Đánh giá samsung note 9 singapore năm 2024

It's hard to look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 from the perspective of a phone geek in Hong Kong and not think, "that's it?"

The big claims to fame for this year's Note 9 features that American tech writers have been gushing about include a large 4,000 mAh battery, up to 8GB of RAM, and camera software that can recognize objects and scenes.

Those are all things that Chinese brands like Huawei and Xiaomi have offered for more than a year already. A camera that can tell a human from a dog? That's old news. Heck, Xiaomi just launched a phone with the exact same mobile processor and battery size as the Note 9's for literally one-third the price.

But then I remembered that, as a consumer tech writer in Hong Kong, I am spoiled more than most people in the rest of the world. Hong Kong is in a unique spot to get all the phones. Most other markets with high-end spending power have shut out specific brands due to political reasons or national pride.

North America and South Korea, for example, have virtually no official access to Chinese phones; China has returned the favor by mostly shunning Samsung; and Japan doesn't get much of anything besides Apple and Sony. The only top-tier markets with access to as many brands as Hong Kong are Singapore and western Europe, and even then they can't compete with Hong Kong's sheer proximity to Shenzhen.

So for major chunks of the premium smartphone market, the Note 9's specs sheet is as impressive as it gets. After using the Galaxy Note 9 for a week, I can see what all the brouhaha is about. What the Note 9 lacks in value proposition or immediate wow factor, it makes up with refinement and a workmanlike commitment to just offering more. Samsung's been making great, powerful phones longer than anyone but Apple (the likes of Oppo and OnePlus are relative babies on this front), and the Note 9 is a culmination of all of that. It's a premium phone that ticks every single box.

Typical Samsung hardware -- mostly great but with some very bad habits

The Note 9 looks and feels virtually identical to the Galaxy Note 8, and for anyone who remotely follows smartphones, little else need be said about the Note 9's build and design. It's what we've come to expect from Samsung -- the usual glass sandwich with aluminum railings, a dual-curved OLED display that's the brightest and punchiest display around, and top and bottom bezels that were considered ultra-slim in spring 2017 but are now somewhat conspicuous.

Compare the Note 9 now the fourth straight Samsung device to use this design language with something like an Oppo Find X or a Vivo V series phone, and Samsung's handset indeed looks a bit boring and less cutting edge. But it's not all about looking as futuristic as possible. As I mentioned during my , that design is impressive to look at, but is less durable and has a higher chance of mechanical failure. The Note 9 is a sturdier phone that looks like it can survive a drop or two.

The Note 9 does, however, have relatively sharp corners compared to virtually all flagship phones on the market today, and I found that the phone does get uncomfortable to hold faster than other handsets, because the corner digs into the palm. The phone's hefty 7 oz/201 g weight doesn't help.

The Note 9's fingerprint reader has been relocated to below the camera (unlike the awkward side placement of the Note 8), but it's still harder to use than just about every other phone's scanner. Samsung made the sensor area too small, and the indented groove too shallow -- it's hard to find it by touch. There is, thankfully, iris scanning and 2D facial scanning to unlock, and I've defaulted to using that because Samsung just can't get fingerprint readers right.

The much-criticized Bixby hardware button that made its debut with the Galaxy S8 in spring of last year returns, and in a complete slap to the face of reviewers and Android diehards, Samsung has eliminated the option to disable the button like we could on the Note 8 or S9. Throughout my week of testing, I've accidentally pressed the Bixby button when picking up the phone or trying to lower the volume at least a dozen times, resulting in the Bixby interface taking over my entire screen. Not a single English professional tech writer/phone reviewer has had a kind word to say about Bixby, so Samsung's insistence on forcing it down our throats is almost a dealbreaker for me -- almost.

The rest of the hardware is as good as it gets (at least for another month or two). The Note 9 is powered by the Snapdragon 845 with 6 or 8GB of RAM., and the 6.4-inch OLED panel is the best in the business. Though since the iPhone X and Oppo Find X also use Samsung OLED panels, it's not like the difference between the best screen and the second or third best screen is that drastic.

