Samsung Galaxy Note9: the story so far

As per tradition, rumors started flying in as early as March this year. We were hearing all sorts of crazy stories including in-display fingerprint and a built-in breathalyzer for the S Pen. But as time passed by, the dust settled and we started seeing more reasonable and accurate information regarding the future Samsung flagship.

Most fans will probably be disappointed to know that the Note9 won't be radically different from its predecessor, the Galaxy Note8. but there's a silver lining to it. This means that the Note9 won't be getting one of those pesky notches and the 3.5 mm audio jack is here to stay. Sadly, the same goes for the Bixby button, although it will be faster and will offer extended functionality.

Also, the rear-mounted fingerprint reader's new position has been confirmed numerous times. So no excessive stretching of your fingers and, no smudgy camera lenses anymore. Yay!

To spice things up, Samsung is reportedly throwing in new colors that will affect the S Pen's appearance as well. The Coral Blue variant with the yellow S Pen is probably the hottest looking one.

The Galaxy Note9 color versions

Note9's supposedly available colors

But enough about the design. As always, the Note9 will pack impressive hardware. The device will be built around a big 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen, with QHD+ resolution and improved outdoor visibility, compared to last year's model. The Snapdragon 845 will sit behind the wheel in the US and Chinese market, as before, while the rest of the world will get Samsung's in-house Exynos 9810 Octa chipset, which can be found on the Galaxy S9 and S9+.

On the memory front, Samsung will introduce a new 8GB/512GB variant. We've been hearing about this every now and then and the initial reports claim that this particular configuration will only be available in Korea. But the leaked intro video of the handset yesterday, which Samsung already took down, points at 1TB total storage achieved by 512GB internal storage and another 512GB, via a microSD card. The base version will have 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

Galaxy S9+ on the left, Galaxy Note9 on the right

From what we've gathered from the recently leaked hands-on video, the Note9 will borrow the Galaxy S9+'s camera setup. This was later confirmed, by the retail box, listing all the key specs and features. So, in the end, the phone should get a 12MP main camera, with variable aperture (f/1.5-2.4) and a telephoto lens, with a 12MP sensor and f/2.4 aperture.

The duo of cameras will have an upgrade over the Galaxy S9+ - the length of the super slow-motion 960fps video clips will be doubled. And on the front, the handset will get a familiar 8MP camera sitting alongside the iris scanner.

Another big selling point of the Note9 will be the S Pen. We feel like the latter has been left out in the past couple of updates of the Note-series, but the Note9's stylus game could be stronger than expected, if the rumored features turn out to be true.

The latest version of the stylus will work as a Bluetooth remote controller for self-timer and shutter button on the camera app, music playback control and even some game-related functionalities. The S Pen will charge wirelessly, once docked so no need to worry about that either.

Moving on to multimedia, Samsung once again partnered with AKG to bundle its smartphone with AKG earbuds. Not only that, but the Galaxy Note9 will in all likeliness be equipped with stereo loudspeakers, tuned by AKG.

The device is expected to ship with Android 8.1 Oreo and Samsung's Samsung Experience UI, while a considerably larger 4,000 mAh battery will make sure this is Note phone with the best battery life so far. That last claim was confirmed by Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency and the retail box, we showed you.

Since the back is made of glass, support for wireless charging is inevitable. The Korean company even plans to release a fast dual wireless charger along with the phone, so that you can charge it up together with the Galaxy Watch.

Finally we come to pricing. The good news is that it won't be more expensive than its predecessor, but the bad news is that's still around €999 in Europe and $930 in the US. We guess even that's a positive development though, as just about every lineup is getting more and more expensive these days, so remaining flat almost feels like progress.

So that's the picture leaks and rumors paint and it's a pretty detailed one. The official unveiling on August 9 will show if Samsung managed to hide some cool bits to surprise us. We'll be on-site, supplying you with timely coverage and first-hand impression.

But until the time comes, feel free to stop by the comments section and tell us if you like what you have seen so far and if the Galaxy Note9 managed to impress you.