Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review – in pictures

HIGH NOTES

There are very few tech products that cause enough fuss to inspire their own niche in the market. But if you ever cringed at the word phablet as much as we did, you’ll know that the Note series did just that when it dared to suggest a 5.3in screen might be a worthwhile consideration in 2011. As it turns out, Samsung was actually on to something, and aside from that rather explosive hiccup in 2016, the Note series has gone from strength to strength ever since. Now, the big-screen hero is back, and it’s bringing some sizeable boasts with it. That is, the biggest ever Note screen, biggest ever Note battery and up to 1TB of storage, not to mention a Bluetooth-packing S-Pen. The short story? It’s good at everything. The slightly longer story? We’d still like it to do more.

FASHION THIEF

If you don’t want to be disappointed by the Note 9’s looks, the best policy is not to look at the Note 8. Own one? You’re stuffed. The Note 9 looks a lot like its predecessor. So much so, you could easily think they’re the same phone. Eagle eyes will spot the fingerprint scanner on the back is in a better position now and that this new phone is fractionally larger. But this is a zero-drama design. That’s because Samsung seems to think a lot of current design fads are junk. Screen notches? Pah! Killing the headphone jack? Are you mad? In fact, the most notable bits to the Note 9 design, outside of the S-Pen, are the parts every other recent Galaxy has. That means a screen that curves around at the sides, and an 18.5:9 screen ratio letting Samsung fit more screen inches into a smaller phone.

CURVY CUSTOMER

The rear glass is curved too, and there’s aluminium sandwiched between the two glassy, curvy sides. These side parts are less shiny than the Note 8, which makes it look a touch classier, but it ain’t progress. It’s just different. You can pick up the Note 9 comes in a choice of four colours – midnight black, ocean blue, lavender purple and metallic copper – and for the first time, the S-Pen carpets match the Note 9’s drapes, with matching colours for the phone’s stylus. Well, all except one. The ocean blue variation is the rebel of the group, with a striking yellow S-Pen instead. As usual, the S-Pen is tucked away out of sight at the bottom right of the phone when not in use, with a gentle click at any time popping it out to do your stylus-based bidding.

NOTE-ABLE IMPROVEMENTS

Whether you’re a doodler, note-jotter, or just prefer jabbing at your screen with a stylus instead of your finger, the S-Pen has always been the standout feature of the Note series. It’s one of the big reasons to buy the Note over the S9+, but it could finally be the S-Pen we’ve wanted all along. That’s because it’s got Bluetooth functionality, meaning it has extra uses at the click of a button. Take the S-Pen further than an inch away from the screen and the Note 9’s stylus changes from a familiar pen to a Bluetooth controller. A long press can launch the camera app, another press takes a photo or flips it to selfie mode. It can be used in Spotify, YouTube and podcast apps to control playback. It’ll even change slides on Microsoft PowerPoint (but, seriously, how many of you run a presentation from your phone? Really?).

OPEN SDK

Samsung is opening up the SDK to get more apps to make use of the tech, so expect more functionality to join in the coming months. The S-Pen will last in Bluetooth mode for 30 minutes non-stop before it’ll require a charge. Thankfully, that only takes 40 seconds, by simply being slotted back into its holder. Of course, the S-Pen can still be used passively for all the old bits you know and love. In fact, I reckon some of the S-Pen’s best bits are still the old classics, like being able to scribble notes on the screen without even pressing a button. Just whip the pen out and start scribbling.

BIGGEST EVER SCREEN… JUST

The Note 9 is the largest Note yet. But don’t be bowled over by that claim too much, there’s only 0.1in in it. That means it’s up to 6.4in from 6.3in, but every spec boast counts when you’re trying to improve on an already excellent phone. And like every Note, ever, the Note 9 has a standard-setting display. A Super AMOLED screen with a 2960 x 1440 pixel resolution, it’s ultra-bright, rich, vivid, and curvy around the sides, just like a Galaxy S9+. It’s hard to beat for Netflix, YouTube or games, or even just making Android visible on a super-bright day.

FRESH-FACED AI

A few parts of the Galaxy Note 9 are guaranteed hits. Bixby is one that’ll divide the crowd a bit more. This is Samsung’s alternative to Google Assistant, a floating digital AI that’ll wake you up every morning, but will never make you a cuppa. The Note 9 pushes Bixby pretty hard, with a dedicated button for it on the side. Bixby can do some neat stuff like changing the mode in the camera app or switch the Note 9’s Do Not Disturb mode on and off. However, it’s just not as smooth or intelligent as the big names. And it most likely never will be. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant won’t stand still any time in the next few years to give Samsung a chance of catching up.

POWERFUL PERFORMER

It seems almost pointless to say this about a £900-plus phone, but the Note 9’s performance is great. The phone has a 64-bit Samsung Exynos 9810 CPU under the hood in the UK, the same used by the Galaxy S9 and S9+, and which proves to be every bit as slick in use here as it is there. Scores of 8964 in Geekbench 4 are sure to be beaten regularly in six months’ time when the next wave of phones arrive. But for now the Note 9 is among the most powerful phones in the world. All your favourite games, like PUBG and Asphalt 9, work perfectly, not to mention look fantastic on that huge 6.4-inch mini cinema of a screen.

BATTERY BEDLAM

The Note 9 feels like a tightly run ship. But if there’s one disappointment it’s what is at the heart of efficiency in a phone: battery life. Samsung is keen to bang on about how the Note 9 has the largest battery ever put into a Note mobile, a 4000mAh unit. It’s also one of the largest you’ll see in an ultra-popular mainstream phone. However, for a capacity outlier, the Note 9’s actual longevity is quite ordinary. It lasts through ’til bedtime pretty much every day, including a few hours of podcasts streams. But with solid use it won’t even make it to 1.5 days, let alone two.

SOMETHING BORROWED

The Note 9 borrows its camera setup from the excellent S9+… but that’s no bad thing. That means the Note 9 has two 12-megapixel cameras on its back. One has a normal lens with variable aperture (f/1.5 and f/2.4), the other a 2x zoom one – plus there’s an 8MP f/1.7 selfie cam on the front. It’s a roll-call of all the great stuff you want to see in a high-end phone. The variable aperture on the main camera allows the Note 9 to switch between the two depending on the light available in the shot, plus there’s lossless zooming, OIS so you can shoot at night without mushy results and pretty much impeccable overall image quality.

SHARP SNAPPER

The Auto HDR works wonders, even night images look sharp and the Note 9 camera feels fast in just about all conditions. You can take great fake bokeh shots using the Live Focus mode, there’s a DSLR-a-like manual mode and you can shoot ultra-slo-mo video. This is, for 2018 at least, a near-perfect phone camera. The Huawei P20 Pro can take better night shots still, but the Note 9 doesn’t have the same tendency to radically oversaturate colour thanks to supposedly smart AI. Its smarts are about something else. You’ll be notified if you take a photo that is blurred. Or, as so often happens, if you capture the split second half your mates have their eyes closed in a group shot.

SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9 VERDICT

It’s fair to say that you have to dig a little deeper than surface level to really appreciate the Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s charms. The Bluetooth S-Pen, 1TB of storage and much-improved speakers aren’t features you’ll necessarily appreciate properly off a spec list in the local phone shop, but start using them, and their benefits become clear. Ultimately though, this is a enriched take on the Note 8 – an S9+ on steroids if you will – rather than something that feels brand new. But when those phones were pretty great in the first place, it’s hard to complain too much. We say too much, because given the Note 9’s battery capacity, its real-world stamina could, and should, be a little better. And that dulls its shine, just a bit.