Samsung Galaxy Note 9

[c0ppo]

To Note 9 owners: Are you happy with the speed of the device now that you have owned one for a few weeks?

Well, my main gripe with Samsung was always the speed of the device. And I've always been very vocal about that (check out my posts in the past!). Look at S8+ 128GB/6GB for just one simple example. Phone with 6GB of ram couldn't hold almost anything in background. Look at OnePlus 3/T in that period, 6GB of ram, could hold 2-3 larger games in memory, and 15 apps, and still great battery life.

Also, Samsung phones were slow to being with. Choppy animations, lags when switching between apps, etc. Even though Samsung users always claimed that was not the case, well, maybe not for them. But some are very sensitive to frame drops on an expensive phone, like myself.

And every year it was the same story... "This year Samsung has done it, no more lag!"
And every year I get disappointed again. I didn't even try S9/S9+ until 2 months ago, didn't even bother. But my colleague had one since release date, and I was shocked that it was really ok!

So I've purchased Note 9 without checking it out. And so far, this thing is stellar!
It really lets apps work in background, sure, not as many as OnePlus phones, but plenty enough (no one needs 20+ apps working in background anyway). Battery life is excellent. And I have yet to experience any lag. And this is a complete shock to me.

So I kept my Note 9, and being a sceptic by nature, I'm still waiting for lag to appear. Hopefully never, but sceptic inside of me expects it

But if you want to be sure, just purchase OnePlus. That thing is certainly faster then Note 9, also has great battery life, but not as Note 9. OP compensates by really fast charging the device. In comparison, 'fast charging' on Note 9 is a complete joke when compared to OP6.

So with device like OP6 you can get way faster updates, faster charging, and faster phone in general. But with Note 9 you get a excellent stylus with WAY more features then OP6, better camera, and better display (even though I still despise edge nonsense, especially when using stylus).

For anyone who won't use a stylus, purchase S9+ or something like OP6, and save decent amount of money.
But if you want S Pen features, and will use them, Note 9 really has no competition. At all.

 

[Cryates]

better display (even though I still despise edge nonsense, especially when using stylus).

Haha yeah, it does piss me off when I accidentally roll the stylus off on the curve while trying to smart select or some other S-Pen task. I could take or leave the edge display. I don't find it serves any real purpose besides giving a slightly more immersive experience I guess. Samsung has found something that sets their front design apart from everyone else so I think it'll be here for the long haul.

 

[c0ppo]

I could take or leave the edge display. I don't find it serves any real purpose besides giving a slightly more immersive experience I guess.

Well, I find it really annoying. Not just with S Pen, but in general. And for that 'immersive experience'...
Well, it just shows how everyone has their own preferences. I find that it distorts content, be it web pages, videos, books, etc. There is just one purpose of the edge display for Samsung, and it's in my next quote:

Samsung has found something that sets their front design apart from everyone else so I think it'll be here for the long haul.

Agree completely. Edge displays sets Samsung apart from rest of the pack. Does it look beautiful in person? Yes it does! Even futuristic (in a nice way!). But it serves no purpose, and gets in the way more often than not.

Of course, this is purely my subjective view

 

[IdentityCrisis]

Well that’s a shame about the problems. I’m going to have to check that out. I’m quite shocked to hear of anything like the battery drain. My husband ran across that ages ago on his S7 Edge but that was a rogue app, if I remember correctly. Android Nougat on up has gotten increasingly better at putting a lid on that sort of thing.

It can be challenging if everyone else in your family is on iPhones and uses iMessage and FaceTime. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your Max and Apple Watch.

Note series really is optimized for some serious power uses most people don’t have a use case for. For most of us it’s overkill and the S9+ is a general purpose beast of a phone. I’m still hoping to get back onto the Note upgrade track eventually though. I’m a Post-It notes kind of gal so I miss jotting down notes on my Note during the brief time I had a Note 7.

My husband likes the Note series, too. We are keeping our eyes out for the deals and price drops a few months from now. He is hoping the copper color will come to the US, too.

One thing we both are a little wary of, and are keeping an eye on is the tendency of the current cameras to let in a bit too much light. It’s not a problem to adjust going into pro mode. But we are wondering if there might be a solution for the auto mode forthcoming in either a software update (this happens on the s9, too). Or if it’s something the S10 upgrades will address.

