Samsung held its 'Unpacked' event on August 10, wherein the South Korean tech giant made a slew of announcements and launches. The highlight of the event was, of course, the successor to Samsung's Note series, the Galaxy Note 9. Along with an improved lowlight imaging, a super slow-motion model and an updated Bixby, the Galaxy Note 9 also promises highest ever battery backup that any Note series device has seen to date. In addition to the Note 9, the company launched its first ever smart speaker as the Galaxy Home and a new smartwatch called the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Here is a look at what all of these devices have to offer.
Samsung Galaxy Note 9
The Galaxy Note 9 carries several updates over the other premium products from the house of Samsung. These updates include the first-ever appearance of the Bixby 2.0 on a Samsung device, which now promises a better natural language processing, user need prediction, and quicker response times.
As for its design, Samsung seems to have kept the form factor of the previous Galaxy Note device for the Note 9. The Note 9 comes with slight tweaks to the Note 8, including a re-positioned fingerprint sensor at the back which will now be a bit more accessible. The S Pen also gets more functions, like the ability to capture an image through the pen. Note 9 also boasts of the highest ever battery backup that any Note series device has seen to date. The display is now a 6.4-inch screen, without a notch. The camera combination is the same as the one we saw in the Galaxy S9+ and the processor combination is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and Samsung's own Exynos 9810, depending upon the region of availability.
As for its availability, the Galaxy Note 9 will be up for sale in four different colour options - Midnight Black, Metallic Copper, Ocean Blue and Lavender Purple. Samsung has also announced two separate storage variants, with one offering a 128GB internal storage and 6GB RAM and the high-end version offering a 512GB built-in storage and 8GB RAM, both with support for a 512GB microSD card.
Samsung Galaxy Watch
Samsung also announced a new smartwatch at its 'Unpacked' event that boasts of a long-lasting battery life, LTE connectivity as well as several wellness-specific features. Available in Silver, Midnight Black and Rose Gold colours, the new Galaxy Watch also comes with a Gear moniker, 60,000 watch faces as well as a heart rate monitor.
The Galaxy Watch will be available in the US starting August 24 and in other markets starting September 14. The LTE connectivity on the Galaxy Watch will be available across 30 plus carriers and in more than 15 countries.
Samsung Galaxy Home
Samsung's first ever attempt at a smart speaker for smart homes came in the form of Samsung Smart Speaker launched at the event. The speaker features Samsung's in-house voice assistant Bixby, in addition to eight far-field microphones, six built-in speakers as well as a subwoofer. The Galaxy Home will be fired up with the phrase "Hey Bixby".
No details about the price and availability of the device have been announced so far, with Samsung promising more information on the same in November.
Fortnite and Spotify Integration
Fortnite's Android release has been long anticipated and as reports indicated just a few weeks back, the game has been launched on the Android platform as an exclusive to several Samsung devices. The exclusivity has been promised "for a few days", meaning that it might make its way to all the Android devices soon. For now, the Galaxy users are already able to sign up for the Android version of the game.
Samsung also announced its newly formed partnership with music streaming service Spotify, now allowing Galaxy users to link their account to Bixby and even make the service their default music player. Spotify will now also work on non-smartphone devices such as a smart television, even without a necessary Spotify account.
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