Galaxy note 9 operating time. Expensive, but it couldn't be cooler. Review of Samsung Galaxy Note9. Comparison with competitors

Frame	Glass, aluminum
Colors	Indigo, black, copper
Display	6.4 inches, Full HD+ (1,440 × 2,960 pixels), Super AMOLED
Platform	Exynos 9810 processor, Mali-G72 MP18 video processor
RAM	6/8 GB
Built-in memory	128/512 GB + slot for microSD cards up to 512 GB
Cameras	Main - 12 MP, front - 8 MP
Shooting video	Main camera - 4K with 60 FPS, Full HD with 240 FPS, HD with 960 FPS; front camera - Quad HD with 30 FPS
Degree of protection	IP68
SIM card	Two slots for nanoSIM (one hybrid)
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, 1024QAM, Bluetooth 5.0, ANT+, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Connectors	USB Type-C, 3.5 mm audio jack
Sensors	Accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor, heart rate sensors, proximity sensor, RGB lighting sensor, pressure sensor, fingerprint sensor, iris scanner, face scanner
Unlock	PIN code, fingerprint, iris, facial features, smart identification (iris + face)
operating system	Android 8.1 Oreo, Samsung Experience 9.5
Battery	4,000 mAh (non-removable), fast charging, wireless charging
Dimensions	161.9 × 76.4 × 8.8 mm
Weight	201 g

Equipment

In the box: a smartphone with a stylus, a folder with documentation and a clip for removing the cradle, a USB to USB Type-C cable, an AKG headset with additional ear pads of different sizes, a USB to USB Type-C adapter and a microUSB to USB Type-C adapter.

Design and ergonomics

Note 9 is sold in three colors: indigo, black and copper. Depending on the color, the design of the stylus also differs: in the indigo version it is yellow, in the black version it is black, in the copper version it is bronze. In my opinion, we got the cutest option - indigo with a dark blue body and a gold S Pen.

The Note 9 is not a frameless smartphone, but due to the rounded edges on the sides, it feels like the screen almost fills the front panel. In this case, no accidental clicks or swipes occur. Beautiful and comfortable. Some users complain about a strange glow along the edges of the smartphone, but this is definitely in vain - it’s just a reflection inside the screen that occurs due to the rounded shape of the display.

The frame on top is dedicated to sensors, front camera and earpiece. On the edge there is a hole for one of the microphones and a “cradle” for a SIM and microSD card. On the left are the volume and call assistant buttons, on the right is the power and lock button. Below is another microphone, speaker, audio jack, USB Type-C input and stylus clicker.

The rear panel houses the cameras, flash and fingerprint sensor. Hell of a perfectionist - the main camera is located a couple of millimeters to the left than necessary.

The smartphone is made of smooth-touch glass and an aluminum frame. It is very thin, but feels nice in the hand. The back panel is quite dirty, but it’s hard to call this a serious drawback when almost everyone makes smartphones with a glass body.

The Note 9 seems reliable and durable - at least, if it falls on the aluminum frame, it's unlikely that anything will happen to it. And it is not at all afraid of dust and almost not afraid of moisture: the degree of protection is IP68. This means that it can be submerged to a depth of more than a meter for longer than half an hour.

You can still find fault with the ergonomics of the Note 9. Due to the fact that the case is thin, the thickness of the buttons is barely a couple of millimeters - it is not very pleasant to press them. Plus, the eternal problem of phablets is that in order to use the fingerprint scanner or press the side buttons, your palms have to “move” up and down every now and then. It’s good that the weight is distributed correctly and the Note 9 can be used with one hand without fear of being dropped.

Screen

Diagonal - 6.4 inches. The screen is really large, and it's convenient - especially if you use the mode with two applications on one screen. This can be useful if you need, for example, to simultaneously work in Google Docs and comment on a document in the messenger.

The screen resolution is 1,440 × 2,960 pixels, the aspect ratio is not even 2: 1, but 18.5: 9 - and this again makes it more convenient to work in two applications simultaneously.

Screen - Super AMOLED from Samsung. The characteristics are the same as the manufacturer’s previous models: excellent calibration, high brightness, support for the Always On Display function, which saves battery power when the screen is locked. It’s impossible to find fault with the screen - the colors look natural, you can look at it from any angle, and it’s difficult to use the smartphone only in very bright sunlight.

Sound

The sound, as usual, is loud and clear - you can't expect anything more from small smartphone speakers. There are two speakers here, and they support panorama. This means that with the smartphone positioned horizontally, you can comfortably watch, for example, videos on YouTube.

Note 9 also supports Bluetooth 5.0 - you can connect two wireless headphones or two speakers. And even configure them so that the sound goes to the devices not synchronously, but from different applications. You can play music from a streaming service on a speaker in the office, and watch videos on YouTube using headphones.

Interesting fact. Not that anyone cares about ringtones in 2018, but Samsung still distinguished itself - some of the official ringtones were recorded by famous blogger and musician Andrew Huang.

Headphones

Includes AKG headset. Despite the fact that this is a brand with a reputation, which has a large number of excellent headphones, the sound is not even a compromise. Overall mediocre sound. Ergonomics and tactile sensations are the same as those of most in-ear headphones - not for everyone.

Camera

Note 9 fulfills the title of flagship and has a 12-megapixel dual camera. It allows you to get excellent photos comparable to those you can take on the iPhone X or Google Pixel 2 XL. In terms of hardware, everything is excellent here: there is a double optical zoom and even a mechanical aperture with two values: ƒ/1.5 and ƒ/2.4. The aperture adjusts automatically depending on the lighting. The second lens is used for bokeh when creating portraits.

The main camera can take pictures with a resolution of 4,032 × 3,024 pixels and shoot videos with a resolution of up to 3,840 × 2,160 pixels at 60 FPS. There is also a super slow-motion video mode with an absolutely insane frame rate - 960 FPS. But this doesn’t fundamentally change the situation - for most people this is a feature that can be played with several times, and besides, to create slo-mo video, the camera must first find an object to shoot. By the time this happens, the moment may already be lost.

All this high-resolution stuff takes up a lot of space, and in this regard, the Note 9 breaks all records. If you take a modification with 512 GB of memory on board, and then insert a flash drive with the same capacity into your smartphone, you will get a terabyte. Terabytes of space for your photos and videos.

There's not much to say about the front camera. Resolution - 8 megapixels, aperture - ƒ/1.7. You can take great selfies, create selfiemojis, and take selfie panoramas.

It is worth understanding that when comparing flagship cameras, we often talk about their software work - in terms of hardware, they are all approximately the same. And the results of this comparison often depend on preference. Example: we looked at how portrait modes work on Note 9 and iPhone X, the pictures turned out very different.

The iPhone X stands out for its sharpness and color saturation, while the Note 9's picture is more faded, pale, hazy. The next nuance is clipping. On the iPhone X it is sharper and more contrasty. And similar differences can be found in any shooting mode. What is better is for everyone to decide for themselves.

The standard camera application seems slightly overloaded, which is often the case with Android smartphones. There are not only manual modes and panorama modes, there are also masks, selfiemojis and much more. Fortunately, it’s quite easy to figure this out, and there’s no need - features and add-ons quickly get boring, and classic photos are almost always perfectly processed by automation. The application itself selects the required mode for shooting (for example, macro or night) and even tells you when the photo was unsuccessful.

For those who like to tinker with the settings, there is a manual mode where you can calibrate ISO, white balance, aperture (optical), focus and even the type of exposure metering.

Stylus

The stylus has changed from the previous version of the Galaxy Note: it now has its own battery and works with a smartphone via Bluetooth - it can be used as a remote control. The charging station is located inside the smartphone, the charge is replenished in less than a minute.

The presence of a stylus can hardly be called a plus, especially considering that electronic pencils have long been considered additional devices for artists and designers. In normal scenarios, it's easy to do without a stylus - it's quite possible that many Galaxy Note owners simply forget about its existence. But the fact is that it’s just a pleasure to use. The dynamic “feather” takes pressure into account, and you can easily spend several minutes just stupidly drawing in notes. The clicker on the end is pleasant to click - a real anti-stress toy.

If we talk about functions, here's what you can do with the stylus:

create quick graphic notes on the locked screen;
edit screenshots;
control the camera and take pictures with your participation without a timer;
control video playback when connecting a smartphone to a monitor or projector;
draw with thin lines in ;
send animated drawings in messages;
highlight and translate texts.

The stylus is an excellent solution for those who are used to constantly creating sketches, noting and recording something. It can also be useful for those who work with text - highlighting, copying and translating into other languages.

Safety

There are several ways to unlock your smartphone: using a PIN code, fingerprint, face or iris. You can customize each of them and use the one that is more convenient at the moment.

For me, as the owner of an iPhone X, smart unlocking seemed most familiar. This is a mode that combines face and iris identification. The smartphone chooses the preferred method itself, and the system learns to recognize the owner faster and adapt to changes in his appearance. Smart unlocking works confidently and correctly, but is somewhat slower in the speed of fingerprint identification. But you still have to reach the fingerprint scanner. And it’s easy to accidentally stain the camera.

