Contents
- 1 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Overview & Price
- 2 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Design & Display
- 3 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Performance
- 4 See Related:
- 5 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Camera
- 6 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Battery Life
- 7 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Summary
- 8 Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Full Specification
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Overview & Price
In this Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review we go over everything you need to know about the phone as well as showcase the best Samsung Galaxy Note 9 contract deals here in the UK.
The Note 9 is nothing short of spectacular, it is a fantastically built phone as it should be for the UK price tag of around £870.
In comparison to the Note 8, it has literally upgraded every aspect, including the battery life.
The Note 9 design is nothing short of breathtaking, it looks amazing and is perfect for those who love a phablet like a phone.
The Note 9 has a 6.4inch display which is simply incredible, Samsung always does a great job with their displays but I have never witnessed a display quite this good.
The Samsung Note 9 specs are impressive too, giving you plenty of horsepower to play your favourite games without any lag or latency.
Check out the best Samsung Galaxy Note 9 deals here.
It has extremely bright colours, can be easily read outdoors when in sunlight and has great colour accuracy.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Design & Display
The display is almost bezel-less and is 27% brighter and has 32% more contrast ratio to its predecessor the Note 8, making it great for gaming.
On the downside to having such a big display, it feels absolutely huge in you’re hand or in you’re pocket, I noticed when wearing jeans that the phone would literally stick out the top of my pocket, with me having small hands I also found this phone to be pushing my one-handed limits.
The general feel of the phone is great and feels extremely well built, it is made from metal all of the ways around the phone, very boxy corners and squared.
Overall it feels very premium as you would expect from a phone of this calibre.
The Note 9 design is incredible, and Samsung has implemented a fingerprint sensor that acts as an alternative to their iris scanner and face unlock.
- Meet the phone made to keep up with you. Our reinvented Bluetooth enabled S Pen allows you to control features remotely up to 10m, while an impressive 128GB or 512GB of internal storage means you'll never run out of space. Plus, our most powerful battery yet will keep going as long as you need.
- The redesigned, Bluetooth enabled S Pen is the ultimate extension of you, so you can use it to take photos from up to 10m away with a simple click for perfectly posed, fullbody selfies. Or impress in the boardroom and give a presentation on your device using the S Pen as a sleek slide clicker. And when inspiration strikes, you can scribble down any thoughts or sketches instantly with the Screen Off Memo feature.
- Lose yourself in a large 6.4" screen with absolutely nothing to interrupt your view. If you're into movie marathons or boxset binges, the Infinity Display was made for you. Plus, it's easier to multi-task between tabs, split the screen or fully focus on an important presentation. The possibilities are infinite.
- The Note9 doesn't just capture scenes, it sees them. Its built-in Intelligent Camera detects your surroundings and adjusts settings accordingly. So whether you're shooting a dark sunset on the horizon or a bright portrait close up, you'll always snap perfectly balanced and detailed shots that are worthy of a professional.
- With a battery that charges faster and lasts longer, the Note9 is up for whatever you are. Whether you've got back-to-back meetings or you're heading off on an adventure without a socket in sight, the Note9 can keep up with you. Less down-time waiting for your device to catch up and a long-lasting battery that will help you power through.
The new placement of the fingerprint sensor which is centrally located unlike the Note 8 makes it a lot easier to use and ultimately leads to fewer camera smudges.
Although the landing area for the sensor is very small and still very close to the camera unlike other phones such as the Google Pixel 2.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Performance
The Note 9 is IP68 waterproof and dust-proof and that stays the same whether the S Pen is embedded, although the S pen looks very similar to the Note 8’s it has a couple of upgrades.
One is that it is now interactive with the screen from a distance via Bluetooth meaning you don’t need actual contact to navigate.
Samsung has also implemented stereo speakers just like the Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9 plus making them much louder and sounds so much better than the Note 8, which is great for those who love their music.
When it comes to the Note 9 specs, Samsung has done a great job with performance, with Snapdragon 645 and 6 or 8GB of RAM allowing for a very smooth and seamless experience when running multiple apps or heavily gaming for long periods.
