The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is not for people who don’t like big smartphones — or for people with small hands. What I’m saying is that this phone is really large. But it’s also a great phone.
The good stuff | The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has a crisp and responsive screen, great battery life and a very good camera.
The bad stuff | This phone is so large and slick that it’s easy to drop. The price tag is also very steep.
This year’s Samsung Galaxy Note seems to have the best of, well, everything. The Display, the battery life, even multitasking and the performance are all fantastic.
The Note 9 is one of those stylus phones, too. And this year, Samsung decided to hide a couple of tricks up the S Pen’s sleeve. Tricks of which I became a huge fan early on. So much so that after going back to my non-stylus phone, I actually miss the “pen.”
Note: The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 used for this review was loaned to me by AT&T.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which runs Android 8.1 (Oreo), has a gorgeous 6.4 inch Quad HD+ Super AMOLED nearly bezel-less screen that’s slightly larger than last year’s Note 8. Samsung says this screen is the company’s “largest Infinity Display ever,” and I believe it. By default, the screen’s resolution is set at Full HD+ and can be swapped up to Quad HD+ in the phone’s Settings — but you probably won’t feel the need to make that tweak.
The Note 9’s body is tall, thin and will feel a lot like last year’s Note 8. It even has the same overall design: Curved glass on the front and back, and a metal frame. It’s also IP68 certified, meaning it’s dust and water resistant.
Buttons-wise, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has the same configuration as the Note 8, too. The USB-C connector, 3.5mm headphone jack and S Pen are located along the base of the phone. On the left side, you’ll find the volume keys and a shortcut button for Bixby (which I accidentally hit just as often as I did on last year’s model). The power button is on the right side. And, the phone’s SIM card/microSD card slot is located on the top of the phone.
On the Note 9’s back are its dual-lens camera and fingerprint sensor. The two 12MP cameras provide up to 2x optical zoom. Switching from the telephoto to wide-angle lens will help you shoot more (without taking a step backward). And the front-facing camera has an 8MP lens that can capture wide selfie shots with the help of the phone’s S Pen.
Inside, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has an amazing amount of storage: the base model offers 128GB of space. If that’s not enough, you can pay more for a version with 512GB. Both versions are expandable via microSD card slots, which will get you up to a full terabyte of storage. And the Note 9’s 4000mAh battery should have no problem accomplish everything you need without being depleted before the day is done.
Performance
The Note 9 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, which is the same processor that’s inside Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones. If you buy the Note 9 with less overall storage (the 128GB model), you’ll get 6GB of RAM. This is what my review model had and it performed really well in terms of multitasking. The more expensive version with 512GB of storage will come with 8GB of RAM — this isn’t necessary for the average user.
Here’s the Galaxy Note 9’s benchmark that I reviewed compared to other devices benchmarked with AnTuTu.
If I had put money on the Note 9 beating out its S9+ cousin, I would’ve lost. But the two phones were very close in their benchmark scores. Despite its slightly lower score, I never felt like the Note 9 lagged.
Camera
It’s not surprising that I loved the Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s camera — I loved the Note 8’s and other Samsung flagship phones’ cameras, too. What did surprise me was how well the S Pen worked with the phone’s camera to create a great — and super useful — experience while shooting sharp and dynamic photos. You see, the S Pen has a small button on its side and while shooting with the selfie camera, you can click the button and take things like group photos … you’ll see.
I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the writing in this section.
Macro
Panorama
Low-light
Selfie
(Now a group photo with the S Pen)
S Pen
Thanks to Bluetooth Low Energy, this little stylus is a great tool for people looking to get a little more out of the Note 9. The selfie trick (mentioned in the Camera section) is easily my favorite ability of the S Pen. It can also perform more useful tasks like moving through the slides of a PowerPoint presentation or making notes on a screenshot. If you’re more of a media-heavy user on your phone, the S Pen will also let you skip tracks, pause videos and more.
At the end of the day, though, the S Pen is just a good stylus. Writing with it feels pretty natural, almost as if you were writing on paper.
Pro tip: The S Pen can interact with your phone from up to 30 feet away. But leaving it behind would be awful, so users will want to head into the phone’s settings and make the phone alert you when the stylus has been left behind.
Problems
Just like with the Note 8, my main issue with the Note 9 was how massive the phone was. It wasn’t comfortable to hold and I often felt like I might drop it as a result. It’s also slick thanks to the glass body. I would highly recommend a case with some grip if you’re going to buy this smartphone.
Another issue I had with the model before it, I really don’t like the placement of the Note 9’s Bixby shortcut button. (Note to Samsung: This button does not need to exist!)
I had no other issues with the handset, other than it not fitting in my pants’ pockets, but I will mention this story that popped onto my radar: a Long Island woman is claiming that her Samsung Galaxy Note 9 smartphone spontaneously combusted in her purse. Samsung was supposed to have nipped that problem in the bud a while ago. Samsung officials even said ahead of its Aug. 24 release that The Note 9 wouldn’t have this problem. This is just one claim, though. And the Note 9 that I tested never caught fire.
Recommend to a friend?
The price is high ($1000) but this phone was really fun to use and the new S Pen features were hard to separate from. As long as you like big phones, this would be a great smartphone to own. I also have no doubt it will be at the top of many “best smartphone” lists for 2018.