Performance

The modification that is sold in Russia has an eight-core Exynos 9810 processor, working with four cores at 2.7 GHz and four more at 1.8 GHz. Video card - Mali-G72 MP18. The result, as befits a flagship, is excellent. There’s nothing to complain about - everything flies and doesn’t lag at maximum speed. Test results in Geekbench 4:

And here are the “parrots” in AnTuTu:

Autonomy

Note 9 battery capacity is 4,000 mAh. According to the developers, this is enough for 11 hours of video viewing on a single charge. It is quite possible - after three hours of active work with the smartphone and running the Note 9 on benchmarks, the charge dropped by only 15%. It’s more convenient to measure battery life in days - and the Note 9 will definitely last one, even an extremely active day.

With fast charging, the battery is fully charged in just over two hours. Qi and PMA wireless charging are supported.

Interface, control and software

Note 9 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with the classic Samsung add-on. There are no complaints - you can get used to everything, everything works quickly and even looks logical. There are many Samsung, Google and Microsoft services pre-installed - some of them are useful and do not need to be removed. The worst thing is Bixby - the assistant that you have to constantly bump into with the Note 9: it opens by swiping to the left on the main screen, it even has an entire button on the body. You can reassign it, but for me, an adherent of the Jobs sect, this is a real event and dancing with a tambourine. Minus Note 9.

A swipe on the right brings up the quick access panel to applications and contacts, and a swipe on the top opens the control center. The panel that appears when working with the stylus is also convenient - it’s immediately clear how it can be used. In general, the interface can be called intuitive. You can simply turn on your smartphone and use it.

Differences from Note 8

Samsung again did not show any special changes or bold experiments. Here is a list of innovations:

the screen diagonal has become a couple of millimeters larger;
the smartphone has become thinner and heavier, but not so much that it can be easily noticed;
increased memory capacity;
battery capacity increased;
The operating system is Android 8.1;
iron has become a little more productive;
The location of the rear camera and fingerprint sensor has changed;
The stylus began to work as a remote control.

Results

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is an excellent smartphone and a strong flagship that is pleasant to use, which has its own features and character. Again - for those who love to draw and constantly sketch, but do not want to carry a tablet with them everywhere, there are simply no alternatives. For those who don't like to draw, but like to choose the best, Note 9 is one of the good options.

But the advisability of purchasing Note 9 for owners of the previous phablet in the series is a moot point. The changes are hardly grandiose, and the price, even with participation in the trade-in program, is decent.

The price of Note 9 is 69,990 rubles for the version with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of physical memory; 89,990 rubles for modification with 8 and 512 GB, respectively. Sales start in stores tomorrow (August 31), and today you can still pre-order and receive a wireless docking station as a gift.

Samsung, according to the established schedule, also updated its line of Galaxy Note tablets this year - already the ninth model. The Galaxy Note 9 has not received as significant updates as is usually the case, but still, the new product, as always, turned out to be very outstanding, and today we will talk about it in detail in our review.

Main characteristics of Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (SM-N960F)

SoC Samsung Exynos 9810, 8 cores (4×Exynos M3 @2.7 GHz + 4×Cortex-A55 @1.8 GHz)
GPU Mali-G72 MP18 (572 MHz)
Operating system Android 8.1
Touch display Super AMOLED 6.4″, 2960×1440 (18.5:9), 516 ppi
Random access memory (RAM) 6/8 GB, internal memory 128/512 GB
Nano-SIM support (2 pcs.)
microSD support up to 512 GB
GSM/WCDMA networks (2G, 3G)
LTE networks (4G) Cat.18 FDD B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/32/66, TD B38—41
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5 GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, 1024-QAM
Bluetooth 5.0 (LE up to 2 Mbit/s)
Dual GPS, A-GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo
USB Type-C, USB OTG
Main camera 12 MP, F1.5/F2.4 (dual aperture) + 12 MP, F2.4; 4K video
Front camera 8 MP, F1.7, autofocus
Proximity and lighting sensors, magnetic field, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, heart rate sensor, iris scanner
3.5mm audio output
S Pen support
IP68 protection
Fingerprint's scanner
Battery 4000 mAh
Dimensions 162×76×8.8 mm
Weight 201 g

Appearance and ease of use

With the positioning of the Galaxy Note line, everything is very clear: this family has always stood apart, not only arousing genuine interest among people of creative professions due to the presence of an electronic pen, but also, in principle, with its appearance, giving rise to the general transition to a “shovel-shaped” format with dimensions that were previously simply unthinkable for handheld mobile devices.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9, like all devices of the latest generations of Galaxy S and Note, has a specific, well-recognized design, and this time the Koreans did not make any significant changes to it.

Here everything is familiar to us: the gracefully curving metal side frame, tapering at the sides, and almost flat glass panels with cool functional curves on the sides. The new smartphone differs from the Galaxy Note 8 and S8, in fact, only in the corner parts that are more pointed in plan, which give the body a very rectangular brick-like appearance. The Koreans may have gone too far with the sharp corners; they literally dig into the palm of your hand; holding a smartphone is not always comfortable.

There are no complaints about the assembly. The body is solid and strong, there are no creaks when compressed. All surfaces are slippery, the smartphone is very heavy, smooth, and can jump out of your hands at any moment; you probably can’t do without a case.

On the back side there are two eyes of the dual camera, located horizontally. A powerful and very bright LED flash is installed nearby. The camera hardly protrudes beyond the surface; the smartphone lies stable on the table.

The eyes of the cameras themselves are not centered relative to the holes in the body, literally everyone noticed this. It looks sloppy, and for some reason Samsung constantly has such confusion with symmetry. The fingerprint scanner area is slightly recessed, it is easy to touch, but it is located quite close to the camera unit, so your finger sometimes gets on the glass covering the lenses, and then you have to wipe off fingerprints from it.

On the front panel above the screen there is a place for an LED event indicator. They did not provide their own flash for the front camera, but the front camera is equipped with autofocus. Samsung did not use the notorious “bangs” in this model, for which honor and praise should be given to it.

There are no elements below the screen, including touch buttons, but this part of the frame is narrow and takes up virtually no extra space on the front panel. The corners of the display are strongly rounded.

The mechanical keys are located on different sides, so when you press the power button with your thumb, your index finger rests on the Bixby button, this gets in the way, and in general it has long been clear that the abundance of keys on the body is unnecessary for most users.

The keys themselves are very thin; previously in Samsung devices they were the largest and most comfortable, but now you can’t say the same.

A connector for two Nano-SIM cards and a memory card was installed on the top end and made hybrid (a microSD card can only be installed instead of one of the SIM cards). Hot swapping of cards is supported.

When you open the connector cover, a warning appears on the smartphone screen about the need to close it tightly; in this case, the smartphone can be used even in water, since it is protected according to the IP68 standard.

Here, on the top end, you can find a small hole for an auxiliary microphone; there are three of them in the smartphone.

The main speaker is located at the bottom end, where the USB Type-C connector is also located. The speaking microphone hole is located near the speaker grille. Both speakers - conversational and main - work in a stereo pair for dubbing games, movies, etc.

Separately, it is worth mentioning a unique tool, which also traditionally has its own slot at the bottom: the S Pen. The pen is easily removed and has foolproof protection: it is no longer possible to insert it the other way, as before.

The end tip of the pen protrudes slightly beyond the body; it may well be pressed by some object in the bag.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is available in three colors: black, blue and copper. All of them have a black front panel.

Screen

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is equipped with a Super AMOLED display covered with 2.5D glass with sloping edges of Gorilla Glass. The physical dimensions of the screen are 71x146 mm, diagonal - 6.4 inches, while the screen resolution is 2960x1440 with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9 and a pixel density of about 516 ppi. The frame around the screen is approximately 2 mm thick on the sides and 8 mm thick on the top and bottom.

It is possible to use automatic brightness adjustment based on the operation of the ambient light sensor. With default settings, multi-touch tests diagnose support for 10 simultaneous touches. There is an Always On Display function.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected when the screens are turned off (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is Samsung Galaxy Note 9, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is noticeably darker (brightness according to photographs is 109 versus 118 for the Nexus 7) and does not have a pronounced tint. The ghosting of reflected objects on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (very effective, better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When displaying the white field in full screen and manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was 320 cd/m² in normal conditions, and in very bright light it rises to 540 cd/m². You also need to take into account the fact that in this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the brighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. As a result, screen readability during the day in the sun should be at a good level. The minimum value is 1.7 cd/m², that is, the reduced brightness level allows you to use the device even in complete darkness without any problems. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot and shows light values close to reality). The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider; the user can use it to try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If you leave everything at default, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 7 cd/m² (dark), in an artificially lit office (approximately 550 lux) it sets it to 100 cd/m² (normal), in a very bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 440 cd/m² (enough), and conditionally under direct sunlight - up to 580 cd/m². We were not entirely satisfied with the result, so in complete darkness we slightly increased the brightness, ultimately obtaining the following values for the four conditions indicated above: 12, 150, 485 and 605 cd/m² (ideal combination). It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and allows you to customize your work to individual requirements. At any brightness level there is significant modulation with a frequency of 60 or 240 Hz. The figure below shows brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum (as “100++” we designated the mode with additional illumination of the light sensor with bright light) and close to it, the modulation amplitude is not very large, as a result there is no visible flicker. However, as the brightness decreases, modulation appears with a large relative amplitude; its presence can already be seen in a test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, this flickering may cause increased fatigue. Note that at very low brightness, for example 25%, the nature of the modulation changes: a U-shaped section appears, the modulation amplitude also changes, and the flicker becomes slightly less noticeable.

