The Truth About the Samsung Galaxy Note 9: One Month Later By SuperSaf

- What's up guys, Saf here on SuperSaf TV and this is my Samsung Galaxy Note9 review after one month. I actually picked this up right after launch and I've been using it pretty much since then as my daily driver. And for the regulars on my channel, you'll know in my full reviews I don't go over specs. If you want to find out about specs, I've covered those in my unboxing video. That'll be linked in the cards. In this video, I'm simply going to be going over my experience, what I like about the Note9, what I don't like about it, and what I think could be improved.

So a lot of you guys might remember my SuperSaf Style collaboration video that I did last year where I invited lots of my friends to share with us what their favorite smart phones of the year were. Now my top pick for 2017 was the Samsung Galaxy Note8 and the Samsung Galaxy Note9 improves on that. Now the Note9 may be considered an incremental update to the Note8, especially when it comes to the build and design. But I've said this many times before, this is not a bad thing. The Note8 from the Note9 are some of the best looking devices out there right now.

The metal frame with the curved glass panels on the back and the front make them look and feel really premium, and the dual cut front is something that Samsung has been doing for many years. And it's only this year that other manufacturers have been inspired by it and been able to do it well. Some examples are the Oppo Find X, as well as the Sony Xperia XZ3. If you look at those devices from the front, it's clear to see that some inspiration has come from the Galaxy devices that we've been seeing for the past few years from Samsung. We still don't have much of a camera bump, which is amazing.

Yes, having a camera bump isn't a massive deal, but I'd rather not have a camera bump than have one, especially when the device is flat on a table, you can see that the Note9 doesn't rock about like many others do. We've still got IP68 water and dust resistance, which is great. And one of the only downsides of having a glass-backed device, and this is pretty much the case for every glass-backed device, is the fact that they do attract a lot of fingerprints. Now, as you guys probably know, there is a very simple solution to this, and that is a skin from our channel sponsor Dbrand. It's a great and inexpensive way to also customize the look of your device, I'm really digging the yellow skin, but there's many other options available.

If you're interested in picking up a skin, then I'll be leaving a link in the description below. Now one design improvement that we do have this year compared to last year is the fingerprint scanner placement. Previously, it was right next to the cameras, something that wasn't too convenient, and it is something that I fed back on last year. This year it's definitely in a much more reachable position. However, it is still a bit of a stretch.

If I quickly bring the Samsung Galaxy S9 here for a comparison, you can see that because we've got vertically placed cameras, the fingerprint scanner is definitely more reachable here on the S9 Plus compared to the Note9. Yes, this is not the end of the world, but it would've been nice if the fingerprint scanner on the Note9 was a little bit lower. Now, if you don't want to use the fingerprint scanner, you don't have to, because you do have facial recognition as well as the iris scanner. You can use them in combination which is intelligent scan. So it's nice that you've got all of these options there, you're not just relying on one thing.

Now let's talk about the display. The Samsung Galaxy Note9 has the best smartphone display in the market right now. And display may agree with me. We've got slightly smaller bezels compared to last year and the screen stretches out towards the edges. And guess what? We don't have a notch.

Samsung is still one of the only manufacturers that has not adopted the notch, and I'm definitely pleased about that, as I'm sure a lot of you guys are. But despite that, the Super AMOLED display is sharp, it's vibrant, it gets very bright outdoors so it's great for sunlight. The viewing angles are also really, really nice. Samsung has done an A plus job on this display, and I really don't think anybody's going to be disappointed with this. Now one thing that I didn't like on the Note8 was the fact that it only had a single bottom firing speaker.

It was okay, but it wasn't great. This has been improved for the Note9 like it was on the S9 Plus, and we have stereo speakers on the Note9. One is in the earpiece and one is bottom firing. They support Dolby Atmos and they sound great, especially when accompanied with this display, you have a great media viewing experience. And on top of that, we still have a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. This is something that is pretty much extinct in flagship devices these days, and you guys may have seen a recent report where the best selling product for Apple has been dongles.

