Well here's a turn up: the world's first Samsung Galaxy Note 9 hands-on review has just dropped, revealing an unprecedented quantity of information about the device's hardware and headline features. Samsung will be ever so pleased.
The bombshell comes via mobile-review.com and is by renowned Russian tech reporter Eldar Murtazin. He has an excellent track record for accurate reporting of Samsung devices, both before and after they officially exist, and comes five whole weeks before the Note 9's official UNPACKED launch event.
Murtazin says he, "had the opportunity to see this device, to evaluate the hardware" on a recent trip to the USA. As well as gaining exclusive access to the new flagship phone and then writing about it, many weeks before any other publication or tech journalist, his report also details juicy information on Samsung software updates.
Here are the key reveals from the hands-on, rendered as a series of easy-to-consume bullet points.
1. The Galaxy Note 9 looks almost identical to the Galaxy Note 8. This is no surprise: T3 called it already, and numerous leaks over the past few months indicated there would not be a radical design change.
2. The new phone comes packing horizontally orientated dual rear cameras, just like we said it would.
3. The Note 9's fingerprint reader is located below the phone's rear cameras.
4. …So there is no in-display fingerprint reader on the Galaxy Note 9, just as T3 predicted.
5. The Note 9 is powered by a 4,000mAh battery – yes, T3 called that, too. During Murtazin's testing it delivered 25 hours of video playback at maximum screen brightness.
6. That large battery powers a screen that's brighter than the Note 8.
7. The Note 9 is apparently heavier than the Note 8, which is a tad surprising.
8. The Note 9 will be available in two variants in terms of RAM, with 6GB and 8GB models, just as T3 predicted. Which territories each model will appear in remains unclear.
9. Storage options for the Note 9 will be 128GB, 256GB and a whopping 512GB. Regular readers will remember that T3 predicted this, too. Which territories get which models again remains unknown.
10. Finally, the new S Pen comes with Bluetooth support and boasts increased accuracy and broader software support. T3 reported that the S Pen would be "worth the wait", and that definitely looks to be the case.
It looks like the Note 9 has already being unpacked by Eldar Murtazin, who has already "had the opportunity to see this device, to evaluate the hardware".
On top of those points, the piece notes that the general performance of the Note 9 is very impressive, which isn't surprising considering leaked benchmarks showed that the Note 9 outperforms the Samsung Galaxy S9, a powerhouse in its own right. Samsung's AR Emoji have being upgraded alongside the phone's camera software.
Overall, this hands-on review leaves us with a pretty much complete picture of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, weeks before the phone's official unveiling.
The picture we see is that it's a minor but welcome update to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, but be sure to check back in with T3.com next month for our impressions of the Galaxy Note 9…
Via: Forbes