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B), but there are half as many red and blue subpixels, which can be referred to as RGBG. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

In the fragment above you can count 4 green subpixels, 2 red (4 halves) and 2 blue (1 whole and 4 quarters), and by repeating these fragments, you can lay out the entire screen without breaks or overlap. For such matrices, Samsung introduced the name PenTile RGBG. The manufacturer calculates the screen resolution based on the green subpixels; based on the other two, it will be two times lower. There is some edge contrast and other artifacts, but due to the high resolution these have only a minimal impact on image quality.

The screen has excellent viewing angles. True, the white color, when deviated even at small angles, acquires a slight blue-green tint, but the black color remains simply black at any angle. It is so black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. For comparison, here are photos in which the screens of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (profile Basic) and the second comparison participant, identical images were displayed, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera was forced to switch to 6500 K.

White field:

We note good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field (with the exception of barely visible darkening and a change in hue towards the curved edges).

And a test picture (profile Basic):

Color rendition is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens varies slightly. Recall that photography can not serve as a reliable source of information about color rendering quality and are provided for illustrative purposes only. In particular, the pronounced reddish tint of the white and gray fields present in photographs of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 screen is visually absent when viewed from a perpendicular view, as confirmed by hardware tests using a spectrophotometer. The reason is that the spectral sensitivity of the camera sensor does not exactly match this characteristic of human vision. Note that in this case, the image occupies in height (in landscape screen orientation) the entire area available for image display and extends onto the curved edges of the screen, which leads to slight darkening and color distortion. Also, in the light, these areas almost always glare, which makes it even more difficult to view images displayed on the entire screen. And even the picture of films with an aspect ratio of 16:9 comes to bends, which interferes with watching movies.

The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Basic in the screen settings, there are four of them:

Profile Adaptive display differs in some kind of automatic adjustment of color rendering to the type of output image and environmental conditions:

The saturation is greatly increased, it looks terrible. What happens when you select the two remaining profiles is shown below.

Movie AMOLED

Saturation is slightly less.

Photo AMOLED

The red saturation is slightly lower than in the case Movie AMOLED.

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile Basic).

White field:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed has been increased compared to previous photographs), but in the case of Samsung the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since you often have to look at the screen of a mobile device from at least a slight angle.

And a test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Samsung smartphone at an angle is noticeably higher. Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but at the switching edge there may be a step with a width of approximately 17 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). For example, this is what the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects. However, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “jerky” movements. The graph above shows how after a few tens of milliseconds the brightness begins to decrease when white is displayed in full screen.

A gamma curve constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray showed that there is no significant blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.07, which is slightly less than the standard value of 2.2, while the actual gamma curve deviates slightly from the power function:

Let us recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for generally light images. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) most likely slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen.

Color gamut in the case of a profile Adaptive display very wide - wider than DCI-P3:

In profile Movie AMOLED The coverage is a little narrower, it is almost equal to DCI-P3:

When selecting a profile Photo AMOLED coverage is adjusted to Adobe RGB boundaries:

When selecting a profile Basic coverage is compressed to sRGB boundaries:

Without correction (profile Adaptive display) the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In case of profile Basic with maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut (without appropriate correction), the colors of regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation: in most cases, watching movies, photographs and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Basic, and only if the photo was taken on an Adobe RGB setting, does it make sense to switch the profile to Photo AMOLED. Likewise, profile Movie AMOLED appropriate when viewing video material with DCI-P3 coverage adopted in digital cinema.

The gray scale balance is acceptable. The color temperature is close to 6500 K, while in a significant portion of the gray scale this parameter does not change very much, which improves the visual perception of color balance. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) over most of the gray scale remains below 10 units, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device (but the spread is still large):

(The darkest areas of the gray scale can in most cases be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

For some reason only when selecting a profile Adaptive display It becomes possible to adjust the color balance by three adjustments of the intensity of the primary colors, but due to the too wide color gamut in this profile there is no point in correcting the balance. There is a fashionable function nowadays Blue light filter, for which a more or less correct description is even given in the settings (in the menu at the level above there is nonsense written about “reducing eye strain,” but oh well):

Why such a correction can be useful is described in the article about the iPad Pro 9.7. In any case, when entertaining with a tablet or smartphone at night, it is better to reduce the screen brightness to a minimum, but still comfortable level. Yellow screen setting Blue light filter there's no point.

Let's summarize. The screen has a very high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems, even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is acceptable to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB (if you choose the right profile) and an acceptable color balance. At the same time, let us recall the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen), a noticeably smaller drop in image brightness than LCDs when viewed at an angle. Disadvantages include modulation of screen brightness. For users who are particularly sensitive to flicker, this may cause increased fatigue. However, overall the screen quality is very high. Separately, we note that from the point of view of image quality, curved edges are only harmful, since this design discovery introduces color tone distortions and reduces brightness at the edges of the picture, and in ambient light conditions it leads to inevitable glare along at least one long side of the screen.

Camera

The front camera has an 8 MP sensor (1/3.6″ matrix size) and an autofocus lens with F1.7 aperture. Various picture enhancement effects and portrait mode with background blur are supported. The ability to recognize faces even in complete darkness has been implemented. There is no own flash. In general, the front camera takes pictures quite well, there are no complaints about sharpness or detail.

The rear camera uses two 12-megapixel image sensors: one with a wide-angle lens with dual apertures of f/1.5 and f/2.4, and the second with a telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture that provides double optical zoom. The camera is equipped with an optical stabilization system and the flash is extremely bright. There is a popular modern background blur function (separate portrait mode).

Algorithms allow the camera to recognize 20 different scenes and try to select the optimal shooting settings for a given lighting. Accordingly, when pointed at food, greenery, buildings, etc., the camera not only reports this with an icon directly on the viewfinder screen, but also applies appropriate (in its opinion) filters to the picture.

Examples of shooting with the main camera:

The quality of the shooting is pleasantly amazing. Of course, Samsung's flagship smartphones have featured cutting-edge cameras before, and the Galaxy Note 9 at least keeps its banner held high. Detail and sharpness are simply excellent across the entire field of the frame, practically not falling even in its very corners. Reasonable image resolution also contributes to this: the sensors and lenses of smartphones, for obvious reasons, are seriously inferior to those used in full-frame DSLRs - so why try to surpass their images in resolution? Neither 18- nor 24-megapixel images from regular smartphones come close to providing the declared resolution and only multiply the amount of colored noise that has to be stored in the device’s memory. In the case of the Galaxy Note 9, the opposite is true: it doesn’t make sense to take pictures with a resolution less than the maximum 12 megapixels, in which everything is fine. Perhaps the only drawback we noticed in the test frames was traces of noise reduction on very contrasting edges, such as wires in the sunny sky, which are not visible in 99% of ordinary photographs. Overall, this is definitely one of the best cameras we've seen in a smartphone. To compare it with other contenders for this title (like the Huawei P20 Pro), we'll need a direct comparison.

Optical zoom, realized by switching to the second module of the main camera, also makes the most pleasant impression. The pictures are equally detailed and have no visible imperfections. This component in the smartphone is certainly not installed for show.

Video can be shot in 4K format at 60 fps, there is optical image stabilization. There is a slow motion mode with a frame rate of 960 fps in 720p resolution and 240 fps in Full HD resolution. The quality of video shooting is high, the picture is bright and clear, there are no complaints about detail and autofocus speed. The only criticism is that the paints are unnatural, oversaturated and caustic, which is common to all Asian developers; they like these better. The sound is recorded clearly, the noise reduction system with support for three microphones works adequately.

Video No. 1 (120 MB, 3840×2160@60 fps, H.264, AAC)
Video No. 2 (52 MB, 1920×1080@60 fps, H.264, AAC)
Video No. 3 (60 MB, 3840×2160@30 fps, H.264, AAC)
Video No. 4 (95 MB, 3840×2160@60 fps, H.264, AAC)
Video No. 5 (59 MB, 3840×2160@30 fps, fast, H.265, AAC)
Video No. 6 (12 MB, 1280×720, slo-mo, H.264, AAC)

Telephone and communications

Exynos 9810 uses a Gigabit LTE Cat modem. 18 (1.2 Gbit/s for reception, 200 Mbit/s for upload) with VoLTE support. Several LTE frequency bands are supported, including all three LTE FDD bands used in Russia (Band 3, 7, 20). In practice, within the city limits of the Moscow region, the device demonstrates reliable operation in wireless networks, does not lose connection, and quickly restores connection after a forced interruption.

