Galaxy Note 9

[Oyeve]

I've had a Note 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and now 9.

Have to say the 9 is the best of them all. You'll look at a Note 3 a few weeks from now as something belonging in an antique store by comparison! Hope you really enjoy it!


Good move on the trade-in. I'd personally sell that X while its got the max value and bank the profit.

I skipped the 5 as well. Once they took out SD I said goodbye. They learned their lesson as they brought the SD option back on the next. I also skipped out on the Galaxy 6 that year for the same reason. I still have all of my Galaxy S and Notes, including the 7. I am thinking of getting a Note 5 and S6 just to complete the collection!

 

[JujuFish]

Unless you can write it off as a business expense, I don't understand getting a new phone every year, let alone multiple.

 

[Oyeve]

Unless you can write it off as a business expense, I don't understand getting a new phone every year, let alone multiple.

Well, the business pays for it. And I manage the wireless. Plus we get huge discounts.

 

[you2]

You prefer the 9 to the 4 ?

I've had a Note 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and now 9.

Have to say the 9 is the best of them all. You'll look at a Note 3 a few weeks from now as something belonging in an antique store by comparison! Hope you really enjoy it!


Good move on the trade-in. I'd personally sell that X while its got the max value and bank the profit.

 

[JujuFish]

Well, the business pays for it. And I manage the wireless. Plus we get huge discounts.

Haha, well in that case, go for it!

 

[Zaap]

I skipped the 5 as well. Once they took out SD I said goodbye. They learned their lesson as they brought the SD option back on the next. I also skipped out on the Galaxy 6 that year for the same reason. I still have all of my Galaxy S and Notes, including the 7. I am thinking of getting a Note 5 and S6 just to complete the collection!

Yeah the Note 5 and S6 were huge blunders IMO for Samsung. The 32 and even 64GB models would have meant iPhone levels of swapping files around. I'd have actually found myself saying my wife's line: "Nope, can't take a video of that until I free up some storage!"

And at the time the 128GB model was priced insanely.

But it would be cool to have one in your collection!

And one of those weird Note Edge things.

You prefer the 9 to the 4 ?

Vastly. Screen alone, looking at the Note 4 in comparison there's no contest. The Note 4 was the last removable battery model and yet I've adjusted my ways to not care as much anymore.

I have the feeling now like my previous phones this one will eventually be traded in for a nice discount toward the next thing long before replacing the battery is any concern.

 

[you2]

I have three concerns with the note 9; i prefer the note 4 form factor (screen ratio - wider and not quite as long but mostly wider); whatever phone i buy this year will be short lived due to 5g rollout; kind of leaning towards google fi and note 9 doesn't support google fi. Less of a concern but still bloody annoying is having a bixby dedicated button that can't be remapped to your favorite function or service.

Vastly. Screen alone, looking at the Note 4 in comparison there's no contest. The Note 4 was the last removable battery model and yet I've adjusted my ways to not care as much anymore.

I have the feeling now like my previous phones this one will eventually be traded in for a nice discount toward the next thing long before replacing the battery is any concern.

 

[Zaap]

Less of a concern but still bloody annoying is having a bixby dedicated button that can't be remapped to your favorite function or service.

Nah, you can remap it. Doesn't even require root.
I keep mine mapped to dismiss my notifications and now I really like having that function.

I agree it's annoying in its original form. On the Note 8 you could officially disable it but Samsung removed that ability on the Note 9. But now there's third party apps that let you easily remap it.

 

[Carfax83]

When news first came out about the Pixel 3 XL's huge notch, I decided I was going to get a Note 9. In the end I didn't however, thanks to Samsung trying to ram Bixby down our throats, and the slow pace of OS updates. I got a clearly white Pixel 3 XL 128GB instead and I couldn't be happier. The notch is nowhere near as bothersome in real life compared to seeing it on YouTube, and the phone itself is a huge step up from my old Pixel 2 XL in terms of screen quality and speaker volume, not to mention the camera, but that's mostly software.

 

[you2]

As for the pixel 3xl I can live without the headphone jack because they provide a usb to head-phone jack with the phone and i only use iem when I make conference calls (I know a lot of folks use them to listen to music but this is my buying decision); however I require an sd slot and without that i won't consider the pixel phone.

When news first came out about the Pixel 3 XL's huge notch, I decided I was going to get a Note 9. In the end I didn't however, thanks to Samsung trying to ram Bixby down our throats, and the slow pace of OS updates. I got a clearly white Pixel 3 XL 128GB instead and I couldn't be happier. The notch is nowhere near as bothersome in real life compared to seeing it on YouTube, and the phone itself is a huge step up from my old Pixel 2 XL in terms of screen quality and speaker volume, not to mention the camera, but that's mostly software.

 

[WelshBloke]

In the end I didn't however, thanks to Samsung trying to ram Bixby down our throats,...

If it's of any help my bixby button activates Google assistant. It's actually pretty good having an extra button for stuff.

 

[lopri]

I wouldn't mind trying out a Pixel if Google gave $600 for a trade-in.

