No Compromise

Samsung Galaxy Note9

- James Lu

The Galaxy Note9 uses the same design Samsung has used for the past two years, with a display that curves over the sides like an infinity pool, no physical buttons on the front, and only tiny bezels at the top and bottom. And unlike almost every other phone this year, there’s no notch in the display. While it’s slightly thicker and heavier than its predecessor, it’s hard to tell the difference.

The back of the device is once again glass and curved at both edges for a more comfortable grip. The camera module is now color matched to blend in with the rest of the phone instead of being black on every model, and the fingerprint scanner has thankfully been relocated to a more sensible position below the camera.

The Note9 has also been upgraded with stereo speakers custom tuned by AKG, and now supports microSD cards up to 512GB in capacity. So, if you get the 512GB model, you can have up to a whopping 1TB storage! Like last year’s Note8, both the phone and the S Pen are IP68 rated.

The Note9 has a slightly larger display than the Note8, measuring 6.4-inches. That sounds huge, but in hand, it doesn’t actually feel that big, and is about comparable to a 5.7-inch phone with a 16:9 aspect ratio display.