Samsung Galaxy Note9 Review By Alex Hong

Hey there, Alex here. It’s that time of the year again for a brand new Galaxy Note. Like the past couple of years, it’s an iterative upgrade over its predecessor. Faster processor, better hardware, more features, you know, things like that. That may sound a little boring, but there’s more to the Galaxy Note 9 than meets the eye. If the past is any indication, this could very well be the best Android phone this year.

As always, let’s start with how it looks. The changes are pretty subtle for the most part, and mostly for the better. It’s the same excellent metal and glass construction but with a few design refinements. I got the more interesting Ocean Blue version which comes with a bright yellow S-Pen, because why not. The position of the fingerprint sensor is also now a lot more accessible than on the Note 8, definitely a welcomed change.

If you’re still not a fan of that, it comes with an intelligent scan feature as well which uses a combination of either Iris scanning or face unlock. It’s not as quick as the fingerprint sensor, but it’s nice to have options for when my fingers are a little wet. I’m still eagerly waiting for Samsung to implement a fingerprint sensor underneath the display, because it would work so well with their pressure sensitive home button. For those who’re not familiar with it, it basically allows you to press the home button even when the screen is off, or when you are in a full screen app. The display is a tiny bit bigger this year compared to the Note 8, and as expected, it’s a very impressive looking screen.

Colours, contrast, outdoor visibility, and viewing angles, are all really great. It’s probably the best looking screen I’ve seen on a phone to date. The rest of the phone’s hardware are just as impressive too. The model that I’m using now has 512GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and a 4,000mAh battery. Combine that with a flagship level chipset, the performance of the phone is excellent.

I’m in Singapore, so I have the Exynos 9810 variant. In day to day use, it feels about the same as most flagship devices with a relatively heavy skin. So it’s good, but not the best. Battery life has also been pretty good too with over 6 hours of screen on time over a full day of use. So I really have no complaints about the performance of the phone at all.

The Note9 comes with an advance cooling system for more efficient cooling which is good news for gamers. This is probably what’s enabling the use of Dex mode without the need for a dedicated dock too. It’s not something that I would use, but it’s there if you need it. The only minor complaint I have on the Note9 is really just software, and that’s pretty much just personal preference. The Note9 is running Samsung’s software experience which is packed to the gills with additional features, and customisation options, as you would expect.

While I prefer something a little cleaner, I think on the whole, Samsung has been doing a pretty good job with their software design. There are enough useful features and options inside, the performance of the interface is decent, and the design tweaks to Android are mostly tastefully done and looks cohesive. So I’ve not felt the need to install a third party launcher. Bixby is still here, and it still has a non-programmable button which is a little annoying for anyone who doesn’t want to use Bixby. I don’t have anything against it, but Google Assistant is often faster and more reliable.

It’s also available on pretty much most Android phones these days, as well as iOS devices. So given the choice, I’ll rather stick with Google. Since this is a Galaxy Note, let’s talk about the S-Pen. This year, the S-Pen comes with a Bluetooth LE chip which allows the S-Pen to communicate with the phone from up to 10m away. The button on the S-Pen can now launch apps with a long press, take photos remotely, play through a slideshow, and control a few other apps.

This makes the S-Pen way more useful for regular consumers. For example, it works great for taking group shots or long exposure shots without the need to mess around with a countdown timer. Samsung is also planning to release an SDK for app developers, so hopefully it will become even more useful in the future. This is on top of all the regular features that comes with the S-Pen like screen off memo, a quick double tap to create a memo anywhere, or just the ability to draw properly since it’s able to detect over four thousand levels of pressure. Just to be clear, even if it runs out battery, regular S-Pen features still works.

So for longer drawing sessions, it’s still fine. Not to mention, the S-Pen is using a supercapacitor that charges up extremely quickly. Just put it back into the phone for 40 seconds, and it provides around 30 minutes of standby or around 200 clicks. Moving on to the cameras, the Note9 uses the same dual camera setup as the S9+. Both supports optical image stabilisation, and the main sensor has that same dual aperture setup as well.

So the image quality is largely similar to what we get on the S9+. The Note9 actually has a new scene detection feature which automatically adjusts the image processing depending on the subject. It's mostly pretty subtle, and does a good job. The slightly more useful feature is actually how the app will prompt you if it detects a blurry shot, or if someone has blinked. Image quality wise, this is a camera that you can pretty much just point and shoot and get great looking results in return.

Auto HDR works really well in challenging lighting conditions, and the f/1.5 aperture really helps in low light shots. I still tend to prefer Google’s image processing style on the Pixel 2, but this is still really good. It has the same 960fps slow motion video capture as the S9+, which is always fun to play with. Regular video quality is really great looking too no matter whether it’s 1080p or 4k recording. The front camera performs decently as well in most lighting conditions.

The Note9 as a whole, definitely provides a great camera experience. Actually, the same can be said about the entire experience of using the phone. It may not have anything revolutionary, but it does almost everything well, and it has almost no compromises when it comes to hardware. At a time where manufacturers are ditching the headphone jack, and storage expandability, Samsung retained all of those options on the Note9. On top of that, we’re still getting a really good pair of stereo speakers that supports Dolby Atmos, an S-Pen that slots into the phone, an insane amount of storage and RAM, the best display on a smartphone to date, full IP68 water and dust resistance, the same dual aperture camera system as the S9+, a large 4,000mAh battery, and it still supports wireless charging.

I know that it is a little pricey, but if you’re looking for an Android phone with the best overall package right now, it’s hard to go wrong with the Galaxy Note9. Thanks for watching my review of the Galaxy Note9. If you’ve enjoyed it, but sure to leave a like, and subscribe to the channel for more reviews in the future. Thanks again, and see you guys on the next one.

Source : Alex Hong