Does The Note 9 Have Ir
Tom's Guide Verdict
Get the Note 9 if yous want a big-screen telephone with a pen and potent cameras. But y'all may desire to splurge on the Annotation x for all the bells and whistles.
Pros
- +
Gorgeous 6.iv-inch display
- +
South Pen gets new powers via Bluetooth
- +
AI camera improves photos
- +
Lots of onboard storage
- +
DeX mode works without dock
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Bixby still needs work
- -
Water cooling doesn't impress
The Galaxy Note 10 is here, simply last year's Notation 9 is worth a look if you're looking for a powerful Android telephone, specially when that are enough of good Note 9 deals.
Nosotros wait to see huge savings on the Note nine over the holidays, so check out our Samsung Black Friday and Cyber Mon deals to stay up-to-date on the latest prices.
The Galaxy Notation 9 (starting at $899) has enough of things going for it, including an S Pen that doubles every bit a remote command. After spending some time with Samsung's new flagship, most of the cardinal highlights this time around feel more like refinements of a keen phablet than assuming steps forward, but this is still one of the best Android phones and best big-screen phones you tin can buy.
If you're not certain which Samsung phone to get, cheque out our Galaxy Annotation 9 vs. Galaxy Annotation 10 face-off and Galaxy Note 9 vs. Galaxy Note 20 comparison to see which of Samsung's most recent phablet generations is worth ownership.
Crook Sheet: What's new with the Notation nine?
- S Pen is a remote control: The stylus at present has Bluetooth connectivity, so you tin use information technology for taking selfies, giving presentations, skipping music tracks and more than.
- Huge battery: The iv,000 mAh battery is the biggest e'er in a Samsung handset, which is a big pace upwardly from the Note 8 and its 3,300 mAh power pack. However, our testing has produced only marginal improvements so far.
- AI camera: The dual camera on the Annotation ix can automatically recognize more than 20 different types of scenes (nutrient, plants, etc.) and adjust the settings to get the best shot.
- DeX without the dock. Y'all only need an adapter and an HDMI cablevision to plough the Note 9 into a mini PC rather than a $69 accessory. The phone doubles as a touchpad.
- Water cooled. The Note 9 uses a h2o carbon fiber cooling system to prevent overheating and deliver sustained high performance, though our testing didn't yield impressive results.
Pricing and availability
When information technology debuted in Baronial 2018, the Note 9 toll $999 for the 6GB model with 128GB of storage. Several months afterward its initial release, though, it's not hard to notice discounts on the Note 9. Every bit of this writing, Samsung is offering $100 to $200 off the phone depending on which carrier you lot opt for; the unlocked version of the Note 9 is $100 off at Samsung, too.
The 512GB Galaxy Note 9 costs $1,249, with those same $100 to $200 discounts bachelor at the moment.
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.South. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Xfinity comport the Milky way Annotation 9. You tin can also get it through Amazon, All-time Buy, Costco, Sam'southward Guild, Directly Talk Wireless, Target and Walmart, also every bit Samsung.com.
MORE: All-time Galaxy Note 9 Deals
Design: Mostly unchanged
The boldest affair about the Note 9's pattern is that it at present comes in more vibrant hues. The deeper Lavender Purple model pops more than the Ocean Bluish version. All the same, the Ocean Blue comes with a yellowish Southward Pen, which writes in xanthous on the display in Screen-Off memo manner, a nice, subtle bear on.
Shortly afterward the telephone's release concluding year, Samsung announced the availability of new Cloud Argent and Midnight Blackness versions of the Notation 9. Deject Silver is exclusively sold through Best Buy and Samsung's own website, while the Midnight Black variant will exist carried at all retailers.
If you can tell the Annotation 8 and Annotation 9 apart at a glance, kudos to you: The differences between them are and then slight as to be imperceptible.
The Annotation 9 and Note 8 accept identical bodies — both are 6.4 inches long and 0.34 inches deep. The Note ix'southward display is a smidge larger at half dozen.4 inches to the Note viii's vi.3-inch panel, which makes it the largest screen Samsung'due south always put in a Note device, but you'd be forgiven for not noticing.
The new phone is a tiny bit heavier than the Notation eight (7.1 ounces versus 6.9 ounces), only I couldn't feel the departure when holding both devices.