There are also no complaints about the operation of the Wi-Fi module (2.4 and 5 GHz, there is support for 802.11ac). There is also an NFC module that works with Troika travel cards and the My Travel Card application.

The navigation module works with all modern satellite navigation systems, including even Galileo (including, of course, GPS and the domestic Glonass). The first satellites, even during a cold start, are detected quickly, within the first seconds, and the positioning accuracy does not cause any complaints. A magnetic compass, necessary for navigation programs, is installed in the smartphone.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts. Methods for setting up sorting and display of contacts are standard for the Android interface. The power of the vibration alert is adjustable, and in maximum mode its intensity is very high, there are no complaints.

The hardware platform allows the smartphone to support both SIM cards in 4G mode at the same time. This way, the voice SIM card will work in 4G standby mode even if another card is assigned to 4G data. The cards operate in Dual SIM Dual Standby mode, there is only one radio modem. VoLTE support available.

Software and multimedia

The software platform uses Android OS version 8.1 with Samsung's own proprietary shell, Samsung Experience 9.5, and the ability to update over the air (OTA).

Everything in the interface is familiar: the maximum number of settings, there is support for gestures, you can reduce the working area of the screen, change the set of buttons in the navigation bar, clone applications, work in split screen mode and pin screens separately, and much more. You can even lower your screen resolution to improve performance and reduce power consumption. There is a hardware button on the case to call the Bixby voice assistant, but this service, as before, does not work with the Russian language.

One of the unique features of the Galaxy Note series has always been support for working with its own S Pen. Now you can use it not only to create notes in a notebook or write signatures under hand-drawn drawings - the pen can work as a remote control for some smartphone functions. For example, you no longer need to set a timer, take selfies at arm's length, and try to fit all your friends in a group photo—the shutter can be released from a distance using the S Pen. Holding down the button on the pen launches the camera, and double-pressing switches between the front and rear cameras. Also, using the stylus, you can switch frames in the presentation mode in PowerPoint, play a video and pause viewing - all while being at a distance of 10 meters from your mobile device.

You can also note the ability to unlock the Galaxy Note 9 using intelligent identification with recognition of the owner’s face and iris, regardless of lighting conditions. And it really works, unlocking in any lighting conditions occurs without failure. Of course, you can unlock your smartphone using your fingerprint, password, PIN code and other familiar methods.

To play music, you use your own player; there is support for Dolby Atmos with a lot of settings and a ten-band equalizer. The sound is high-quality, loud, clear, and any user can adjust it to themselves using the Adapt Sound service. The speakers work in a stereo pair, they are loud and produce clear, bright and quite high-quality sound. The smartphone comes with branded high-quality AKG headphones.

There is no built-in FM radio, but the existing voice recorder demonstrates excellent recording quality and sensitivity, working with three microphones at once.

Performance

The hero of the review operates on the Exynos 9 Series 9810 single-chip system, Samsung’s flagship mobile platform (in the USA and China, the model will be released on Snapdragon 845). The configuration of this SoC includes two clusters of four processor cores: Exynos M3 (M3 Mongoose) with a frequency of up to 2.7 GHz and custom Cortex-A55 with a frequency of up to 1.8 GHz. LPDDR4X RAM is 6 or 8 GB, storage is 128 or 512 GB. Of the 128 GB on the new smartphone, about 108 GB are free. It also supports the installation of memory cards that are formatted only as external storage.

Exynos 9 Series 9810 is created using the proprietary FinFET LPP 10 nm process technology. This is a powerful flagship platform from Samsung, quite comparable in capabilities to the top solution from the mobile SoC market leader - Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, judging by the tests. Without a doubt, this is one of the most powerful smartphone solutions available today.

The hero of the review demonstrates maximum performance both in benchmarks and in real use; in this regard, there are no obstacles for him. The video accelerator effortlessly copes with the most demanding games at maximum settings. All the games we tested, including Modern Combat 3, Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, run confidently without the slightest slowdown. The smartphone certainly has a significant headroom for future updates.

Testing in comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

	Samsung Galaxy Note 9 (Samsung Exynos 9810)	Pocophone F1 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 845)	Huawei P20 Pro (HiSilicon Kirin 970)	Meizu Pro 7 Plus (MediaTek Helio X30)
3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot ES 3.1 (more is better)	3348	2755	2963	1826
3DMark Sling Shot Ex Vulkan (more is better)	2840	2167	2918	1217
(Onscreen, fps)	25	55	39	14
GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (1080p Offscreen, fps)	45	60	39	22
GFXBenchmark T-Rex (Onscreen, fps)	60	60	60	52
GFXBenchmark T-Rex (1080p Offscreen, fps)	146	150	108

Testing in browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

AndroBench memory speed test results:

Thermal photographs

Below is a thermal image rear surface obtained after 10 minutes of battery testing in the GFXBenchmark program:

The heating is highly localized around the vertical center and close to the left edge, which seems to correspond to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat camera, the maximum heating was 40 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is the average heating in this test for modern smartphones.

Playing video

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a table.

Further testing of video playback was performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.

This device supports DisplayPort Alt Mode for USB Type-C - outputs image and sound to an external device when connected to a USB port. We tested working in this mode together with an adapter equipped with a pass-through USB Type-C connector with support for USB Power Delivery, an HDMI output, a card reader for SD and microSD cards, and two USB 3.0 ports. Video output is carried out in 1080p mode at 60 Hz frame rate. There are two modes of operation: duplicating the smartphone screen and working in the mode - displaying an alternative desktop. The operating mode is selected by the user when connecting the smartphone to the display device:

Note that in this case, to work in Samsung DeX mode, it is not necessary to use a proprietary adapter. An alternative desktop image is displayed on the monitor screen, and the smartphone screen can be used as a touch pad for coordinate input or work as usual. The DeX desktop can run most Android apps.

The control panel at the bottom of the screen is removed when the image is displayed on the entire screen (for example, when playing a video). Output to the monitor is carried out in a true resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, dot to dot. Note that simultaneously with image and sound output, you can connect a mouse and keyboard to your smartphone via USB or Bluetooth, turning it into a basis for your workplace. In addition, USB drives and memory cards connected to the adapter are read. For the physical keyboard, language switching and a number of hotkey shortcuts are supported (the Meta key is apparently the Win key on a PC keyboard).

To test the output of video files on the screen of the device itself, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In the tests we used the MX Player video player in the “Hardware” mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

File

Uniformity

Passes

4K/60p (H.265)

Great

4K/50p (H.265)

Fine

4K/30p (H.265)

excellent no Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the device itself is very good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the narrow border of the screen, extending to the bends. The picture clarity is high, but not ideal, since there is no escape from interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experimentation, you can switch to the one-to-one pixel-by-pixel mode; there will be no interpolation, but the features of PenTile will appear: the vertical world through the pixel will be in a grid, but the horizontal one in this case does not have the usual greenishness for PenTile. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the actual one for a given video file, except that in the shadows a couple of shades merge with black. Note that this smartphone has support for hardware decoding of H.265 files with a color depth of 10 bits per color, while gradients are output to the screen with better quality than in the case of 8-bit files.

Battery life

The smartphone received a non-removable, capacious 4000 mAh battery. The cost-effectiveness of the AMOLED screen has a positive effect on battery life, and, as usual, top Korean mobile devices are in perfect order with this indicator. In real life, a smartphone runs out of charge within a day, like most modern devices. It all depends on the individual usage scenario, but in any case, in terms of autonomy, the Galaxy Note 9 is not a weakling.

Testing has traditionally been carried out at normal power consumption levels without using power saving functions, although the device has them.

	Battery capacity	Reading mode	Video mode	3D Game Mode
Samsung Galaxy Note 9	4000 mAh	18:00	13:00	3 hours 45 minutes
Pocophone F1	4000 mAh	20:00	13:00	3 hours 30 minutes
Huawei P20 Pro	4000 mAh	18:00	12:00 pm	3:00 am
Meizu Pro 7 Plus	3500 mAh	14:10	10:00 am	3 hours 20 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Note 8	3300 mAh	15:00	12:00 pm	4 hours 20 minutes

Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted about 18 hours until the battery was completely discharged, and when continuously watching videos in high quality (1080p) with the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device operates for almost 13 hours. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone can work for up to 4 hours, depending on the specific game.

The smartphone supports fast charging; from the included charger it is fully charged in less than 2 hours (charging starts with a current of 1.4 A at a voltage of 9 V, then the current and voltage values gradually drop). Wireless charging is also supported.

Bottom line

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has already been officially presented on the Russian market; for the version with 128 GB of memory they are asking 70 thousand rubles, and for the model with 512 GB - all 90 thousand. These are maximum figures; for the same or even less money you can buy any flagship device from any manufacturer - Apple, Huawei and others. On the one hand, representatives of the Galaxy Note series are unique in some ways - for example, in support for working with a pen, which none of the competitors at the corresponding level of performance was able to offer. Of course, here are the best cameras at the moment, and other characteristics are maximum. But on the other hand, now the market has something to offer at a very high level for much less money. How many users are willing to overpay several tens of thousands for their loyalty to the Korean brand? Those who cannot imagine their life without an electronic pen - perhaps yes, and the rest will either look at something more affordable from the Galaxy S series of previous seasons, or look for alternatives.

