THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9 is finally official, but it doesn’t have many surprises in store.
Thanks to the huge number of leaks building up to the smartphone’s launch, we already knew almost all there is to know: it’ll ship with a new Bluetooth-enabled S Pen; will pack a hefty 4,000mAh battery; and it’ll start shipping on 24 August.
We’ve rounded up everything you need to know about picking up the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 below.
Release date
Pre-orders for the Note 9 begin on 9 August in the UK, with the device slated to start shipping on 24 August.
Price
Here in Blighty, the 6GB/128GB Galaxy Note 9 model is available for £899 SIM-free, while the higher-spec 8GB/512GB version is priced at £1,099. It can be picked up SIM-free from Carphone Warehouse, which is also offering tariffs with EE, iD, O2, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.
Over on the O2 website, the Note 9 can be picked up from £58 per month with 2GB data, a tariff that also comes with a £99 upfront cost. The network is also offering deals with 8GB, 1GB, 30GB and 50GB data.
Sky Mobile is offering the Note 9 from £42 per month, a deal that’ll get you 2GB data and unlimited calls and texts. 4GB, 5GB and 10GB plans are also available.
Three claims to have started taking pre-orders for the Note 9, but the handset is yet to show up on its website. It has confirmed, however, that it’ll offer £48, £53 and £62 tariffs that’ll bag you 4GB, 30GB and 100GB data, respectively.
Over on the Virgin Mobile website, the Note 9 is available from £37 per month with 1GB monthly data. This can be upped to 5GB, 20GB and 30GB, for £40, £46 and £51 per month, respectively.
And finally, Vodafone has also been quick to start taking Note 9 pre-orders. It’s offering the handset for, er, £63 per month with a £79 upfront cost, a deal that gets you 20GB data for the price of 4GB.
Latest news
10/8/18: You might struggle if you’re looking to pick up a Note 9 from Samsung, as the company’s website has gone down for “maintenance”. While the firm’s online shop lets you add a Note 9 to your basket, if you try to check out, you’re currently greeted with a message that says: “Uh oh, looks like this page is currently under maintenance, sorry!”
It’s unclear if the site is struggling under demand for the Galaxy Note 9, or whether it’s taken a temporary trip to Borksville. We’ve asked Samsung for more information.
9/8/18: Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy Note 9, and it’s exactly what you were expecting it to be.
The big-screened smartphone (6.4in, to be precise) looks near identical to its Note 8 predecessor with its edge-to-edge display and glossy IP68-certified chassis, but Samsung is touting a number of upgrades.
Firstly, the Note 9 ships with a new and improved S Pen, which comes with Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) baked-in for the first time. Users can now use the bundled stylus to pause and resume music playback, for example, or as a makeshift camera shutter button.
Samsung even boasted that it controlled its Note 9 presentation using the banana-a-like stylus, before announcing that it plans to open up the SDK to developers so functionality can be built into third-party apps.
Bigged-up by Samsung as the “world’s most powerful smartphone”, the Note 9 also boasts an under the hood rejig. It’ll ship with Samsung’s in-house 10nm Exynos 9810 CPU (or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 in the US), paired with either 6GB or 8GB RAM depending on whether you pick up the 128GB or 512GB model. Both offer microSD slots, allowing users to expand the Note 9’s onboard storage up to 1TB.
There’s also a 4,000mAh battery inside, the largest ever to feature inside a Note smartphone which Samsung is promising will deliver “all day” battery life.
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