Samsung Galaxy Note 9: 8 month review

As a current high school student, smartphones have become such a huge part of my daily life. It is used to take pictures, connect with other people, set up alarms, and log down information. Due to this, it won’t be an overstatement to say that my phone is a part of me which I can’t imagine not having. Since my phone is very highly incorporated into my daily routine, I end up looking for a phone that meets a certain number of criteria that I set. I find no point in having a lot of useless features that could be considered futuristic. I only see the point in perfecting the necessary features, which I will be discussing today. Do the features of the Note 9 actually matter for the people living their everyday lives?

Camera

Pros:

  • Very high-quality nighttime shots
  • High quality
  • Colors are vibrant

Cons:

  • Slow shutter speed
  • Very yellow-orange toned
  • A lot of skin-blur
  • Front camera has bad HDR (dynamic range)
  • Camera lens is too big
  • Motion-blur

Overall, I was pleased with the quality of the photo. One of the main features that attracted me to this phone was the camera quality. When I went to the store to check out the phone, I was blown-away by the quality. Now, I’ve spent around 8 months with this phone and it turns out that one moment doesn’t represent the camera quality as a whole.

There are many cons to the camera that I’ve noticed, but the one feature of the camera that outweighs majority of the cons is the overall high quality. This camera is capable of taking photos that have little to no grain, which allows the pictures to look extremely clean and high-quality. On top of that, the colors that are extremely vivid bring life to dull moments, allowing the moment to seem like an upgraded version. This could be considered a pro or a con, but I personally was fond of it. Where the colors really stood out to me was in low-light. At nighttime, I opened the camera and I was pleasantly surprised at the colors and the light. When I pointed the camera at a group of plants, I was able to vividly see the colors whereas in reality, it was too dark to distinguish the different colors. Here are some example pictures from the Note 9. The last photo is a low-light photo that was mentioned above.

Although there are many pros, there are going to be parts that I am not satisfied with. First, one thing I was extremely disappointed with was the shutter-speed. It seemed to take a picture around 1 second after I pressed the shutter, which caused there to be more motion blur. The motion blur would mean that I would need to take multiple shots when I could’ve just taken one and gotten it over with. Yes, I could just wait a little longer after clicking on the shutter, but these extra seconds that I need to wait for makes a huge difference when I need to quickly take a picture. After the Android 9.0 update, the shutter speed did get a little better, but improvements still need to be made.

There was only a slight movement in the camera, yet there is a very noticeable motion blur.

The front camera is acceptable, but compared to other phones like iPhone and the Pixel, it is way behind in terms of quality and color. The front camera seems to brighten up my skin tone a bit too much, in addition to blowing away the entire background in some cases. The HDR is terrible in the front camera and the Live Photos option, which causes the background to completely turn white in some circumstances (when the sun is behind me), which is very disappointing.

Another disappointment is that the colors of the photos are generally yellow-toned, which make the photos look less pretty, although the quality is high. Because of this, photo editing is required to lessen down the amount of yellow in the photos.

Other than the quality of the phone itself, the camera lens is just too big to the point where it attracts way too many fingerprints, scratches, etc. I have to wipe my lens multiple times per day in order to maintain the quality of my phone. My parents and my sister both don’t wipe the camera lens and the camera quality is significantly worse this way.

It seems like there are more cons than pros, but the quality itself ends up outweighing many problems and justifies some of them as well. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the camera quality.

Screen

Pros:

  • Extremely big
  • High-resolution
  • Curved screen
  • Always On Display

Cons:

  • Screen Protector
  • Extremely big
  • Edge screen isn’t very useful

The screen was something I was extremely pleased with. First of all, the very big screen allows watching videos much more immersive, which is beneficial when going to the gym to watch videos (in my circumstance). In addition, when using this powerful phone to study, having a large screen is a plus, especially if it has one of the best screens in any phone. Yes, not many people are going to notice the difference between FHD and QHD+. In fact, I can barely notice any difference, but the high-resolution screen allows the side views of the screen to still be vibrant and clear.

The extremely big screen has many cons to it as well, such as it being harder to hold, in addition to the phone being much heavier. In fact, in circumstances where I can only use my phone with one hand, it is physically impossible to be able to type properly without the fear of dropping my phone. Because of this, the curved screen is beneficial as to holding the phone, and it makes the screen feel extremely smooth.

Although I appreciate the curved screen, one disadvantage of it is the available screen protectors. Because it is harder to make screen protectors for this curved screen, the good ones end up being extremely expensive and the ones with a good price end up not sticking on the curved edges. On my previous phones, I applied a glass screen protector so that I can be confident that the actual screen won’t crack. The glass screen protectors that I used to buy were around $10, which was a good price. However, the few glass screen protectors that apply well for the Note 9 are around $50 which is way above what I was willing to pay. Due to this, I ended up setting for just a clear film protector, which is why I always look for protective cases to guarantee that my screen won’t crack.

Also, I found that the purpose of having a curved display is to make the screen more immersive, in addition to including the edge screen features. The idea of edge screen features is amazing since there are so many shortcuts for a more efficient phone usage. However, majority of the time, I find myself forgetting about all of the extra features, such as the reminder, apps edge, etc. The only feature I use on a daily basis is the people edge which has a list of a few people in my contacts that I want included. This is something I find extremely helpful since I can communicate with people with one click.

