[UNBOXING]: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

[murtaza12]

Damn, so there's already two blue Note 9's unboxed, guess it's a bit late for me to join the bandwagon but here goes anyway.

My S9+ lived a very unfortunate life, because on the 13th of June... this happened. It isn't a crack, it's just two very very deep scratches down the right side of the display. I didn't like looking at it, and even with a screen protector on, I knew it was under it. So I asked [MENTION=9504]mental[/MENTION] and he said he'll buy my S9+ off me whenever I want to sell it, unfortunately until now, there was no decent replacement for it, and I wasn't going to buy another S9+, so I went looking around for a Note 9 that didn't cost 130k, or 150k which is what HSN was selling it for.
So huge thanks to Hasan bhai [MENTION=9504]mental[/MENTION] for not only buying my S9+ off me, but also for arranging this beautiful slab of glass to be delivered first thing in the morning today.

Got bored of having 4 black phones in a row, so decided to get something a little different this time:

More pictures and a short review to follow soon.

 

[DietyDevil]

Congrats, How much?

 

[murtaza12]

Congrats, How much?

119k brand new.

 

[DietyDevil]

Great. You bought it at a very affordable Dubai rate.
Souq | Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Dual SIM - 128GB, 6GB RAM, 4G LTE, Ocean Blue | UAE

 

[mental]

Congrats. The pleasure was all mine. Btw try not to scratch this one.

Sent from my Redmi 4A using Tapatalk

 

[Saadssk94]

get a fortnite skin for me?

 

[khanorak]

Congrats. Note ftw

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

[murtaza12]

get a fortnite skin for me?

Go get one from the demo phones before it's too late [emoji23]

Congrats. Note ftw

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Thanks man. The 4k mAh battery makes more of a difference than I thought. As it is I had a hard time getting the S9+ to drop below 50%, this one is still around 60% after a full day of usage.

 

[error]

get a fortnite skin for me?

Pm me if u wanna buy one.

Sent from my ALP-L29 using Tapatalk

 

[ASKnASK]

Great looking phone. And with the right case, they're quite safe (my S8 has taken two 4-5 foot drops. Zero damage).

But damn these prices... Notes used to be 70-80k on release. Now they're 130.

 

[nafu]

Congratulation Murtaza.

But that's a huge sum paid for a mobile device.
I will look forward to that short review, especially some close up shots (in room lighting, if possible) and other stand out features.

 

[deltree]

Great looking phone. And with the right case, they're quite safe (my S8 has taken two 4-5 foot drops. Zero damage).

But damn these prices... Notes used to be 70-80k on release. Now they're 130.

The Note 9 actually launched at a lower dollar price than S9. Also if you have a older flagship their trade in offer is a no profit deal mostly for them. You might ask how, well you get the set with official warranty at 116k PKR remove from it the market value of your older phone. But if you go buy a brand new one directly you will know the price is above 120k with official warranty.

Also you must realize our currency has taken a massive dump and our taxes on expensive phones have increased considerably.

 

[ASKnASK]

Also if you have a older flagship their trade in offer is a no profit deal mostly for them.

They have a trade-in offer available in Pakistan? Got an S8

 

[murtaza12]

They have a trade-in offer available in Pakistan? Got an S8

The highest they'll give you is 40k for a pristine condition S8 lol.

https://www.samsung.com/pk/offer/mobile-trade-in/

 

[ASKnASK]

The highest they'll give you is 40k for a pristine condition S8 lol.

https://www.samsung.com/pk/offer/mobile-trade-in/

Yeah I searched after posting that. Kinda disappointing.

 

[farrukhna]

Yeah I searched after posting that. Kinda disappointing.

This is a joke in the name of trade-offs

 

[ASKnASK]

The highest they'll give you is 40k for a pristine condition S8 lol.

https://www.samsung.com/pk/offer/mobile-trade-in/

Do they decrease their phone price over-time or will the Note 9 be a gazillion rupees in December too?

 

[murtaza12]

Do they decrease their phone price over-time or will the Note 9 be a gazillion rupees in December too?

Yes it does decrease over time.

 

[abobobilly]

[MENTION=42544]murtaza12[/MENTION], hey congrats man. Phone of the year. Period.

On a side note, can you plz confirm me something? I am hearing a lot of reports of Note 9 slowing down/lagging randomly. It's a minor lag, but the hiccup is definitely noticeable for a phone of this .... level. Did you notice anything?

 

[murtaza12]

[MENTION=42544]murtaza12[/MENTION], hey congrats man. Phone of the year. Period.

On a side note, can you plz confirm me something? I am hearing a lot of reports of Note 9 slowing down/lagging randomly. It's a minor lag, but the hiccup is definitely noticeable for a phone of this .... level. Did you notice anything?

Thanks man.

Well performance out of the box was pretty good, although there were some minor bugs with the first build, and it seemed like it needed some polishing. They did rush the release, so it's understandable. However, very soon after, one OTA was pushed, which was just a security patch.

Then another update came, with some camera improvements and a different kernel (earlier builds were using the same kernel). This build was never released outside of Europe, until about 2 days ago. Got released to UAE, PAK, AFG, and some other regions.

I couldn't wait so I had downloaded the entire firmware and flashed it earlier. No issues whatsoever, not with performance or with battery life.

TL;DR, it was a bit weird at release, but they fixed it and it's all good now.