Yeah, the note 9 is having serious camera issues it seems. Here are the links to both big topics.

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...te9QuestionsandAnswers/page/10/thread-id/1541

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...es-from-1-to-5-seconds-amp-also-I/td-p/389982
[doublepost=1537313969][/doublepost]

To Note 9 owners: Are you happy with the speed of the device now that you have owned one for a few weeks?

The speed is great on the Note 9. I never experienced any lag or slowness while I had it. Probably one of the best Android phones you can get other than a few bugs they need to fix.

 

[mi7chy]

I'm happy with mine. The only area that it appears to struggle in is running some emulators, the PS2, GameCube, and Wii emulators run a bit choppy, but I don't think any phone would be able to run those smoothly at this point.

Those are towards the top of the list for demanding emulators. Have you compared on A11 or upcoming A12?

 

[Cryates]

An early look at Pie coming to Galaxy devices at some point.

https://www.xda-developers.com/excl...msung-experience-10-on-the-samsung-galaxy-s9/

 

[Michael Goff]

An early look at Pie coming to Galaxy devices at some point.

https://www.xda-developers.com/excl...msung-experience-10-on-the-samsung-galaxy-s9/

Those comments are brutal.

 

[Cryates]

Those comments are brutal.

Haha yeah, it's an early build. It may not look much like this in the end. And they said there is a bug with the night theme that's toggled on. We'll see...interesting to see them sticking closer to Google's vanilla version.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Well, I find it really annoying. Not just with S Pen, but in general. And for that 'immersive experience'...
Well, it just shows how everyone has their own preferences. I find that it distorts content, be it web pages, videos, books, etc. There is just one purpose of the edge display for Samsung, and it's in my next quote:



Agree completely. Edge displays sets Samsung apart from rest of the pack. Does it look beautiful in person? Yes it does! Even futuristic (in a nice way!). But it serves no purpose, and gets in the way more often than not.

Of course, this is purely my subjective view

The only time I’ve ever noticed the curved display on any of Samsung phones is when I’m watching videos. Everywhere else it doesn’t bother me. It’s the same with the notch on the iPhone X, fine everywhere else but when I’m watching videos, the screen is too small and if you zoom in the god damn botch is getting in the video.

The edge display is stunning and it offers functionality too.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Yeah, the note 9 is having serious camera issues it seems. Here are the links to both big topics.

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...te9QuestionsandAnswers/page/10/thread-id/1541

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5...es-from-1-to-5-seconds-amp-also-I/td-p/389982
[doublepost=1537313969][/doublepost]

The speed is great on the Note 9. I never experienced any lag or slowness while I had it. Probably one of the best Android phones you can get other than a few bugs they need to fix.

There’s always a small proportion of users with hardware/software problems when a phone launches. When the new iPhones come out you’ll see a bunch of threads in here talking about one thing or another.

I think I preferred the look of the pictures on the note 8 to the S9 plus but I don’t think it was some inherent design flaw. Just differences in processing.

 

[c0ppo]

The only time I’ve ever noticed the curved display on any of Samsung phones is when I’m watching videos. Everywhere else it doesn’t bother me.

Some websites don't work properly on edge displays. Letters are on the edges, so it gets hard to read.

The edge display is stunning and it offers functionality too.

Well, sure, there are those swipe functions. But those could be there on any phone, no need for edge display. It's just a simple swipe

 

[Cryates]

As an owner of the Note, watching MKBHD's XS Max review and him saying he's getting 4-4.5 hours SOT made me actually lol. For reference, he was getting 5-6 hours of SOT on his the Note9. I get anywhere from 6-9 hours SOT depending on the day.

 

[Shanghaichica]

As an owner of the Note, watching MKBHD's XS Max review and him saying he's getting 4-4.5 hours SOT made me actually lol. For reference, he was getting 5-6 hours of SOT on his the Note9. I get anywhere from 6-9 hours SOT depending on the day.

I was a bit disappointed with that. I’ve never tried to quantify it on an iPhone because it’s not easy to do but I was getting 4-5 hours SOT on my Samsung phones 4 years ago.

 

[pacmacman]

As an owner of the Note, watching MKBHD's XS Max review and him saying he's getting 4-4.5 hours SOT made me actually lol. For reference, he was getting 5-6 hours of SOT on his the Note9. I get anywhere from 6-9 hours SOT depending on the day.

