So I finally had the chance to try out the Galaxy Note9 at my local Samsung store, and as a Note8 user, I was interested to see how my nearly 1-year old predecessor holds up.
- The design hasn’t changed all that much, and that’s personally fine by me. The phone still looks relatively current and it still looks pretty. I’m especially impressed by how they crammed a 4000mAh battery without drastically increasing size, width and depth. It’s a little thicker, wider and heavier than my Note8 but not drastically so. I presume they’re using battery balls.
- The copper was mt favorite out of the 3 colors they showed, which were blue and black. That yellow S Pen on the blue model has me intrigued though, which I sometimes refer to as the banana pen.
- No, the Note9’s S Pen doesn’t fit into the Note8, but the Note8’s pen fits into the Note9, although not as snugly.
- The display is typical Samsung; Bright, colorful and with an array of options for saturation and gamut support.
- Software hasn’t changed much from the Note8. Many of the options I’ve come to be familiar with are present though some of the new stuff’s nice.
- Bixby is......eh. Never used it much on the Note8 and my first impressions on the 9 hasn’t been great either, especially when the Bixby page on the home screen has that odd second of lag. I could say it’s a demo unit thing but the same has happened to my 8.
- The S Pen is pretty nice though. I liked how it can now be used as a remote. This would be nice for me as I can take long exposures without needing to use a timer or control my music remotely such as Spotify when I’m using Spotify Connect.
- The speakers. Oh boy. They are much, MUCH improved over the Note8. The Note9’s speakers are louder, crisper and because it’s stereo, has audibly more depth.
- The camera is unsurprisingly solid. I think Google’s HDR+ still reigns supreme but Samsung has a very capable shooter, although I think the Scene Optimizer’s effects are overdone at times. I usually find that I take better results just by setting the exposure myself.
- I’m very likely in the minority here, but I actually preferred the fingerprint sensor’s location on the Note8 as it rests where I naturally rest my index finger. With all that said, I have huge hands and a really long index finger. Much more people are happy with the Note9’s sensor placement, so I’m in the definitely outlier. Not like it’s something I can’t get used to either.
They’re pretty short impressions because I didn’t have all that much time but I like this phone quite a bit. Although I’ve mentioned it before that I wouldn’t be upgrading solely because my Note8 is holding up really strong and aside from battery, the Note9, while a great phone, doesn’t entice me to upgrade, which I think isn’t an entirely bad thing. It’s a great phone though.
- The design hasn’t changed all that much, and that’s personally fine by me. The phone still looks relatively current and it still looks pretty. I’m especially impressed by how they crammed a 4000mAh battery without drastically increasing size, width and depth. It’s a little thicker, wider and heavier than my Note8 but not drastically so. I presume they’re using battery balls.
- The copper was mt favorite out of the 3 colors they showed, which were blue and black. That yellow S Pen on the blue model has me intrigued though, which I sometimes refer to as the banana pen.
- No, the Note9’s S Pen doesn’t fit into the Note8, but the Note8’s pen fits into the Note9, although not as snugly.
- The display is typical Samsung; Bright, colorful and with an array of options for saturation and gamut support.
- Software hasn’t changed much from the Note8. Many of the options I’ve come to be familiar with are present though some of the new stuff’s nice.
- Bixby is......eh. Never used it much on the Note8 and my first impressions on the 9 hasn’t been great either, especially when the Bixby page on the home screen has that odd second of lag. I could say it’s a demo unit thing but the same has happened to my 8.
- The S Pen is pretty nice though. I liked how it can now be used as a remote. This would be nice for me as I can take long exposures without needing to use a timer or control my music remotely such as Spotify when I’m using Spotify Connect.
- The speakers. Oh boy. They are much, MUCH improved over the Note8. The Note9’s speakers are louder, crisper and because it’s stereo, has audibly more depth.
- The camera is unsurprisingly solid. I think Google’s HDR+ still reigns supreme but Samsung has a very capable shooter, although I think the Scene Optimizer’s effects are overdone at times. I usually find that I take better results just by setting the exposure myself.
- I’m very likely in the minority here, but I actually preferred the fingerprint sensor’s location on the Note8 as it rests where I naturally rest my index finger. With all that said, I have huge hands and a really long index finger. Much more people are happy with the Note9’s sensor placement, so I’m in the definitely outlier. Not like it’s something I can’t get used to either.
They’re pretty short impressions because I didn’t have all that much time but I like this phone quite a bit. Although I’ve mentioned it before that I wouldn’t be upgrading solely because my Note8 is holding up really strong and aside from battery, the Note9, while a great phone, doesn’t entice me to upgrade, which I think isn’t an entirely bad thing. It’s a great phone though.
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