Samsung has raised the bar for flagship smartphones yet again after unveiling the new Galaxy Note 9 – the most powerful device the company has ever produced.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was launched at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn and will go on sale in Australia on August 24.
The device continues the amazing Galaxy Note legacy which started back in 2011 when Samsung launched its first large screen smartphone.
Since then it has built one of the most loyal customer bases of power users in the market.
READ TECH GUIDE’S HANDS-ON LOOK AT THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9
“The Note has always been our showcase for premium technology and industry-defining innovation, and Galaxy Note 9 is no exception. It’s designed for a level of performance, power and intelligence that today’s power users want and need,” said DJ Koh, President and CEO of IT & Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics.
“Note fans are Samsung’s most loyal; we know they want it all, to get the most out of work and play, and Galaxy Note 9 is the only phone that can keep up with their busy lives.”
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has a 6.4 inch Super AMOLED Quad HD+ display and a slightly refreshed design featuring a diamond cut metal frame that merges the glossy and matte surfaces of the device.
It has been designed for all-day performance thanks to a larger 4,000mAh battery and also includes an intelligent camera that uses artificial intelligence to optimise your images.
And of course it includes the S Pen which happens to be the biggest purchase driver for Samsung’s Note smartphones.
In fact, 64 per cent of Note users said they were loyal to the device because of the S Pen.
And the good news is, the S Pen is even smarter and more useful than ever.
The S Pen now has a Bluetooth module on board so it can connect to the Galaxy Note 9 from up to 10m away.
This means it can be used to navigate a presentation, control your photo gallery, playback video and remotely activate the cameras and take a photo.
The S Pen is recharged every time it is inserted back into the phone.
A charge of just 40 seconds will provide S Pen users with 30 minutes of use.
Samsung has also created an SDK (software developers kit) which will allow developers to incorporate use of the S Pen into their apps.
The theme behind the Galaxy Note 9 is no compromise.
This starts with the inclusion of the biggest battery ever used in a Samsung mobile device.
At 4,000mAh, it is 25 per cent bigger than the battery aboard the Note 8.
The Note 9 is also CAT18 compatible and will be able to reach download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps on supported mobile networks.
Samsung has also doubled the onboard storage of the Note 9, going from 64GB to 128GB along with 6GB RAM.
But the company has upped the ante even further and will also offer a 512GB model that will have an incredible 8GB RAM.
And with a microSD card slot and the availability of a 512GB Samsung memory card, it will be possible to have more than 1TB of storage in your pocket with the Note 9.
On the camera side, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will have dual 12 megapixel cameras – the same camera system that we saw with the Galaxy S9 – with dual aperture lenses which can adjust depending on the amount of light available.
On the front is an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera.
The cameras will also have a significant layer of intelligence so it knows what it’s looking at and can find the optimal mode to capture the best image.
Also included will be Flaw Detection which can tell you when the lens is dirty, if someone has blinked in the photo, if the image is blurry or if there’s too much backlight – and then do something about it.
DeX has been a big part of the Note 8 and Galaxy S9 which required a separate dock to create a desktop experience.
That’s now changed with the Note 9 which can run Samsung DeX directly from the device without the need for a dock.
Users can simply connect, via an adapter, HDMI cable from the device to monitor or television to create that desktop experience.
The main reason the Note 9 can pull this off is due to its new water carbon cooling system which now has a three times larger thermal spreader.
This also paves the way for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 to be the ultimate gaming device as well.
What also helps with the heavy lifting here, is the Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core processor under the hood.
Security is still a priority for the device with the fingerprint relocated below the camera on the rear panel.
The device also has iris scanning and facial recognition.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will be available in three colours in Australia – Midnight Black, Ocean Blue and Metallic Copper.
It will be priced at $1,499 (128GB) and $1,799 (512GB) but anyone who pre-orders the device from today will receive the 512GB model for the same price as the 128GB version ($1,499).
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 pre-sales kick off today before it is officially launched on August 24.
* Stephen Fenech travelled to New York as a guest of Samsung
