This is my final artist review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. I had the phone for about 6 months now. I made over 10+ video’s on my channel since then on Note 9. My Note 9 Artist Perspective Total pack consist of every single video that I covered on the phone. This phone is a powerhouse, I use it constantly for drawing and other work related stuff.
The update to One UI has seriously been a step up, the note 9 is more responsive than ever. The user experience is a lot more comfortable as things are more accessible.
A little back story
I’ve been a huge fan of the note series since the Note 4 came out and one of my friends got it and let me draw on it. Years later I finally got my hand on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and I fell in love with it. I made a review on it here as well. I used the Note 8 from friends and my teacher in high school. Finally in the fall, I upgraded the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and it was a worthy upgrade.
To start
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 can turn into a PC with the new built-in Samsung Dex mode. All you need is a USB type C cable to HDMI and if you want to get fancy you can get the one that I got. Which is a USB type C hub to HDMI, which lets you plug in other peripherals like a keyboard or mouse.
By far its one of my favorite features, being able to come home and just plug in my phone to another monitor to continue browsing or do my homework. On top of that, you can still use your phone separately while doing something completely different in dex mode.
Also the reason it’s one of my favorites because it ties into another interesting feature, Dex Dual canvas mode. With Samsung DeX Dual Canvas mode you can zoom in to fine-tune any area of your drawing while your entire canvas is displayed on an external monitor.
wanna see it in action?
check out these other video’s and articles below that I’ve made covering dex mode
-
Using Note 9 as a Cintiq on four 4K monitors?!? Samsung Dex Dual Canvas Mode First Impressions
- Samsung Dex Dual Canvas mode Speedpaint using the Galaxy Note 9
Why Samsung Galaxy Note 9?
Why Samsung? you may be wondering, especially now in modern ages where there are so many options for digital arts that are way cheaper. Yes, I agree 100 percent. The Note 9 is not a one size fits all for everyone in every situation but here’s are some of the reasons an artist should consider picking it up:
Pros
- Great entryway for beginner artist and generally busy people
- due to its small factor and portability, it’s so much easier to pick up your phone and just draw
- Eliminates the fear for perfection to create a masterpiece of art every single time because your phone is the most accessible thing that we all have, it’s always on us compared to most other devices
- So makes it easy to create, jump in, anywhere since the phone is IP68 water resistance
- No other phone manufacturer has an pressure sensitive pen like the S-pen
- The S-pen on the note 9 packs in so much including a Bluetooth feature to take pictures and media controls, which no other note phone in the past has
- There’s no parallax at all with the pen
- Great battery life
- 4000 mp
- last me all day despite being connected to my smartwatch and Bluetooth headphones the majority of the day
- Built-in PC feature that not many other phones have
- Again Dex Mode is phenomenal
- Amazing dual speakers
- it has Dolby Atmos sound features that are an incredible experience
- It’s an all-around phone that actually offers you useful features for the money
- It actually has expandable storage and headphone jack
The Cons
As with everything in tech, this is not a perfect all in one device go to device. Here’s why:
- The price
- still best $1,000 phone you can buy on the market but with features that you can live without if you don’t have them
- still, other art options for way less, if you just need a digital sketchbook
- Bixby is the most useless feature on the device
- you can’t remap the Bixby button to other voice assistance still
- S-pen gets uncomfortable after long drawing sessions
- it’s tiny, what can you expect
- Samsung has a fix with the Staedtler Noris Digital Samsung Pencil
- Not enough drawing apps support compared to IOS
- No Astropad, Procreate, Clip studio paint like on the Ipad
- This is a software issue, it can be fixed in the future if more developers invest in the Androperatingting system
- The camera is not the best on the market
- It’s okay in great lighting, I wouldn’t ditch my camera for this
- the colors are not the best in pictures
The final verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is an amazing phone and the last 6 months has been amazing having a phone that I can do professional work in. This phone is by no means perfect and I would recommend it to people that just simply couldn’t afford it. The note 9 is a luxury phone, it’s nice to have but is not a necessity especially if you need it just to do art and creative work. There’s plenty of options out there for way less and are more comfortable for a longer art session. With that said the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is just a beast, no other phone for now can compete with the range it can offer.
DISCLAIMER: This article contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This help supports the blog & channel which allows me to continue to make quality content!