The biggest change is the fingerprint sensor, which Samsung wisely moved from beside the dual-lens camera to beneath it. This makes it easier for those of united states of america with small easily to hands unlock the phone without straining our chubby fingers. Just be aware that the dorsum of the new phone smudges easily.
Galaxy Notation 9 specs
| Debut Cost | $999 (128GB), $one,249 (512GB) |
| Display | 6.4 inches Super AMOLED (2960 x 1440) |
| Bone | Android 8.1 Oreo |
| CPU | Snapdragon 845 |
| RAM | 6GB, 8GB |
| Storage | 128GB, 512GB |
| microSD | Up to 512GB |
| Rear Camera | Dual 12 MP Cameras (f/1.five and f/2.iv) |
| Front Camera | 8 MP (f/1.7) |
| Battery | 4,000 mAH |
| Battery Life (Hrs:Mins) | 11:26 |
| Size | 6.3 x 3 x 0.34 inches |
| Weight | 7.ane ounces |
| Colors | Lavender Purple, Ocean Bluish, Cloud Argent, Midnight Black |
Display: Another winner
If at that place's one matter Samsung excels at, information technology's stunning smartphone screens. The aforementioned Super AMOLED panel with quad-Hard disk drive resolution that you find in the Note 8 and Milky way S9 is what you get with the Note 9, but so once again, it's pretty hard to improve upon perfection.
I oasis't had time to grab up on the second flavour of Jessica Jones, which I would prefer to sentry on my 55-inch TV in the comfort of my living room. But the Note ix's screen is massive, and OLED lends itself to deep, rich colors (moreso than LED panels, which are brighter). Catching up on my favorite Marvel anti-hero serial was fully immersive, though I still prefer a Television receiver for my streaming needs.
More than: Milky way Note 9 Specs - What You Become
OLED panels are now rivaling LED screens when it comes to brightness, at least when in direct sunlight. That'south definitely true of the Notation 9, which hit 604 nits on the lite meter in our lab tests. That hands beats the Pixel 2 XL'south 438 nits and the iPhone 10's 474 nits, though the S9+ edged out the Annotation 9 at 630 nits, and goose egg really approaches the LG G7 ThinQ, which can clear 900 nits when you max out is brightness settings.
The Annotation 9 is also incredibly colorful: Information technology reproduces 224 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is improve than the Annotation eight (204.8 per centum), the Galaxy S9 (220 percentage), the Pixel two XL (120 per centum) and the iPhone Ten (128.vi per centum). But the S9+ proves it has the console to beat, covering an center-popping 231 percent of the color spectrum.
When it comes to the true-to-life nature of those hues, the Note 9 notched a 0.34 on the Delta-East rating (numbers closer to 0 are more than accurate). The Note viii scored a 0.5. The iPhone 10'south OLED panel isn't quite as rich or colorful as the Note 9's, merely its colors are more truthful to life with a Delta-East score of 0.27 (or 0.21 when the iPhone's True Tone setting is toggled on).
Overall, the Note ix'south display is one of the best around. At its size and price, information technology should exist.
S Pen: More than than a stylus
The Notation's South Pen seems to become better with every new version of the Note, and the Note 9'southward iteration is the best yet. Samsung added Bluetooth connectivity so the new S Pen can exist used equally a remote command for your phone instead of just a unproblematic stylus.
I was surprised at how much I liked using the S Pen remote button. The feature is endlessly customizable and should become fifty-fifty more than and then now that 3rd-party app developers have admission to an S Pen Remote SDK (though Samsung has done a lackluster job at promoting whatsoever tertiary-party Due south Pen improvements that accept come out since then). A long press of the stylus' button can open whatsoever app you cull in the S Pen Remote settings, and then you can assign deportment to a single click and double click of the push for whatsoever app that'south uniform with the S Pen. There are few to start, but nosotros expect a variety of apps to add support for Due south Pen actions in the future.
I plant myself using the S Pen primarily equally a camera remote, because pressing the shutter when taking a selfie is a abiding struggle for me, especially on a phone as big as the Notation ix. With the Southward Pen in hand, I could hold the Notation at whatsoever angle and and capture a great photo without dropping the phone just by pressing the remote button.