And I think that just goes to show that 3.5 millimeter headphone jacks are still relevant in 2018, and it's great that Samsung have still included this on the Samsung Galaxy Note9. And they still included an SD card slot. This is something, once again, that we're seeing very less of these days. And that's on top of the 128 gigabytes base storage that you get on this. So, you may not even need to use the SD card slot but it's definitely nice to have.

Now, I've got the 128 gigabyte version here but there is a 512 gigabyte storage version available. Yes, you'll have to pay more for that. It's something that I don't think I personally need because 128 gigabytes with an SD card slot is more than enough for me. But, once again, it's nice to have that option for those of you who may need it. The other thing that you are going to get with the 512 version is eight gigabytes of RAM versus six gigabytes of RAM that we've got here on this version.

And I've got the Exynos version here, not the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. This is going to vary depending on your market but the Exynos version with six gigabytes of RAM has been absolutely fine for me. Very smooth and snappy, yes, occasional app crashes like you get with every new device while apps are updated. But overall, I can safely say that this is one of the fastest devices out there. There's also liquid cooling, so if you do game a lot, that should be beneficial for you, too.

Now let's talk about what makes the Note9 unique compared to lots of other devices, and that is this S Pen. I actually really like the S Pen, however, I've said this before, it's something that is probably not for everyone. Now, I mostly use the S Pen to maybe jot something down quickly, edit some images, or sign some documents. It's not something that I use every day and this year we also have Bluetooth connectivity so you can use this as a remote control. Personally speaking, I've only used the remote control to take pictures.

This, once again, is something that you're probably not going to use every day, but just the ability to mount the Note9 somewhere in the distance and be able to take pictures remotely is really, really beneficial and I really like it. Once again, I have to emphasize that it's not something that's necessary, but it's definitely something nice to have. Now, moving on to what I probably think is the biggest improvement on the Note9 compared to the Note8, and that is battery life. This year we have a massive 4000mAh battery, and it should last you all day long. With the Note8, the battery was decent, but it wasn't great by any means and I kind of understand why Samsung included a smaller battery, because of all the issues with the Note7, to regain some confidence.

This year they've gone past that, and they've put a massive battery in here. And in terms of screen on time, I'm getting between five to six hours every day, which for me is great, and nine out of 10 times, it will get me through the day, but if you do need a top-up, you've got fast charging as well as fast wireless charging, which is great to have. And if I'm completely honest, maybe I was hoping for even better battery life from the Note9, but you have to consider the size of the display, so the battery in comparison to the display, I think is really good. Now let's talk about the cameras. Now in my testing, the Note9 cameras are practically the same as the S9 Plus.

This is not a bad thing because the S9 Plus does have some of the best cameras out there right now, especially when it comes to lower light. And that is thanks to that super wide F1.5 aperture. So you're going to get some great low light shots here on the Note9. And you do have certain software improvements, so you've got AI built in which is going to try and enhance your images, maybe add a bit of contrast, maybe a little bit more vibrance. This is something that's going to come down to personal preference.

I don't think it's necessary to have that on but you can have it on if you'd like. What I do like is flaw detection, this is where it's going to try to tell you if the image hasn't come out right. Maybe it's a little bit blurry so it's going to tell you to take that again. That is actually practical and useful. Now we've still got all of the same features that we had on the S9 Plus like super slow-mo.

Super slow-mo is something that, you know, I used a lot when I initially got the S9 Plus. But realistically speaking, it's something that I kind of stopped using after a bit, the novelty did wear off. I don't know, it's maybe something that you might like, I prefer having 240 frames per second at 1080p, which this also supports. Now when it comes to live focus, this is the portrait mode where it's going to blur the background. The Note9 does a great job in terms of edge detection, it's probably one of the best out there.

However, dynamic range is still not great in live focus. This is something that I fed back on with the S9 Plus, and unfortunately it has not been improved here on the Note9. Now I'm not sure why this is, because for general images the dynamic range is absolutely great. But when using live focus, I'm assuming because you can edit the blur after the fact, it's taking multiple images when you do take that shot. And because of that, it can't also take multiple exposures.

