Following last weeks release, Samsung have officially launched several new devices to the Australian market – the flagship of this group being the Galaxy Note 9. There aren’t any secrets left around the Note 9 and the majority of leaks were pretty much on the money.
The focus of the presentation today from Garry McGregor – VP Mobile Samsung Electronics Australia – was around the advancements of the Note platform and what it means to Samsung’s client base. The Note 9 is the most powerful mobile device Samsung have ever brought to market, giving users who’ve been happily sitting on their older models a reason to upgrade.
Galaxy Note 9
A fascinating statistic offered today was that over 90% of Galaxy Note customers, come back for another device. As someone who has bought a Note 2 and Note 5, I can say that I’m not surprised by this – while you can manage without, some of the functions are genuinely useful.
The comparisons to previous models area also quite interesting in that the Note 9 has a significantly larger battery than the Note 8, an acceptance from Samsung that users don’t just need – but expect – more from their phones now than in recent times.
Storage upgrades are also in the mix with 128GB being the base level and 512GB the top tier now, with the option to use a 512GB microSD Card for a total of 1TB of storage on your phone.
After a brief hands on with the Note 9, I can say it’s distinctly “Samsung” in feel even without the physical home button and feels really slick in the hand. The OS is really snappy and yes, Fortnite works perfectly and looks super cool on the stunning screen.
There’s also plenty of hardware upgrades and changes that Scott will go into fully when the review unit arrives soon.
The S Pen
The S Pen has had a pretty significant upgrade compared to previous models, starting with the range of connection being around 10 meters (standard for BT devices) but testing it today – 10 meters isn’t the cut off; it’s a safe number for Samsung to use.
There’s some great functionality added such as long press to launch an app, single and double tap to move through functions and to “Walk the talk” – the entire presentation today was run from a Note 9 with the S Pen used to move through the slides.
As part of the continued growth of the Note Platform, the S Pen SDK will be opened to developers to allow them to add new functionality to their applications specific to the Note Platform. Talking to the Samsung staff today, I found it really refreshing to see a major manufacturer opening their platform controls to external parties like this.
The Tablet Range
Moving through to the other devices launched to Australia we got a little hands on time with both the Tab S4 and Tab A 10.1″. Both really live up to what you’d expect from the Samsung Tablet range with the S4 being their top range device and the Tab A being the more affordable device that has a really nice feel to it and will undoubtedly work for huge numbers of users.
Galaxy Watch
Finally the Galaxy Watch which has attracted my interest as a potential replacement for my ageing Huawei Watch. The functions are really intelligent with the rotating bezel of the watch used to select an app, then a touch of the screen launches your chosen app. With the increasing awareness from manufacturers on general health, I’m intrigued to see how the new design stacks up to other options on the market.
Interestingly, the Galaxy Watch will include an eSIM which will be used to allow customers to transfer phone plans across 30+ carriers and 15+ countries around the world. We’re looking forward to seeing more on this when the watch launches here on October 4th.
Once these new devices are available for review, Ausdroid will be bringing you more insight into the hardware, functions and use as daily devices.
Which of the newly released devices will you be looking into more when you go shopping for toys next?