I as well never worried about the Due south Pen's bombardment, because the pen is normally slotted into the bottom of the telephone, which keeps it charged upwards. If it does die (which it didn't during my use), and so sliding it back into the Note for 40 seconds juices it back upwardly to 100 pct.
The Note ix'south Southward Pen offers all the other great little features that the Notation viii's version does, including the ability to write notes while the screen is off, translate languages by highlighting text and turn your notes into animated GIFs with the Alive Message tool.
As soon as developers are on board with the Due south Pen'due south remote characteristic, that might be the all-time reason to purchase a Note ix.
Camera: AI makes photos pop
The Note nine'due south rear camera is essentially the aforementioned 12-megapixel dual-lens shooter Samsung put in the Galaxy S9+, which ways you lot can capture portraits with blurred backgrounds. The camera as well sports a dual aperture, which can automatically open up at either f/one.five to f/two.4 for brighter low-lite images or crisper shots, depending on your shooting weather.
But Samsung added artificial intelligence to the Note ix'due south photographic camera software to set it apart from the other Galaxies. And it really makes a deviation.
Samsung isn't the first company to brand its photographic camera smart — LG and Huawei flagships both have intelligence broiled in for automatically configuring the camera settings depending on what you're shooting. The Notation ix recognizes 20 scenes, including snow, sunsets, beaches and backlit subjects, and adjusts the contrast, brightness, saturation, white balance and other settings you'd ordinarily have to manually configure in the camera's Pro manner. Yous can turn off Scene Optimizer if you'd rather take photos without its intervention.
The good news: The Note 9's Scene Optimizer takes your photos to the next level compared to images shot without the feature turned on. In each photo we took, Scene Optimizer increased the contrast and saturation significantly, which made almost every photo look better.
For instance, a dimly lit shot of the gold clock in the center of 1000 Central Station looked more vivid with the AI setting, which categorized the train station as nighttime. (An icon appears on-screen in the camera preview to tell you when the Annotation has recognized the scene type.) The gilt clock gleamed in contrast to the window behind it, like a scene out of a Harry Potter moving picture.
In a photo of foliage in Bryant Park, Scene Optimizer brought out the details in the leaves cascading over the planter. The pink petals were more than sharply contrasted against the shrubbery in the AI-assisted image.
Simply sometimes the AI camera goes overboard, like in a photo of a cinnamon-filled pastry. The twisted dough appeared almost orange in the photo, which the camera recognized as food, and the prototype was overall flat. The pastry'southward sheen was more accurately captured in the not-optimized image, and y'all could see the rivers of cinnamon more conspicuously.
Now, the bad news: Fifty-fifty with AI, the Note nine'south photographic camera even so falls short of not only Google's Pixel 3, but the previous-generation Pixel ii as well. In a photograph of backlit buildings in midtown Manhattan assorted against a lawn filled with people relaxing after work, the Pixel 2 XL captured the shade variation in the sky and the calorie-free reflected in the building windows, and more accurately painted the deep light-green trees.
In a photo of me taken using Pixel'southward Portrait mode and the Note 9'due south version of Portrait mode, called Alive Focus, the Pixel picked upward the freckles on my shoulders and the detail in my face moreso than the Note 9, which smoothed out my skin but made it await cooler than it is in real life.
The Note 9's camera shines when shooting at night, cheers to the Dual Aperture characteristic that automatically widens to allow more low-cal in when shooting in dim settings. I took a photo of a rose in my garden at 8:30 p.m. using the Note nine, Pixel two Xl and iPhone X, and the Note 9's issue was the clear winner. The pinkish petals are saturated and brilliant, despite the lack of light, and contrast crisply against the dark-green of the leaves. You can also see water droplets from the storm earlier that mean solar day. I took the same photo with the Annotation 9's Scene Optimizer turned on and off, and found the AI didn't improve the detail or saturation in the flower. This is noteworthy because the Galaxy S9+ has the aforementioned exact camera as the Note 9, but doesn't have the AI-assisted software in its camera. Turns out you don't need that to capture great nighttime shots.