Wow! We are at the Samsung presentation. And we have already been shown a new charged Galaxy Note9 with an upgraded S-Pen.

The designers were clearly satisfied with the current appearance of the smartphone, so they did not make any special changes. The frames became slightly smaller, the fingerprint scanner moved under the camera, and the camera itself became horizontal.

But inside - bucket of changes.

Iron for which you can only praise

The new product is equipped with a huge “limitless” 6.4-inch QHD Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2960x1440 and a pixel density of 516ppi. In addition to the cool screen, the company, as usual, has introduced powerful AKG stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support.

The top processor acted as the “brains” Exynos 9810, built on the Snapdragon 845. The amount of RAM was 6 or 8 GB depending on the model, and the built-in memory was 128 or 512 GB.

It's funny, but the selfie camera has also been upgraded a bit. If anyone blinked, Note9 will tell you about it.

But this is not the main achievement of Korean engineers. We are already accustomed to the fact that Note smartphones are closely related to the use S-Pen. And it evolved logically.

The electronic pen has support for Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE). With the help of the new “pencil” you can do literally everything: Remotely take selfies, group photos, control presentations in PC mode, start/stop videos, and so on.

Third-party developers will have access to key features of the new S-Pen.

In addition, Galaxy Note9 is equipped with a powerful 4,000 mAh battery. The company claims that in active use mode the smartphone will “live” almost two full days.

Technical characteristics of Samsung Galaxy Note9:

operating system: Android 8.1 Oreo
Display: 6.4", Quad HD+ Super AMOLED, resolution 2960×1440, 516ppi
CPU: 10nm, 8-core Exynos 9810 processor
RAM: 6/8 GB
Built-in memory: 128/512 GB (+ SD card slot up to 512 GB) Main camera: double (wide-angle lens with Super Speed Dual Pixel technology * 12 MP with autofocus, F1.5/F2.4, optical stabilization (OIS) and main lens 12 MP with autofocus, F2.4 and optical stabilization (OIS)), 2x optical zoom, 10x digital zoom, dual aperture
Front-camera: 8 MP, autofocus, F1.7 Battery: 4,000 mAh, fast and wireless charging
Wireless connections: NFC, MST, LTE Cat.18, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, 1024QAM,
Bluetooth® v 5.0 (LE up to 2 Mbit/s), ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC, geolocation (GPS, Galileo*, GLONASS, BeiDou*)
Authentication: iris scanner, fingerprint scanner, face recognition Sensors: accelerometer, barometer, fingerprint scanner, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor, heart rate sensor, proximity sensor, RGB sensor, iris scanner, pressure sensor Dimensions: 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm
Weight: 201 g.

How much will Samsung Galaxy Note9 cost in Russia?

Sales start scheduled for August 31. Pre-order opens today and is available until August 30. As a gift, Samsung will give everyone who pre-orders a branded wireless charger.

The cost of Samsung Galaxy Note9 was:

RUB 69,990 for 6GB/128GB model
RUB 89,990 for 8GB/512GB version

Samsung DeX is now just a wire

If previously you used an entire docking station to transform your smartphone into a PC, now the company has simplified user interaction with the system.

The updated Samsung DeX is now a regular cable with a small adapter inside. The interface is standard for image transfer. This is HDMI.

Fortnite rumors turned out to be true

Along with the new smartphone, the company announced Fortnite for Android. True, initially it will be exclusive to the company’s devices.

The Koreans managed to stand out and introduce a new skin for the game called Galaxy.

Fortnite is available for Note9 and Tab S4 starting today.

Pleasantly surprised, but nothing more

Samsung Galaxy Note9 is what the last generation flagship should have been. It combines the company's best technology, harmoniously combined with a cool body.

Personally, I still don’t understand the purpose of the stylus, because Steve Jobs made it clear that no one has needed this device for a very long time. And I have no idea why Samsung keeps making it. Even with such a huge screen.

Live photos

Specifications
Dimensions and weight	161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm, 201 grams
Housing materials	Corning Gorilla Glass 5, aluminum
Display	6.4 inches, 1440x2960 pixels, 18.5:9, SuperAMOLED, 521 ppi, Always On Display, HDR10, adaptive color and brightness adjustment, color correction, automatic brightness more than 1200 nits
operating system	Google Android 8.1, Samsung Experience 9.5
Platform	Exynos 9810 chipset, 8 cores (4 cores up to 2.35 GHz, 4 cores up to 1.9 GHz), 64 bit, 10 nm, in some markets models available with Snapdragon 845
Memory	6 GB RAM, 128/256 GB ROM, microSD memory card up to 512 GB (8/512 GB option available)
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, 1024QAM, Bluetooth® v 5.0 (LE up to 2Mbps), ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC Two simultaneous Bluetooth connections devices, the ability to simultaneously listen to sound from different programs on different accessories
Net	Giga-LTE, LTE cat. 18 (depending on the operator), frequency aggregation; Dual SIM cards, nanoSIM
Navigation	GPS/GLONASS/Beidou
Sensors and connectors	Accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, Hall sensor, heart rate sensor, proximity sensor, RGB lighting sensor, pressure sensor; Fingerprint sensor (rear); Iris scanner, face scanner - unlike S8/S8+ combined, works in complete darkness
Main camera	Main camera, 12 megapixels, DualPixel, f/1.5/2.4, OIS, LED flash, 4K video recording, multiframe, live photo mode, background blur, intelligent detection of shooting mode, optical zoom x2
Front-camera	Front camera, 8 megapixels, autofocus, f/1.7
Battery	Li-Ion 4000 mAh, operating time in mixed mode is at least 24 hours (up to 6 hours of screen operation), built-in wireless charging WPC/PMA, fast charging in 90 minutes to 100 percent
Degree of protection	IP68, additional shock protection
Colors	black, copper, metallic blue (S Pen color varies depending on color)
Sound	Dolby, equalizers, effects, stereo speakers tuned by AKG (lower and upper)
Peculiarities	S Pen, remote control with the pen, for example, use as a remote control for presentations or control the camera. Plus traditional S Pen capabilities;

Samsung Pay (NFC, MST)

Contents of delivery
Smartphone
S Pen
Wired stereo headset AKG
Charger (fast charge)
USB Type C cable
SIM tray eject tool
microUSB to USB Type C adapter
USB Type C to USB adapter

Instructions

Positioning

For handwriting or drawing, there is simply no alternative to Note. You can buy a tablet and a stylus for it, but, as a rule, mobility suffers; even a 7-8-inch device is noticeably larger than a Note, which fits in your pocket.

Historically, a significant part of Note buyers were those who were looking for the very best technology, that is, buying a flagship with maximum characteristics. For this audience, the Note line is gradually becoming less interesting and fades into the background, as it begins to repeat the S line, but with a number of minor hardware improvements. The approach is quite deliberate; Samsung doesn’t want to force the technology race and force itself into a six-month cycle, it’s too fast, and the Note line doesn’t have the kind of sales to warrant spending such efforts on.

Buying a device from the Note line always means purchasing the largest screen size, a high-quality camera and the maximum possible software. Whatever one may say, this is a flagship that will occupy people’s imagination until the release of the same S10+, but at the same time its cost is maximum, as a result, one should not expect widespread sales. For the first time before the release of Note 9, Samsung stopped producing Note 8 and cleared warehouses and store shelves so as not to create competition. After all, the previous device, at a price of almost half as much, may well compete with the new product and become the preferred choice; the price in this matter is everything. Therefore, Note 8 disappeared, which is a pity, since at that price it is extremely interesting. In fact, the main competitor for the Note 9 in the fight for consumer attention is the Galaxy S9+ (in six months it will be the S10+; the models are distinguished by the chipset, but not the amount of memory, as well as the improved camera of the 10 and a number of changes in the software). I will try to carefully compare the Note 9 with these models (but not with the 10, since it’s too early), and discuss with you what you get in each case. Since I constantly use Note 8 and S9+, it is logical that comparison with previous models will be the main thread in this review.

Design, dimensions, control elements

Samsung and other companies don’t want to change the design every year. If we compare the “unique” models in the S series, and also add Note, it turns out that it is absolutely impossible to distinguish them from a short distance, looking at the front panel. You need to be a professional with an eagle eye to notice the different rounding angles of the screens, note the color of the edging and count all five visible differences. I confess, I am not a professional, because in life and at a glance I cannot determine exactly what kind of device a person has lying on the table or in his hands. They have all become more or less the same, and this is a problem.

Compared to Galaxy S9+

Compared to iPhone X

Compared to Huawei P20 Pro

Compared to Pixel 2 XL and iPhone X

However, it is necessary to make a reservation that the sameness manifests itself within the Samsung line; other manufacturers do not have such screens, and therefore the design of their smartphones is different, they do not look so cool and unusual. However, this is a matter of taste; someone can challenge it and say that all this is nonsense and models should not have rounded edges. Although the debate about the ergonomics of such a solution has long died down, it is quite applicable in practice and does not cause inconvenience.

