Samsung Galaxy Note 9 - A Long Term User Review By Hardware Canucks

So this is the Galaxy Note 9 Samsungs flagship, Android smartphone for 2018. It costs $1000 for the base model that is, and it packs Samsung's signature features on the note line like the s-pen. A big and I mean a huge screen and a few incremental add-ons from the note 8. What's up everyone Ever here with Hardware Canucks, and this is ninety days with the Galaxy Note 9. Let's get started right after this, it's time to play with light with fine things: digital RGB, starter kit that includes two LED strips and all the appropriate cables. The main hub is magnetic.

Velcro tape is available with three digital channels for LED, strips or halos. Lux fan frames that display a ton of lighting effects, and they're absolutely gorgeous check out the kit down below alright, so I'm going to be discussing on what has changed since known aid, and if that change has improved my experience using the Galaxy Note 9, because I was actually fortunate enough to test out that device last year. First, up, let's go over the design and build it's an incremental upgrade over the note 8. You still get the glass back design that loves fingerprints, but at the same time it maintains support for wireless charging. Although I did run into something terrible with my sample and that's this yeah after about a week into testing which was devastating, but that's the nature with every or any smartphone with a glass back.

I actually ended up picking this matte black matrix skin from D brand that covered my carelessness. So we'll leave it at that. So what else? The fingerprint reader has been relocated to a more comfortable position, and it's certainly easier to access compared to the note 8. It's also pretty fast, but I did want to do an issue where this particular biometric authentication was shutting down my phone randomly every time. I put it to sleep.

It automatically shuts down the device, which was super odd at first I thought. A factory reset might help resolve the issue, but then I later learned that it was a hardware defect, and it was also a quality control issue with some s9 and s9+ smartphones. Now, the only way to resolve this is to act to get in touch with Samsung's customer support. Have it shipped out of them? They'll replace the hardware and problem will be solved right away now. I actually had to end up relying on other authentication services like the pattern unlock and, of course, the smart screen or smart face unlock feature which was a hit or miss at times because, especially since I wear glasses, it's pretty difficult for it to pick it up, especially during nighttimes, not as accurate as face ID.

Let's put it that way, but you know what can we do next up the display, and it really isn't that different from the note 8 I mean if we were to put them side-by-side, it has expanded by 0.1 inches. Yet it maintains the same HD+ resolution. It's still an AMOLED panel, so the colors are, as always, really vibrant and contrast. Ii. The blacks are just so deep.

In fact, I installed this black theme from the Samsung's built-in theme store and when I pulled down the quick settings, the only thing I see lit up are the icons, and it's pretty cool Samsung is always known to have the best displays on their smartphones, and the note 9 is no exception to that. In fact, one of the things that I really appreciate about the note 9 Sun design is that it doesn't have a notch. It's the one thing that makes this phone stand out from the rest, and the lack of an arch really helps with a content. Consumption side as well, so I've been catching up on a few TV shows lately daredevil season 3 is out fantastic show by the way and consuming it on the note, 9 was just fantastic. The six point four inch display is.

Certainly it really is an immersive experience, especially when you are someone who watches a lot of content on your smartphone now. I should mention that if you have small hands handling the note 9 might be a little of a challenge because one hand operation is completely out of questions. So it's pretty difficult to reach the top spots. It's not a dealbreaker, because I actually had to give myself some time to get used to the bigger size, because I was coming from something like the pixel 2, which is a tiny device. So you know give yourself in time.

If you're coming from the note 8, then this shouldn't be a deal-breaker to you. But again the size is definitely something to consider. If you have small hands, Samsung has still kept the headphone jack on the note 9, which is very thoughtful. The storage can also be expanded up to 512 gigabytes via micros. It still got the ip68 water-resistant waiting.

Like the note 8. There are different color options to choose from including metallic copper, which looks fire midnight black ocean blue, which is what I'm rocking cloud silver lavender purple boy, these names, man and their rumors are possibly a snow-white edition hitting the shelves for the holidays. So that's pretty cool one thing that I noticed while watching videos on the note 9 was the inclusion of stereo speakers, so they've actually taken advantage of the earpiece to act as a separate left channel. So it actually gives you a good stereo separation while watching content. So you don't have to worry about blocking the bottom speaker.

It's definitely a welcoming upgrade over the Galaxy Note 8. Now this review wouldn't be complete without talking about the s-pen. It completes Samsung's, note lineup and just as expected, they've added a few parks this time. The key feature here is the addition of Bluetooth Low Energy technology that allows you to take a picture with a press of a button or control presentations or even control your music, not to mention it still comes with all the other cool features that we're familiar with previous note devices like being able to quickly jot down notes right when you wake up the phone from sleep now, I can't vouch for anyone who might take advantage of the s pen and its new features, because I barely found myself taking it out of its compartment in the first place. So you may or may not fall into this category, but let me know in the comments down below if you find any use of the s pen and if so, what would you use it for Mountaineer thoughts in the comments? The software experience is fairly clean out of the box.

