Gadgetory

- Hey guys, this is Austin. This is the Galaxy Note9. And if you saw my recent video on it, you'll know that I wasn't exactly a huge fan. No, no, it's not because this is a $1,000 device. There's going to be lots more of these phones around, and in fact, the iPhone X last year was already hitting that $1,000 price point, and while I complained, it wasn't exactly going to be a deal breaker. No, my real issue with the Note9, why I'm so fired up, why I had to do a video, is 'cause this is just not really a great deal. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. Now I understand why Samsung releases the Note when they do, right. The Note comes out in August, September or so, and that's a big time for smartphones. A lot of people are buying new flagships, of course there is the iPhone, there's the Pixel, there's a lot of interest, and there's a lot of people buying phones during this time of year. And yes, for a lot of people, I don't think the Note9 is worth $1,000, but it is still one of the best phones of the year, and definitely something that would normally be recommended. There's just a couple of major problems with that. My biggest problem with it is actually not even the Note itself, It's this, the Galaxy S9 Plus. See, a few years ago, Samsung started to do a little bit of something different with their high end flagships. Previously when they would launch the Note, the Note would come out a few months later, and it would be a substantial upgrade over the Galaxy S line. You'd be getting a much larger display, of course you're going to be getting the S-Pen, a lot of times, you'd actually be getting some additional features, like, say, a faster processor, way bigger battery, higher screen res. I mean, it was a major, major upgrade. Fast forward to 2018, and we have the Note9. This is very, very similar to the S9 Plus. You're getting a 500 milliamp hour larger battery, you're going to be getting a .2 inch larger display, And you are going to be getting the S-Pen. The S-Pen is a legitimate feature, right. I think a lot of people do think that this is worth the price of entry. But if you're someone who's new to the ecosystem, If you're someone who just wants to get some really nice high end flagship in 2018, this S-Pen is going to cost you. It's gonna cost you in a big way. I totally understand that Samsung wants to have a high end flagship to be sold during the holiday season, right? So not only is it going to be a thing where they wanna sell, like, 500,000 phones, or whatever it is, over the holiday season, but it's also a matter of, they wanna be able to compete with the other major competitors, like the iPhone. The main issue here, is that because Samsung wants to be able to compete with the iPhones and the Pixels of the world, they released this sort of mid, half, weird step with the Note, And it's just so expensive considering that it's basically the same as a six month old phone that was $800, right? Like, that's just to me, that gets me really upset, because so many people are spending so much money on a phone that is not only going to be obsolete in six months, but really, isn't a major difference for what you could've bought way, way earlier in the year. And on top of that, Worst part is that everyone knows the S10 is going to be coming out in a few months. If there's going to be a plus version, which is going to be basically the same size as the Note, There's so many features that you're going to have on the S10, and the Note9 doesn't have any of them. It's just an S9 plus with an S-Pen that they're charging you more for. That was what I was trying to say in my video. But I didn't wanna get so fired up, I wanted to be a little bit more diplomatic, I wanted to be a little bit more reasonable. But, you put a phone table in front of me, and I really can't hold back. And actually, speaking of the phone table, there's actually a bunch of phones here that I do think make a lot more sense than the Note. First of all, one of the very interesting ones that came out right after the Note, is this, The Pocophone F1. This phone has some very similar features to the Note. First of all, it's not as good, right. Straight up, the Note is a better phone. But this has the same Snapdragon 845, the most high end sort of mobile chip you can get. It's got very similar sort of cooling, which actually does a really good job. You've got that same 4,000 milliamp hour battery, but look, this is less than 1/3 the price. It's $300 vs 1,000. - [Man] Hallelujah! - Yeah I agree. (clears throat) Anyway, not only is it going to be much, much cheaper, but you're getting very similar performance. And you can even step up to something like the OnePlus 6. This is going to be a little bit more expensive, but it's still $500, half the price. But I would say, this is 95% of the experience for 50% of the price. On top of that, this is September. The phone just came out, and yet, we've got a bunch of new competition coming right around the corner. There is going to be a new iPhone, it's going to be in that same sort of price bracket. It's probably going to be better in a lot of ways that the Note9 might not be able to keep up with. Maybe, maybe not, who knows. The Pixel 3 is going to be right around the corner. It's going to have 500% more notch, which I'm sure everyone is a big fan of, but it is also going to be bringing some high end features to the table. The awesome software, which probably going to be some insane camera. So it's like, the Note9 is competing against, first of all, a phone that came out six months ago, and the S9 Plus. It's cheaper, it's almost the exact same thing. It's competing against much cheaper Android flagships, which are way, way, way cheaper, and deliver a very similar experience, And it's competing against brand new flagships, such as the Pixel, and such as the iPhone, which in some ways are going to be at least as good, if not better, and maybe even cheaper. Do you see why I'm upset? Do you see why the Note9 got me all fired up, here. So if Samsung wants to sell the Note, and I'm sure they should because lots of people buy it, they should do one of two things. First of all, they should release it when the S9 comes out, right? Like there's nothing fundamentally with the Note that is not sort of like, something that they need an extra six months for, right? So when the S9 Plus came out, the Note9 could have slided in right above it. Very, very similar phone, they just added an S-Pen. Cool, great. If they don't want to do that, if they want to release it six months later, then make it different. Don't make the same phone again six months later, and charge you $200 more for it. I get that the S-Pen's cool. I get it, it's great. I do like the S-Pen. But it's not worth another $200. And it's not worth another $200 when it's gonna be outdated in a few months. I'm gonna go, I don't know, the Apple fanboy, or whatever it is that everyone says I am. I'm gonna go play with the OnePlus 6, actually. This is the real move right here.