The Galaxy Note 9 – arguably one of the most powerful and professional phones on the
planet.
Built for businessmen, hardcore gamers, and smartphone power users.
But...is it durable?
There's only one way to find out.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
One of the unique features of the Note series is the s-pen.
We'll break more into that in just a second.
It's just one of the many things that allow this phone to take productivity to the next
level.
Samsung has never failed one of my durability tests before, and I have high hopes that this
phone will continue the trend of solid build quality.
Let's start with the scratch test.
These little Mohs picks with different tips tell us what the screen is made from.
Plastic would scratch at a level 3, tempered glass at a level 6, and sapphire would be
a level 8 or 9.
Samsung is using tempered Gorilla Glass 5 this time around, so there's no surprise when
we see scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7.
Perfectly on par with other major manufacturers like Apple or LG.
Razor blades or keys won't hurt the glass, but there are still plenty of other particulates
out there that can damage glass and cause micro scratches in your pocket.
So a screen protector or skins might be something worth looking into.
The top of the phone is protected with the same front glass, so no scratches will happen
to the 8 megapixel front facing camera or the iris scanner.
The earpiece is made from metal and sits totally flush with the glass screen.
And even with some aggressive persuasion, it won't come out.
So solid design so far.
It looks like Samsung has again stuck with the same glass and metal sandwich they've
been using for the past 4 years.
And...it's definitely still metal.
The volume buttons are also made of metal as well as the dedicated Bixby button, who
even after much ridicule is disappointingly still....oh...I did not see that coming.
Bixby has exited the premises It looks like every single one of the buttons on the Note
9 are removable, which is incredibly interesting.
They are tight, so I doubt they would ever come out on their own or during a drop.
But we just managed to update Bixby right on out of the frame.
It kind of takes remapping buttons to a whole new level.
The sketchy part is someone could steal your power button or volume button in about 2 seconds,
rendering your $1,000 phone inoperable.
But, I mean, it's a professional phone, which means you probably have professional friends,
and they wouldn't just steal your buttons and walk off....right?
When the buttons are replaced back into the frame, they do continue to function just like
normal, it just seems like a super annoying prank just waiting to happen.
The top of the phone is made from metal.
One of my favorite parts of this phone is the expandable memory.
This phone with it's docking ability and powerful hardware, combined with the massive storage
space, makes it more like a water-resistant laptop in your pocket than anything else.
The bottom of of the phone is also made from metal.
And it has more features on this one side of the phone than Apple has in their entire
ecosystem.
We have a headphone jack, the quick charge USB-C dock, and the integrated s-pen.
Samsung is over here able to cram entire writing utensils inside of their cell phone, while
Apple is eating crayons, watching their whole pencil poke out the bottom of an iPad.
[Dan] Look how dumb that looks.
[Zack] I know which design I prefer.
The s-pen does have some new features this year, which we'll check out.
The entire thing is made from plastic, including the chrome section up at the top near the
clicky bit.
The button on the side of the s-pen is also plastic.
It still has the removable tips, which come included in the box, so you can swap them
out for softer or harder rubber depending on your note taking preference.
One of the coolest things about the new s-pen is that this time it includes low energy Bluetooth
and a super capacitor inside, which makes this the most advanced s-pen yet.
It still has the copper induction ring around the tip so the screen can sense where the
s-pen is pointing, even when hovering over the glass and not touching.
But on the circuit board itself is where we find the super capacitor which fully charges
after only 40 seconds inside the phone, and lasts about 30 minutes as a trigger for your
camera, or to change tracks on your music remotely.
The difference between capacitors like the one inside the s-pen and batteries, is that
capacitors charge almost instantly and keep that charge contained in an electrical field,
while batteries store their energy in chemical form like lithium, and have a much longer
lifespan.
It's pretty cool technology.
We'll reject Bixby's update and move onto the back of the phone.
The camera lens is made from glass protecting the dual optically stabilized regular and
telephoto lenses and that built-in heart rate monitor.
Samsung has stuck their variable aperture lens in here again, which will be fun to see
during the teardown.
The fingerprint scanner is still scratchable.
The camera lens and fingerprint scanner sit pretty flush with the back glass.
The camera it protruding every so slightly, while the fingerprint scanner is barely recessed.
Even with the scratches on the fingerprint scanner though, it was still incredibly fast
to recognize my fingerprint, and was still responsive every time I unlocked the phone.
Thumbs up for that.
I talk about protection a lot here on my channel.
One way to protect against damage and fingerprints is with a skin.
Huge thanks to dbrand for supporting my channel and sponsoring this video.
Dbrand has protective skins in all colors and designs, but this yellow carbon fiber
is perfect if you're always losing your phone or just really have a thing for bullet proof
bananas.
Skins are surprisingly inexpensive, and I'll leave a link for you in the video description.
If you like seeing yellow things on phones, you'll love my burn test.
This 6.4 inch, super AMOLED screen on the Samsung Note 9 lasted an impressive 15 seconds
under my yellow flame before the screen turned white, and then surprisingly recovered...minus
the evaporation of the oleophobic coating on the glass of course.
The screen is totally back to normal.
And now for the ultimate test of structural integrity – the bend test.
Samsung has pretty much always been a leader in the well-built rigid smartphone department
ever since the very first phone I tested back with the Galaxy S6 in 2015.
Samsung's newest flagship is no different, with zero flex in any direction, front or
back.
This phone construction is worthy of the massive price tag, except for the part where people
can walk off with your buttons.
Like I always say, keep your friends close and your buttons even closer.
Would you buy this phone?
I'm still currently using my year and a half old Galaxy S8 Plus as my daily driver and
I'm still super happy with it.
So I think I'll hold out on upgrading for just a little while longer.
Customize your phone with the dbrand link in the description.
Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already.
And in the next video, we'll be tearing down the Note 9 to check out that massive fortnight
ready heat dissipation system.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.