See Related:
*Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Review*
*Samsung Galaxy S10 Review*
*Samsung Galaxy S9 Review*
*Samsung Galaxy A40 Review*
It has a water-carbon cooling system which cools down the phone when it is under stressful conditions, although I did notice it would still become a little hot.
There is an option to have the Note 9 with 8GB of RAM and 512GB storage, although this is around £200 more than the standard 128GB and actually has the potential to be topped up to 1TB of storage.
This amount of storage crazy and is actually competitive with some of the best laptops out there to date, enjoy having endless photos, music and no stress.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Camera
The Note 9 has a phenomenal camera, although it is pretty much the same setup as the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, it is still a big upgrade from the Note 8.
The camera is great when in situations where the lighting is good, it has a lot of depth and has very vibrant colours.
It also has a new AI setting which is called a scene optimiser, this will automatically boost some colours on objects that it recognises, for example with landscape photos it might boost the blue of the sky, the setting can be turned off if you’re not a fan.
Another cool feature of the Note 9’s camera is flaw detection, this basically lets you know if anything has gone wrong in the photo, such as a red-eye or part of the image is blurry.
Selfies without much light can appear pretty soft on the Note 9 but the camera app will warn you so it can be easily corrected.
The camera is definitely up there with and in the top 3, and I would say it takes better photos than the iPhone X and Huawei P20 Pro.
The dual 12MP rear camera uses variable-aperture technology to switch between an f/1.5 aperture for low light settings and an f/2.4 for normal lighting.
It also has a secondary 8MP front camera with an f.17 aperture giving you sharp telephoto snapshots.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Battery Life
One of the biggest improvements in Note 9 is the battery, as it now has a 4000mAh battery, in comparison to the S9 which has 3000mAh and the S9 plus with 3500mAh.
The battery is 20% better than the Note 8 and after the nightmare with the Note 7, Samsung had some making up to do and they have certainly delivered.
- Meet the phone made to keep up with you. Our reinvented Bluetooth enabled S Pen allows you to control features remotely up to 10m, while an impressive 128GB or 512GB of internal storage means you'll never run out of space. Plus, our most powerful battery yet will keep going as long as you need.
- The redesigned, Bluetooth enabled S Pen is the ultimate extension of you, so you can use it to take photos from up to 10m away with a simple click for perfectly posed, fullbody selfies. Or impress in the boardroom and give a presentation on your device using the S Pen as a sleek slide clicker. And when inspiration strikes, you can scribble down any thoughts or sketches instantly with the Screen Off Memo feature.
- Lose yourself in a large 6.4" screen with absolutely nothing to interrupt your view. If you're into movie marathons or boxset binges, the Infinity Display was made for you. Plus, it's easier to multi-task between tabs, split the screen or fully focus on an important presentation. The possibilities are infinite.
- The Note9 doesn't just capture scenes, it sees them. Its built-in Intelligent Camera detects your surroundings and adjusts settings accordingly. So whether you're shooting a dark sunset on the horizon or a bright portrait close up, you'll always snap perfectly balanced and detailed shots that are worthy of a professional.
- With a battery that charges faster and lasts longer, the Note9 is up for whatever you are. Whether you've got back-to-back meetings or you're heading off on an adventure without a socket in sight, the Note9 can keep up with you. Less down-time waiting for your device to catch up and a long-lasting battery that will help you power through.
So considering this phone takes up a lot of juice from its insane display and high performance it will comfortably last all day with extra room.
The Note 9 is undoubtedly the best Samsung phone you can buy when it comes to battery life and with fast charging, you can expect to be at 70% charge in an hour.
It’s not the fastest charging flagship but considering its massive power usage it’s not too bad either.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Summary
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is one of the best phones money can buy, and so it should be for the hefty price tag.
This phone is for people who really do want the biggest and the best, ideal for those who prefer bigger phones and want a phone with a huge battery that will last them all day.
