BIG is beautiful
Samsung strikes the right Note with beautiful new flagship smartphone
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 From €1,019 ★★★★★
PHONES just keep getting bigger and bigger. Despite our previous romance with miniaturisation we can’t get enough of big-screen smartphones these days. We’ve embraced the features they bring and the major phone makers are increasingly giving us plenty of choice.
At the very top end of this market is the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. This is Samsung’s flagship device and one they hopes will capture business users as well as those who demand peak performance from a smartphone.
The Note 9 sounds huge with its 6.4-inch screen. This ‘Infinity Display’ is beautiful and runs edge to edge. Once powered up, the stunning display comes to life in vivid, deep colour. The AMOLED display has virtually no bezel, and its full-frontal glass runs edge to edge. It is like a giant canvas of colour when it’s powered up with its 2960 x 1440 resolution that displays 516 pixels per inch.
The expansive screen allows for the seamless use of the S Pen which is stowed neatly in the body of the phone, I had to look twice to find it. I was unsure about the idea of the S Pen initially. However, I found it a useful accessory and it fast became an integral part of using the Note 9.
It allows you to sketch, write and design with precision, as it measures the pressure applied to the screen.
However, it can also be used for custom shortcuts, and it can trigger the camera remotely from nine metres away.
The camera on the Note 9 is also a talking point. The dual aperture lens automatically adapts to the light around you and does a remarkable job of brightening up low-light photos. The Note 9 is also HDR equipped and that feature visibly reduces image noise and ensures that colours stay vivid and rich. A phone this big and powerful needs juice, and lots of it. The Note 9 has a big capacity 4,000mAh battery that I found will run the phone comfortably all day. It also supports wireless and fast charging. Even if you are a heavy user, a 45-minute charge will get you back to 50% battery, making a top-up a relatively painless exercise.
Where you are in the world, determines which chip will be in the phone. Fortunately, Irish users will get the eight-core 64bit Exynos 9810 processor. For users upgrading from a Note 8 they’ll see a good performance increase, less so for S9 users.
There is little to criticise about the Note 9. However, Samsung’s digital assistant, Bixby, is an odd character, and remains the least useful of built-in assistants.
There are other features though, like its huge, expandable memory and other enhancements that make up for any drawbacks.
The Note 9 is a flagship phone that shows how Samsung is back on track. It is an expensive device, and one that probably has a limited audience. That said, it is beautifully made and is as much a joy to hold, as it is to use.
Pros: l Great battery life l Blistering performance Cons: l Bixby still misses the mark l Expensive