This is something that I'm just assuming. And personally I would prefer having better dynamic range for my portrait shots, rather than the ability to blur the background after the fact. Hopefully this is something that Samsung can improve with a software update. But considering that they haven't compared to the S9 Plus, I pretty much doubt it. But that aside, the Note9 still has some of the best cameras out there.

When it comes to the front-facing camera, once again, great for selfies. And especially when it comes to video, I think for vlogging the Note9, as with the S9 and S9 Plus, is one of the best devices out there. That's because you have great stabilization, although it does crop it slightly to achieve that stabilization. And you've also got stereo audio recording, something we still don't have on many other devices. One downside of the front-facing camera is the selfie focus.

Now this is where it's going to try to blur the background from the front-facing camera. The problem is that it only takes one shot. So if it doesn't do a great job, that's it, you have a bad shot. Pretty much every other flagship device out there that has a portrait mode from the front-facing camera takes two shots, one with a blurry background, one regular shot, so if the blurry background doesn't work out properly, you've still got a very usable shot. This is something that I talked about in my S9 Plus review and unfortunately it hasn't been improved on the Note9.

It still only takes one selfie focus shot and if it's bad then you can't do anything about it. Hopefully this is something that will eventually be improved with time. Now, Bixby is still here, and it's still got a dedicated button which you can not remap. Bixby, I know a lot of people don't like it, I know a lot of you guys do like it. If you do like it and you want to use it, I have covered lots of the voice commands in detail in a previous video, you can check that out.

It is something that you're either going to like or you're not going to like, and unfortunately it doesn't look like Samsung's going to allow us to remap this button any time soon. Now for software, you do have the Samsung Experience skin on top Android Oreo. No idea when we're going to be getting Android Pie. Hopefully it'll be soon, but based on the track record of Galaxy devices, it's not something that we will get immediately, it's going to be a good few months. But I do like the Samsung Experience skin.

Just a few things that I found myself missing when I was using Android Pie, such as the clipboard, so you can have lots of things copied on your clipboard, and you can always go back to them. Scroll shot, loads of these things which you might not be getting on stock Android which you do get here on the Note9 and I do like. I just wish updates were quicker, I know this is not all Samsung's fault. It's something that I hope will be improving. If you are somebody who wants updates straight away then the Note9 will not be for you.

Now finally, let's talk about the price. The Note9 is the most expensive smartphone that has come from Samsung. It starts at $1,000 or 900 pounds here in the UK, so that is a lot of money. Is it worth that price tag? In my opinion, yes it is. Why is that? Because this device ticks pretty much all of the boxes that you'll need from a smartphone.

It's got an amazing display, one of the best out there. It's got great cameras, a beautiful build and design, water and dust resistance, lots of storage as well as a micro SD card slot, great stereo speakers, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, fast charging, fast wireless charging, great battery life, smooth overall performance, the S Pen, which is unique to the Note9. The list goes on, it's just a great all rounder. Now, of course, if that price is out of range for you, then the S9 Plus is a really, really good option, because it covers a lot of the things that the Note9 does. I've actually reviewed that in detail and you can check that video out in the cards and in the description below.

And because the S9 Plus is a few months older now, should be able to get you a really good deal for it. That's it, guys. That is my Samsung Galaxy Note9 review after using it for a month. And it looks like I'm going to be using this for many more months, and it's already a very, very strong contender for the best smartphone of 2018, even though we've got a few months left. Of course there's going to be lots of other devices out which I'll be comparing this to.

And if you want to see all of those comparisons SuperSaf style first, then make sure you have subscribed and switch on notifications. What do you guys think of the Samsung Galaxy Note9? Do you think it's worth the price tag? Definitely drop me a comment below and let me know. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful. If you did, you know what to do. Hit that like button.

Thanks for watching, this is Saf on SuperSaf TV. I'll see you next time.

Source : SuperSaf