The main difference between Note 9 and Note 8/S9+ is the shape of the body; it has become more angular. With almost the same width (161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm, 201 grams), the roundings were removed, and now the device crashes into the hand. In some ways it reminded me of the Note 5, which was similar in ergonomics, but a little thinner and lighter.

Compared to Galaxy Note 8

This frame design did not appear by chance, since they tried to protect the screen as much as possible from falls and removed the roundings. Previous models survived the blows stoically and, as a rule, survived. But in this device they decided to pay special attention to this, since the weight of the phone had increased and it was necessary to maximize survivability, albeit at the expense of ergonomics.

This device is inferior in usability only compared to the Note 8/S9+, but it is quite in the market, there is nothing terrible or that could stop you from using it. Also traditionally for Samsung, the IP68 protection standard is used, the device can survive under water, you can take it with you to the pool or to the sea. Such protection from water is not a 100% guarantee that nothing will happen to it, but usually everything ends well, especially if you haven’t hit the phone before and its seal is not broken.

The location of the control elements has not changed: on the left side there is a paired volume key, just below there is a Bixby button (does not interfere in any way, you can use it, you can ignore it, you can reassign it to another action), on the right side there is an on/off button.

At the top end there is a slot for SIM cards and a memory card (it is again combined, that is, either two nanoSIM cards, or a memory card and one SIM card). In younger models, Samsung puts slots where you can use all the cards at once, and it’s a shame that this is not the case in the flagship. From conversations I realized that this is a requirement of operators, they do not want the ability to use two SIM cards, they believe that the majority will install a memory card. A naive assumption that limits our possibilities. I tried to use a homemade “sandwich” that bypasses this limitation (two SIM cards, one of which is glued to a microSD), but it didn’t work in this device (but it worked quite well on the S8).

Interestingly, the tray has been slightly redesigned; it needs to be inserted carefully, as it does not fit into the grooves the first time. If you use excessive force, it can break. It’s amazing how such a small thing can be ruined, the only good thing is that you don’t have to insert the tray every day.

At the bottom there is a 3.5 mm jack (it hasn’t gone away, although there were many prophets and karkush, confident that Samsung would copy Apple’s approach, but I don’t understand why the company had to do this, since it’s stupid, as well as the screen notch, but there it will be applicable at least in the future to increase the screen area to the maximum; now it is also not necessary). There is also a USB Type C connector, as well as the main microphone. The device has three microphones in total, the noise reduction system works perfectly, and the microphones are also used in the Voice Recorder application, where you can record interviews, that is, they are directional.

The speakers in this device, just like in the S9+, are stereo, that is, the speaker on the bottom is paired with a speech speaker. This is good, because watching movies is much better than on the Note 8, the volume is higher. But there are practically no differences from the same S9+ in this aspect.

At the bottom end there is a connector for the S Pen; it is impossible to insert the pen on the wrong side; here, just like in Note 8, there is foolproof protection. We’ll talk about the S Pen separately, here I’ll just note that the pen doesn’t fall out in your pocket, there are no accidental clicks. Sometimes it sticks out a little because it has a button and it can get pressed if you have a lot of stuff in your pockets.

Compared to Galaxy Note 8

The front panel is fully laminated, the device plays in the light, plus we can add an Always On Display with any picture. The model looks interesting. Regardless of what color you choose for the device, the front panel will be black. In Russia, the device initially appears in three colors - black (classic, but rather boring), blue (a beautiful device), and copper (a kind of rich and noble bronze). I have devices in two colors, blue and black, which you can see in the review. I like blue better, it's prettier. The purple color device is available in other markets and is not bad for girls. We may have one later.

Please note that the color of the S Pen also differs from the color of the case; in black it is black, in blue it is bright yellow, in copper it is bronze. Yellow suits my mood; it looks brighter and more stylish. There will be no pink S Pen in Russia.

The fingerprint sensor was moved under the camera block on the rear panel (previously it was on the side of the camera). The location does not play a big role for me, since I use face and iris unlocking. But for some people, a sensor in this place is vital, as a rule, these are those who have never used Note.

A few words about how face unlock works. There is IR illumination on the front panel, it illuminates you and allows you to unlock the device, here not only the face is assessed, but the iris is also scanned. The more often you use this unlocking, the faster it will be. The meaning of the technology is the same as in S9/S9+, but there are differences in hardware, plus the software has been improved. During the first week, the phone “gets used” to you, then the unlocking process becomes instantaneous. In terms of speed, there are no differences from the same iPhone X, in terms of security everything is also excellent, there is no way to unlock it with a picture or photo. Since I wear glasses, I can say that there are no problems with this either. Other points I would like to note are that the function requires very little light to operate, it works even on the street at night, and the recognition time increases slightly.

The build quality is excellent, there are no complaints here. Let me stop here and move on to other components of the device.

Display

The screen has increased slightly, here in each generation they rather indicate an increase in the display by 0.1 inches, which is more marketing than real differences.

The screen diagonal is 6.4 inches, the geometry is the same 18.5 by 9, the resolution is 2K, or, more precisely, QuadHD+. You can also change the screen resolution; the lower the resolution, the longer the device will work.

In the settings, you can not only adjust the color temperature, but also adjust the colors if you think something is wrong with them.

The screen is perfectly readable in the sun.

Compared to the iPhone X, where the screen was created by Samsung, the matrix in Note 9 is perceived noticeably better, both in terms of picture quality, diagonal, and display resolution.

The Always On Display operating mode allows you to display a picture or screensaver in standby mode. In two days, the device spends approximately 400-500 mAh to operate this function for 20 hours. The brightness of the AOD has increased compared to the S8+, and you can adjust the brightness directly from the screen. In your pockets or bag, the device understands that there is no need to show this screen and turns it off.

The AOD feature is great because it allows you to see notifications and time without having to take your phone off the table, everything is visible at a glance. You can also customize the background, choose different designs or your photos. From this screen you can click on the icon to quickly go to the selected application.

For a curved screen, you can configure different panels to quickly access applications or specific functions. The presence of such panels makes life easier, since on any screen you can call it up with one touch, for example, this is how I use a calculator or launch those applications that I use constantly. It is also very convenient that pictures from the clipboard are shown on the side and you can immediately select them and use them in any of the open applications.

Finally, it is important to note that the presence of a large screen allows you to comfortably work in two windows; you can simultaneously launch two applications and work in them in parallel or simply see what is happening in them. Double shortcuts have been added to the sidebar, meaning you can launch two applications at once with one click. This is a great feature because it saves time. Samsung's implementation of working in two windows is much more convenient than anyone else's. You can drag files from one window to another, copy text, and so on.

Battery

The battery capacity has increased, both compared to the S9+ (there was 3500 mAh) and compared to the Note 8 (3300 mAh). Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery, fast charging allows you to charge the device in 90 minutes, wireless charging can be either fast or regular.

My Note 9 operating time was comparable to the S9+, with a 15-20% advantage over the Note 9, which is at least a full workday with 6-6.5 hours of screen operation. Or two days with more moderate work scenarios. Note's operating time largely depends on your scenarios and how you configured the device. There is maximum scope for your creativity, since the combination of a SuperAMOLED screen and a fairly economical chipset allows you to achieve good results.

The video playback time at maximum brightness is lower than in previous devices - about 14 hours, which is a record for the market, but not at all a record for Samsung. Why this is so, obviously the brightness has increased.

The devices have an energy saving mode in which you can arrange the operation of smartphones in such a way as to maximize their operating time; it can literally increase several times.

Memory, chipset, performance

The basic version of Note 9 will be available with 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of internal memory (memory cards up to 512 GB). The older version has 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB (!) of internal memory.

In the US and China, models will be released with Snapdragon 845, just like it was for the S9/S9+. For Russia and Europe, the model comes in a version for two SIM cards with Exynos 9810. The device has a huge performance reserve, it will be enough for the next couple of years.

Look at the results of synthetic tests.

Communication capabilities

Support for LTE cat.18 depends on the operators, but everything is also good here, in fact, these models are the first to be ready for new networks that are just appearing in the world.

USB 3.1 (Type C) is supported, Bluetooth 5.0, aptX and other audio codecs are available.

In terms of wireless interfaces, there are Wi-Fi improvers. For example, I liked the inclusion of Wi-Fi depending on the geotag, that is, the device can remember where you used Wi-Fi and automatically connect to the network when you, for example, come to work, without having to turn it on manually. The Wi-Fi repeater function has not disappeared anywhere; it is present in this device.

Among the features of the implementation of Bluetooth 5.0, I note the ability to simultaneously connect two headsets or other audio devices, that is, you can listen to the same music or watch a movie with another person. This is just a great feature that was definitely missing, although few will need it.

Another thing I liked was the ability to select apps and which connected Bluetooth devices play audio. That is, you can choose to have the sound from the video player broadcast to an external speaker, and messages read only in the headset. Cool? Definitely yes, but you will have to spend time setting everything up for yourself. Or this scenario: you give the phone to your child so that he can watch a movie and the sound comes through a wireless speaker or wireless headphones, while you listen to music or a podcast in other wireless headphones. This function works perfectly, and it is very convenient, I tried it in practice several times, I regret that it did not exist several years ago.

