Samsung - Galaxy Note9 128GB - Midnight Black (AT&T)

I was considering XS Max and Note 9. I went in to Best Buy to take a look in person after reviewing WAY too many video's and articles. I ran in to the Samsung Rep in the store. I told him to give me the 411 on his product. After looking I went with the Note 9. I feel it was a great choice. I have only been using it for a week, and I am still working on getting all my settings the way I like them. I am very satisfied with the choice of the Note 9. I previously was using a LG G5. Although the G5 was a good phone, it does not compare with the Note. I have hearing aids that work with Android and that was a big determining factor in the direction I went. But, I had already made up my mind that I would go with the XS if it seemed a better phone for me. When I got the Note 9 in my hand, I felt very sure that this is what I would purchase. As previously stated, I am very glad I went with the Note 9. Pricing and storage were what I considered above other options. When you consider the price and the storage of Note 9, there is no way that Apple can contend. When you compare the same storage, the Apple product is way above the Samsung. There is very little quality difference between the two, but the pricing difference is huge. If you like simple operation and have a unlimited bank roll, you may consider going with Apple. But if you want to be able to alter the settings and have a huge amount of third party apps to choose from, the Samsung product will be a better fit for you.

I own the iPhone X and now the Note 9 as my business phone...I love both phones. The Note 9 has a big and beautiful screen, great camera, lots of storage, a huge battery, and an S Pen that works like a remote. One thing that other reviews don't mention is how great the audio sounds thanks to stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos. Music and movies sound great with headphones too. One major flaw that hasn't been discussed in reviews is poor video streaming. The Note 9 doesn't stream in full screen on the HBO, SHOWTIME, CINEMAX, STARZ, ENCORE, EPIX, or Movies Anywhere apps. The iPhone X and iPad can stream all of those apps in full screen. Even worse...the TNT and TBS crash immediately and won't open on the Note 9. I've contacted the app developers and I was told that full screen is built into iOS but not Android so that's why videos look tiny on Android phones but not the iPhone. As of 08/28/18 only Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Movies, and YouTube stream in full screen on the Note 9. This is just a heads up in case you like to watch Game of Thrones at lunch or on the subway...you'll be disappointed at the tiny video not filling the screen. In conclusion...this is a great overall phone. It's built for heavy usage and will end the year as the best Android phone easily.

So, pros: multi-tasking is smooth, camera and screen and sound are great & very customizable. S-pen convenient & can be fun, if you need that. Battery life is good, too, more so on standby. Finally a smart wifi, most of the time, knowing when to use data vs. poor wifi connection w/o manually cutting off & on. Optimization features & safety/security features are great! Setup process easy & somewhat detailed (compared to all the features you discover, but only if you go looking). Neutral: not enough info on how dual camera actual works on this phone, had to figure it out. You have limited control of second camera, which is fine, once you figure it out. Cons: color schemes/personalization/custom settings across all apps is basically non-existent. Everything is bright, bland & white with preset colors Samsung chose. No dark mode in 99% of apps. They only way around this is to download a full theme created by someone else & deal with the features you don't like. Can't make your own. Also, do not disturb only allows one schedule. So if you need automatic dnd at a different time on one day from the others, too bad. Doesn't allow for work schedule or other activity. Seems narrow-minded focus was bed time. To get anything close to the way you want it, you have to download something. No double tap just to wake up screen. Have to use home button, but it wants to sign you in instead of just letting you see lock screen. Double tap to sleep screen is found by accident on home screen, but is nowhere in settings. Holding something down on screen to edit is a pain, both with touch sensitivity on and off. No customizable setting on that, either. Many settings exist but are hard to find & even when searched for with exact terms, they may not come up. Other settings don't come up at all. There are NO smart settings at all. So if you cut off wifi, when you get home, it stays off. Maps doesn't auto open when connected to car, etc. ... Narrow screen makes typing more inaccurate in all forms. Bixby is full version but doesn't do anything Google or Cortana don't, & does much less. If using Microsoft Launcher, there is no way to access Bixby Home page other than asking her to show you. Some phone settings change or don't save at random. Bluetooth connection is not easy or consistent. Have to use Galaxy apps and Play store. Galaxy apps lie about updates in the Check for updates area, so you have to wait until prompted to update an app, unless you find each one and update individually. The phone kinda lied, too. I had to 'manually' get security updates b/c it was saying it was up to date, though it was still on July. Samsung support is severely inadequate. The limited grasp of English is the biggest but not only problem. ... No automatic battery saver. Manual only.... Samsung wants all your beeswax to allow you to use certain features or apps. That's all for now. Trying to let it grow on me.