I keep whining about this but: Apple is KILLING ME with this nonsense of just okay battery life combined with slow charging. The entire industry, from tracphones on up, has created this workaround on the limitations of batteries with fast charging. Apple just won't give up the ghost.

 

[Cryates]

I was a bit disappointed with that. I’ve never tried to quantify it on an iPhone because it’s not easy to do but I was getting 4-5 hours SOT on my Samsung phones 4 years ago.

It's easy to do now, with the screen time feature in iOS 12. During beta I was getting not great results with my X, like around 4 hours SOT, but I just chalked that up to being a beta.

 

[Cryates]

Bixby got an update, and now in Bixby settings you can set the button to launch Bixby only with a double press. That'll at least help avoid accidental presses.

 

[tbayrgs]

As an owner of the Note, watching MKBHD's XS Max review and him saying he's getting 4-4.5 hours SOT made me actually lol. For reference, he was getting 5-6 hours of SOT on his the Note9. I get anywhere from 6-9 hours SOT depending on the day.

Well, first, let’s not immediately assume the SOT calculations are the same on iOS and Android. Second, the XS Max’s battery size is 80% the size of the Note9’s. Those SOT measurements seem to reflect that difference in capacity. And third, we’re looking at one reviewer’s initial use over the first few days of ownership.

Let’s grab some more data from other detailer reviews as well as some real world user’s perceptions before we jump to conclusions.

 

[5105973]

Well, first, let’s not immediately assume the SOT calculations are the same on iOS and Android. Second, the XS Max’s battery size is 80% the size of the Note9’s. Those SOT measurements seem to reflect that difference in capacity. And third, we’re looking at one reviewer’s initial use over the first few days of ownership.

Let’s grab some more data from other detailer reviews as well as some real world user’s perceptions before we jump to conclusions.

I haven’t yet gotten to see his video but it occurs to me it would also help to know how much of the Note’s run time was spent in dark mode. As we all know, Apple doesn’t really have one and while many iOS apps now have a dark mode, plenty still don’t.

 

[tbayrgs]

I haven’t yet gotten to see his video but it occurs to me it would also help to know how much of the Note’s run time was spent in dark mode. As we all know, Apple doesn’t really have one and while many iOS apps now have a dark mode, plenty still don’t.

Again, I’m not apologizing for Apple, just think it’s a bit premature to come to a conclusion based on some limited anecdotal info and some unknown variables.

 

[Klyster]

There will be a plethora of comparison videos in the next week or two, I look forward to them ​

 

[Shanghaichica]

There will be a plethora of comparison videos in the next week or two, I look forward to them ​

I’m giving myself one week to decide so I’ll be watching a lot of these comparison videos.
[doublepost=1537426240][/doublepost]This is a great video showing all the features of the S-pen

 

[woozor1]

Well my intial not wanting to upgrade to the note 9 from my note 8 in october when my annual upgrade is due I think its looking like the main phone for me now.

Ive had a play with the xs plus gf got hers today so I got to test it out. i initally was looking forward to it but meh its just another iphone once youve opened it put a case on it. The camera is better than my note 8 not by miles though. I will see what the pixel brings although the poor hardware doesnt really excite me just the camera. And generally you get more for your money with the note considering I can get either phones for free.

 

[Lightsaber]

I keep whining about this but: Apple is KILLING ME with this nonsense of just okay battery life combined with slow charging. The entire industry, from tracphones on up, has created this workaround on the limitations of batteries with fast charging. Apple just won't give up the ghost.

Probably doing it for battery warranty reasons. Fast charging tends to beat up batteries.

 

[The Game 161]

As an owner of the Note, watching MKBHD's XS Max review and him saying he's getting 4-4.5 hours SOT made me actually lol. For reference, he was getting 5-6 hours of SOT on his the Note9. I get anywhere from 6-9 hours SOT depending on the day.

But he even said in his review it depends on you use your phone

I've been getting over 5-6 hours usage on my max.

Usage is impossible to compare as people use their devices differently. I think if you can use your phone all day with major usage that's all that matters. Max is certainly giving me better battery life than the x.

 

[Ralfi]

Usage is impossible to compare as people use their devices differently.

They also have varying combination of battery-hogging Apps, which may or may not be working in the background.......

Really need to wait a few weeks/months post-release to get a gauge on how batteries in new phones perform.