Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have just switched from a Samsung S7 Edge and this new Note 9 I a vast improvement in processing, storage, and battery life.

I moved from a Note 4 to a GS-8 2 years ago due to aging battery life. The GS-8 was a good phone, but I missed the capabilities of the Note. The Note 9 is a great upgrade in every way for me. The battery lasts 2 days with normal use. I use the pen for note taking and the new bluetooth functionality is nice. It is a little heavy and of course larger, but still fits in a men's pants pocket easily.

Battery last longer than expected. I use this phone for web surfing at work and listening to iheart radio while connected to wireless headsets and I still have about 35 to 40 percent of battery when I get home. Operating systems operates seemless so far. Camera takes amazing pictures and video is sharp. I will admit I was burned by Samsung during the Note 7 release. Almost made the jump to the iPhone.

I have mainly had iPhones over the years but dip into Android phones from time to time. My first smartphone was a Droid X then I had an iPhone 5, Galaxy S5, Note Edge, iPhone 6S Plus, 7 Plus, Moto Z, iPhone X, and now my current phone is an iPhone XS Max. I really liked the hardware of the Note9 but could not get used to its little quirks, the camera was still lacking, and I hate that there's 12 different ways of doing the same thing and they can't be disabled. First off, I really did like the design. The rounded edges, the edge-to-edge display, the location of the fingerprint scanner, and the S-pen housing were all premium. I even liked the purple color, it was different without standing out too much. Samsung did a really good job designing the hardware and the screen is absolutely gorgeous. Android ran smoothly and I didn't really have any issues with apps. The camera app was a smooth experience and I appreciated the advanced mode, something I wish Apple would add instead of keeping things too simple or forcing me to a 3rd party camera app. I liked that the camera app would warn me if the camera lens was dirty or if I took a picture that was blurry, it would recommend I take another one. I used the S-pen as a wireless camera remote quite a bit. It's an underrated feature that came in handy more often than not. I initially liked the phone so much that I purchased the Galaxy Tab S4 tablet. Then I started not liking it. First and foremost, Android doesn't have a solidified texting experience. I had to use Google Messages if I wanted the Google Assistant to send texts but Samsung Messages was required if I wanted to read and reply to texts using my Samsung Gear S3 watch. I was using the Google Assistant all the time in my car but I couldn't read or send texts because I wanted to do that from my watch. Why Samsung doesn't support Google Messages on the watch is beyond me. Next, because I rely on a voice assistant in my car, I had issues with music services. I really, really like Google Music but they're killing it in favor of YouTube Music. I don't want to settle into a music service only to migrate within a year or two. Plus Google is really bad about introducing a product when it's half-finished only to pull support a couple of years later. The Google Assistant (and Bixby, but that's a different topic) does work with Spotify but it is far too limited for my needs (10,000 song library and download limits are a joke, doesn't support a ratings system, and I can't upload tracks that are missing). I had Apple Music on my iPhones but it's not nearly the same on Android and the Google Assistant doesn't really work with it. I stuck with Google Music but ultimately knew that it probably would not work out unless Google really upped their development of YouTube Music (which they've still pretty much just sat on). For all of the improvements that the Note9's camera offered, it still wasn't very good. I could take some excellent daylight pictures but every smartphone camera can do that. It was low-light shots that were pretty bad, even pictures taken under normal lighting conditions in my living room were pretty bad. Pictures of my dogs had hair that was blended together due to post processing, there were halos around objects, and grain was pretty heavy. Side-by-side, pictures taken from my iPhone 7 Plus looked better. I also didn't like how Samsung seems to have an app for everything Google does. I thought this would have been nice except that communication between my Note9 and Tab S4 was slim. I thought that, by using Samsung Messages, I could answer and read texts on my Tab S4 like I could do with an iPhone and iPad. I was wrong. I might be able to do this with WhatsApp but I like keeping some thing private. Samsung's picture gallery app wouldn't transfer photos between my tablet and phone either. Google Images would work just fine and serve that purpose but why did Samsung release something if it wasn't going to at least offer the same functionality? Their browser was OK but I still preferred Chrome. I didn't like that I could not just outright remove apps I wasn't going to use, I could disable some but just had to deal with others. I don't need the NFL app on my phone yet it's there front and center. The battery life of the Note9 was good, it would get me through the day without issues but it wasn't great, not like what Samsung promised. The battery life was no different than my iPhone 7 Plus but that's a good thing, it was better than my Moto Z which could only get me to 4-5 PM before needing to be recharged. Then there's Bixby. For advanced as it is, it would make some dumb mistakes and now Samsung has even made it worse. Bixby was good at controlling the phone, opening apps, and changing settings. I couldn't access it when in Android Auto mode but it wasn't bad for using the phone. Bixby messed up, for me, when dictating text messages and would often crash. It wasn't the best when asking for information either and could only control Samsung's music app (which drains the battery). Bixby has since been updated with Spotify support but, again, I'm not going to use that gimped service. Samsung has taken away many of the phone control aspects of Bixby. It won't do things now that it could do before, The Verge even wrote an article on how Samsung made Bixby smarter but took away more of its features. I also don't see the need for yet another smart assistant. There's the Google Assistant, Microsoft wants me to use Cortana or Alexa on my PC, there are Echo devices, Google Home devices, Siri for everything Apple, and now Samsung wants to put Bixby on their phones and TVs. Why not just license the Google Assistant and, instead of using Tizen, build an Android-based OS for appliances and TVs? I understand that Bixby gives Samsung control of the smart assistant, it's a very Apple move to make. But there are tons of options on Android and the Google Assistant is still the most accurate and advanced. There were just too many things I didn't like about this phone for me to keep it. I absolutely hated that it didn't sync better with the Tab S4 or any of my PCs (one Wintel system and another is a Mac), Samsung tries to force their apps when Google already makes good ones, the camera was good but not class leading, the battery life was good but not stellar, and there were too many apps that I couldn't remove and only disable. Setting this up too way too long as I had to create a Samsung account and plug in my Google account info, I also had to remove Verizon's text app (which actually has cloud syncing but it's a terrible app), I lost visual voicemail and had to pay extra for it (a standard feature on iPhones), Google's/Samsung's/Verizon's device backup options are not as good as iCloud, Samsung's Gallery app is sub-par, and Google needs to get their game together when it comes to music services. I really thought this would be the phone to pull me back into Android but it wasn't. I thought about the Pixel 3 XL but I wanted more than 128GB of storage (I put a 256GB card in my Note9) and Google doesn't offer that. So I went back to iPhones for now and will wait another year or two before looking back into the Android market. But, if you're already used to all these quirks, the Note9 is a stellar Android phone. If I had a friend that was into Samsung's/Google's universe, I would recommend this to them. If I had a friend who wanted a Apple universe-like experience, I would tell them to stick with iPhones.

