Just around 4 months ago, I posted the 8 month review of the Note 9. Since there aren’t many changes that occurred since then, this review is most likely going to be short and concise. Now that the Note 10 pre-order period has begun, the prices for the Note 9 will probably drop tremendously. Considering this situation, is the Note 9 still worth it after the release of the new Samsung flagship?

What about the Note 10?

Although this post is a review of the Note 9, it is impossible to ignore the new flagship. As a Note 9 user, I understood that it was a very incremental update to the Note 8. Nearly every review online mentioned how there weren’t many changes that were made from the Note 8 to the Note 9. Regardless of only having a few changes, the overall phone was still very powerful and had good specs, which is what attracted me to it. However, throughout this year, there were many phones that released that had extremely small bezel, higher refresh rate, and better phone quality. After I learned that the Note 10 released with extremely small bezels and new added features, I initially wanted it. The more reviews I watch, however, I realize that many of the added features lean more towards “wants” than “needs”. By this, I mean that the added features consist of the new spen, smaller bezels, and more cameras. Yes, the phone will also be faster, but since I am already satisfied with the speed of my phone, that wasn’t a big attracting feature. However, I came to realize that the “magic wand” feature of the new spen won’t be widely used by me, already considering the fact that I use my smart spen on the Note 9 only for taking notes. In addition, I thought about whether I really needed a smaller bezel. I realized that smaller bezels do make the phone look better, but I would need to sacrifice part of my screen with a small hole for the camera. In addition, the Note 10, not the plus, has a 1080 panel and a smaller battery, which would make it a downgrade from the Note 9. After I realized all of the downsides to the new Note, I came to realize that the Note 9 was definitely worth it in 2019. My desires for the new Note wasn’t because of its functionality but all of the useless gimmicks that were placed into the phone, which made it more high tech but not really beneficial.

One thing I forgot to mention was the headphone jack. Although I purchased the Samsung Galaxy Buds around 2 months ago (you can see a review on it in my site), before that, I heavily used my normal wired earbuds. In this case, having a headphone jack would be extremely necessary and beneficial in my day-to-day life. Especially since I don’t have a wireless charger, if I hadn’t purchased my buds, I wouldn’t be able to charge my phone and listen to music at the same time. Yes, I don’t particularly need the headphone jack anymore since I have my Galaxy Buds, but it is a shame that the Note 10 doesn’t include this feature anymore.

Aging of the Note 9

Everyone who owns a Samsung device hears this at least once: Samsung phones lag after a short period of time; they suck and cannot last for a few years. The phone that completely broke the stereotype, I believe, is the Note 9. It hasn’t been a few months since I purchased my phone; in fact, it’s been an entire year. However, I experience no slowdown whatsoever and rarely any stutters. In fact, my friends who own an iPhone, which is known to be a very capable long-lasting device, complain a lot about the constant lags on their phone. If someone handed my phone to me after a year of use, I wouldn’t even be able to notice because it performs as it did on day 1.

All of the downsides that I mentioned in my 8-month review still remain true, but there were no new downsides that got added in the additional 4 months of using this phone.

Previously, one of my favorite features of the Note 9 was the Always on Display since it prevented me from taking that extra step to turn the phone on to check the time, but there was a change that I made that made it even more useful. There are many different choices for the way to design the Always On Display and I set it to be a calendar. This proved to be incredibly useful since I can set up schedules more easily now that there is a calendar even without me turning my phone on.

The Note 9 came with so many features packed into the phone that a whole lot of people could customize it in whatever way they want and use their phone like a tool to be a part of their daily lives. I kept my phone relatively minimalistic, but this means that people with many different types of preferences can use this phone without a problem (those who want to customize their phones heavily can also accomplish that with the Note 9).