The pen is mightier

But of course, what makes a Note a Note is the included stylus, aka S-Pen, and this year it includes Bluetooth functionality, which allows the stylus to be used as a remote control for the phone. You can control music playback with a click (or double click) of the S-Pen button, but I think the most useful case will be for people who like taking group photos. Simply prop the Note 9 somewhere and use the S-Pen remote to take the photo from afar.

Other than this new trick, the S-Pen works just like the Note 8's version -- you can sketch, send animated handwritten messages, and use it as a more precise pointer than your finger. I still believe that 90% of all phone users will have no use for the stylus, but the 10% that do swear by it.

Recycled cameras mostly get the job done

The Note 9 has the exact same camera hardware as the Galaxy S9+: a dual 12-megapixel combo with one normal shooter and the other a telephoto that offers 2X zoom. Samsung has introduced its own scene/object recognition A.I. algorithm but to be honest, I'm not sure if it does anything. First, the recognition is noticeably slower and less accurate than Huawei's NPU-powered handsets. As you can see from the screenshots below (the red boxes), the Note 9 misidentified a cat as a dog and thought a dog was a human under the sun?

When the A.I. does get the object/scene right, I see almost no difference in the image pre- or post- A.I. tweaks. In fact, images snapped by the Note 9 look identical to images shot by the S9+.

While I see very little benefit to the new A.I. features, that doesn't change the fact that Samsung's 2018 camera set-up is very strong. Video recording is top notch with arguably best in-class stabilization. The camera can record up to 4K at 60fps, and slow-motion videos at 960fps. Still photos in the day are just about flawless, while at night, the variable aperture (the camera can get as low as f/1.5) pulls in a lot of light. This results in very bright images even in the dark, but I find the Note 9's shutter too slow in those situations. Anytime I snapped candid images of people at night, there was almost always blurring. Check the samples below to see what I mean. The first image is of an elderly lady pushing a cart in the rain, so obviously she was moving very slowly, yet the camera couldn't capture a clean shot. The second image is of me and my girlfriend. The photographer took three photos and either my face or her face was blurry in every shot because we didn't stay completely still. This seems like an area where A.I. should be able to help out, but sadly not in this case.

That said, the slow shutter speed problem can be fixed if I go into manual mode and adjust the settings myself, but in automatic point-and-shoot situations, Samsung prioritizes pulling in light more than a fast shutter speed. A Huawei P20 Pro can capture better images at night consistently.

When shooting stationary objects in low light situations, the Samsung cameras shine. The below samples were shot in my dark apartment with lights off and just a bit of natural lighting. And again, the camera during the day captures amazing images.

Battery life: best-in-class ... if you ignore Chinese competitors

It's time to talk about the single Note 9 feature that has gotten the most praise: that 4,000 mAh battery. Simply put, this is the first Samsung phone to last me an entire day, and it's the best battery life on any non-Chinese phone. The fact that I need to add that qualifier at the end is sad, and someone like me who have used extensively will see nothing special about the Note 9's battery life. For those that are used to iPhones and Samsungs, the Note 9's endurance is impressive. In the below screenshot, you'll see that the Note 9, after a 12 hour day with more than five hours of screen usage time, still had 13% battery life. A Note 8 or an iPhone X would typically only be able to last me eight or nine hours with three and half hours of screen-on time.

Conclusion: depends on the point of view

Throughout this review I was torn on how much I should compare the Note 9 to Chinese phones. On one hand, I feel obligated to let readers especially general consumers in America who may buy just what their carrier sales rep recommends know that Apple and Samsung are both charging them a premium to get the same power as a Xiaomi or OnePlus. Or that many of the Note 9's breakthrough features were seen on Huawei devices a year ago. But then during my time discussing the phone with fellow tech writers and phone enthusiasts, it's apparent that the Note series enjoys a loyal following -- these tend to be American or Korean businessmen who like the Note's maximal approach to everything. The Note was, after all, the first large-screen phone. And with the stylus being virtually extinct everywhere else, the Note has clung on to it proudly. People like and respect that.

I also was torn on whether to criticize the Note 9 for keeping a relatively dated design, especially when there are many sleeker handsets out there. But ultimately, the Note 9 is the best Samsung phone ever, and that's all Samsung fans or casual Android users in America want. The Note 9 is a bit boring to phone geeks like me, but to many others, it's the total package.