Note 9 to Note 20 Upgrade?

[cardboard60]

A thousand quid for a plastic phone?
No Samsung. Just no!
Samsung announced both the Note 20, and its big brother, Note 20 Ultra today.
While the Ultra looks likely to once again end the year at the top, or at least fairly close to the top of the flagship food chain, (thus justifying at least some of that hefty price tag attached), the same cannot be said of the somewhat confusing Note 20. It falls short in my humble opinion, ending up as more footnote than Note...
My big gripe is, how do you justify a thousand dollars for a plastic phone in 2020. Struck me how much of a good deal the Note 9 was, or is in comparison. Especially when speaking in terms of premium finish and storage options, (storage on the Note 20 is non-expandable).
This is the generation of Note I'll be looking to upgrade to. To be able to afford the Note 20 Ultra, I might well have to resort to selling a kidney or two. Hey, you make peace with your inner consumerism coupled as it is with a love for smartphones, and learn to get on with it. However the Note 20? Meh!
Basically wondering if anyone else rocking the Note 9 will be making the jump over the next year or so, and which of the latest additions to the Note family will you be looking to embrace?

There is nothing wrong with a Plastic phone.

It don't break as easily when it gets dropped.

To me its in your head that its not made as well.

give it a year.
And wait for the people who buys the note 20 with it being plastic and see if they have a problem.
Too bad they didn't Offer both phones in plastic.

 

[NotAnAppleGuy]

I have had my N9 since day one. It has given me absolutely no problems. and since it's paid for, I simply can't justify shelling out 1K+ for a phone when I have a perfectly fine and operating phone.

 

[Climb14er]

There is a thread on the main forum page regarding some additional phones being... AFFORDED... a THIRD OS UPDATE by Sammy. I responded there and I'll post to it here. With the powerfully running hardware and software of the Note 9... it's pure you know what, Samsung not giving us Note 9 aficionados a THIRD OS UPDATE! They want us to buy a new Note 20... WHY? Our 9's are running as said, perfectly! They want profit from us, more of it, by not providing us with the Third OS Update. I've been on Android since the beginning and with Sammy since the S3. I will go to iOS before I have to dump the Note 9 for a 20. Plus... SAMSUNG's customer service is at the bottom of the industry! Lower than Comcast's, and that's hard to say. Sammy, are you listening? ??????

 

[silkyms3]

I pre-ordered the Note 20 Ultra and received it yesterday. After playing with it, it's going back, not enough of an upgrade from N9 to justify the price.

The 120Hz makes the phone really smooth and responsive, but only in 1080p, which is lame. The versatility of the camera lens setup is really useful and opens up creative options, but the photo quality itself is no better than the N9. No extra content for better productivity despite extra half inch of screen. FPS still unreliable. Plus I'm so done with curved screens.

 

[Cynthia Johnston]

I pre-ordered the Note 20 Ultra and received it yesterday. After playing with it, it's going back, not enough of an upgrade from N9 to justify the price.

The 120Hz makes the phone really smooth and responsive, but only in 1080p, which is lame. The versatility of the camera lens setup is really useful and opens up creative options, but the photo quality itself is no better than the N9. No extra content for better productivity despite extra half inch of screen. FPS still unreliable. Plus I'm so done with curved screens.

Y'know, THIS is what turned me to the LG V60 Dual screen... the N20 being a money sink. Plus, uh, dual screens and NOT losing the mainstays of microSD slot headphone jack.

 

[cardboard60]

Just remember, the note 9 is gonna get upgrades, what one more yr..
And the battery is not as strong as 3 yrs ago.
My OL had a note 9.
I upgraded her with the 20 ultra.
Her phone adjusts and gets better everyday

 

[recDNA]

We won't get any more system upgrades only security updates.

 

[jejb]

I have been using my Note 20 Ultra for a few days now. It's a good phone and I like it so far, but it's not like it's a major improvement over my Note 9. The zoom lens is nice and the display is really vibrant. I do miss the notification icon, but there are apps for that. Only reason I upgraded was the wife's Pixel was starting to have memory issues, which is a common issue with them, so we needed to get her a new phone. And she pushed me to upgrade too, with some of the great deals on the pre-orders.

