations and as a remote during video playback.
Camera
The Galaxy Note 9 features a 12-megapixel primary sensor with f/1.5 – f/2.4 dual aperture and a 12-megapixel f/2.4 telephoto sensor. The camera setup is essentially the same as the Galaxy S9+. It did bring several new software features, though, such as the Scene Optimizer which detects the type of scene being captured and matches it to over a dozen presets. The Flaw Detection feature detects when someone has blinked in a photo or if it has come out blurry and recommends the user to capture it again. There's also an 8-megapixel f/1.7 front camera.
Software
The Galaxy Note 9 shipped with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box with Samsung Experience UX version 9.5. It got an upgraded version of Bixby which included a new user interface for Samsung's voice assistant. Bixby 2.0 also brought additional functionality and made the assistant smarter.
DeX Mode was the second major software feature on the Galaxy Note 9. It enabled users to power a PC-like desktop experience when the device was connected to an external display using a USB Type-C to HDMI cable, eliminating the requirement on earlier devices of needing a DeX Pad or Station, though it remained compatible with those accessories as well. The Galaxy Note 9 will be supported for two major OS update which means that it's set to receive Android Q.
Price and Release Date
Samsung confirmed on August 8, 2018, that the Galaxy Note 9 is going to be priced at $999 and $1,249 for the 128GB and 512GB models respectively. Pre-orders were opened a couple of days after the launch and the handset was released on August 24. Ocean Blue, Midnight Black and Lavender Purple were the launch colors for this device.
