Our Verdict
Bigger than previous Note phones in every way, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has a larger 6.4-inch screen, heftier 4,000mAh battery, and a massive 1TB of storage option. The already good camera is slightly better, the stereo speakers are a first for the Note, and the Bluetooth-connected S Pen can activate fun customizable shortcuts remotely. But its price matches what you’ll pay for an iPhone XS Max.
Note 9 highlights
- Battery life is strong in real-world testing. I’ll continue to keep an eye on long-term drain.
- The S Pen stylus’ new Bluetooth features work as advertised.
- As a natural note taker, I love being able to jot things down. I’ve made so many lists to pin to the lock screen.
- I tested in both blue and purple, and the Note 9’s bold colors stand out. It also sells globally in black and metallic copper.
Note 9 low points
- You won’t be able to write or draw to the screen edge without the S Pen falling off the curved sides.
- The fingerprint reader is too close to the camera array. Why hasn’t Samsung figured out the optimal placement yet?
- The Note 9’s new AI camera tool works more slowly than I’d like for identifying scenes and optimizing settings for the best shot.
- Bixby 2.0 is expanded, but the button on the Note 9’s left side still only maps to Bixby, as it does with the Galaxy S8 and newer.
- If you write on the phone screen with the S Pen’s signature color (yellow, purple or copper), any notes you save will save in that color “ink” on a white background, which can be hard to read.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a little bigger, a little more colorful, and a little more powerful than all prior Note phones, but be warned: it’s a little more expensive, too.
It’s the biggest Android phone that will grab your attention in 2018, with a sizeable 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, a huge 4,000mAh battery for all-day performance, and up to 512GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM.See all Samsung Galaxy Note 9 deals
Slot in a 512GB microSD card (which Samsung will gladly sell you), and you can have the first mainstream 1TB phone in your hands. That’s bigger than a lot of laptops.
Update: The Galaxy Note 9 is now a little cheaper than it was at launch, but it also has newer competition. We’ve updated this review with details of both. Be aware also that the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus are set to launch soon, so you might want to wait for them if you don’t need a stylus.
Good news – the Note 9 doesn’t actually feel any bigger than the 6.3-inch Note 8, and it inherits a bunch of features from the 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and 6.2-inch Galaxy S9 Plus, including camera specs. It takes the best photos on a Samsung phone, only outpaced by the newer Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL in our tests
The camera here is noticeably better than the Note 8, with a dual 12MP rear setup that has dual-aperture technology, and can record Super Slow Mo videos. There are stereo speakers, and the less-than-impressive AR Emoji mode is back with some finer avatar customizations. Rest assured, AR Emoji will still look nothing like you.
Exclusive to the Note 9 camera are automatic scene optimizer and flaw detection features that enhance photos (though, Samsung has a habit of rolling these features out to older phones later on, so hang tight if you have an S9 or S9 Plus).
The S Pen is still a handy tool for jotting down notes, but it now has Bluetooth for remote-controlled shortcuts that are customizable (unlike the annoying Bixby button that you can’t even turn off anymore). Want to pose for a photo 30 feet away? This S Pen can help you do that and more. It works great, but you may have trouble finding a spot to rest your precious and expensive Note 9 for full-body snapshots. We ended up with a lot of shots at bad camera angles, so it’s a good idea on paper, but doesn’t always work out like we first envisioned.
Talking of Samsung’s chief competition, the Note 9 price now rivals that of Apple’s flagship handsets, rather than undercutting it as we’d hoped from an Android phone.
The Note 9 price at launch was $1,000 (£899 / AU$1,499 / AED 3,699) with 128GB of internal storage and 6GB of RAM, and $1,250 (£1,099 / $AU1,799 / AED 4,599) for 512GB and 8GB of RAM.
Yes, that entry-level 128GB configuration does double the iPhone X’s 64GB of storage for the same price, and is therefore a better value. But it’s also a hike of $70 (£30) over the Note 8 launch price and $150 (£30, AU$150) more than the launch price of the Galaxy S9 Plus, a very similar smartphone. So it depends on how you look at it, and where you live.
It’s much easier than setting the camera timer, which Samsung hid in the camera settings menu last year, and less awkward than waving your hand in front of the lens to trigger the gesture-initiated camera timer.
Samsung is making S Pen shortcuts customizable. Here are the ideas mentioned:
- Camera: Flip the camera / take a photo
- Camera: Flip the camera / record a video
- Music Player: Play and pause music / skip to the next track
- Photo Gallery: Advance to the next photo / cycle back to a previous photo
- PowerPoint: back and forth through presentation slides
Samsung put a software development kit (SDK) out there for non-core third-party apps to take advantage of this shortcut tool, so you’ll see more customization as long as app developers support the functionality.
The S Pen does need to be charged, but it requires only 40 seconds of charge time for 30 minutes of standby battery life or 200 button clicks, according to our testing.
There’s also a helpful S Pen battery indicator in the notification shade at the top of the display, so you won’t be kept guessing as to how much power you have left. And we found that keeping the S Pen topped up was much easier than charging the iPad’s Apple Pencil.
