“Necessity is the mother of invention”, says an oft repeated proverb. It relates well with the current smartphone manufacturing industry especially at the highest end of the spectrum. In this segment, manufacturers have been churning out iterative improvements to devices that have an overall similar design because there hasn’t been much need to innovate. To be honest, things in the high-end of smartphones have become so boring that the overall smartphone industry has been suffering from a decline. From Apple to Samsung, each year’s version come with a few cosmetic changes and a few minimal spec bumps here and there. The recent release of the new Galaxy Note 9, in particular, did not create much buzz with longtime fans saying they’re not interested in the new flagship for this reason. And, because the Galaxy series’ phone next year would be a landmark phone, even they are hedging their bets on this one. The expected S10, they suggest, would have all the new innovative features. The Note 9, they suggest, would be okay to pass on.
The truth is, there hasn’t been much demand for new features on a smartphone. Instead, manufacturers have been busy trying to create a need by offering new features that nobody asked for and hiked prices to levels that not everyone is willing to pony up. As evidence of this, most people prefer midrange phones that have been slow to adopt on the latest and greatest features but have been busy refining and polishing features that make a smartphone what it is. As a result, that segment has been making a killing in the market.
In a smartphone market currently dominated by value-for-money midrange smartphones, I would argue that the Galaxy Note 9 is still the most bang for the buck handset that you could get your hands on. It’s worth taking a look at as more than just a smartphone. Its chipset, peripherals, and overall packaging makes it an excellent device as a main productivity driver. This is especially important because as time goes by, portability is becoming one of the main features that people look at when buying their devices. In other words, the growth of the digital nomad lifestyle is driving the need for truly portable productivity devices, and the Galaxy Note 9 is the innovation that aims to fulfill it.

Processing Power

Its CPU, thanks to the Snapdragon 845 chipset that it ships with, makes it powerful enough to run modern Windows 10 desktop applications. This productivity aspect of the CPU has become so pronounced that even laptop makers have begun to use it in their devices. The Asus Nova Go laptop, for example, features the chipset and is making quite the splash in the laptop market.
However, its power leaves a lot to be desired for desktop power users. While traditional productivity applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, perform wonderfully on the Snapdragon 845, heavy usage of Chrome would definitely slow down the system a little bit. With more resource-intensive tasks such as photo and video editing, it becomes even more difficult to use. That doesn’t mean that the phone can’t accomplish the task, it’s just slower than the dedicated laptops.
Having the Snapdragon 845 means that the phone has a constant connection to LTE. This is a great feature to have for any productivity-centered device as more and more work is accomplished on the cloud. It’s also a useful feature to have for if users are working on a collaborative project.

Samsung DeX Station and Other Peripherals

With its flagship phones, Samsung offers a DeX Station peripheral that changes the way users interact with the device. Basically, it turns compatible Galaxy phones into desktops with keyboard and mouse input when connected to an external monitor.
The combination of the chipset and the DeX Station helps Galaxy Note 9’s bid as the main driver for people’s personal computing and productivity needs. It raises the multitasking capabilities of the phone by letting users open multiple applications on a larger screen so they can see more of the apps at any given time. It also greatly enhances the word processing and number crunching experience on the device as it allows users more screen real estate and traditional desktop inputs.

Best-In-Class Storage Options

Perhaps one of the most overlooked features of the new Galaxy Note 9 is the enhanced storage capacities. It now allows for up to a terabyte in total storage with half of it being internal and the other half being with external micro SD support. This feature would allow users to literally store more data than your average entry-level Ultrabook that usually boasts 128 GBs of storage.
Just a few years ago, having this much data in your pocket means having a huge external hard drive that isn’t even accessible without a laptop. The amount of data that is readily available on the Galaxy Note 9 doesn’t only make it so much more valuable as a productivity machine because it enables users to access their important files, especially for sensitive data that you don’t want to keep in the cloud, almost anywhere.

Galaxy Nomad’s Swiss Army Knife

Especially in this genre-destroying period where tablets such as the iPad Pro, Surface Pro, and Surface Go are trying to be laptops, Samsung’s efforts in perfecting the idea of a smartphone that’s trying to be a desktop is a remarkable foray into rarely traversed territory.
In a world where you can, all too often, see countless stranger’s personal files and login information on public desktops in hotel lobbies and public airport computers, the desktop aspiration of the Galaxy Note 9 surely has a place. The phone eliminates that risk of exposing your credentials to strangers while you’re traveling since it’s so easy to plug into a monitor and begin your work on it.
It’s not just about a single spec like the powerful chipset. Other phones have the Snapdragon 845 too yet it doesn’t have the same value proposition as the Note 9. It’s about the overall package that makes the excellent smartphone that is the Galaxy Note 9 a capable desktop too. In a world where portable productivity is needed, the phone is truly the digital nomad’s Swiss Army knife.