I do like the new phone, but for a non-gamer/power user, I don't see a compelling reason to upgrade yet. The designed obsolescence in the no more OS updates will get you sooner or later, though.

 

[jnichols16]

I'm waiting for 5G to become the prevailing thing -- Maybe.

I had to upgrade my Samsung S6, it was running out of memory at 60 of 64GB. After 2 years, my Note S9 is at 50 of 128GB.
It appears to be much more memory efficient, or maybe just a lot less crap ware.
I also get much higher downloads than the S6, and much better phone reliability in my house.

There just is no good reason to part with my Note 9.

 

[recDNA]

Just pulled the trigger on a Note 20 Ultra 512gb. Too good a deal to pass up on the Samsung.com pre-order as i got $550 trade in for my Note9 512gb and my device payment dropped $20/month, plus got $200 in Samsung credit to get stuff for it.

Looking forward to a better camera with a real zoom, bigger battery, bigger screen, in screen fingerprint sensor and more.

This will be my 4th Note.

My Note 9 is my 3rd Note. I just can't justify trading it in for the Ultra. It doesn't have any features that interest me. I don't like the screen ratio. I can't tell the difference between 120Hz and 60Hz. I'm going to trade this in and still owe a grand for a phone that won't receive updates after 2 years? If Samsung guaranteed updates for 5 years I might be tempted.
I have a LOT of headphones to throw away if I switch. I'm concerned about reports of condensation in cameras.

 

[anon(631531)]

I've been reading that the N9 WILL be getting an upgrade to 2.5. Just what that entails, i don't know.

 

[debdroid1a]

I'm about ready to upgrade, but hesitating because of the times. I have a pretty secure job and could afford it, but...
Hopefully the trade in will be available on tmobile (only one phone line) when I finally do.

This article says the 9 won't get A11. The 3 updates start with the S10, so the 9 is not on the list. Another reason to upgrade.

https://www.androidcentral.com/when-will-my-phone-get-android-11

 

[recDNA]

I like the Note 9 better than the 20 plus. I wouldn't even do an even swap unless my plan was to sell the 20 plus to buy another Note 9 and pocket the diff in cash.

 

[serpico]

I would only consider the Ultra but that camera bump keeps me away. I'll stick with my Note 9 too.

 

[jimd1050]

"IF" I were to go back to August 5th, after owning/using/enjoying my Note 20 Ultra since then... I might choose to keep my Note 9! Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with the 20U... but enough to have jumped - no! But hindsight is 20:20!

 

[cardboard60]

I've had both.
Still got the note 20 ultra.

I like the note 20 ultra a heck of a lot .
Learn new things the ultra will do all the time

Like the updates too.

 

[Climb14er]

I've remained with the Note 9, phone operating very smoothly. Verizon compted me with a fresh, new Samsung battery. This is a great phone as many already know.

 

[BlackZeppelin]

I nearly upgraded to the Note 20 Ultra from my Note 9. I played around in the telco store with the phone and the 5x optical zoom was considerably better than the S20 Ultra. It also looked awesome in that mystic bronze colour.

I was reading the rumours prior to the release of the phone, and there was supposed to be an upgraded Exynos 992 processor in lieu of the 990. That was the deal breaker for me. If there was an improved processor, I probably would have upgraded. But reading so much about the relatively poor performing Exynos 990 compared to the Snapdragon 865, I just couldn't justify it.

The S21 will get a far superior Exynos processor that will be either comparable to the latest Snapdragon or better. Ironically, I probably won't upgrade to that either or the Note 21, (if that's still a thing) as it seems to be minor upgrades to the S20 series apart from the processor.

I have a gut feeling that the minor upgrades from the S20 to the S21 series seems to stem from Samsung diverting all their engineering resources to the 2 foldable devices. Like concentrating on those, making minimum upgrades and efforts to the other series.

There were rumours of a new 65W fast charger for the S21 at which I definately would have upgraded. But alas, they weren't true. I'll have a look at the Galaxy Fold 3 but I think I'll upgrade my Note 9 in 2022 at this point.