Since the Note 9 released, Google has introduced a new flagship of its own, besides every bit a revolutionary new feature called Nighttime Sight. This mode — which is reaching the Pixel two equally well — improves low-light shooting to rival the Note 9's own capabilities in the dark, even with the AI Scene Optimizer switched on. In the Winter Village at New York's Bryant Park, Samsung'southward handset failed to properly illuminate the trees, the walkway and the side of the New York Public Library. The Pixel iii's Night Sight mode delivered a more than impressive epitome overall, though it did accident out the lighting in some of the storefronts.
Here we run into a comparison with Apple's iPhone XS, where both devices employed 2x optical zoom to crop in on this picturesque winter scene on the banks of the Delaware River at New Bailiwick of jersey's Washington Crossing State Park. The Note 9's try is better exposed overall but cooler, while Apple tree's handset opted for a warmer white residue and did a slightly better job with the highlights, as illustrated by the light-green traffic lite. One notable deviation is the manner each handset dealt with the falling snow. The iPhone automatically adopted a faster shutter speed, suspending the snowflakes in midair. Meanwhile, the Note ix's slower-acting shutter composite everything together, making the precipitation more than reminiscent of rain.
The Note 9 has ane smart feature that other AI-assisted cams don't: Flaw Detection. This feature tells y'all as soon as y'all snap a pic if something is wrong with information technology. The camera recognizes if a subject is blinking, if in that location'south too much blur, if your lens is smudged, or if the image is backlit, then y'all tin quickly reshoot in the moment instead of cursing yourself subsequently. This really worked — nosotros were able to reshoot a blurry portrait that, at get-go glance, seemed perfectly fine.
Overall, the Note 9's photographic camera is solid, only it'southward non the best effectually, fifty-fifty with Scene Optimizer activated. However, being able to ditch AI and shoot in Pro mode when you want to is a squeamish touch for professional photogs who don't need a boost.
Operation: Fast, powerful, but not whatever libation
Similar all Android flagships these days, the Galaxy Note 9 packs a Snapdragon 845 processor, but Samsung ups the dues with 6GB of RAM on the standard configuration of the phone, which also offers 128GB of storage. If you want more retention and storage, you can order a Notation 9 with 8GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of storage. But that's not the most interesting role.
Samsung says it's employing a water/carbon fiber cooling so the Note 9 can deliver faster performance over extended periods without throttling, such every bit when you lot're playing games. There's a 3x bigger thermal spreader (or rut sink) than in the Annotation 8, which is designed for better cooling performance. We put that to the exam — four tests, to be exact — to see how the addition of water/carbon fiber cooling performs in real life. The verdict: It doesn't. In that location was no noticeable temperature difference between the Notation 9 and Notation 8, which has a smaller thermal spreader and lacks h2o/carbon fiber cooling. We reached out to Samsung for comment on our results, and we'll update this review if they respond.
In terms of how that translates to performance, our examination results show the Note 9 is indeed a powerful telephone, though not the fastest Android device effectually. We ran Geekbench 4, which measures a phone'due south general performance, on the 6GB version of the Galaxy Note 9 and came upward with a multicore score of 8,876. That'south a definite improvement over the Note 8 and its Snapdragon 835 processor, which produced a 6,564 score, and the Annotation 9 outperformed the Galaxy S9+ (viii,295) as well.
But the Note 9 didn't friction match the OnePlus half dozen model with 8GB of RAM remains the fastest Android device, with its ix,098 score. Nosotros haven't tested the 8GB model of the Note 9, which comes with 512GB of storage and costs $ane,249, but it'south possible the more expensive Note can rival the OnePlus 6.
As for the iPhone 10, which runs on Apple tree's blazing-fast A11 Bionic CPU, it remains a no-competition. The iPhone 10 scores 10,357 on Geekbench 4. Its single-core result of 4,055 as well tops the two,452 unmarried-core score turned in by the Annotation ix. Android phones go on to lag backside Apple's offerings in terms of operation, and the Note nine doesn't modify that.
When it comes to graphics performance, the Galaxy Annotation 9 pulled alee of the Galaxy S9+ on 3DMark's Slingshot Extreme 3.ane benchmark with a score of 4,639 compared to 4,634. However, the Note nine lagged backside the iPhone Ten (4,994) and the OnePlus half dozen (5,124) with 8GB of RAM.
The Note 9 should offer some of the fastest LTE speeds around, as it sports a True cat 18 modem from Qualcomm. This is the same modem in the Galaxy S9 that ran circles around the iPhone X on downloads and uploads, merely nosotros'll put the Note 9 through its paces to meet if it achieves the same speeds.
