Samsung Galaxy Note9
RM3,699.00
Pros
- Awesome S-Pen
- Great display
- Love the camera
- Great for creative work
- Long lasting battery
Cons
- Fingerprint magnet
- Fingerprint sensor too high at the back
Performance
I think it’s pretty easy for me to gauge on any phone’s performance nowadays. Those who have been reading my phone reviews recently will know how I deem the phone worthy of receiving an excellence award for performance.
Since I’m (kinda) addicted to PUBG Mobile, I will always test the phone to its full potential by playing the game for long hours and at the highest graphic settings. So yes, I put the Note9 to hard labour by setting everything to the highest and most demanding graphic performance. Guess what? The Galaxy Note9 didn’t even wince.
It churned out graphics like it’s the 90’s with minimal effort. Everything in the game runs smoothly, graphic renders quickly without any lag, 60fps for PUBG is just beautiful. All the graphic hard work supposed to take a toll on the phone and produce tons of heat but the Note9 is still cool to the touch. I was impressed by that plus the viewing angle is great. This is the type of phone that I won’t want to give back. But I have to.
Antutu 3D benchmark is a no brainer too. If it can render graphics so well in PUBG, it certainly can perform above average in Antutu. I got a total score of 241987 on Antutu which is the 19th spot in the overall ranking. I was expecting it to be in the top 10 but most of the new phones today are playing the catch-up games by bringing in more powerful specs.
 |
 |
 |
So I’m looking at the Note9 more of a productivity phone rather than a gaming phone although it has all the bells and whistles to run any games smoothly. The battery can last me the whole day after unplugging it in the morning and still have some juice left to run a game of PUBG at night. I’m making a note that the Note9 is a perfect companion to have for young creative professionals, me included.
Camera and Imaging
As usual, this is the favourite subject. We all know that the majority of the younger generations and avid social media users love taking photos and post it online soon after. And having a phone with a good camera is essential.
So how does the Note9 performs when it comes to photography and video? We will now find out.
First, lets recap on the camera specifications.
- Rear camera: Primary 12MP, Type 1/2.55″ sensor, f/1.5-2.4 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Secondary 12MP, Type 1/3.4″ sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length, autofocus, OIS; 2x zoom. 2160p/60fps, 1080p/240fps slow motion, 720p/960fps super slow-motion video recording.
- Front camera: 8MP, f/1.7 aperture, autofocus; 1440p/30fps video recording.
The primary main camera takes a normal wider angle view photos while the secondary main camera is a 2x zoom lens. Photo quality is impressive as how Samsung targeted it to be. There is a dual tone LED flash next to the camera and also the phase detection sensor on the outer side. The camera module does not protrude that much, making it stable when placing the phone on a table.
The auto-focus is fast. I don’t seem to have any problem focusing on fast moving subjects such as cars and animals. The camera also detect faces making it easy to shoot portraits. Of course the bokeh effect is one of its features. You can adjust the blur when you’re in the live photo mode and also select which area to be blurred and which is to be in focus.
Now here are some sample photos.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Like I said, the photo quality coming out from Note9’s camera is way above average. In the early days, we used to get lots of annoying washed out photos and we have to edit them in Photoshop first before posting it online. But this time, most camera phones produce high quality almost true-to-life photos. I know one thing for sure, that is I don’t have to make heavy edit to all my photos. And the preset modes are nice too.
I do notice the noise in the low light shots, which is normal due to the sensor size. But the in camera app manage to minimise the noise to a certain point that it is forgivable. A few edits here and there, voila…no more noise.
Overall, the camera on the Galaxy Note9 is awesome.
