The Galaxy NOTE line-up from Samsung has always been the powerhouse device that offers a bigger screen, bigger battery, and bigger specification. Last year's Galaxy Note 8 was a disappointment due to the downsize battery after the called back of NOTE 7.
Let's dives into Samsung's latest offering - Galaxy NOTE 9 ... ...
Unboxing Session
Samsung returns to a much simpler design - a black matte box with a printed S-PEN which is one of the features from the Galaxy Note 9. First, let slide out the sleeve. Inside the compartment are containing the fast adaptive charger, USB Type C cable, Earpiece, S-PEN swappable tips, USB transfer adapter and a simple clear soft casing. Documentation/paperwork are found inside the little sleeve.
The design of the phone doesn't look far apart from NOTE 8 with the same side curve screen, glass sandwich design, and the top and bottom bezel. Samsung relocated the fingerprint sensor below the camera sensor for easy reachability.
Setup
Going through the setup and we find application that can be opt-out during the setup such as Samsung applications, third party applications like SecureSG, Zao Bao and Straits Times. Such applications can be uninstalled even you opt-in. Out of the box, the phone has around ~460GB usable storage and at it cleanest state about 2.2GB RAM was used by it system applications.
Performance
Besides the super smooth performer - Google Pixel. Samsung comes a long way since the TouchWiz days. Samsung called it the Samsung Experience layering over Android 8.1 Oreo. The overall performance is excellent, loading up and switching app to app is fast.
S-PEN - The little beast...
Without the S-PEN, What is Galaxy NOTE for ... and Samsung made an upgrade onto the Pen with Bluetooth functionality. Which benefits the user by remote controlling the phone feature such as playing music and acts as a remote shutter for photo taking.
Display
You're greeted by the huge 6.4" (2,960 x 1,440) Super AMOLED Infinity 18:5:9 Display at a pixel density of 516. When comes to AMOLED display panel - Samsung always did it right and it the best display on a smartphone. It's super rich in colors and the blacks are deep black. I do not find myself goes directly to the setting menus to adjust a preferred display scheme when coming to Samsung Galaxy phones.
Powered by...
For Singapore variant of Galaxy Note 9 is powered by Samsung's Exynos 9810 octa-core (4x2.8 GHz Mongoose M3 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A55) while other markets are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC.
Two storage option to choose from 128GB or 512GB with 6GB or 8GB of RAM with microSD expandable slot.
Speakers
The Note 9 has stereo speakers custom tuned by AKG with the earpiece doubling up as the second speaker. Sadly, they are not front facing setup but it sound decent enough.
Battery
The battery capacity has up to 4000mAh compared with Note 8's 3300mAh and supports both wired and wireless fast charging. Have tested overnight standby time and it looks not too shabby.
With the large battery, on just a moderate usage can easily last the end of the day even with some gaming on the Note 9. As the phone support Fast Adaptive charging (equivalent to Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 standard).
Camera
The camera is their strong point since the Galaxy S6 days. Comes with a pair of rear 12MP dual pixel sensor and 12MP telephoto sensor with 2 times optical zoom. Both cameras do support OIS which rarely found such setup in other flagship. On the front is an 8MP selfie camera. Photo quality is vibrant and punchy colors, excellent details are captured during daylight condition.
The Galaxy S9's wide aperture brings over to the NOTE 9 that improve the image with less noise and capture more lighting source for better quality under low light and night shot. With the wide aperture kicks in, the images look well balanced in term of color reproduction with the skies backdrop and building details.
Slow-Mo Video (before software patch)
Slow-Mo Video (after software patch)
Hyperlapse Video
Verdict
If you're coming from the existing Galaxy S9+ and wants to have an 'upgrade', I wouldn't recommend it as after-all the NOTE 9 is an S9+ with an S-PEN with some fanciful features. With it promotional price right now and if you're looking for a powerhouse device that checks all boxes, this is probably one of the phones ranked on my top 5 phones to date.
Let's dives into Samsung's latest offering - Galaxy NOTE 9 ... ...
Unboxing Session
Samsung returns to a much simpler design - a black matte box with a printed S-PEN which is one of the features from the Galaxy Note 9. First, let slide out the sleeve. Inside the compartment are containing the fast adaptive charger, USB Type C cable, Earpiece, S-PEN swappable tips, USB transfer adapter and a simple clear soft casing. Documentation/paperwork are found inside the little sleeve.
The design of the phone doesn't look far apart from NOTE 8 with the same side curve screen, glass sandwich design, and the top and bottom bezel. Samsung relocated the fingerprint sensor below the camera sensor for easy reachability.
Setup
Going through the setup and we find application that can be opt-out during the setup such as Samsung applications, third party applications like SecureSG, Zao Bao and Straits Times. Such applications can be uninstalled even you opt-in. Out of the box, the phone has around ~460GB usable storage and at it cleanest state about 2.2GB RAM was used by it system applications.
Performance
Besides the super smooth performer - Google Pixel. Samsung comes a long way since the TouchWiz days. Samsung called it the Samsung Experience layering over Android 8.1 Oreo. The overall performance is excellent, loading up and switching app to app is fast.
S-PEN - The little beast...
Without the S-PEN, What is Galaxy NOTE for ... and Samsung made an upgrade onto the Pen with Bluetooth functionality. Which benefits the user by remote controlling the phone feature such as playing music and acts as a remote shutter for photo taking.
Display
You're greeted by the huge 6.4" (2,960 x 1,440) Super AMOLED Infinity 18:5:9 Display at a pixel density of 516. When comes to AMOLED display panel - Samsung always did it right and it the best display on a smartphone. It's super rich in colors and the blacks are deep black. I do not find myself goes directly to the setting menus to adjust a preferred display scheme when coming to Samsung Galaxy phones.
Powered by...
For Singapore variant of Galaxy Note 9 is powered by Samsung's Exynos 9810 octa-core (4x2.8 GHz Mongoose M3 & 4x1.7 GHz Cortex-A55) while other markets are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC.
Two storage option to choose from 128GB or 512GB with 6GB or 8GB of RAM with microSD expandable slot.
Speakers
The Note 9 has stereo speakers custom tuned by AKG with the earpiece doubling up as the second speaker. Sadly, they are not front facing setup but it sound decent enough.
Battery
The battery capacity has up to 4000mAh compared with Note 8's 3300mAh and supports both wired and wireless fast charging. Have tested overnight standby time and it looks not too shabby.
With the large battery, on just a moderate usage can easily last the end of the day even with some gaming on the Note 9. As the phone support Fast Adaptive charging (equivalent to Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 standard).
Camera
The camera is their strong point since the Galaxy S6 days. Comes with a pair of rear 12MP dual pixel sensor and 12MP telephoto sensor with 2 times optical zoom. Both cameras do support OIS which rarely found such setup in other flagship. On the front is an 8MP selfie camera. Photo quality is vibrant and punchy colors, excellent details are captured during daylight condition.
The Galaxy S9's wide aperture brings over to the NOTE 9 that improve the image with less noise and capture more lighting source for better quality under low light and night shot. With the wide aperture kicks in, the images look well balanced in term of color reproduction with the skies backdrop and building details.
Slow-Mo Video (before software patch)
Slow-Mo Video (after software patch)
Verdict
If you're coming from the existing Galaxy S9+ and wants to have an 'upgrade', I wouldn't recommend it as after-all the NOTE 9 is an S9+ with an S-PEN with some fanciful features. With it promotional price right now and if you're looking for a powerhouse device that checks all boxes, this is probably one of the phones ranked on my top 5 phones to date.