This year’s Samsung Galaxy S9 is an excellent smartphone by all standards but it’s only an iterative update compared to the revolutionary Samsung Galaxy S8. So, for owners of the previous model, the improvements done on the S9 does not offer a very compelling value proposition. It’s already showing up in the sales charts as the Korean tech giant is experiencing a slump. It seems that the burden of picking up the slack is on the company’s next phone release – the Galaxy Note 9.
The invites are out and the venue is set in Brooklyn, New York. On August 9, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is expected to be announced. If the early leaks are to be believed, then it’s an exceedingly exciting time for Android fans as the expected enhancements on the new phone would bring the smartphone closer to perfection than its predecessor.

Externals

There isn’t much to expect in the way of design but, that might be a bittersweet thing. Samsung’s dual-curved design called the ‘Infinity Display’ has been the most innovative design feature to come our way in a while. The problem with that is that it’s been a long time since that feature was introduced and smartphone consumers are always hungry for innovation. What it’s got going for it though is that it’s been a well-received feature, unlike other design reinventions that have been controversial. The iPhone notch, for example, is something that people either absolutely loathe or just plainly tolerate.
Design-wise, the back is going to experience the most changes. One imperfection that plagued the Note 8 is the placement of the fingerprint sensor alongside the rear camera. It’s expected to be moved to under the cameras – yes, you heard that right, cameras. The Note 9 is highly likely to sport a dual camera set up just like the S9 Plus.
While it is big news that the Note 9 is going to sport the dual cameras, what’s truly exciting about the device is that its front-facing shooter is going to be greatly improved.
Other than that, the overall design of the phone is expected to be a carbon copy of the Note 8. Which, is not a totally bad thing. Overall, this just goes to show how on-point the Note 8 already was.

Internals

The Note 8’s battery has always been one of its weakness. The 3,300 mAh is average at best which does not go particularly well with the outstanding aspects of the rest of the handset. When it was updated to Oreo, this problem has become even more pronounced as the update greatly diminished the battery life when it comes to real-world use.
The Note 9’s proposed 4,000 mAh battery is excellent news for power-users who spend a lot of time using energy-hungry productivity apps. However, leaks also suggest that the charging port that only takes up to 10W of power from the Note 8 is getting carried over to the Note 9. This would make it one of the slowest charging top-of-the-line smartphones in the competitive high-end smartphone market. The 4,000 mAh should theoretically take about 3 hours to get it from 0% to 100%. That’s a significant part of the day spent tied to a wall charger or a power bank which might be a deal breaker to power-users who are always on the go.
Thankfully, FCC filings confirm that the wireless charging capacity of the Note 9 is top-notch. It states that compatible wireless chargers are already being manufactured for the device. They’re 12v 2.1amp chargers that have the potential to charge the Note 9 far quicker than just plugging it into a wall charger. However, this wireless charger will be sold separately from the handset so you’re going to have to cough up some more money if you want to have that feature.
As always, Samsung’s latest device is going to rock the best and most powerful chipset available in the market. That means that it will be equipped with a Snapdragon 845 in some regions and the latest in-house Exynos chipset in some markets. What’s notable about this is that the Snapdragon chipset is powerful enough to fully power modern laptops. That same processing power, when put inside a smartphone should translate to some serious productivity for its user.

Software

Not a lot is known about the Note 9’s software except that it should rock the latest version of Android currently available. That means it’s going to either be powered by the Android Oreo 8.1 or Android P if that version is launched before the phone’s release date.
Samsung’s S-Pen, the defining feature of the Note series, is expected to make a return. You’d think that there wouldn’t be much improvements on the already stellar stylus experience that it lends to the Note 8 but the leaks seem to suggest that there’s still room for improvement. One of the most significant enhancement is that the stylus will now have Bluetooth functionality which means that it should be able to have some utility even when it’s far from the handset. Theoretically, it should work as a camera clicker and a music controller at the least and one could only imagine the possibilities.

Verdict

Overall, the Note 9 looks like it’s going with the current trend. It’s going to be largely an iterative update to the Note 8 which is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s still going to be an excellent phone that’s going to get a lot of attention. At its core, it’s a worthy successor to the Note 8. However, if you look at the bigger picture, you may want to wait for Samsung’s flagship next year for the company’s 10th-anniversary edition phones because those phones would surely pack the latest innovations from the Korean giant.