Long time Apple fun. Have iPhone from the first generation to now. My last iPhone X . Just sold out weeks before the note 9 come on the market. I was visiting a bestbuy store. Having some issue with my iPhone X ear speaker. When I so the Note9 on display. For preorder only on that time. I feel sow on love with the display and the quality of the note 9. That the moment I fix my iPhone x. I put up for sale and preorder the note 9. Even better I got a free wireless headphones AKG N60. Witch the Samsung price is 299$. Love the note 9 every minutes. I never have any issues with the note 9. Like I use to have with the iPhone x freezing apps or when somebody call in me. Not be able to answer the phone. Because it will freeze and wasn't able to slide the bar to answer the call. Love the note 9 that now that i can listen music on my car tru auxiliary headphones Jack and be able to charge my phone on the same time. I miss on the beginning the imessage . Something that on note 9 doesn't have. Imessage I was able to send a text or a video to a friends on Europe. But I was find out every body on Europe. Use most of the time what's up. So I install on my note 9 the what's up. And there we go. I am connect it with the friends from Europe. And be able to send a super quality video over the what's up message. So for now. Good By apple iPhone. You're phone sucks. With the boring display. Not be able to move every app I want. On one position without moving other apps. Boring iPhone that I can't listen to music on my car on the same time I want to keep my phone plug in on charge. Boring iPhone that I can not do a split 2 screen on the device. Song long Apple and welcome samsung.

My previous phone was a Note 5. This phone is huge upgrade. I considered the Galaxy S9+ and the Pixel 3 XL, but decided on the Note 9 in Cloud Silver. (The price difference between the S9+ and Note 9 were minimal, so that ruled out the S9+) This phone is packed with bells and whistles like 128 GB of storage and 6 GB RAM. I almost went with the Pixel 3XL, but really wanted more storage than 64GB (with NO micro-SD slot as well). I also find the battery extremely impressive. With moderate use, I can get 2 full days out of the phone. On rare occasion, the battery percentage rarely dips under 80% by the time I return home from work. I have always loved Samsung displays, and this display is excellent as well. I find the improved S-Pen to be a bit gimmicky. That being said, the ability to take a picture with the S-Pen is a nice touch. The camera takes excellent pictures. I have even had compliments about the voice quality during phone conversations. Overall, the hardware is excellent. The Samsung Experience software is getting better with each generation. It's not pure Android, but it's not bad either. At least we are not dealing with clunky Touch Wiz anymore. On a related note, there is less bloatware on the phone than I expected. But come on Samsung, why do we need 2 email apps, 2 browsers, etc. If you're looking for a premium Android phone, consider this phone. If you don't need all the bells and whistles, or don't want to pay an arm and a leg for phone, you may want to look elsewhere (Pixel, Note 8, OnePlus, etc.). For me, this phone checks off all the boxes on my list.

1. Great performance, everything feels snappy with SD 845 and 6/8 GB RAM. 2. Best screen on a phone, seriously you can't go wrong with how great the screen looks. 3. Battery life, finally Samsung stepped up by putting a large 4000 mAh battery and it shows. Gets full day battery easily and obviously this depends on individual use. But out of all the phones I have owned this year, Note 9 is at the top in terms of battery life. 4. Samsung experience UI finally isn't a bad experience. It's always been full of features but performance wise there was always something missing. They have been improving on this every iteration, it was already great on S9 series and you can expect same out of Note 9. 5. S Pen, personally not a big user of this but I do like the additional features they have added this year. 6. Fingerprint sensor moved to a decent location compared to Note 8. Intelligent face unlock works great but still prefer fingerprint sensor for fast unlocking. 7. Still has a headphone jack and no notch since these two are the most controversial things currently in tech circle. 8. High internal storage option. Love that Samsung has increased the base storage to 128 GB and even provide an option for 512 GB.

After watching the youtube reviews I was really ready to upgrade my Galaxy Note 5 to the Note 9. But honestly, its just a lot of hype, the Bio features of iris and facial recognition hardly ever work, I use the fingerprint scanner to unlock my phone. The camera is not that impressive over my old Note 5. The phone is not worth 1000 dollars, maybe 600-700. its just a big phone, it seems just as fast as my Note 5, it has more storage if you need it, so I guess I can use that for pictures or videos. The new apps are what make the phone enjoyable, Bixby seems nice but its not much difference than google assistant. For watching movies its great and the screen is brighter with greater resolution than my Note 5. I really like that you can take pictures with the S pen. That sets this phone apart from all the rest. the Bluetooth connectivity is the best I've ever seen in a phone. I was in the carwash waiting area and a call came to my phone but you could hear it all the way in the car. so the connection strength is strong. The battery will last 8 hours with regular usage. I got 12 hours out of before it was at 16% battery life left. if you lower the screen brightness and close a few running apps, you might get 14 hours of battery life before completely dies.

I was upgrading from a Galaxy S7 Edge to this Note9, and the difference is night and day. It shows how far Samsung has come in the last couple of years. I also had a Galaxy S9 Plus. The Note9 is similar, but it is a very nice phone. I am still getting used to the stylus, or S Pen, which is the main difference between the two Galaxy's. The S Pen ejects from the bottom right corner of the phone, which feels a little off for a southpaw such as myself. The processor is really fast, and can handle multiple apps, tasks at the same time without any loss in performance. The camera is really one of the best I've seen on a phone. Even low-light and night pictures come out really clear and crisp. The super slow-mo mode tends to come out a bit dark, so a well lit environment is preferred. I wish it had more than 128GB of storage on board. Thankfully it does allow for expandable memory. I have yet to really utilize Bixby, which is the Samsung personal assistant. I tried taking pictures of random items at Sephora but it did not come up with any other options online (could be just the brand though). I love not having to charge my phone every day. It will last a day and a half for me. I definitely recommend this phone, it is a powerful device, and I feel Samsung is really on a roll with its flagship phones.