so this is the Galaxy Note 9 Samsung's flagship Android smartphone for 2018 it
costs $1000 for the base model that is and it packs Samsung's signature
features on the note line like the s-pen a big and I mean a really big screen and
a few incremental add-ons from the note 8 what's up everyone
Eber here with Hardware Canucks and this is ninety days with the Galaxy Note
9 let's get started right after this it's time to play with light with fine
things digital RGB starter kit that includes two LED strips and all the
appropriate cables the main hub is magnetic velcro tape is available with
three digital channels for LED strips or halos Lux fan frames that display a ton
of lighting effects and they're absolutely gorgeous
check out the kit down below alright so I'm gonna be discussing on what has
changed since known aid and if that change has improved my experience using
the Galaxy Note 9 because I was actually fortunate enough to test out
that device last year first up let's go over the design and build it's an
incremental upgrade over the note 8 you still get the glass back design that
loves fingerprints but at the same time it maintains support for wireless
charging although I did run into something terrible with my sample and
that's this yeah after about a week into testing which was devastating but that's
the nature with every or any smart phone with a glass back I actually ended up
picking up this matte black matrix skin from D brand that covered my
carelessness so we'll leave it at that so what else the fingerprint reader has
been relocated to a more comfortable position and it's certainly easier to
access compared to the note 8 it's also pretty fast but I did want to do an
issue where this particular biometric authentication was shutting down my
phone randomly every time I put it to sleep it automatically shuts down the
device which was super odd at first I thought a factory reset might help
resolve the issue but then I later learned that it was a hardware defect
and it was also a quality control issue with some s9 and s9+ smart phones
now the only way to resolve this is to act
to get in touch with Samsung's customer support have it shipped out of them
they'll replace the hardware and problem will be solved right away
now I actually had to end up relying on other authentication services like the
pattern unlock and of course the smart screen or smart face unlock feature
which was a hit or miss at times because especially since I wear glasses it's
pretty difficult for it to pick it up especially during night times not as
accurate as face ID let's put it that way but you know what can we do next up
the display and it really isn't that different from the note 8 I mean if we
were to put them side-by-side it has expanded by 0.1 inches yet it maintains
the same qhd+ resolution it's still an AMOLED panel so the colors are as always
really vibrant and contrast II the blacks are just so deep in fact I
installed this black theme from the Samsung's built-in theme store and when
I pulled down the quick settings the only thing I see lit up are the icons
and it's pretty cool Samsung is always known to have the best displays on their
smartphones and the note 9 is no exception to that in fact one of the
things that I really appreciate about the note 9 Sun design is that it doesn't
have a notch it's the one thing that makes this phone stand out from the rest
and the lack of an arch really helps with a content consumption side as well
so I've been catching up on a few TV shows lately daredevil season 3 is out
fantastic show by the way and consuming it on the note 9 was just fantastic the
six point four inch display is certainly it really is an immersive experience
especially when you are someone who watches a lot of content on your smart
phone now I should mention that if you have small hands handling the note 9
might be a little bit of a challenge because one hand operation is completely
out of questions so it's pretty difficult to reach the top spots it's
not a deal breaker because I actually had to give myself some time to get used
to the bigger size because I was coming from something like the pixel 2 which is
a really small device so you know give yourself in time if you're coming from
the note 8 then this shouldn't be a deal-breaker to you but again the size
is definitely something to consider if you have small hands
Samsung has still kept the headphone jack on the note 9 which is very
thoughtful the storage can also be expanded up to 512 gigabytes via microSD
it still got the ip68 water-resistant waiting like the note 8 there are
different color options to choose from including metallic copper which looks
fire midnight black ocean blue which is what
I'm rocking cloud silver lavender purple boy these names man and their rumors are
possibly a snow white edition hitting the shelves for the holidays so that's
pretty cool one thing that I noticed while watching videos on the note 9 was
the inclusion of stereo speakers so they've actually taken advantage of the
earpiece to act as a separate left channel so it actually gives you a good
stereo separation while watching content so you don't have to worry about
blocking the bottom speaker it's definitely a welcoming upgrade over the
Galaxy Note 8 now this review wouldn't be complete without talking about the
s-pen it completes samsung's note lineup and just as expected they've added a few
parks this time the key feature here is the addition of Bluetooth Low Energy
technology that allows you to take a picture with a press of a button or
control presentations or even control your music not to mention it still comes
with all the other cool features that we're familiar with previous note
devices like being able to quickly jot down notes right when you wake up the
phone from sleep now I can't vouch for anyone who might take advantage of the
s pen and its new features because I barely found myself taking it out of its
compartment in the first place so you may or may not fall into this
category but let me know in the comments down below if you find any use of the
s pen and if so what would you use it for Mountaineer thoughts in the comments
the software experience is fairly clean out of the box it's way better than LG's
skin in fact but expect Samsung exclusive apps pre-loaded on the device
upon which some of them can be uninstalled it also varies from carrier
to carrier as well so keep note of that and let's be honest here for a sec I
