THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9 is finally official, but it doesn’t have many surprises in store. Thanks to the huge number of leaks building…
THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9 is finally official, but it doesn’t have many surprises in store.
Thanks to the huge number of leaks building up to the smartphone’s launch, we already knew almost all there is to know: it’ll ship with a new Bluetooth-enabled S Pen; will pack a hefty 4,000mAh battery; and it’ll start shipping on 24 August.
We’ve rounded up everything you need to know about picking up the smartphone below. You can also check out our Galaxy Note 9 hands-on review.
Release date Pre-orders for the Note 9 begin on 9 August in the UK, with the device slated to start shipping on 24 August.
Price Here in Blighty, the 6GB/128GB Galaxy Note 9 model is available for £899 SIM-free, while the higher-spec 8GB/512GB version is priced at £1,099. At the time of writing, the ‘Ocean Blue’ model – both in 128GB and 512GB configurations – has sold out and can’t currently be pre-ordered.
It can be picked up SIM-free from Carphone Warehouse, though, which is also offering tariffs with EE, iD, O2, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.
EE is flogging the Note 9 ahead of its 24 August release. The operators’ cheapest plan, which comes with 4GB data, comes in at £63 per month – but this can be upgraded to 100GB for, er, £88 per month.
Over on the O2 website, the Note 9 can be picked up from £58 per month with 2GB data, a tariff that also comes with a £99 upfront cost. The network is also offering deals with 8GB, 1GB, 30GB and 50GB data.
Sky Mobile is offering the Note 9 from £42 per month, a deal that’ll get you 2GB data and unlimited calls and texts. 4GB, 5GB and 10GB plans are also available.
Three claims to have started taking pre-orders for the Note 9, but the handset is yet to show up on its website. It has confirmed, however, that it’ll offer £48, £53 and £62 tariffs that’ll bag you 4GB, 30GB and 100GB data, respectively.
Over on the Virgin Mobile website, the Note 9 is available from £37 per month with 1GB monthly data. This can be upped to 5GB, 20GB and 30GB, for £40, £46 and £51 per month, respectively.
Vodafone has also been quick to start taking Note 9 pre-orders. It’s offering the handset for, er, £63 per month with a £79 upfront cost, a deal that gets you 20GB data for the price of 4GB.
In the US, the Galaxy Note 9 can be pre-ordered at AT&T, Best Buy, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon .
Latest news 17/8/18: Pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 9 are reportedly “trailing” last year’s Galaxy Note 8, Yonhap News reports. Citing sources from South Korean mobile carriers, the report notes that while pre-orders are higher than the S9, the Note 9 is struggling to match the demand seen by last year’s flagship phablet – which racked up 850,000 pre-orders.
“The number of preorders we are receiving for the Galaxy Note 9 are higher than the Galaxy S9, although they are smaller than the Galaxy Note 8,” an official told Yonhap News .
“It is hard to beat the record of the Galaxy Note 8, as there was a lot of demand following the suspended production of the Galaxy Note 7,” an official said.
13/8/18: A teardown of the Galaxy Note 9 has revealed that while the smartphone is near identical to its Note 8 predecessor, it packs a new notebook-class water carbon cooling system. This, according to Samsung, will help protect the Note 9 against overheating and allows the smartphone to run at peak for longer periods of time.
Elsewhere, Hi-Tech’s teardown reveals that Samsung has also rejigged its stylus mechanism so that the S Pen is held in place more tightly so that it’s more likely to fall out of the smartphone and get damaged.
10/8/18: You might struggle if you’re looking to pick up a Note 9 from Samsung, as the company’s website has gone down for “maintenance”. While the firm’s online shop lets you add a Note 9 to your basket, if you try to check out, you’re currently greeted with a message that says: “Uh oh, looks like this page is currently under maintenance, sorry!”
It’s unclear if the site is struggling under demand for the Galaxy Note 9, or whether it’s taken a temporary trip to Borksville. We’ve asked Samsung for more information.
9/8/18: Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Note 9, and it’s exactly what you were expecting it to be.
The big-screened smartphone (6.4in, to be precise) looks near identical to its Note 8 predecessor with its edge-to-edge display and glossy IP68-certified chassis, but Samsung is touting a number of upgrades.
Firstly, the Note 9 ships with a new and improved S Pen, which comes with Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) baked-in for the first time. Users can now use the bundled stylus to pause and resume music playback, for example, or as a makeshift camera shutter button.
Samsung even boasted that it controlled its Note 9 presentation using the banana-a-like stylus, before announcing that it plans to open up the SDK to developers so functionality can be built into third-party apps.
Bigged-up by Samsung as the “world’s most powerful smartphone”, the Note 9 also boasts an under the hood rejig. It’ll ship with Samsung’s in-house 10nm Exynos 9810 CPU (or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 in the US), paired with either 6GB or 8GB RAM depending on whether you pick up the 128GB or 512GB model. Both offer microSD slots, allowing users to expand the Note 9’s onboard storage up to 1TB.
There’s also a 4,000mAh battery inside, the largest ever to feature inside a Note smartphone which Samsung is promising will deliver “all day” battery life.
