They say never meet your heroes, and unfortunately I think this might just ring true for this phone.
I wrote my initial post on the Samsung Note 9 in my phone history series. I owned the device back in 2018 for about a year and a half, and have held the device in extremely high regard ever since. I considered it to be the perfect phone, with all the features and high quality before the smartphone manufacturers started cutting features in favour of maximizing profit margins by minimising costs.
For a while I’d been keeping my eye on the online marketplaces and when I found a Note 9 in excellent condition for less than £100 I made the purchase.
Unfortunately the seller had been disingenuous and rather than a SM-N960F as advertised he sent a SM-N960N which is a south korean variant. He had made a half baked attempt at flashing UK firmware on it and hoped a buyer wouldn’t notice.
Fortunately for him I wasn’t planning on running the original ROM anyway as Android 10 is getting long in the tooth now and apps are beginning to drop support. I promptly installed the latest official Lineage ROM released for this device which was version 20 (Android 13). I could take it further up to Android 15 and One UI 7, but I think there will be too many things not working and I don’t want to push the hardware beyond its limits.
I think a testament to the phone is that it still holds up well 7 years later. The screen is vivid and has a higher resolution than many new phones today. The build quality still feels excellent and the device feels much better in the hand than many new devices today. That’s about all I have for the positives though.
Unfortunately the years have not been particularly kind to this particular device. Despite its lack of any physical damage the battery is woefully short lived, and the screen has begun to de-bond from the frame. Thankfully I anticipated the battery, and ordered a replacement (and a new back glass just in case!) at the same time I ordered the phone. The screen will need to be removed from the frame, cleaned and have new adhesive applied. Not the end of the world, but not something you’d be dealing with owning a more recent device.
I have a dislike for curved screens, it feels like wasted space and the side of my hand makes false presses on the screen. Not only this but finding suitable screen protectors for these devices is a nightmare, and generally the only suitable options are glass with UV glue, or TPU film protectors. The Samsung Note 9 has an extremely strong curve on its edges, which its only benefit is making it more comfortable in the hand.
The Note 9 just doesn’t feel all that special anymore in 2025. It’s still everything that it was back when it was released, but in 2018 this was so much better than other devices on the market. Coming from an iPhone 6s this felt like alien technology. Now it just feels like any other phone. The Micro SD slot is a welcome addition, but a phone with 512GB of onboard storage solves that problem for me. Onto the revered headphone jack. Audiophiles still lust after devices with this illusive port, and even in my eyes the more ports the merrier, but I think it’s just time to admit I don’t need it. All my audio devices are bluetooth, including my car, and while I like music I’m not into it to the degree that I’d notice or appreciate the slight boost in quality from using the jack.
In some ways I’m sad that this device didn’t live up to my nostalgic memories of it, although I shouldn’t be surprised because things rarely do. On the other hand I’m glad I can finally put this thought to bed, that phones have got progressively worse since this phone released. They haven’t, they’ve got much better, it’s just a much more level playing field between brands that nothing really stands out as special anymore.
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