The Note 9 is one of my favorite phones of all time. Mean while the Note 20 Ultra I have now I'm not that crazy about.
What I loved about the Note 9...
* No camera notch or bump.
* It has a top and bottom bezel, but they were as slim as possible with a camera and symmetrical.
* Screen size is perfect for me. And the 18.5:9 aspect ratio much more favorable than the really tall aspect ratios newer phones keep adopting.
* Camera model centered on the back and nearly flat, no wobbling phone.
* Rear fingerprint scanner much faster than in-display fingerprint scanners.
Only bad thing was the Bixby button. And sadly it won't get Android 11, but that isn't a big deal in reality.
Specs have gotten better on newer Samsung phones, but design seems to be going down here. Every phone has an off centered camera bump with the latest 20 Ultra have one so massive most cases can't even hide it. They want to keep making phones bigger, but can't really making them any wider so they are getting ridiculously tall. Weird how my 6 inch 16:9 Nexus 6 feels like it has more screen space than a 6.7 inch 20:9 S20 Plus. Hole punches are finally getting small enough that I'm not too mad at them anymore, but I'd still take a slim Note 9 style bezel over a hole in my display.
Work buys my phones, but if I had to pay for my own, I'd probably still be using the Note 9. Specs are still more than enough and Android 11 doesn't really have any must have features. So I could see myself holding out a bit longer.