New Samsung Galaxy Note 9 analysis
To cut a long story short……
Be prepared - this phone will cost you at least as much as an iPhone X, more depending on model.
This is the largest ‘Note phone’ to date and boasts a 6.4inch ‘infinity’ display.
Dual 12MP camera is even better than previous even in low light conditions.
Option to upgrade to a huge 1TB of storage which is a first.
The S pen (Bluetooth connected) has some cool and actually useful shortcuts.
Stereo speakers make an appearance.
Can record super slow mo videos but no HDR video recording which is missing a trick.
Bixby button is as annoying as ever.
Battery size is 4,000mAh which should keep you going all day.
Release date is Friday August 24 and will cost £899 for 128GB/6GB &£1,099 for 512GB/8GB.
Available in UK in three colours: Ocean Blue with a yellow S Pen / Lavender Purple with a purple pen / Midnight Black combo.
Seems that Samsung have brought the release forward substantially, possibly to compete with the latest Apple bombshell assumed to happen this September, so here is the lowdown on this excellent ‘Note Phone’.
Samsung are marketing this phone as the crème de la crème of Note phones and it is aimed at professional or power users that always buy the best of everything and the price tag reflects that!
A serious plus is that they have blended positive features from the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus, like the camera upgrades – this includes the dual 12MP rear setup with dual-aperture technology.The camera on the Galaxy Note 9 also has jazzy features such as an automatic scene optimiser and enhances photos using flaw detection magic!
Storage is made up of 512GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM and you can add an additional 512GB by using a microSD card (Samsung would be happy to sell you one btw) creating a 1TB mega memory!
Stereo speakers and AR Emoji have been introduced on this phone and there are avatar customisations to create a likeness in emoji form – but it’s far from life like yet!!,
The clever S Pen has same functions as before but now has included Bluetooth so you can use it for remote-controlled shortcuts and they can be customized. It can be used for things like taking selfies from a distance up to 30ft!It only needs 40 seconds of charge (when stowed in the phone) for 30 mins of standby or around 200 clicks of the button. Other useful shortcuts are in photo gallery, music player and loads of camera shortcuts. Powerpoint presentations can be run using the S Pen so that is a big bonus for some business users – as you don’t need to pair a separate remote.
Memos can be jotted down quickly by taking the S Pen out of the phone when the screen is off and a note-taking interface automatically launches which is such a useful feature for all users.
Samsung have also put an SDK (software development kit) out for third party app developers to take advantage of this tool – so that could be exciting for future apps! There is an S Pen battery indicator on the display screen which is useful so you don’t get caught short in the middle of a shortcut – this feature, along with storing it in the phone (where it charges) makes it easier to deal with than the Apple Pencil. Some of these features are a bit more gimmicky than strictly necessary for the business market, but Samsung are obviously covering all bases here!
Enterprise users will find one use case for the new S Pen: running a PowerPoint presentation without having to fetch and pair a Bluetooth remote. Those things are one-trick ponies, so if an S Pen can replace this for you, that alone may be worth it.
Everyone can benefit from the Galaxy Note 9 screen-off memo feature. It's not a Bluetooth functionality or even new (it appeared on the ill-fated Note 7), but it deserves a mention. Pop the S Pen out of the Note 9 when the screen is off and it'll automatically launch a note-taking interface against a black background.
Overall, even though the Note 9 is bigger than ever - it isn’t noticeably different in size to the Note 8 which is great for users, because you have all the benefits of the larger AMOLED display, bigger storage and mega battery but without it looking like you’re holding a laptop to your ear!So even though it may cost the same price as an iPhone X 64GB (but with twice as much storage!) we reckon it is still a great phone and definitely one to compete with the iPhone dynasty!