Samsung is live in New York City, where it has announced the much-anticipated Galaxy Note 9 smartphone with a revamped S Pen.
This stylus-equipped device, which follows the Note 8 from last year and the explosive (quite literally) Note 7 before that, arrives with some key differences that sets it apart from its predecessor, including a new processor, an improved and manual dual aperture rear camera, bolstered battery life, repositioned fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers tuned by AKG, and, surprisingly, a body that's bigger.
Specs and features
The Galaxy Note 9 is 15g heavier, 0.4mm thicker, and 0.3mm wider. It features a 6.4-inch (2960x1440-pixel resolution) Super AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 (2.35 GHz quad-core) processor, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 512GB of internal storage with microSD card (up to 512GB) expansion, and a 4,000mAh battery that supports USB-C, Quick Charge 4.0 and wireless charging.
In terms of cameras, Samsung essentially took the same dual camera setup from the Galaxy S9 Plus and added some "Intelligence Camera" features to the mix. There's a 12-megapixel sensor (with f1.5 and f2.4 dual aperture and OIS) and a 12-megapixel telephoto sensor (with f2.4 aperture and OIS ). There's also an 8-megapixel (with f1.7aperture) selfie snapper on the front of the phone.
Samsung said the Galaxy Note 9's camera combination is able to smartly identify elements of a photo, such as scene and subject, then it automatically classifies it into one of 20 categories, and, finally, it can optimise the saturation, white balance, brightness, and contrast. It also has a flaw detection feature that instantly spots and alerts you of things like blurriness so you can take another shot.
Other phone features include IP68-level water and dust resistance and a revamped S-Pen, the latter of which is what truly separates the Galaxy Note 9 from its stablemates. The new S Pen stylus comes with Bluetooth Low-Energy, so with just a click of its button, you can take selfies and group pictures, present slides, pause and play music, and more. It charges in the phone in under a minute, too.
Pricing and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will be available in Ocean Blue, Lavender Purple, Metallic Copper, and Midnight Black in both carrier and unlocked versions. The 6GB RAM/128GB storage model costs $999.99, while the 8GB RAM/512GB storage model costs $1,249.99. They will be available in stores and online beginning 24 August 2018. Samsung said it will open pre-orders at 12:01am EDT on 10 August 2018.
Consumers who pre-order between 10 August and 23 August 2018 can choose a pair of AKG noise-cancelling headphones ($299 value) or the Fortnite Galaxy skin with 15,000 V-bucks ($150 value) for free. Or, they can get both additions for just $99 ($449 value).
The Galaxy Note 9 runs Android 8.1 Oreo at launch.
Samsung isn't done with its Unpacked event just yet; watch the action unfold for yourself from here.