One feature that I am extremely fond of is the Always on Display. With this, I can always check the time and see some of my notifications without turning my phone on. This feature does drain my battery a bit faster, but I face my phone down most of the time anyways so it didn’t bother me very much.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the screen of the phone and its design.

S-Pen

Pros:

  • Saves paper when taking notes or studying
  • Good way to spend time
  • Good for drawing, designing, etc.

Cons:

  • Falls out when phone dropped
  • Breaks easily

When I bought my phone, I chose to pre-order because the new smart s-pen completely astonished me. I understood that there were other options, such the s9+ which is significantly cheaper but also very similar to the Note 9. In fact, I was unable to make a decision for a while. However, now that I have the s-pen, I don’t regret purchasing the Note 9 even one bit.

The s-pen comes in extremely handy when I’m studying and taking notes. The screen is a bit too small to take complete notes, but when I forget to bring my notebook or I need to log something down at a certain moment, it is a very good bonus. In addition, the use of the printer and ink decreased tremendously after getting this phone because when I practice for certain tests, such as my Chinese test where I need to practice writing a lot, having the s-pen is extremely useful.

One of the most advertised features was the bluetooth connection of the s-pen which would allow the consumers to take pictures, change songs, etc. by using the s-pen. This feature was very extensively used during the first week I owned my phone, but as time passes, I find myself just taking normal photos, mainly since I have a person to take a picture for me majority of the time. I may not have used it very much but it is still a nice feature to have!

There are a few cons that do not relate to the features of the s-pen but more of the hardware. First, it falls out almost every time my phone is dropped. I haven’t dropped my phone very much, but I find it extremely annoying because this makes it just so much easier to lose our s-pen. Honestly though, if the s-pen just fell out and nothing happened, I couldn’t care less. However, it breaks way to easily. It is so easy to snap it in half which means that unless we purchase another one (which is around $50), the phone would technically be the s9+ for a much higher price. In fact, my sister dropped her phone once and already broke her s-pen.

Specs and how it held up

Android phones as a whole are very prone to viruses and slowing down. This was something I was extremely worried about since I plan to keep my phone for a few years. I realize now that there was absolutely no reason to worry because other than occasional stutters, this phone is so blazing fast and responsive. This may not be because the phone got better at protecting itself because I am extremely careful as to what sites I go on so that my phone doesn’t catch any viruses.

In terms of battery, I am a little underwhelmed due to it not being as amazing as how Samsung promoted it. As a student, I carry my phone around everywhere which includes both indoors and outdoors. However, since I go to a lot of places, I spend a lot of time outside under the blazing sun. As I mentioned earlier, the screen can get significantly bright, which means that under the sun, the phone maximizes its brightness. This is extremely good for using my phone outside, but since the brightness is maximized majority of the day, my battery drains just as fast. By the time I get home from school, I’m already at 50%-60%, which I am highly disappointed in.

As for the ways on unlocking my phone, when I first purchased it, I was very happy with the responsiveness of the fingerprint sensor. Whenever I watched reviews that said the scanner was too slow, I wasn’t able to relate. Now that I used my phone for 8 months, I can sense the scanner slowing down. This isn’t a huge deal, but it is noticeable.

I am very fond of the base storage which came in 128 gb which means that I don’t have to delete my apps and photos to keep on using my phone. To add on, another bonus is the fast charging which I love especially when I have to quickly charge my phone and go out somewhere.

Social Media

I’m sure most of the students and teenagers in this world can relate, but social media and SMS is very important and highly integrated into our daily lives. I was very disappointed, however, with my experience of using social media on this phone.

The major problem is the downgrade in quality when using my social media apps. First of all, when sending photos through Instagram, the quality gets significantly worse to the point where all the details get blown away. This is very noticeable when I send photos of writing since none of the words are legible. Another con is that because of the aspect ratio being 18.5:9, when people with iPhones or other android phones send me photos, sometimes, the sides end up being cut off when sent to me, which means that I would have to ask them to end me the photo again.

Whereas for Instagram there were only photo quality problems, my messenger app has messaging problems as well as photo quality problems. When a photo is sent through the built in Samsung messenger app, the quality is absolutely terrible. Because of this, I have to use another third-party messaging app to have the photos sent to me in full quality. Not only this, but the group messenger app has a lot of problems. For example, some of the messages just don’t get sent to me at all and sometimes, I get an individual message that doesn’t even show any message and just says “No subject”. This problem seems to not only be in the Note 9 but almost all of the android phones.

Conclusion

My phone is something I am extremely glad to have purchased. Yes, there are lots of features that I may not have been satisfied with, but I do not regret purchasing this phone, mainly due to the big display, camera quality, and the s-pen. As the Note 9 is considered a “power-house”, it is packed with lots of features that make the price of the phone increase as well. Due to this, I constantly make an effort to make use of a lot of the features yet still cannot find myself able to utilize all of them in my day-to-day life. If I am making an effort and is still unable to use all of the features included, will an average consumer be paying a justifiable price of $1000 for the phone?

So back to the question: Do the features of the Note 9 actually matter for the people living their everyday lives?

Probably not.

But would I recommend this phone to a person who wants to purchase it at this time of the year?

Yes. Especially with the dropped prices, it will definitely be worth it.