The devil is in the details
After the traditional leaks and rumors that usually comes before a major launch of their flagship, Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Note 9. And just like the rumors predicted, the new flagship isn’t a drastically different phone from last year’s offering, which is pretty much par for the course for the company.
Save for the relocated fingerprint scanner that’s now in a place you can reach without smudging up the display, many of the changes on the Galaxy Note 9 are subtle. The display is slightly bigger with the bezel shrinking a smidge, and there’s greater functionality to the S-Pen. The cameras have been infused with AI for scene recognition, though the cameras are essentially the same as the aperture-switching ones in the Galaxy S9 Plus.
The biggest change? The Galaxy Note 9 has a bigger 4000mAh battery, plus a massive 512GB of storage space and 8GB of RAM. It’s the first Samsung has stuffed that amount of storage in a phone. The base variant isn’t too shabby either, possessing 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Specs
- Samsung Exynos 9810 octa-core processor/Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
- ARM Mali-G71 MP20 GPU
- 6GB/8GB RAM
- 6.4-inch WQHD Super AMOLED display, dual curved edge
- 128GB/512GB expandable storage, via microSD
- Dual 12-megapixel cameras; primary camera with f/1.5 and f/2.4 aperture and secondary camera with f/2.4 aperture and 2x optical zoom, with Dual Pixel, Dual OIS, 960FPS Super Slo-Mo video, 2X optical zoom
- 8-megapixel front camera, f/1.7 aperture, AF
- Dual SIM
- 3G, LTE
- Fingerprint scanner, iris scanner, facial recognition, heartbeat sensor, IP68 certification, USB Type-C port, Bixby AI, 3D Emojis
- 4000mAh battery with fast charging
- Android 8.1 Oreo (TouchWiz UI)
The Galaxy Note 9 will be priced at Php 55,990 for the 128GB model, and Php 75,990 for the 512GB model. Pre-order period for both variants is from August 11 to 19. Those getting the 128GB variant can avail of either a Gear Fit2 Pro, Gear IconX, or Galaxy Tab A 7-inch. Those planning to get the 512GB variant get a 32-inch LED Smart TV as part of the bundle.
Those planning to get a Galaxy Tab S4 or Galaxy Watch get an additional 10% discount on top of the bundle.