The Note 9 specs speak for themselves, offering plenty of power to fly through literally anything you throw at it.
This phone has the potential to hold 1TB of storage which is slightly over the top but will give those photographers and music lovers peace at mind knowing that they will never need to stress about backing their photos onto a laptop.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Dual SIM 128 GB Ocean Blue 6.4-Inch Sim-Free SmartphoneIf you’re a devout S pen user then this is the best option for you giving you some cool features and allowing users to get really creative with their mobile device.
The Note 9 is worth buying but only if you have the massive wallet to go with the phone, if not there are some other phones which can most definitely compete, Google Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL, or the Samsung Galaxy S9 plus all square up to the Note 9.
The Note 9 design is irresistible, with a range of awesome colours to choose from and a premium feel in your hand, the design of the phone is one of our favourite aspects and makes it an easy buy for us.
This phone is awesome and is without a doubt one the best smartphones on the market right now.
Although the hefty price tag does make it a hard decision, there is some competition for the phone but if you’re the kind of person who wants the biggest and the best this is definitely the one for you.
We hope you have enjoyed our Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review, and feel free to check out the best Samsung Galaxy Note 9 contract deals at the top of this post.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review: Full Specification
Launch: 2018, August
Body:
- Dimension: 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8mm (6.37 x 3.01 x 0.35 inches)
- Weight: 201g (7.09 ounces)
- Build: Front/back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminium frame
- Sim: Single SIM (nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
– Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified)
– IP68 dust/waterproof (up to 1.5m for 30 mins)
– Stylus (Bluetooth integration)
Display:
- Type: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
- Size: 6.4 inches, 103.2 cm² (83.4% screen-to-body-ratio)
- Resolution: 1440 x 2960 pixels, 18:5:9 ratio (-516 PPI density)
- Multitouch: Yes
- Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 5
– HDR10 compliant
– Always-on display
Platform:
- OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo)
- Chipset: Exynos 9810 Octa – EMEA
- CPU: Octa-core (4×2.7 GHz Mongoose M3 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55) – EMEA
Octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver) – USA/LATAM, China - GPU: Mali-G72 MP18 – EMEA
Adreno 630 – USA/LATAM, China
Memory:
- Card slot: MicroSD, up to 512 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) – dual SIM model only
- Internal: 512 GB, 8GB RAM or 128GB, 6GB RAM
Camera:
- Primary: 12MP, f/1.5-2.4, 26mm, 1/2.55″, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
12MP, f/2.4, 52mm, 1/3.4″, OIS, 2x optical zoom - Features: LED flash, auto-HDR, panorama
- Video: 2160@60fps, 1080p@240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR, dual-video recording
- Secondary: 8MP, f/1.7, 25mm, 1/3.6″, AF
- Features: Dual video call, Auto-HDR
- Video: 1440p@30fps
Sound:
- Alert Types: Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
- Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
- 3.5mm Jack: Yes
– 32-bit/384kHz audio
– Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
Comms:
- WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
- Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX
- GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
- NFC: Yes
- Radio: No
- USB: 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector
Features:
- Sensors: Iris, scanner, fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, heart rate, SpO2
- Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
- Browser: HTML5
- More:
– Samsung DeX (desktop experience support)
– Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 2.0)
– Qi/PMA wireless charging (market dependant)
– ANT + support
– Bixby natural language commands and dictation
– MP4/DivX/XviD/H.265 player
-MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player
– Photo/video editor
– Document editor
Battery:
- Non-removable Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery
Misc:
- Colours: Sunrise Gold, Lilac, Blue, Midnight Black
- Price: As seen in the above post
Tests:
- Performance: Basemark OS ||: 3377 / Basemark OS 2.0: 3064 Basemark X: 41994
- Display: Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal), 4.531 (sunlight)
- Camera: Photo / Video
- Loudspeaker: Voice 71dB / Noise 74dB / Ring 80dB
- Audio Quality: Noise -93.7dB / Crosstalk – 94.1dB
- Battery life: Endurance Rating 97h