Bombardment: Good, but curt of expectations
Samsung put a giant 4,000 mAh battery in the Milky way Annotation 9, which ways information technology should last much longer than the company's other phones.
But the Note nine didn't turn in the best results on the Tom'south Guide Battery Test (continuous web-surfing over T-Mobile'southward LTE network until the phone dies) initially lasting eleven hours and 16 minutes. We turned off the phone's adaptive display feature, and retested: the Notation 9 lasted an extra 10 minutes on the test.
Don't get me wrong, that's solid plenty to land the device on our list of longest-lasting smartphones, where its best time of eleven:26 lands information technology in the meridian 20. Information technology'due south also 90 minutes better than the average smartphone's battery life (9:48).
Notwithstanding, the Note ix lasted only 15 minutes longer than the Note 8, which has a much smaller 3,300 mAh battery. The Pixel 2 XL lasted 12:09 on our examination, more than a one-half-hour longer than the Note 9's all-time time (and Google's flagship has a better camera, to boot). The Galaxy S9+ hits 10:59.
Bixby: Tin can't rival Siri, let solitary Alexa
Samsung is improving its Bixby vocalization assistant by integrating with more than third-political party apps and making it more aware of context.
Simply Bixby is still playing catch-upwards with rival assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant and fifty-fifty Apple's Siri, which still balks at tasks similar setting multiple timers. Bixby'due south new additions, which include the ability to brand a restaurant reservation and call an Uber without installing those apps or pressing any buttons at all, are however buggy at this signal.
Bixby couldn't empathise my requests to book reservations at the pop new chophouse Frenchette or an udon noodle store in midtown. Specifically, Bixby didn't sympathise the name Frenchette, which it heard every bit "French at" or "friendship," or the word "udon," which it heard every bit "wood-on" — instead, information technology showed me nearby article of furniture stores. When I asked Bixby to make a reservation for lunch at ii p.m. nearby, plenty of restaurants close to my office popped upwards, but most of them were fast-coincidental spots that don't accept reservations.
I tried a unlike approach: "Make a reservation tonight for French."
French restaurants in midtown Manhattan popped up. Bixby asked which ane I wanted. At the superlative of the list was Per Se, and so I said, "Per Se." Bixby heard, "Persei," and I withal was no closer to making dinner plans.
Eventually, I must've overwhelmed the assistant, because an fault message popped up: "Can't talk to Bixby right at present."
Fine. I didn't want to talk to Bixby anyway.
More than: Alexa vs. Google Assistant vs. Siri
Calling an Uber was much more seamless. Later on connecting my Uber account to Bixby, I had the assistant hail an UberX to JFK Airdrome with no issues, and I even knew how much it would toll in advance.
Just in that location are nonetheless bugs to be worked out. Bixby doesn't answer quickly, and often mishears what you ask about (as in the eating place kerfuffle in a higher place). If Bixby is going to be the foundation of Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Home speaker, it's gonna need a whole lot of piece of work to compete with Alexa.
Bottom line
Samsung has been an innovator with the Milky way Note lineup, with past models setting the bar for productivity powerhouses with huge screens. Only these days, nearly every flagship phone is at present giant. Having a cutting-edge processor, pro-level camera and lengthy battery life is no longer special.
Where the Note 9 shines is as a high-performance phone. If your productivity depends on a device that has a giant display and the power to get more work done with the powerful Southward Pen, Samsung'southward latest phone is the one for y'all. And its ability to connect to an external display with merely a cable makes ideal for power users.
The Note 9 is an excellent phone, to be sure, only it'south not breaking any molds. The bombardment life is good, but non industry-leading. The camera is good, just Google's ten-calendar month-old Pixel 2 XL is notwithstanding improve, and phones released after the Annotation 9 came out have raised the bar even higher. Bixby still needs serious work, though no i is buying a Samsung device for its assistant
Then, unless you love the idea of using an S Pen, you may want to wait until this autumn to compare all of the latest flagships before y'all buy-including the expected trio of new iPhones. Just if you need a large-screen phone, the Notation ix should non disappoint.
Credit: Tom'south Guide
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/galaxy-note-9,review-5647.html
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