Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • (percussive, exciting music)

  • - Samsung's Galaxy Note phones have always been about more.

  • More screen, more battery, more specs,

  • more power, more features.

  • And the new Note 9 is the most more of them all.

  • It has the biggest screen, the fastest processor,

  • the biggest battery, the most storage, and the most features

  • of any Note phone.

  • And it also has the biggest price.

  • This thing costs $1,000 and up,

  • and it's way more than any prior mainstream Samsung phone.

  • So is all of this more stuff worth it?

  • Well, if you're a Note fan,

  • or someone that's owned a prior model, yeah, totally.

  • This is the device you've been asking for and wanting.

  • You don't even really need me to tell you that.

  • You probably already know you want this thing.

  • But for the rest of us, it's a much tougher sell,

  • especially since Samsung's other big phone this year,

  • the Samsung Galaxy S9+, can be had

  • for hundreds of dollars less

  • and offer many of the same features.

  • (chill music)

  • The Note 9 doesn't look much different

  • from last year's Note 8.

  • It has the same basic design of the past few Note models.

  • There's lots of screen, curved glass on the front and back,

  • and a metal frame.

  • This time there's a 6.4-inch screen,

  • which is just barely, basically indistinguishably bigger

  • than the screen on the Note 8.

  • But in a cool twist, the Note 9

  • isn't really bigger as a phone.

  • It's still the same size as the Note 8,

  • though it's still a massive phone.

  • And then the other thing is,

  • Samsung moved the fingerprint scanner on the back

  • to a much easier position to reach,

  • so it is easier to hold.

  • Now I don't really have much to say

  • about the Note 9's display.

  • It's just like the S9+.

  • It's a big, bright, colorful LED screen

  • that's about the best you can get

  • in the smartphone world right now.

  • And if you hate the trend of notches

  • that cut into the screen,

  • the Note 9's 18x9 panel has no notch whatsoever.

  • Now, in terms of performance and specs,

  • the Note 9 is basically the same as the S9+.

  • It has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor

  • that every other Android flagship phone is using this year,

  • and it's paired with six or eight gigabytes of RAM.

  • Now the Note 9's performance is smooth and fast.

  • Never did I really run into an issue

  • where there was choppy performance or lag

  • or even an app not being ready for me

  • as soon as I expected it.

  • Now one of the more things that you get with the Note

  • is more storage.

  • The base model has 128 gigabytes,

  • but you can get one with up to 512 gigabytes

  • if you're okay with spending 1,250 bucks for it.

  • Either of those models also have a Micro SD card slot,

  • so you can max this thing out with up to

  • one terabyte of storage if you really want to.

  • But the most more that you get

  • with the Note 9 is more battery.

  • Samsung put a 4,000-milliamp hour battery in this phone.

  • That's 500 milliamp hours more than the S9+

  • and a full 700 more milliamp hours more than the Note 8.

  • That really makes it an all-day device,

  • even if you're a really heavy user that's always

  • looking at your phone.

  • And if you're not as heavy as a user,

  • you might even get two or three days of use

  • without much trouble.

  • And of course, because this is a Note phone,

  • the other difference between it

  • and every other Samsung phone is its S Pen stylus.

  • Now the S Pen has been around for years

  • and it can be used for all the same things

  • that you did before.

  • You can jot down notes or doodle,

  • or just use it to navigate the interface.

  • But this year, it's got a couple more tricks.

  • It has Bluetooth added to it,

  • so you can use it as a wireless remote

  • to snap photos, pause music, or page through a presentation.

  • Now, personally, that really doesn't make the S Pen

  • all that much more usable to me,

  • but for you, you probably already know

  • whether the S Pen is something

  • you're interested in using at this point or not.

  • Note 9's camera is also exactly the same

  • as what we saw in the S9+ earlier this year.

  • The rear camera has a dual 12-megapixel system

  • with a switching aperture, wide-angle lens,

  • plus a telephoto lens for portrait effects.

  • And then then front camera

  • has eight megapixels and auto-focus.

  • Now the pictures that the Note 9 produces

  • are therefore very similar to what you get from the S9.

  • They're sharp and colorful,

  • and low-light performance is great.

  • But they still look like Samsung photos,

  • so they're gonna be warmer and brighter than what you get

  • from a Pixel or an iPhone.

  • So if you didn't like the way

  • that Samsung photos looked before,

  • you probably won't like the Note 9's either.

  • One thing that's new in the camera app

  • is it's a bit smarter.

  • It has an automatic scene optimization system

  • that of course uses AI to determine

  • what you're taking a picture of

  • and then change the camera settings for the best results.

  • There's like 20 different things it can recognize,

  • and it's pretty neat to watch it do it.

  • But if I'm really being honest,

  • I didn't notice much of a difference

  • between the optimized ones and the non-optimized ones.

  • The one thing that is new and useful

  • is it can tell if someone that you're taking a photo of

  • has blinked or moved and the image is kinda ruined,

  • and it will alert you to take that photo again.

  • That's something that's actually useful when it shows up.

  • For software, the Note 9 is running Android 8.1 Oreo,

  • and it's got Samsung's user interface on top of it.

  • It's not really changed much from what we've seen

  • from the past few years from Samsung.

  • It looks fine, but the biggest issue is and always has been

  • Samsung's insistence on duplicating

  • a bunch of Google's apps with its own.

  • There's two browsers, two email apps,

  • two mobile payment apps, two gallery apps,

  • two assistants, and so on.

  • And of course, Samsung's really bad with software updates.

  • I have no idea when this is getting Android 9 Pie.

  • And then there's Bixby,

  • Samsung's universally panned virtual assistant,

  • which has been updated with a new interface

  • and some deeper integrations with third-party services.

  • But it's still Bixby, which means that it's slow

  • and more cumbersome to use than Google's assistant,

  • and of course, there's a dedicated button on the side

  • of the Note 9 that can't be used for anything else.

  • Now, the version of Bixby that's on my review unit

  • is said to be non-final, so it may be updated

  • before it hits stores, but I honestly don't think

  • it's gonna make much of a difference.

  • It's clear that Samsung's invested some time

  • into this, though, and Bixby's not going anywhere.

  • And finally, we have DeX, Samsung's attempt

  • to make your phone work as a computer.

  • And it's easier to get DeX up and running with the Note 9.

  • You basically just need a USB-C to HDMI adapter.

  • But it's still just as clumsy to use

  • as it was a year or so ago when DeX first came out.

  • It's slow, it's limited,

  • there's many apps that are still incompatible with it.

  • And to really make this work,

  • you need a keyboard, mouse, and display to do it all,

  • which at that point, you might as well just use a laptop.

  • So there's the Note 9.

  • It's the most more phone from the line of phones

  • that always gives you more than others.

  • And it's really a great phone.

  • There's very little to complain about here.

  • If you need more screen, more storage,

  • and more battery life, you can't go wrong,

  • so long as you're willing to spend more

  • to get those things.

  • But Samsung's own Galaxy S9+ offers a lot

  • of the same features as the Note 9 for a lot less money,

  • which means that you really have to want the most

  • for the Note 9 to make sense.

  • That's 500 milliamp hours more than the S9+ battery,

  • and a full 700 milliamp hours more than the Note 8's.

  • That makes the Note 9 a real all-day device,

  • even if you're a heavy user (cicadas buzzing)

  • that's been listening to crickets all day long.

  • - [Man] (laughing) It kept getting louder.

  • - [Woman] They came in high.

(percussive, exciting music)

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it