Samsung Galaxy Watch: Features of electronic giant’s first smartwatch revealed

Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy Note 9 only yesterday and the device is yet to go on sale. U.S. pre-orders Start from 10 August (tomorrow) and pre-orders get a free pair of AKG noise-cancelling headphones (worth about $299) or 15,000 in Fortnite V-Bucks.

In the meantime, the rest of us will just have to wait, or get a new Galaxy smartphone. £48pm The iPhone 8 Plus is nearly a year old now, but the price remains quite high – but it’s still cheaper than the Galaxy Note 9.

In a thinly veiled stab at major competitor Apple, Samsung Electronics Australia mobile division vice-president Garry McGregor said the new feature was something rival gadgets had yet to match. And the 9 has niche pricing to match: the “cheaper” of the two Note 9 configurations (128GB flash, 6GB RAM) sets you back $999, the 512GB flash, 8GB RAM version $1,250. Samsung has been conservative on battery improvements ever since its Note 7 phone in 2016 developed a tendency to ignite, prompting an expensive recall and delivering a hit to the company’s reputation.

You can find more on the Note 9, right here. You also still get to choose from the aforementioned bonus perks when preordering.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is finally official, and the spec rumors were pretty much on point.

The device has 12MP + 12MP dual camera system with dual optical image stabilisation (OIS) at the rear – with 2 times more powerful optical zoom and up to 10 times powerful digital zoom – and an 8MP front shooter. That means, during the setup of your phone, you will be asked for your Spotify login details and the music streaming experience will therefore be completely set-up without you having to download an app manually. All of the phones are expandable with a microSD card, but internal storage is going to be faster and more secure. It’s an evolution of the Galaxy Note 8 but one with some notable upgrades.

The trademark feature of the Note series is the S Pen stylus.

The camera in the Note 9 will use artificial intelligence to detect what’s in a scene – whether that’s food, flowers or a sunset – to automatically tweak images to make them pop. Even if the battery has no power it will still work as a regular S Pen for note taking, signing, drawing, screen-off memos and so on. Or, you know, your finger. DeX now works with a simple USB-C to HDMI adapter.

If the Note9’s steep starting price puts you off, but you want in on the Samsung life, Cricket has a deal that might interest you. Again, I didn’t have chance to check the limits of functionality and compatibility with iOS on the hands-on session, so again it will be worth holding off for T3’s full Galaxy Watch review.