The Ocean Blue Note 9 has the more dynamic yellow S Pen for a nice contrast. It writes in yellow digital ink, while the Lavender Purple phone has a purple pen and purple digital ink.
All colors support the same Air Command functionality. You can draw, jot down notes, annotate screenshots, translate foreign text, and send Live Messages (last year’s S Pen gimmick), and you can do these actions whether or not the S Pen is charged.
Samsung says the Bluetooth functionality allows for the evolution of the S Pen, but we can’t help wondering if all of this evolution is strictly necessary in this phone.
Shortcuts like snapping selfies remotely can ‘unlock a whole different level of photography’, according to Samsung, and while that sounds useful for dramatic selfies (the example given is laying tired on the couch and taking a hands-free photo), the business-class Note 9 may not be the right audience for that.
It’s fun to be able to get both hands in a shot and strike a full-body pose. But we found it hard to rest the phone and snap a selfie when in front of iconic New York City landmarks. Then we thought back to Samsung’s examples. They used a tripod for a group shot, and mimed laying on the couch with a dramatic two-handed pose, without actually taking a photo – something that would be difficult without a tripod, too.
It’s a great idea in theory and works sometimes, but often we’ve found a lack of places to rest the phone and plenty of unflattering angles when trying our best.
One more time for good measure. The point of the S Pen remote camera shutter is to avoid having to ask someone for a photo or whip out a tripod. It’s a snap-and-go solution to a full-body selfie. But you’re going to have to find a good resting spot for your precious phone.
The Battery
If you’re as Slack-and-social-media-attached as I am, then you’re going to appreciate the Note 9’s battery—a 4000 milliampere hour battery, compared to the Note 8’s 3300mAh battery. This should get you a day and then some, which is Samsung’s promise. That was my experience: In one test, I took the fully-charged Note 9 off its charger midday and by midday the following day the phone still had 15 percent battery left. This was with my everyday usage: Slack, Twitter, Google Maps, email, browsing, Instagram, YouTube, and more. But this was also with the Note 9’s built-in battery saving function turned on, and I was surprised I wasn’t getting closer to a day and a half, given the amount of battery-boasting Samsung execs did at the phone’s launch event.
Samsung is also releasing a wireless charging dock that costs $120. Such descriptions can be misleading; the dock itself still needs to plug in, but you can simply plop up to two Samsung devices on the inductive charging pads and they’ll fast-charge. The convenience of this kind of accessory can’t be overstated. However, my loaner unit is possibly a dud, since one of the charging pads charges things quickly and the other does not.
The Camera
We’ve come to expect things like dual-lens cameras, portrait modes (“faux-keh”), and improved low-light performance in high-end smartphones. What matters more and more is what smartphone makers are doing on the software end to improve cameras. And that’s the tack that Samsung has taken with the Note 9: Its camera hardware is virtually the same as the camera on the Galaxy S9, but the Note 9 is differentiated by its artificial intelligence.
This includes an optimizer in the camera app that reads the scene when you’re shooting a photo in Auto mode, and within a second or so, gives the not-yet-captured imagery a boost. There’s also a feature that lets you know if a photo you’ve just snapped is blurry, or if someone’s eyes are closed; although the notification is so fleeting and the text so tiny that it’s easy to miss this if you’re not staring at your Note after taking the photo.
In certain environments, the AI-powered optimizer was a welcome addition. It makes colors pop, and ever-so-slightly adjusts the exposure when needed. But in other environments, the optimizer boosted colors unnaturally, taking Samsung’s saturation levels to a whole new level; or it added noise. It also created a halo-like effect in certain images, like the edges of the yellow bowl included here. If you don’t love it, the optimizer can be turned off in settings.
The Note 9’s camera is generally wow-worthy. I snapped a series of photos with the Note 9, the iPhone X, and the Pixel 2 XL, and in some instances, the Note 9’s photo was brighter and more crisp than the others. But it also depends on your personal preferences for smartphone photos. I prefer photos to be more true to life, both in color and composition; Samsung’s cameras sometime soften things to the point of stripping away detail, as you can see in the side-by-side photos of my colleague Kayla.
About That S Pen
Last week, when I learned that the Note 9’s S Pen was not just a stylus but now also a Bluetooth remote-control stick for the phone, I said that this was a terrible gimmick. I was wrong. The S Pen as a Bluetooth remote-control stick has delighted the people around me as we’ve used it to take selfies over the past few days. (I’ve even punked people by handing the new phone over to them and then, as they’re examining it, launching the camera app with the S Pen in my hand.) It’s incredibly useful as a tool for unlocking the phone when it’s resting a few feet away from you at your desk and you don’t feel like picking it up and using your face or finger to open it. Selfie stick S Pen, I salute you.
The Note 9 has other draws, too: It’s super fast, comes with more storage than even obsessive photo takers or game players might know what to do with, and its S Pen stylus now doubles as a remote control. Samsung has somehow found ways to differentiate this phone from the Galaxy S9, it’s other flagship phone. It has justified the bigness.
