Design and Build

The Samsung Note 9 is huge! The phone sports a large 6.4-inch screen, which is just a 0.1-inch more than the outgoing Galaxy Note 8. It is barely noticeable if you are just looking at both the phones from a distance. The Note 9 has a nearly bezel-less display with curved edges on all sides. Samsung calls it Infinity Display.

Another noticeable change in the design of the Note 9 is the placement of the fingerprint sensor. It is moved below the camera lens on the glass back. It looks broader, since it is placed horizontally. The Note 8 had it placed vertically, beside the camera setup. At the front, is a camera lens, an iris scanner and light sensors hidden within the top bezel.

The S-Pen stylus is the major highlight of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Even the packaged box of the Note 9 has the S-Pen design carved on it. Our review unit was an ocean blue variant with a contrasting yellow S-Pen. This stylus sits at the extreme right corner of the phone, which also keeps it charged. It looks like any other stylus, but this one has a battery in it which Samsung claims can hold 30-minutes of power on average Bluetooth use. There is also a small clickable button on the S-Pen for performing actions.

All the controls on the Note 9 are at the same position as the Note 8. Unlike other phones, you find a hybrid SIM card tray on the top. You can choose to use either use two SIM cards or one SIM and a microSD card. There is a volume rocker button on the left and a dedicated Bixby button just below it. On the right is the power button, while the connectivity ports such as USB Type-C, headphone jack and the speaker grill are at the bottom of the phone.

With a full-frontal glass and a metal frame around, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a little heavier at 201g compared to the Galaxy Note 8 weighing 195g. The Note 9 has a better grip too, since it has a matte finish at the back. However, the Note 9 doesn’t come with anything new or interesting in terms of design.

9.0/10

Features

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 comes with the best hardware available. The Note 9 is equipped with a quad HD+ Super AMOLED screen that runs a resolution of 2960 x 1440. The screen is pretty wide, looks bright with rich and deep colours. The phone runs on the Exynos 9810 Octa core processor that is also found on the recently launched Galaxy S9 and the S9+. Also, the Note 9 has a massive 4,000 mAh battery. Samsung says it is 21 per cent larger than the Note 8 and can last for a day on a single charge.

The Note 9 is available in two RAM variants. The base model is equipped with 6GB of RAM along with 128GB of internal storage, whereas the higher-end model comes with 8GB of RAM with 512GB of storage. These is ample of storage to store lots of music, movies, photos and more.

The S-Pen is the main selling-point of the Note 9. Although, it looks similar to the one on the Note 8, there are changes to it. This S-Pen supports Bluetooth, which means it isn’t merely for taking notes, you can use it as a remote control. The S-Pen supports 4096 pressure levels. You can use it on the screen as you would use a pencil or a pen on the book. There are endless customization options for the S-Pen, which we will discuss a little later.

Talking about the cameras, at the back of the Note 9 sits a 12MP dual camera with 2x optical zoom. The telephoto lens and the wide-angle lens both work together to offer clear and crisp shots. The camera has an aperture setup of f/1.4 to f/2.4, which adjusts itself to the light conditions.

The Note 9’s rear camera has a scene optimizer for clicking better images with 20 different modes such as mountains, food, flowers, greenery and more. Also, it can detect flaws while clicking photos such as eyes blinking, motion blurring, lens smudging and excess back lighting. There are lots of other picture modes such as HDR, Live focus, Portrait and many more. The camera also lets you shoot 4K videos and with the storage the Note 9 offers, you can shoot hours of videos like you would on a DSLR.In terms of connectivity, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 features the latest wireless standards. It supports 4G VoLTE so you can experience Jio to the fullest, along with the latest Wi-Fi 802.11ac which is the fastest WiFi standard on consumer devices. In addition, the Note 9 supports Bluetooth 5.0 which is another new standard, which brings along improved power efficiency and faster data transfer speed. Other standard connectivity options include GPS, NFC and a USB Type C.  

9.0/10

Performance

To check the performance of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, we ran a range of tests ranging from basic to heavy. The 3D Mark Sling Shot Extreme gaming benchmark scored 3,307 (OpenGL) and 2,871 (Vulkan), which is better compared to the Note 8, which scored 2,185 and 2,089. The AnTuTu benchmark version 7.1 that runs a variety of tasks on the phone earned an overall score of 239,103, while the Note 8 was able to score 179,969. These numbers indicate a really big performance jump. 

