The Flagship Galaxy Note 9 by Samsung is officially set to launch this week on 9th of August with the smartphone hitting store shelves later this month on the 24th.
This means that Samsung has brought forward the reveal of their new flagship device since the company historically leaves the announcement of its new devices until the end of August. The device will be unveiled in Brooklyn, New York at 4 p.m. U.K. time with the event being watched worldwide across multiple streaming platforms.
The Good
Amidst the anticipation of the new smartphone, a lot has already been learned about the various specifications of the Note 9 through a series of leaks which have led to the general public having a pretty good idea of what to expect from Samsung’s most powerful smartphone device yet.
In terms of physical attributes, the phone does resemble the Note 8 very closely with regards to proportions and design, albeit with a larger screen size at 6.4 inches; it features dual rear cameras, a USB type-C port, a headphone jack and a conventionally positioned speaker.
However there are still some big talking points, most notably amongst which is the addition of an in-screen fingerprint scanner inside the phone’s display; this comes as a pleasant surprise for users since experts had deemed the technology to be too primitive to be developed in time for the phone’s reveal in August. The device has received an upgrade in the photography department with a new camera and a built in AI technology that automatically adjusts various camera parameters depending on what you are shooting.
The phone will also be upgraded with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip along with a slight increase in RAM memory to 6GB along with a hefty increase in battery capacity to 4000mAh; this means that in various benchmarks leaked across the internet, the Note 9 has outperformed its successor by some margin.
The Bad
There is a reason for the device being extremely similar to the previous flagship phone from Samsung, the Note 8; according to The Bell, Samsung with its new devices is not looking to appeal to new customers, but is instead focused on retaining its existing customer base.
It is theorized that this is in part due to rumors that both the S and Note line of Samsung phones are set to be merged into one device, hinting at a major revolution in phone design and functionality very soon.
With such a massive step in a different direction, Samsung has decided to play safe with their new flagship smartphone with just incremental upgrades to basically a revamped Note 8 in a bid to appeal to their core customer base and the ride the wave of the new skew of devices that are inevitably going to be launched very soon. There is a big change right around the corner for Samsung users.
The Ugly
Okay let’s cut to the chase. While it’s great that Samsung users get to get their hands on a new flagship device after a yearlong wait albeit the “brand new” device is pretty much a revamped version of the Note 8, there is even more bad news for potential customers. Many believe that Samsung has intentionally leaked information about Note 9 before its release for a number of different reasons.
If rumors are to be believed, the Note 9 will cost you a pretty penny. In fact, the Note 9 will be far and away the most expensive mass market flagship phone ever sold. This is partly due to the fact that the phone shall only be available in 128Gb and 512Gb variants (excluding Chinese and North Korean markets) with their respective prices being $1,165 and $1,420. This, in comparison to the Note 8’s launch price of $950 means almost a 20% increase in sales price for the base version of the new flagship phone ().
However, if rumors are to be believed and this is indeed the end of the road for the Note line up, a last hurrah if you will, then it does make sense for the Samsung Note to go out with a bang, in true Note-worthy fashion (pardon the pun) boasting the largest display ever on a Note smartphone, the biggest battery, the most amount of RAM and the most powerful CPU. In short, it just might make sense to shell out the coin for the final chapter in the Samsung Note’s saga, while you still can.