It’s also charging for it. The base model of the Note 9, which will ship with 128 gigabytes of internal storage, costs $1,000. Bump that up to 512 gigabytes of internal storage and 8 gigabytes of RAM, and you’re looking at $1,250. Samsung says its Note customers frequently report that they love their phones. That’s some crazy in love.
The Build
At first glance, the Note 9 doesn’t look different from last year’s Galaxy Note 8—but there are some small changes. It still has an aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass on the front and back, but the frame around the edge-to-edge display is slightly tapered. The Note 9 weighs just a few grams more than the Note 8. The new phone is also a hair wider than last year’s model.
The Note 9’s display size is the biggest physical difference. Last year’s Note 8 had a 6.3-inch display; the Note 9 has a 6.4-inch display. Considering the two phones are almost the exact same size, this means Samsung has upped the screen-to-phone ratio, an effort to keep up with broader smartphone trends. The display itself is bright, luminous, eye-grabbing. At a time when techies are switching to grayscale to attempt to cure their smartphone addictions, Samsung is luring all the kids back into the candy store.
Like this year’s Galaxy S9, the Note 9 has a plethora of options for authenticating on the device: There’s a fingerprint scanner, an iris scanner, a facial recognition feature, a combination of iris and face scanning… we are mere steps away from unlocking our notes with the unique tips of our noses. Like last year’s Note 8, the Note 9 charges via USB-C or Qi wireless charging. And like the decades of devices that came before it, the Note 9 has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Amen.
The Note 9 is running Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, which is not the latest Google software. Samsung won’t say when it expects Android 9 Pie to come to the Note 9.
The phone’s interface is easy enough to navigate—but that’s largely in comparison to what it used to be, back when Samsung’s software “skin” made things feel dense and disorganized. It’s cleaner now, though there are still side app panels and side “people” panels (for quick access to contacts) and split-screen views and snapping windows. A big-screened phone is supposed to allow for all of this. At the same time, it demands a heck of a lot of interaction.
The Speed
You know when you’re about to take off on a road trip or flight or long commute and you realize you forgot to download all the stuff you wanted to download before you left and there’s no way you’re going to be able to do it now, while you’re already in transit? The Note 9 nearly eliminates that problem.
Downloading and installing new apps often took me less than 30 seconds; lengthy podcasts were downloaded in a fraction of that. I downloaded Epic Games’ Fortnite, which is available as an Android app exclusively on Samsung devices for an undetermined window of time, from the parking lot of a Starbucks. It’s a 1.82-gigabyte download, and it was ready to go in a few minutes. Much of this, of course, is also dependent on network speeds. But while Samsung has built a high-end LTE modem into the phone, it does not have support for 5G, which doesn’t futureproof the Note 9 very well.
It’s running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, and the base model comes with 6 gigabytes of RAM. This matches the processing specs on the Galaxy S9, which came out earlier this year. (For what it’s worth, early benchmark tests have shown that Apple’s iPhone X is still a faster phone.) What’s different about the Note 9 is that it includes a water-carbon cooling system and a heat sink that’s three times bigger than the one in last year’s phone.
In certain environments, the AI-powered optimizer was a welcome addition. It makes colors pop, and ever-so-slightly adjusts the exposure when needed. But in other environments, the optimizer boosted colors unnaturally, taking Samsung’s saturation levels to a whole new level; or it added noise. It also created a halo-like effect in certain images, like the edges of the yellow bowl included here. If you don’t love it, the optimizer can be turned off in settings.
n the case of the Note 9, that justification comes in the form of an abundance of tech we’re already familiar with, rather than brand-new tech we’ve never seen before. The feature that will probably have the most impact on everyday life is the battery: Samsung is shipping the phone with the largest-ever battery in a Galaxy flagship smartphone. Yes I know, this is the same line of smartphones that shipped with fiery batteries two years ago. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t cross my mind when I flew across the country with a new Note 9 phone last week. But Samsung has instituted a multi-step battery check for its phones since then. So far, so good.
Should You Buy It?
Samsung markets the Note as something beyond a smartphone; something more akin to a superphone. It comes close to being that, but the Note 9 also lacks the whiz-bang of what a next-generation smartphone should really have (including 5G support and 3D front-facing cameras).
There’s also the question of how big is too big, which is something I’ve personally always grappled with with the Note line. Even when it’s aligned with a Google Pixel 2 XL and an iPhone 8 Plus—both large phones—the Note 9 stands out for its size. It’s not easy to hold and control with one hand. One night earlier this week, I contemplated going for a run, then realized I had absolutely no desire to carry the Note 9 with me on my run. That’s something I wouldn’t get used to with time.
For the people who Samsung insists love the Note line, they’re going to love this one, too. They’ve already resigned themselves to a big, expensive phone, and are getting the performance, storage and battery goodness that should come with that. For those people, the Note’s place in a market full of large smartphones has never been a question. For the rest of the $1,000 smartphone population, other flagship phones will almost certainly do the trick—and might even have more advanced tech if you wait a few months longer.
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