There’s also been an upgrade in the camera department. While, on paper, the Note 9’s dual 12MP camera sounds identical to that on last year’s model, Samsung claims that the new horizontally-aligned sensors are “more intelligent” than before, with its AI-fuelled camera app now letting you know when an image is flawed; if someone has blinked, for example.
Elsewhere, the Note 9 features AKG-tuned stereo speakers that are the “loudest ever” on a Samsung phone, a rear-positioned fingerprint scanner, Google’s Android 8.1 Oreo OS, USB-C, a 3.5mm headphone jack, support for wireless charging and Samsung DeX, which can now be enabled using an HDMI adaptor.
And, as expected, Samsung announced that Fornite for Android will also make its long-awaited debut on the Galaxy Note 9.
The Galaxy Note 9 will be made available in four colours: blue (with yellow S Pen), lavender, copper and black.
8/8/18: The Galaxy Note 9’s UK pricing has leaked just one day ahead of its official launch. Twitter tipster Roland Quandt has the scoop and claims that the 128GB variant will cost £899, while the 512GB model will set you back by £1,099.
If legit, this means the Note 9 will be pricier than its Note 8 predecessor, which was available from £869 SIM-free. However, it’s worth noting that the base model was made available with a lesser 64GB storage.
7/8/18: You’ll be able to buy the Galaxy Note 9 in a ‘Value Pack’, according to an image posted to Facebook. As you can see ( below), the presumably-not-cheap ‘Value’ bundle contains a pair of AKG headphones, a Galaxy Note 9 case, an HDMI cable, a car charger and what looks like a 3M-branded car mount.
6/8/18: A Reddit user, who is allegedly close with a ‘Samsung national trainer’, has spilled some new details about the Galaxy Note 9 just days ahead of its official unveiling.
The leak reveals that the 6.4in Note 9 will feature a “very similar” footprint to the Note 8, but will feature an upgraded camera with AI tech that optimises the camera based on what you are shooting.
Samsung will sell its S Pens in different colours, the Reddit post notes, with the colour of the S Pen corresponding to the colour of the stork when taking an off-screen memo. 40 seconds of S Pen charging will reportedly give you 30 minutes of use, while double tapping the stylus’ button mechanic will flip the camera from regular to selfie mode.
The Reddit poster notes that Note 9 pre-orders will come with either AKG wireless noise-cancelling headphones or a Fortnite gaming package, or users can get both for $99.
3/8/18: Samsung has slipped up yet again, this time posting an official Note 9 intro video to its YouTube channel. Spotted by SamMobile, the since-deleted video was posted by Samsung New Zealand and shows off the blue Note 9 with its accompanying yellow stylus. It also confirms that a 512GB version of the Note 9 is coming that will support 512GB microSD cards, meaning users could have up to 1TB storage on the device.
2/8/18: Samsung has opened up reservations for the as-yet-unannounced Galaxy Note 9. Ahead of the smartphone’s 9 August launch, users in the US can now register their details over at Samsung’s website to guarantee that their Note 9 is delivered on 24 August. Samsung is also letting users in Blighty reserve the handset but makes no mention of its release date.
1/8/18: The Galaxy Note 9 has cropped up in its first hands-on video ( below), courtesy of Mobile Fun. The clip, which the accessory flogger obtained via its “extensive contacts in China”, sadly doesn’t show the Note 9 switched on, but does give us a good look at the handset’s chassis and confirms that it’ll feature thinner bezels than its Note 8 predecessor.
As shown in previous leaks, the hands-on tour also shows off the handset’s dual-camera sensor and its rear-positioned fingerprint sensor.
30/7/18: The Galaxy Note 9 might not be as expensive as first feared if a leaked pre-order poster from Indonesia is the real deal. While earlier rumours had claimed the Note 9 would be Samsung’s most expensive smartphone yet with a starting price of £935, the leaked poster lists the 128GB model with a 13,500,000 IDR price-tag, which works out around £714.
The 512GB model is listed as 17,500,000 IDR – around £926, much cheaper than earlier rumours that pegged it around the £1,100 mark.
27/7/18: Fortnite for Android might arrive as an exclusive for the Galaxy Note 9, both 9to5Google and XDA Developers are reporting.
Samsung will have a 30-day exclusive on the battle royal game, according to the reports, which note that Fornite might even arrive as a pre-loaded application complete with added S Pen functionality. Note 9 buyers might also be rewarded with some bonus content for pre-ordering the device, including complimentary V-Bucks, player skins, and more.
26/7/18: Samsung has released a new teaser video (below) that appears to confirm rumours that the Note 9 will pack a souped-up battery. The clip, which is clearly a shot at rival Apple, show how frustrating it can be when your battery dies, and promises that Samsung’s incoming flagship will save the day.
If online murmurs are to be believed, the Galaxy Note 9 will feature a 4,000mAh battery, a 20 per cent improvement over the Galaxy Note 8’s 3,300mAh offering and the largest ever to feature in a Samsung smartphone.
25/7/18: Predictably, the Galaxy Note 9 has leaked yet again. Its latest outing comes courtesy of Twitter tipster Evan Blass ( below), who has outed the handset’s official black, blue and, er, brown colour versions.