Considering the scores earned, we played games such as Asphalt Street Storm Racing and Subway Surfers. With a large, wide screen and a mix of rich colours, games were more appealing. There wasn’t any lag or stuttering at all. The Note 9 was able to handle heavy graphics tasks pretty well. Although, we noticed some heating after running half an hour of continuous benchmarks and games. The phone runs on Android Oreo 8.1 and looks like Samsung just missed the latest Android Pie 9, but we expect to see the update very soon. The interface is smooth, responsive and the phone didn’t have any problems opening or switching between apps. Every swipe and tap was clean and prompt, sheer joy to use.

To unlock the Note 9, we tried the Intelligent Scan feature that scans both, the face and eyes at the same time. It hardly takes a second to unlock the Note 9. Like most smartphones, you can also register your fingerprints, password, pattern or PIN unlock.

The Bluetooth integrated S-Pen bundled with a Note 9 is a game changer. We were able to do a lot. Taking notes was really very simple. We had to just pop-out the S-Pen from the phone and start writing notes on the screen, without even unlocking the phone. Samsung calls it the Screen-Off Memo notepad. We were able to save and pin all the notes on the screen to find them later in the pre-installed Samsung Notes app. This app categorizes all saved notes into sections such as meeting notes, drawings, etc. for easy access. If you are someone who like sketching, drawing or colouring pictures, there is a PENUP community online, where you can share your drawings with your friends and also with the entire world.

Besides just taking notes and colouring pictures, the S-Pen’s feature that gives you remote access to the phone was fun to use. We were able to launch the Camera app, click photos, swipe images from the photo gallery, switch between the cameras, shuffle music, switch slides in a PowerPoint presentation and more, from distance of around 30 feet. This is a handy tool in meetings where you’re giving presentations. Also, the S-Pen is truly customizable and we were able to set custom actions for more controls.

The S-Pen takes 40 seconds to get charged completely, which can then last for 30 minutes on average usage. To charge the S-Pen, we had to simply slide it into the bay on the Note 9. Also, to check the battery status of the S-Pen, there is a battery indicator on the top right corner on the phone display.  

In terms of storage, there is nothing to complain about the storage capability of the Samsung Note 9. It is the first to have 1TB-ready of storage capacity. The higher storage variant of the Note 9 packs 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. If that is not enough, you can add a microSD card supporting storage up to 512 GB. This is a massive amount of storage, which you mostly find on laptops.The Note 9’s camera is similar to the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. The phone has a 12MP dual-camera setup with a variable aperture of f/1.5 for low-light, night or indoor photography and f/2.4 for bright light or outdoor photography. The phone clicked decent photos under bright lights with great details and natural looking colours.  

The primary camera comes with a 2X optical zoom for clicking a mix of sharp telephoto and wide angle photos. It also features dual-optical image stabilization to manage any shakiness. We found it very helpful, especially while taking panning shots and shooting long duration videos. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 supports HD, full HD, Quad HD and 4K video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps. The camera at the front is an 8MP. There are a number of camera modes to play with such as HDR, Portraits, Auto-focus, Super Slow-Mo and AR emojis.

The Samsung Note 9 comes with two voice assistants - Bixby and Google Assistant. Trying out Bixby was troublesome. On clicking the dedicated Bixby button, we got the Bixby-enabled screen, but it had difficulties listening to commands. We ended-up using the Google Assistant instead.

8.5/10

Verdict

Samsung always strives to design something innovative. Be it a smartphone or a home appliance. They have designed the Galaxy Note 9 with the best possible hardware, a large screen, a professional camera and longer battery life. The S-Pen is an additional gizmo to get the work done with ease. The Note 9 is great and will not disappoint, if you are looking for a large display and a higher capacity battery. Though the Note 9 is equipped with the latest hardware, it still runs on Android Oreo 8.1. That should change soon. Also, Bixby still remains an area of improvement for Samsung.

The recently launched Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus, both offer most of the features the Note 9 does, but at a lower price. It’s the S-Pen that makes the huge difference. Unless you are very keen on using the S-Pen, you may want to choose and buy the one that better fits your requirements.

8.5/10