Camera

Despite the fact that the cameras are identical in hardware to those in the Galaxy S9+, they still have a number of changes, which we will discuss below. Front camera 8 megapixels, f/1.7, 1/3.6” matrix. The quality of the photos is normal, it is possible to use facial enhancements. Just like for the main camera, there are different effects when you can attach inserts of bows, mustaches, and the like to your face. A good feature that diversifies the use of the camera. But it’s impossible to say anything special about this camera.

And this is how the front camera shoots compared to the iPhone X.

The main module is 12 megapixels; it, of course, has optical stabilization. The aperture is variable(!), that is, it can be either f/1.5 or f/2.4. The second camera module is used for x2 optical zoom, as well as various effects, such as background blur.

By and large, the Note 9 takes photos, plus or minus, the same way as the S9+, but there is a difference: the software has intelligent settings, when the device itself determines the scene and shows an icon on the right.

This is painfully reminiscent of the presets in Huawei products, where it is called AI mode. In my opinion, the speed and quality of scene detection are quite acceptable, but if you wish, you can turn them off in the settings. The camera has also acquired other intelligent functions, for example, if the person being photographed blinks, they will write to you about it or tell you that the lens is dirty. That is, the device begins to learn something about itself and tells the user how to achieve more. This is just the beginning of the journey; further such functions will appear more and more often. In theory, adding these functions to other company models is not difficult, but, alas, marketing will not allow this to be done.

The camera interface looks like this:

Check out sample shots from the Note 9.

And this is what the pictures look like on Note 9 and S9+.

And let's add iPhone X to the comparison.

In Slo-Mo mode (960 frames per second), you can record videos either automatically (detecting movement in the frame field) or manually (starts immediately). In my opinion, this mode is good, but there are always problems with focusing if shooting at a short distance. To shoot Slo-Mo you also need as much light as possible; nothing will work in the twilight or darkness. Watch an example of such a video.

Since we are talking about video, we must say that recording in 4K 60 frames per second is supported, but then optical stabilization does not work; it is present in other modes. The second camera is needed for optical zoom and the “Live Photos” mode when the background is blurred. The difference from the regular S9 is this, and also that you can now blur the background using different patterns (for example, a light path can turn into hearts). It's interesting and curious, but it doesn't amount to anything.

S Pen – new and old features

For most, the S Pen is an additional feature that people use from time to time. For example, I can’t draw, and therefore I need the S Pen as a pen for a notebook, and here it helps one hundred percent. For those who draw, this is an indispensable tool that is always with you. But putting use scenarios out of the picture, I’ll say that the S Pen can only be called useless by a person who firmly believes that trucks are not needed in this universe, and for exactly the same reason that he cannot find a use for them in his life.

In previous generations, the S Pen was passive, it did not have a battery or any additional features; Bluetooth support was immediately added, as well as a small battery. The S Pen is charged in the phone slot; it takes 40 seconds to fully charge. The distance at which it works is up to 10 meters (BLE no longer allows). Now there is an option to turn on an alert, if you go away and forget your S Pen somewhere, the phone will scream and warn you. There are also settings related to the operation of the button on the S Pen, it just requires connection to the phone, it’s a kind of control panel. Supports short and long presses, which are assigned different actions in different applications. For example, in Chrome you can go back one page or, conversely, go back. I prefer working with the camera; you can put your phone on it and use the S Pen as a remote control.

One charge supports up to 200 button presses, which is enough for your eyes. Initially I was skeptical about this possibility, but then I tried it and got a taste for it. Other features of the S Pen remain unchanged, these are the same 2048 degrees of pressure on the screen, a comfortable pen with which you can both write and draw.

For me, the S Pen is the ability to leave a quick note, write on the screen, without even unlocking the phone. This is very useful in meetings when you need to remember something and don't need to write it down in a notebook. Short notes on the run, which are also synchronized with the cloud. Now you can record not only one screen, it can be endless, you scroll through it vertically, plus there is the ability to leave it on the waiting screen, pin it in one place.

Another important point is the ability to take a screenshot anywhere on the screen and immediately draw something on it, cut out a piece. It's also interesting for those who work with graphics and the like.

Preliminary verdict

Better than previous phones in the series in every way, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has a bigger screen, a bigger battery and a massive storage capacity of up to 1TB. The camera will be better, and the Bluetooth S-Pen can activate custom shortcuts remotely. But the price also matches (and even exceeds) the demands of the iPhone X. Is the Note 9 worthy of the inflated price tag? We'll find out in our Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review.

Beautiful 6.4-inch Infinity Display;
Large battery and memory;
Future camera update;
Quick access to the stylus via Bluetooth;

Expensive;
Many small updates;
Does not support HDR video;
Dear (must repeat);

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a little bigger and a little sexier, and a little more powerful, than all previous Note phones, but to be clear: it's also much more expensive.

This is the biggest Android smartphone that will definitely grab your attention in 2018 with a huge 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, a huge 4000 mAh battery for all-day use with 512 GB memory and 8 GB RAM.

The microSD card slot supports cards up to 512GB (which Samsung will gladly sell you), so this could be the first smartphone with 1TB of storage.

The good news is that the Note 9 isn't actually bigger than last year's 6.3-inch Note 8, and it also inherits many of the same features from this year's 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and 6.8-inch Galaxy S9 Plus.

The camera is better, you get a dual 12MP camera on the back adopting dual aperture technology with Super Slow Motion recording capability. AR Emoji are back with some avatar tweaks, but rest assured, your avatar will still look different from you, according to the first Galaxy Note 9 early review tests.

Exclusive to the Note 9 camera is an automatic scene optimizer and a defect detection function, together they significantly improve photos (Samsung has recently developed a habit of transferring similar functions to older smartphones).

The S-Pen now supports Bluetooth for remote control functions, which, unlike the Bixby button, are customizable. Want to pose for a photo from a few meters away. The S-Pen helps you do this and more.

The bad news is that the price is much higher. Get ready to shell out the price tag of the iPhone X for the entry-level model with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. The Galaxy Note 9 is aimed at power and business users, according to Samsung - the physical size, storage capacity, price and battery capacity tell you that.

The company sees Note buyers as people who spend a lot of time on their phone and want the best - we're talking about people who buy the best receiver, the best TV, and so on.

We're still testing the new Note 9, but we can already tell that the first competitor will be the Galaxy S9 Plus - that is, when you're looking for a giant feature phone with a stylus and hate saving money.

The current Samsung Galaxy Note 8 remains the main threat to this update, which is driven by the nature of the Note 9 update.

SAMSUNGGALAXYNOTE 9: RELEASE DATE AND PRICES

Sales start date – August 24;
Price similar to iPhone X;
$1000 (RUR 60,000) for 128/6 GB | $1250 (75,000 rubles) for 512 / 8 GB;

The release date (start of sales) of Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is August 24, earlier than anyone expected. Galaxy Note 8 was released on September 15 last year.

The theory is that Samsung wants to get the Note 9 out of the close launch window of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 9, which are expected in early September.

Speaking of Samsung competing with Apple, the Galaxy Note 9's price rivals Apple's phone, but doesn't outshine it like we'd hoped.

The price of Galaxy Note 9 is $1,000 (RUR 60,000) for a smartphone with 128 GB of internal memory and 6 GB of RAM, and for RUR 75,000 you get 512 GB and 8 GB of RAM.

Yes, this entry-level 128GB configuration is double the 64GB storage of the iPhone X at the same price, but the price has increased by several thousand over the Note 8 release price. Pre-orders open on August 10th.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 offers the following colors: Ocean Blue with a yellow S-Pen (which writes with yellow digital ink for added effect) and Lavender Purple with a purple stylus (which writes with purple digital ink). There is also the classic Midnight Black.

Until now, we do not have exact information on the release in Russia, but we are relying on the European release, which usually corresponds to our country - August 24. Available colors vary by region.

SAMSUNG S-PEN: NEWTRICKSNOTE 9

The Bluetooth stylus has custom shortcuts;
Great for distance photography, up to 10m;
Fast charging built into the phone;

The new S-Pen is a stellar turn for the Note 9, capable of magic tricks made possible by Bluetooth from up to 10 meters away.

Samsung has managed to squeeze a small battery and tiny antenna with energy-efficient Bluetooth into an unchanged stylus that's now capable of multiple remote functions, we're impressed.

What can you do exactly? We were able to remotely launch the camera app with a long press on the tip of the S-Pen, switch the camera to auto detection mode with one tap, and take a group photo with two taps.

This is much simpler than setting the camera timer, which Samsung hid in the camera settings menu last year, making the feature not as convenient as being able to wave your hand in front of the lens to start the camera's gesture-triggered timer.

Samsung is making the S-Pen button customizable. Here are the solutions mentioned by the manufacturer:

Camera: camera flip | snapshot;
Camera: camera flip | video recording;
Player: play and pause (music) | next track;
Photo gallery: next photo | previous photo;

Samsung provides a software development kit (SDK) for third-party apps to take advantage of the available shortcuts, so they'll be customizable as long as app developers maintain the functionality.

