Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launched with S Pen as hero; there is a watch and Galaxy Home too

“We have laid foundation to move beyond smart devices to intelligent experiences,” said Samsung President D J Koh.

Samsung has a lot riding on the Galaxy Note 9, the sales of which will have to compensate for the dull sales of the Galaxy S9 series. And it seems Samsung will bank greatly on the loyal Note users to help sales pick up.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launch LIVE UPDATES

In fact, Samsung claims the S Pen is the top reason people buy the Note series, followed by its display size and quality. If these 64 per cent users come back to the Note, it is because of the S Pen, then the Note 9 will be a winner given that Samsung flagship’s stylus now comes with low power Bluetooth connectivity that lets it be a clicker for presentations, a remote while watching video and even a camera trigger.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Note 9 First Impressions 

The phone also offers a 4000 mAh battery, which could be a good reason for a lot of people to opt for this phone. Samsung has been smart in making this phone, which is thicker and heavier, but looks and feel thinner with its diamond cut edges.

Galaxy Note 9 comes with a dual 12MP+12MP camera.

While the global edition will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, in India it will be running on Samsung’s Exynos chipset. India will also get dual SIM version as is the norm. Samsung is also going back to a carbon fiber system along with its water cooling to keep the phone cool during heavy gaming.

The phone will also be Dex enabled and will no longer need the dock to connect with the monitor. Also, with Dex users will be able to run other programmes simultaneously, even as something is being presented on a larger screen.

The camera module is almost the same (12MP wide and 12MP telephoto) as the Note 8, but now has the fingerprint scanner below. Samsung is also packing some artificial intelligence into the camera, which will now be able to detect up to 20 scenes.

Samsung claims the S Pen is the top reason people buy the Note series followed by its display size and quality.

The phone will also feature Giga LTE (Cat 18) with downloads speeds as high as 1.2Gbps per second. However, it is not clear if this will be supported in India.

Available in four colours — midnight black, metallic copper, ocean blue and lavender purple — the phone will weight 205 grams. There will be two versions — 128GB with 6GB RAM – 512GB with 8GB RAM. Samsung is also preparing its own 512 GB memory card to take on this challenge. The flagship phone will have IP68 rating for dust and water-resistance.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch is LTE enabled.

Samsung also launched a Galaxy Watch with LTE connectivity and multiple day battery life. There was also a Galaxy Home smart speaker which will be powered by the Bixby smart assistant.

Disclaimer: The author is in New York attending the Galaxy Note 9 launch at the invite of Samsung India