It's way better than LG's skin, in fact, but expect Samsung exclusive apps pre-loaded on the device upon which some of them can be uninstalled. It also varies from carrier to carrier as well. So keep note of that- and, let's be honest here for a sec I think for the most part, you'll be rocking some sort of third-party launcher or widgets to fine tune and customize the UI to your preference and that's exactly what I did the OS for the most part feels similar to me after trying out other smartphones this year. It's nothing substantially different here, especially if you're coming from the note 8 as I'm making this video the note 9 is still rocking Android 8.1, that's right, 8.1 on a $1000 device seriously. That's unacceptable for a brand like Samsung to slack on this department, because I've seen $500 devices rocking the latest version of Android Pi I.

Just don't get why you know Brian like Samsung, can just not worry about software updates or updating their software standards. Now ward in the street is that there is a beta version available to download on the s9 and the s9+ again, not sure of the note 9, but it is expected to receive sometime early of 2019. So, let's just you know, cross our fingers and hope that happens. I also want to quickly mention samsung decks. It's an interesting feature that lets you use your phone and convert it to a PC like experience, it doesn't completely replace that in fact, I've made a complete explained, video on Samsung decks and its features.

So, if you're interested, you can actually check it out over here and performance has been flawless on the note 9, and that is to be expected, given that it's got the latest offering from Snapdragon and six gigs of ram, you can have as many apps open in the background and get back to it without waiting for it to reload, and I'm hoping it stays consistent over long-term use, I didn't explain to any lags or stutters while navigating through the UI. It was pretty smooth over time and, if you're, an existing Note 8 user. How has the performance held up until now? Let us know in the comments all right, big speed time. Actually, there's nothing fascinating to talk about big speed because yeah, it's I never used it. I ended up using Google Assistant for the most part, and it is baked into note 9 by default.

So it's not like you're losing on anything. I will mention that they actually did remove the option to disable the Bigamy button physically, like completely, which is kind of odd. It was there on the note 8, but it's not on the note 9 I, just don't get it, but again, Samsung like give us the option to reprogram this button. It's its it's a great feature, but at least like give us the option to reprogram it to do something else like I, don't know, take a picture or open a certain app like Y, Bigamy anyways. Let's move on to camera performance and the note 9 does not disappoint here as well.

Just like the note 8, it features dual 12 megapixel sensors with OAS, but this time they've brought the variable aperture feature from the s9+, so it can automatically adapt towards different lighting conditions and adjust the aperture to give you an interesting depth of field. The end result is fantastic with excellent color, reproduction, great dynamic range and sharpness. The additional telephoto lens comes in really useful. Just like the note 8. If you want to get some interesting close-ups without losing detail now at times the sensor does tend to exposed slightly, but for the most part you will not be disappointed with these sensors.

Here are some more samples, alright guys. So this is a video test on the Galaxy Note 9. As you can see, there is plenty of dynamic range to play around with autofocus. Also works surprisingly really well, and of course you do have the flexibility to you know zoom into particular subjects if you really want to and get that extra reach, which is pretty awesome. Stabilization is working as expected.

I mean, if you put this on a gimbals it'll still get the job done really well, but just for me, like you, know, walking a windy day here in Toronto I think it's doing a perfect job in that department. But let me know what you guys think about the video quality in the comments down below now. Are the cameras a significant upgrade over the note? Eight, not really because you're still getting the exact same standard and telephoto lens setup and I guess you know you're getting the variable aperture mode and a few other perks like super slow motion, but other than that I'm pretty sure you can still get some fantastic results with the note 8 battery life in one word is phenomenal on the note 9 seriously. It is one of the biggest improvements from the note 8 they've increased the size from 3300 William hours to a whopping, 4 thousand William hours, and I've easily been able to get 2 days worth of use on a single charge under moderate to heavy use, and that has been consistent over the past 90 days. If there's one reason for me to recommend the note 9, it's the battery life, you have to take my word for it.

Well guys that have been my experience using the Galaxy Note 9 for the past 90 days, believe it or not, I really enjoyed my time using this device. Of course, there were some courts that started popping up over the course of that period. Like the fingerprint reader issue that I discussed earlier again, it is negligible because not a lot of people that I know have reported that particular issue. There were also some other things like the built-in low light filter automatically being disabled when I unlock the phone during the night- and it didn't work that well with Netflix plus my sample didn't have the data toggle within quick settings and yes, I did check the whole Edit list, just like I did with the s9, but if you're willing to go past those little courts, I think the note 9 delivers a fantastic experience for a flash of Android smartphone. It's got a great design, fantastic display.

Without a notch, stereo speakers it still maintains a headphone jack. It also comes with great cameras that shoot both great photos and videos and most of all, exceptional battery life when I pay $1,000 for it. No because I know for a fact that I can get at least 70% of the features of note 9 with you know, 500 to $600, smartphones. Also. This might be a great time to pick up a refurbished, Galaxy Note 8 for a lot less I mean both Sabra connects.

Thank you so much watching. Let me know what you guys think about the Galaxy Note 9, and would you actually spend $1000 for a phone of this caliber bucks near thoughts? In fact, given that the smartphone market is completely saturated right now, would you actually consider investing in other solutions, lots new your thoughts, I'm signing off, and I'll, see you guys in the next one.

Source : Hardware Canucks