Few phones fill out a spec sheet quite like a Note. Samsung's wildly popular Galaxy Note lineup has always been about packing in all the latest and most powerful specs, and the Galaxy Note 9 is no exception. It comes packing a Snapdragon 845, 6 or 8GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage — not to mention water resistance, wireless charging, a headphone jack, and the ever-important S Pen.
Those big specs demand a big phone, though. The Note 9 features a gorgeous, massive 6.4-inch display — the biggest to ever grace a Samsung phone. Even with Samsung's minuscule bezels, that's a lot of phone to handle, especially if you like to use your phone in one hand. So is the Note 9 … too big?
That sort of depends on how you use your phone. The Galaxy Note line has never been about one-handed usability in the first place, and to use one comfortably, you need to throw that idea out the window. This is a two-handed phone through and through, and using it as one makes it significantly easier to handle — a PopSocket can help a lot with this.
You'll also have to either start wearing pants with extra deep pockets or just get used to part of it sticking out at all times. The Galaxy Note 9 is a whopping 162mm tall, after all.
That all sounds inconvenient to someone like me, who carries a Galaxy S9 specifically because of how often I use gesture typing or scroll through Twitter and Slack with one hand. But for some, the Note 9's benefits can outweigh the inconvenience of having such an imposing stature.
A huge screen is one of the biggest reasons to buy a Galaxy Note, but sometimes it's more hassle than it's worth.
Having a 6.4-inch display gives you a huge, open canvas for the Note 9's halo feature, the S Pen. Whether you're drawing in Screen Off Memos or signing a document, it's nice to have ample screen space to work with. That huge screen is also great for watching videos — so much so that YouTube has named the Galaxy Note 9 a "Signature Device," which basically just means that it's one of the best ways to view YouTube content.
No matter how many benefits the Note 9 brings, though, it still won't be a good fit for everyone. Some people's hands are just too small to work with such a massive phone, and even people with bigger hands may still prefer easy one-handed usability.
If you're not sure how you'd handle the Galaxy Note 9 and don't want to wait until pre-orders are over to find out, just try out a Galaxy Note 8; they're more or less the same size (the Note 8 is a hair taller while the Note 9 is just a bit wider), though the Note 9 has an easier-to-reach fingerprint sensor.
How do you feel about the size of the Note 9 and the Galaxy Note lineup as a whole? Have you been a longtime user that's unfazed by huge phones, or are you tired of the ever-expanding selection these days? Let us know in the comments below!
