Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9
- Thread starter jamezr
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That would be better than the alternative, which is, accidently triggering it multiple times per day!Just pop it out
I’d love to hear some thoughts from those that switched from the iPhone X to the Note 9... I’m seriously considering pulling the plug this weekend.
I've been using the X for five months. It really just depends on how locked into the Apple ecosystem you are.
From a pure hardware standpoint, the Note is superior in alot of ways, but of course the iPhone X is no slouch. Longer battery life (regardless of what folks in the Apple threads say, the Note lasts far longer in my actual usage of both). The S-Pen is a nice touch that I find fun and actually useful in a variety of situations, but your mileage with it may vary. The screen is beautiful and punchier, but of likely equal quality to the X screen to the user eye. Same with the speakers. The Note, in my experience has a slightly better camera, especially in low light. There's secure face/iris combo unlock, which works great in my experience, as well as a well-placed and reliable fingerprint sensor on the back. Ah, options, how refreshing. Of course you get UI customization and a bevy of software tweaks, a lot of which are sublte, but very useful. You aren't locked into your phone looking how Apple wants it to look. I don't even customize the UI a lot, or use custom launchers or what have you, but again, options. You get the option of expandable storage up to 512GB and a very nice base storage size to boot. IP68 water resistance vs the iPhone X's IP67. HEADPHONE JACK, which believe it or not is still useful in 2018!
What you may miss with Apple though is convenience. iMessage is great, no aruging that, but it shouldn't be the ball and chain that holds you back from exploring, which happens to a lot of folks. Contnuity is nice between iPhones and Macs. Timely updates are nice. Apple customer service is great. Nearby brick and mortar stores are great. There are reasons to stay in that ecosystem. I was just personally ready to move on and get, what I feel like, is more value out of my purchases. Especially with my phone being my main device.
It really comes down to will you like Android, and will you like Samsung's take on it. Samsung has gotten better with software, a lot better in fact over the years, but don't expect quick updates. And don't expect to not be irked by a few things they still do (like duplicates of Google's apps), but again they've come along way and I find their additions useful and enjoyable now. If you have a HomePod, don't expect to be able to cast music to it from your Note, thanks to Apple and their walled garden. Basically just do some thorough research, play with it in a store and really make an informed decision on it. I'd say if you can commit to learning how it will work for you and how it will get you out of the walled garden that is Apple's ecosystem, then it'll be of more beneficial to you in the long-run as a consumer. At $1,000 I feel confident saying it's totally worth the price, but I can't say the same thing about the iPhone X at all. I just see so much more added value here. And that's coming from someone who purchased one and used it for several months.
Last edited:
I am in the garden, but not totally locked into it. MacBook Pro for work, 2x homepods (but I play Apple Music with voice, not via my phone).
I think the only two things that might turn me off are lack of iMessage (the integration with the Mac) and the keyboard.
If I can deal with those, everything else is fine.
Don’t sleep on the couch..play with your shiny new Note on the couch!
Speaking of battery life, here's where I'm at tonight. It's good y'all.
[doublepost=1535160869][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1535160869][/doublepost]
By default you'll be using Samsung's messages app, but you can download Google's Messages app and make that your default. With it you can now do texting on the Safari browser (still not quite as seamless as the messaging experience in the native Mac app, but you can add desktop notifications just as you would get from iMessage on Mac). They introduced messages on the web this year. Works fully with SMS and MMS.
Attachments
Last edited:
Got my n9 512gb
Do any of you find the screen a bit yellow ?
Compared to my s8+
I have to use adaptive mode to turn the yellow down.
Do any of you find the screen a bit yellow ?
Compared to my s8+
I have to use adaptive mode to turn the yellow down.
I've seen a few folks say that. Mine was set to Adaptive out of the box (which I prefer anyways), but I did notice that Basic certainly gave the screen a warmer tone.Got my n9 512gb
Do any of you find the screen a bit yellow ?
Compared to my s8+
I have to use adaptive mode to turn the yellow down.
Both my Note 9 and S9+ have significantly less bright screens than my iPhone X. My S8 has a similar brightness to my iPhone X. I think my iPhone X has the best (and most accurate) screen, followed by the S8. Note 9 and S9+ are pretty much identical.
Last edited:
You should try Samsung Side Sync. Very cool way to use your phone on your pc.
https://www.samsung.com/us/sidesync/
Tip, if you enable "force apps to be resizable" under dev options (and then restart phone to enable), you can use Netflix in split screen mode.
My Note 8 is noticeably brighter than my Note 9 and a touch more yellow too where the Note 9 looks a bit cooler but has the ability to change that via a slider.
Sunlight legibility shouldn't be an issue, I'm never going to watch my screen at anywhere near full brightness.
I don't have an iphone X so I cant comment on your comparison other to say they dim earlier in the sun, which would grind my gears as I like reading on my phone outside.
Off topic, but I thought you got a Pixel 2 XL and absolutely loved it?
Or am I thinking of another member?
I had the Alcantara on my S8, such a gorgeous case.... Will be really surprised if they don't release it for Note 9.
There is no option at present, and articles seem to confirm this... Which is a shame, to say the least!
=============
As for my general feelings as a play around on the Note 9 even more, I'm not sure about it compared to my Pixel 2 XL.
The Samsung hardware is clearly superior but the Pixel camera is still better for sure, 100%, in most scenarios I use it for, which is super important for me taking family pics every day. And it's generally just a bit simpler/quicker to use the Pixel.
Then again, Android Pie is currently a bit half-baked, the phone is actually starting to seriously lag (I see what people mean now!!) and the trade-in offer I got was so good.
I don't know, let's see... I've got a couple of days to decide. I'm really digging the S Pen, can see why people love it so much!! Apologies for the flood of posts you are about to receive over the next 48 hours
Yep, that was me. I used it for three months, and I really did love it...in the beginning. To be honest, it really came down to the display and it just started to eat at me over time. Screen quality is the number one thing I value and I just did not like the colors of the screen vs my wife's X when I kept comparing them. Pictures and videos looked wildly different in a bad way. That's ultimately why I moved back to the X. My first X I got at launch was awful. Draining battery, half-broken camera, always ran hot, etc. Needless to say, I'm ready to move on from the X haha.
At the end of the day it really just came down to my screen preference. What I did love, and still to this day love, was the software experience. Potential quality issues made me go back to what I was comfortable with too. I kind of had this feeling that, given all the QC issues, things may happen to my Pixel down the road. I could have got the S9+ at the time, but there were some concerns about battery so I held out for the Note and I'm so glad I did. This phone won't be replaced anytime soon.
Last edited:
Most people see whatever the latest iPhone is as being a status symbol, not Android. Android phones cost £100 (*to idiots) but iPhones cost almost a grand.
That’s...not even a little true.
Anyway, Note 9 is...meh. It’s a good phone, no doubt. But unless you need an insane amount of storage and/or the s-pen, there is zero reason to get this over the S9 Plus. I’m not seeing any compelling differences.