Apple, a company founded 42 years ago in a Santa Clara Valley garage to make personal computers, is now worth $1 trillion. It becomes the first American company to achieve that feat. And this is predominantly because of iPhone, which technically is not a personal computer (yet).
Meanwhile Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy Note 9 will make its debut at on 9 August at a Samsung Unpacked event in New York, before it goes on sale two weeks later on 24 August.
Does the Galaxy Note 9 have enough to make sticky iPhone users switch over?
Let’s evaluate all the leaks reported so far.
The Official Launch Video has leaked
Today, Samsung accidentally posted a video for its next flagship phone, the Galaxy Note 9. The brief teaser shows the overall design and the yellowish S-Pen that ships with the blue model. It also confirms that a 512GB version will be available, with support for up to 512GB microSD cards.
Here’s the “official” Samsung #Note9 video one week before launch. Is this a leak or is it an intentional stunt? https://t.co/UrV8VZGMwg
— Kiran Borkar (@TweetsKB) August 3, 2018
An “accidental” pre-order link on website
This seems deliberate. Samsung’s policy of ‘accidentally’ leaking its massive new Galaxy Note 9 may have ticked off the typical PR stunt boxes, but now the company has left nothing to the imagination…
Spotted by an acclaimed industry insider, Samsung has published the full pre-order announcement for the Galaxy Note 9 on its website. Alongside a marketing image of the phone was the headline ‘Say hello to super power’ and it even invited users to pre-order the phone teasing: ‘Now you can be one of the first to experience it’. Except you can’t.
Unsurprisingly, given Samsung won’t officially announce the Galaxy Note 9 until August 8th, the pre-order link did not work. That said, Samsung left the page up for several hours before taking it down – ensuring its latest ‘accident’ was there just long enough for everyone to see.
The official phone image also confirmed Samsung will resist industry pressure and the Galaxy Note 9 will retain a headphone jack. Interestingly, Samsung’s decision this year to colour the S Pen bright yellow also draws attention to its highly anticipated upgrade.
What you can’t see from the picture, but something Samsung has also ‘accidentally’ confirmed recently, is arguably the Galaxy Note 9’s most appealing feature for many: a truly massive new battery.
Samsung’s most expensive phone till date?
The phone’s price was leaked a bunch of times already, for various international markets, and we have one more leak that paints the same picture. The Galaxy Note 9 will cost you a pretty penny, as we’re looking at Samsung’s most expensive phone to date.
I don’t know what Samsung considers “reasonable,” but $1,000 isn’t it. Because multiple reports claim the phone will cost more than that $1,000 psychological mark.
The latest leak comes from Malaysia, where a store already listed the price for the Galaxy Note 9. The 128GB version costs 4,299 MYR ($1,054), while the 512GB version is priced at 5,099 ($1,250) — see image at the end of this post. These seem to be in line with other Note 9 price leaks, for Europe and Korea.
Design & Specifications
The Galaxy Note 9 won’t look radically different compared to the existing Galaxy Note 8. However, it is expected to come with minor design refinements. As we can see in the leaked renders, the front panel of the Note 9 looks exactly the same as the Note 8, but the difference can be seen at the back.
While the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ comes with vertically placed camera module and a fingerprint scanner, the Galaxy Note 9, will feature a horizontal one, just like the Note 8. However, the fingerprint sensor placement will now be under the camera module, which will not only ensure that it is within your finger’s reach, but also ensure that you don’t accidentally touch the camera lens.
Is all this enticing enough for the hardcore iPhone fans to make that switch? Time will tell. For now, let’s make a “Note” in our calendar to watch the launch on August 9th.
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