The S-Pen will have to charge, but Samsung says a 40-second charge will give you 30 minutes of stylus use.

We'll have to test how long the stylus lasts with a full battery in our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, but we can already say that holding the S-Pen in your hands and charging it will be much easier than the Apple Pencil from the iPad Pro.

Simply place the S-Pen inside your smartphone and it will start charging when not in use. There is nowhere to hide the Apple Pencil, and plugging it into the charging port is a very dangerous solution.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Blue Ocean gets a bright yellow S-Pen, offering an attractive contrast. The stylus writes with yellow digital ink, while the lavender phone with the purple stylus writes with purple ink.

All colors support similar Air Command functionality. You can draw, take notes, annotate screenshots, translate external text, and send live messages (a trick from last year's S-Pen).

Samsung says Bluetooth functionality allows the S-Pen to evolve, but we can't help but notice another contrast.

Shortcuts like the ability to take photos remotely will help unlock a whole new level of photography, according to Samsung, and while this sounds useful for fans of dramatic selfies (the manufacturer featured a user filming themselves from a sofa as an example), the Note 9 may not have the right audience for such functions. But it's still a good idea.

GALAXYNOTE 9: FIRST 1TB SMARTPHONE

512 GB internal memory / 8 GB RAM;
128 GB internal memory / 6 GB RAM;
Memory cardmicroSD 512 GB allows you to get 1 TB;

It's no surprise that Samsung, among the leading manufacturers, was the first to launch a 1TB smartphone that rivals most laptops available today. Samsung realizes this achievement with the help of internal 512 GB of flash memory, as well as 512 GB microSD memory cards.

The Galaxy Note 9 is presented as a phone that will never complain about running out of memory. Deleting a game or previously downloaded movies isn't something you'll have to worry about—take all the photos you want at full resolution, and 4K videos whenever you want, no more compromises. 8GB of RAM is also probably best suited for a desktop in Samsung Dex mode, a secondary display system running virtualization software.

DeX is easier to use with the Galaxy Note 9 because, unlike the Note 8, which requires a physical dock, all you need to connect to your PC is an HDMI adapter.

Of course, 512 GB of memory and 8 GB of RAM is the model in which the amazing price of the Galaxy Note 9 flourishes. The base model with 128 GB and 6 GB of RAM is “cheaper” by 15,000 rubles.

At these prices, you're wondering: Do I really need a phone with 1TB of storage? Am I also going to spend money on a 512GB microSD card? Could cloud storage make this memory irrelevant in the future?

GALAXYNOTE 9: 4000 MAH BATTERY

Significantly enlarged 4000 mAh battery;
GalaxyS9 offered 3000 mAh, butS9Plus – 3500 mAh;
Fast charging and fast wireless charging;

The Note 9's nominal battery capacity also went beyond the limits, breaking through the ceiling of 4000 mAh.

Samsung is finally offering a larger battery after the Note 7 recall, with the manufacturer promising an 8-step safety check to ensure the phone doesn't catch fire, something we saw two years ago.

And while the memory sizes come in two configurations, the battery size is fortunately shared between both phones. You also get fast charging features and fast wireless charging.

GALAXYNOTE 9: DESIGN, DISPLAY AND OTHERS

Expandable 6.4" display with slight resizing;
Includes fingerprint scanner, slotmicroSD and headphone jack;

Samsung's Super AMOLED display doesn't need modification to look great. It's still the best display on the market, and only gets better with new Samsung phones year after year.

The Note 9's 6.4-inch screen has grown by a tenth of an inch compared to the Note 8's 6.3-inch screen, a change that few people will notice until they whip out a measuring tape (which we used in our Note 9 review).

The Infinity Infinity Display is extremely bright and durable. And even though the tall 18:9 (or in this case 18.5:9) aspect ratio is featured on virtually every 2018 flagship smartphone, Samsung's curved panels are unparalleled.

The Galaxy Note 9's size has also changed relative to the Note 8, but perhaps not in the way you think. It's slightly wider and slightly shorter than the Note 8, with dimensions of 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm (Note 8 - 162.5 x 74.8 x 8.6 mm).

It also weighs a little more: 201 grams versus 195 grams. It's not small or light, but it's comfortable in the hands, better than the S9 Plus in some ways thanks to its less rounded design.

Here are two features Samsung gives you to beat the iPhone X: a headphone jack and a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

The Note 9 is water- and dust-resistant with an IP68 rating, which remains the same whether the S-Pen is installed on the phone or not. New for the Note 9 are stereo speakers (like the S9 and S9 Plus).

What you don't yet get with Apple's latest phone: a fingerprint scanner, which acts as an alternative to the retina scanner and facial recognition.

The scanner is located on the back of the Note 9 and is located in the center this time. The Galaxy Note 8 offered a fingerprint scanner, but it was off-center, resulting in fingerprints on the camera lens. Many people hated this decision.

GALAXYNOTE 9: RUNNING TIME AND CAMERAS

Inherits the camera's dual apertureS9Plus;
Wide-angle and telephoto dual camera;
Survey optimizer improvements and perspectiveAI;

Samsung offers a robust dual-camera unit with the Note 9, with the main camera backed by a flash and a telephoto lens. The S9 Plus offers a good idea of what to expect, but Samsung promises better photography quality with the Note 9.

The dual 12-megapixel main camera relies on dual-aperture technology to switch between an f/1.5 aperture for shooting in low-light conditions and an f/2.4 aperture for shooting in normal lighting conditions. The S9 Plus promises positive results even in the darkest shooting conditions, boosting the Galaxy's ranking as the best camera phone on the market.

The secondary camera allows you to use the x2 optical zoom, delivering clear telephoto photos when you're too far away from your subject. The aperture in this mode is set to f/2.4 and, like the main lens, the telephoto lens has optical image stabilization (OIS) to compensate for hand shake.

The Note 9's front camera is 8 megapixels and includes auto focus, a first for a Note phone. Samsung packs the camera app with an endless number of options and modes: AR stickers, automatic switching to wide-angle group photo mode, and Super Slow Motion video at 960 fps at 720p resolution. It's one of the most robust camera apps on the market, yet extremely easy to use.

Samsung demonstrated how the Note 9's camera identifies and adapts to different photographic conditions with a new Scene Optimization feature.

This solution adjusts white and color balance based on 20 preset scenes, including sunsets, flowers, food, birds, text and so on. Compared to the six-month-old S9 Plus, we see that the Note 9's camera shows off much more detail in flower macro photography.

The camera needs to understand what it's looking at and uses the same technology to eliminate issues including blinking, photo blur, lens smudges and backlighting.

Sometimes the phone will select the best group photo, other times it will pop up a message telling you that you need to clean your dirty camera lens.

While rival Android smartphones support mobile HDR video recording, we don't see signs of that technology here - we'll probably have to wait for the Galaxy S10.

Obviously, we'll be putting this camera through its paces as we continue our full Galaxy Note 9 review.

GALAXYNOTE 9:ANDROID, INTERFACE AND APPLICATIONS

Android Oreo, Note 9 skipsAndroid Pie;
ExclusiveFortnite (for a very short period);
Samsung Pay, Bixby AI andAR Emoji;

Samsung is quietly skipping the Android 9 Pie release this week, shipping the Galaxy Note 9 with Android Oreo. Not that you'll notice it under Samsung's interface.

It's not too bad. Samsung Experience software has been greatly improved in 2018, with helpful tips on how to navigate the deep and complex operating system. It's much better than Samsung's bloated TouchWiz firmware on older Android phones, and all the users who hate UIs probably haven't tried Samsung Experience.

Samsung smartphones (Galaxy S7 and above) will be the first to have access to the popular game Fortnite on Android through Samsung's Game Center app.

This is a six-day exclusive access (starting with the Note 9 launch) designed to give Samsung phone users a head start, however, the game will have to be reinstalled after this period. Additionally, the Galaxy Note 9 and Tab S4 get exclusive Fortnite skins that will last forever.

Samsung Pay is another app worth noting. It's still our favorite way to make contactless payments simply because you can pay for things using credit cards that Apple Pay and Android Pay typically don't accept. Why no one followed Samsung.

Bixby AI assistant is back again, but it wasn't mentioned in the release and wasn't tested in the Note 9 hands-on review, we have yet to learn about AR Emoji in the full Galaxy Note 9 review to bring you the full details.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9: FIRSTOPINION

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 offers a lot of interesting features - and a price hike that won't appeal to many. The S-Pen gets remote control tricks, you get unrivaled storage capacity, and battery life sees a stunning increase, along with the huge promise of an AI camera.

The last two advantages require full testing, but the first impression is very favorable.

It's just that you'll be paying outrageous prices for this package of small upgrades when the Note 8 is a great phablet at a lower price with nice discounts. When Samsung talked about its ideal user being the best AV receiver, the best TV, and so on, it may have forgotten to mention the best plane, the best yacht, and the best sports car.

The iPhone X brought prices to this level, and we complained about it too. Samsung at least offers "more" for your money.