It took time to get use to. The camera is great. Battery life is awesome. Quality pictures and screen size is what drew me in.

The speed the battery life the picture and video quality. Samsung really out did themselves again. I upgraded from a Note 8 and this phone is noticeably faster even after loading all the apps that usually allow me down. I was filling in 4k at 60fps close range and the detail is amazing. Only thing I don't like is the location of the finger print sensor. Other then that this phone is phenomenal.

I upgraded from my Note 8 to this Note 9 because it made significant improvements that were hard to turn down with excellent price at Best Buy and the Samsung trade-in promotion. The camera is improved, the battery life is significantly longer (lasts more than a day), and the S-PEN features are better. I also like being able to connect this directly to a monitor without a "dex drive." I'm excited for what the Note 10 will bring, but this phone will be more than adequate until it gets here.

So easy to use. Camera is the best I've seen on a smartphone. Great screen size. Easily customized to my set up and sounds.

Love this phone. Camera is excellent, battery life and storage capacity is awesome. Speed and connectivity also excellent.

Love this phone. I was an iPhone user & not sad at all about the switch. Tons more storage, way faster & awesome camera.

Thia phone is amazing. Over 30 apps with enty of storage available. Performs like non other. Pictures are extremely clear

I got this in a pre-black Fri sale for $300 off. So far so good. The Battery is great. It last much longer than a day, which is a huge improvement over my last one. The screen is great. I am still learning to use the pen and the other bells/whistles. I paired it up with one of those glass screen protectors which seems to have made the touch screen less sensitive so I am wondering if I need it, but so far I've lived with it. That's the only detractor, and it's not the phone's fault.

The best phone ever!!! Great battery life great screen and video and takes awesome pics!! Love the pen and its features.

This phis is pack with so many features. massive screen, massive storage, Fast processor and lots of ram

Phone is super fast and camera takes amazing photos.Has so many features hard to use them all.Love the huge storage.

I have been an iPhone user for years but this phone had so many features that I wanted to try (at the top of the list was the stylus/remote). I have zero regrets for making the switch. The camera, speakers, and stylus/remote are all excellent. Trying to learn how to use all of the features is a bit overwhelming, but that's user error and not product related. I love this phone.

The battery on the note 9 is awesome! The screen and size is perfect for movies and YouTube. The camera is amazing

I bought this as a replacement for my Note 8 that I broke & then soaked. I love the battery life and I know that it can do way more than I'll ever need. Since my Note 3, I've always used the the "Draw on Photo" feature with the stylus. In the construction business, it is very handy to take a photo, write notes on the photo, or circle a deficiency and then email it to the contractor for correction. This feature alone has saved me countless hours extra work.

I really like my new Samsung note9. I am switching from an iPhone and am a little surprised that I love it this much. The photos are amazing and it seems like it’s faster also. I really like the Samsung internet, and the coloring pages. The pen is a really nice addition.

This was going to be my second Note 9, after giving my current one to my wife. Screen, battery life, build quality, and size are perfect. It is a little bit big, but no more so than the typical 2019 flagships. Lightning fast fingerprint sensor, and a head phone jack. What's not to love. Yeah, the processor is a generation old, but 8GB of ram and 512GB storage with a micro SD card slot easily make up for it. The new OneUI does take a day or two to get used to, but overall it's a great update. The phone received was open (no plastic seal) and the battery was completely dead, after charging up for the first time it was losing about 10% per hour, just sitting idle (should be 1% or 2% with the always on display). Can't tell if it was a display model or a return, huge disappointment. Not a fault of Samsung, but Best Buys quality control. I'll definitely be trading it for a brand new one.