 

[Zaap]

LOL! I'm sorry but that horrible notch is like 4 or 5 Bixby buttons LITERALLY rammed in my face.

And you can't remap imbalance and sheer fugliness.

 

[Zaap]

If it's of any help my bixby button activates Google assistant. It's actually pretty good having an extra button for stuff.

Yeah I remember people claiming to reject phones for exactly the opposite reason. "Because they did away with my dedicated yah da dah button!"

Now here we are, a couple minutes and the dedicated yah da dah button is back but one has to stop spitting on the screen over Bixby for a minute to realize when phone manufacturers give you lemons...

 

[you2]

The real issue isn't the button; but Samsung pushing a substandard proprietary function. They clearly did this to further their business interest and not because consumers wanted the feature. I had not known they were now allowing third party software to remap the button (and hopefully samsung won't kill that via a firmware update). Competition is good but samsung software services (store/bixby) are pretty weak to outright embarrassing yet they have no problem pushing these items on consumers.

Yeah I remember people claiming to reject phones for exactly the opposite reason. "Because they did away with my dedicated yah da dah button!"

Now here we are, a couple minutes and the dedicated yah da dah button is back but one has to stop spitting on the screen over Bixby for a minute to realize when phone manufacturers give you lemons...

 

[WelshBloke]

The real issue isn't the button; but Samsung pushing a substandard proprietary function.

I'm not sure that it is substandard really. It fills a different purpose than Google assistant and whether you need it is a different issue but it does have more and different functionality to Google Assistant.

There's certain things Samsung does really well. There's a ton of functionality in goodlock and the related apps, it's just no one knows about them!

 

[thilanliyan]

I've had a Note 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and now 9.

Have to say the 9 is the best of them all. You'll look at a Note 3 a few weeks from now as something belonging in an antique store by comparison! Hope you really enjoy it!


Good move on the trade-in. I'd personally sell that X while its got the max value and bank the profit.

How's your battery life and SOT?

 

[Raduque]

Competition is good but samsung software services (store/bixby) are pretty weak to outright embarrassing yet they have no problem pushing these items on consumers.

See, but I would rather use Bixby than Assistant, because for me Assistant is a glorified voice activated web search, while Bixby actually lets me do things with my phone that I need to do, hands-free.

Goodlock is amazing, btw. Only on the Galaxy Apps store.

 

[WelshBloke]

Goodlock is amazing, btw. Only on the Galaxy Apps store.

Insanely powerful app, spectacularly unhelpful name!

Setting up routines is so much easier than something like tasker.
You can adjust the edge touch zones and sensitivity.
Change which icons show in the notification bar.

 

[lopri]

I have had the phone for 5 hours or so and the first impression is on the negative side. Phone is almost too big, the display is way too warm, fingerprint scanner is finicky. But the most disappointing is its performance. Frame drops and lags are all over the place and I have yet to install a single 3rd party app. My S9+ with all the apps and background tasks feels snappier than this.

It is possible that I have gotten a lemon - bottom bin of S845, perhaps - but I expected way more from Samsung Experience 9.5.

 

[you2]

I doubt the processor is the lemon; but it is possible thermal wasn't applied correctly and it is being throttled due to heat issue. Still these processors are pretty darn fast; what makes you think the 'frame drops' is due to the processor ? Not enough context provided.

 

[lopri]

Any web page that is middlingly-heavy with ads induces a stutter fest. Forget animated ads or auto-playing videos. Situation improves somewhat after everything is loaded in memory, but the scrolling is still not smooth but juddery. Network latency is good, and the same web pages run gracefully on iPhones, which leaves me no choice but to question the SOC's (lack of) horsepower.

Samsung's AMOLED production is also stretched too thin. Basically the Note 9's screen is the same screen used in the S8, with a little bit of give and take. I compared it with my dad's Note 8 and Note 8's screen is brighter, when manually adjusted. I was expecting to see an iPhone X-like screen on the Note 9, but no, Samsung chose to cut corners like they did on the S9/S9+ on their $1,000 phone. As it is, the Note 9's screen is not the "best" screen on the market because it loses to iPhone X's screen in every metric that I can think of (other than PPI, big freaking deal). I don't think it is even 2nd or 3rd now that XS and XS Max are out and the Note 9's screen is not any better than S8, S8+, S9, S9+, and the Note 8's screens. Again, we are talking about a phone that is putatively the best of Samsung and commands a $1,000 price tag. I am in shock.

 

[you2]

Then return it and get an iphone.

 

[JoeBleed]

Can you post the web page you're having issues with? what browser are you using? i don't have a note 9 so i don't know if it defaults to chrome or something else.

 

[lopri]

I already have an iPhone. I much prefer Android phones because I enjoy the freedom Android provides and I am a hardware guy at heart. But if things do not improve in the next couple of years (esp. SOC and display) I may jump the ship.

I use Samsung Browser without ad blocker for now. (because I have not decided which way to go about it) Try pages like:

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/sony-xperia-xz3
https://www.nytimes.com