Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs Galaxy Note 8: What to Know

Galaxy Note 9 vs Note 8: Specs & Features

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 is one of the biggest, best, and fastest phones on the market today. Well, aside from maybe the Galaxy S9+.

However, the new Note 9 will be even better in more than a few ways. Here are a few important details for potential buyers.

Galaxy Note 8 Specs

• 6.3-inch 2960 x 1440 Quad-HD AMOLED Curved Display
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or Samsung Exynos Processor
• 64GB of internal storage (Micro-SD slot included) and 6GB RAM
• Android 8.0 Oreo with Samsung TouchWiz
• Dual 12 Megapixel Rear Cameras - OIS, phase detection auto-focus, f/1.7 aperture, more
• 8 megapixel front camera with auto-focus, f/1.7 aperture
• Fingerprint & Iris Scanner, facial unlocking
• IP68 dust & water resistance 
• 3,300 mAh battery with Fast & Wireless Charging
• Always-On Display, S-Pen stylus Samsung Pay, Bixby Virtual Assistant, USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, more

As you can see, the Note 8 still has plenty to offer even 11 months after its release date. If there's one potential downside, it's the small 3,300 mAh battery inside. That's smaller than the Galaxy S8+ or S9+ battery. 

Galaxy Note 9 Specs 

• 6.4-inch Quad-HD Curved Infinity AMOLED Display 
• Snapdragon 845 Processor with 6-8GB of RAM
• 128 or 512GB storage options (yes, 512GB is available with 8GB RAM model)
• Android 8.1 Oreo with Samsung UX (Android 9 coming soon)
• Dual 12MP Rear Cameras with variable aperture, IOS, 960 FPS Slow-mo, more
• 8MP Front Selfie Camera with Portrait Mode & Improved AR Emoji
• Stereo Speaker tuned by AKG
• 4,000 mAh battery with fast and wireless charging (faster wireless charging, too)
• IP68 Dust & Water-resistance
• USB Type-C, Bixby 2.0, Bixby AI, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Heart-rate sensor, Face Unlock, Iris Scanning
• S-Pen with Bluetooth, New Features, etc
• and more

Just as we all expected, the Galaxy Note 9 is fast and powerful. You'll get double the storage at 128GB, or spend a little more for a crazy 512GB and 8GB RAM model that'll be blazing fast. The cameras are slightly improved, and the stylus got new features too. 

The biggest change is clearly the 4,000 mAh battery in the Galaxy Note 9. That's worth the upgrade by itself. What's the point of having a ton of features if you can't use any after 4PM because you have a dead battery? 

Additionally, the Note 9 has a new and improved variable aperture camera that physically changes its aperture to capture the more light in any situation. More light = better photos. It also has a new 960 FPS slo-mo mode, AR emoji, and other neat camera effects like Portrait mode. 

This year Samsung added Bluetooth to the S-Pen so you can remotely unlock and control your phone, take pictures, control slideshows and presentations and probably a lot more. 

Thie Note 9 might look similar, but it has significant hardware and software upgrades throughout.