Samsung unpacks Galaxy Note 9 flagship with 4,000 mAh battery, improved S Pen

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Brooklyn, NY - Samsung just took the wraps off its much heralded (and leaked) Galaxy Note 9 flagship. The device, which looks nearly identical to last year’s Note 8, proves that innovation is not just skin deep.

Samsung took to Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Centre, home of the Brooklyn Nets and NY Islanders, to unveils its biggest and most powerful smartphone yet, kicking off 2018’s rush of premium smartphone releases heading into the fall.

This year’s Note 9 brings a new Bluetooth-powered S Pen stylus with expanded functionality including the ability to play and pause music playback, access specific apps and improved inking and drawing precision. The S Pen remains the big differentiator for the Note line and continues being improved in this generation.

Another standout feature is the 4,000 mAh battery. Two years after the devastating battery issues faced by the recalled Note 7, Samsung has managed to make great strides in battery capacity while presumably ensuring safer large capacity batteries in its devices. Similarly, the recently released Galaxy Tab S4, which we reviewed here, also boasts a much improved battery life for a tablet.

Increase in storage space is another huge feature this year. Note 9 users will have a choice of 128 GB, 256 GB and an industry-leading 512 GB of onboard storage which can be doubled thanks to the microSD card expansion. Why you would need so much storage in a smartphone is puzzling, but Samsung has also made leaps in its SSD and storage products, so this could be an extension of their dominance in this market.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 features a larger and tall 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1440 x2960 resolution. Like the Galaxy S9+, the company’s other flagship, the Note 9 will be powered by the Snapdragon 845 processor with 6GB of RAM. Samsung has tweaked the Note 9 to squeeze out even more performance despite having the same specs of the slightly smaller Galaxy S9.

We are also seeing a similar dual 12-MP camera, 8 MP rear camera array as the S9 line but this time some A.I. elements will enhance photo and video taking on these devices.

Samsung will release the Note 9 by August 24, pre-orders are available through various carriers. 

In Canada, Galaxy Note9 will be offered in Midnight Black with matching S Pen and in Ocean Blue with a yellow S Pen. At launch, the Note9 will be available for $1,299.99 (MSRP) for the 128GB option and $1,629.99 (MSRP) for the 512GB model.