think for the most part you'll be rocking some sort of third-party
launcher or widgets to fine tune and customize the UI to your preference and
that's exactly what I did the OS for the most part feels similar to me after
trying out other smartphones this year it's nothing substantially different
here especially if you're coming from the note 8 as I'm making this video the
note 9 is still rocking Android 8.1 that's right 8.1 on a $1000 device
seriously that's unacceptable for a brand like Samsung to slack on this
department because I've seen $500 devices rocking the latest version of
Android Pi I just don't get why you know Brian like Samsung can just just not
worry about software updates or updating their software
standards now ward in the street is that there is a beta version available to
download on the s9 and the s9+ again not sure of the note 9 but it is
expected to receive sometime early of 2019 so let's just you know cross our
fingers and hope that happens I also want to quickly mention about samsung
decks it's an interesting feature that lets you use your phone and convert it
to a PC like experience it doesn't completely replace that in fact I've
made a complete explained video on samsung decks and its features so if
you're interested you can actually check it out right over here and performance
has been flawless on the note 9 and that is to be expected given that it's got
the latest offering from Snapdragon and six gigs of ram you can have as many
apps open in the background and get back to it without waiting for it to reload
and I'm hoping it stays consistent over long-term use I didn't explain to any
lags or stutters while navigating through the UI it was pretty smooth over
time and if you're an existing Note 8 user how has the performance held up
until now let us know in the comments all right big speed time actually
there's nothing really interesting to talk about big speed because yeah it's I
never used it I ended up using Google Assistant for the most part and it is
baked into note 9 by default so it's not like you're losing on anything I will
mention that they actually did remove the option to disable the Bigsby button
physically like completely which is kind of odd it was there on the note 8 but
it's not on the note 9 I just don't get
it but again Samsung like give us the
option to reprogram this button it's it's it's a great feature but at least
like give us the option to reprogram it to do something else like I don't know
take a picture or open a certain app like Y Bigsby anyways let's move on to
camera performance and the note 9 does not disappoint here as well just like
the note 8 it features dual 12 megapixel sensors with OAS but this time they've
brought the variable aperture feature from the s9+ so it can automatically
adapt towards different lighting conditions and adjust the aperture to
give you an interesting depth of field the end result is fantastic with
excellent color reproduction great dynamic range and sharpness the
additional telephoto lens comes in really useful just like the note 8 if
you want to get some interesting close-ups without losing detail now at
times the sensor does tend to exposed slightly but for the most part
you will not be disappointed with these sensors here are some more samples
alright guys so this is a video test on the Galaxy Note 9 as you can see there
is plenty of dynamic range to play around with autofocus also works
surprisingly really well and of course you do have the flexibility to you know
zoom into particular subjects if you really want to and get that extra reach
which is pretty awesome stabilization is working as expected
I mean if you put this on a gimbal it'll still get the job done really well but
just for me like you know walking a windy day here in Toronto I think it's
doing a really good job in that department but let me know what you guys
think about the video quality in the comments down below
now are the cameras a significant upgrade over the note eight not really
because you're still getting the exact same standard and telephoto lens setup
and I guess you know you're getting the variable aperture mode and a few other
perks like super slow motion but other than that I'm pretty sure you can still
get some fantastic results with the note 8 battery life in one word is phenomenal
on the note 9 seriously it is one of the biggest improvements from the note 8
they've increased the size from 3300 milliamp hours to a whopping 4 thousand
milliamp hours and I've easily been able to get 2 days worth of use on a single
charge under moderate to heavy use and that has been consistent over the past
90 days if there's one reason for me to recommend the note 9 it's the battery
life you have to take my word for it well guys that has been my experience
using the galaxy note 9 for the past 90 days believe it or not I really enjoyed
my time using this device of course there were some courts that started
popping up over the course of that period like the fingerprint reader issue
that I discussed earlier again it is negligible because not a lot of people
that I know have reported that particular issue there were also some
other things like the built-in low light filter automatically being disabled when
i unlock the phone during the night and it didn't work that well with Netflix
plus my sample didn't have the data toggle within quick settings and yes I
did check the whole Edit list just like I did with the s9 but if you're willing
to go past those little courts I think the note 9 delivers a fantastic
experience for a flash of Android smartphone it's got a great design
fantastic display without a notch stereo speakers it still maintains a headphone
jack it also comes with great cameras that shoot both great photos and videos
and most of all exceptional battery life when I pay $1,000 for it no because I
know for a fact that I can get at least 70% of the features of note 9 with you
know 500 to $600 smart phones also this might be a great time to pick up a
refurbished Galaxy Note 8 for a lot less I mean both Habra connects thank you so
much watching let me know what you guys think about the Galaxy Note 9 and would
you actually spend $1000 for a phone of this caliber bucks near thoughts in fact
given that the smartphone market is completely
saturated right now would you actually consider investing in other solutions
lots new your thoughts I'm signing off and I'll see you guys in the next one