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Galaxy Note 9: Nine ways it beats the iPhone

Samsung has come out swinging hard against the iPhone with the Galaxy Note 9, putting some significant pressure on Apple to raise its game with the next release.
By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer
Huge battery
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Huge battery

That 4,000mAh battery inside the Note 9, which Samsung calls an "all-day battery," dwarfs the 2,716mAh cell found in the iPhone X. And yet Samsung has crammed this battery into a smartphone that's only marginally thicker than the iPhone X (8.8mm compared to 7.7mm for the iPhone X, 7.3mm for the iPhone 8, or 7.5mm for the iPhone 8 Plus).

Apple, it's time to up your battery game!

Massive storage
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Massive storage

Apple offers the iPhone X in two storage configurations -- 64GB and 256GB. The Galaxy Note 9 in 128GB and 512GB configurations.

512GB is enough storage for about 2,300 movies, or some 93,000 photos.

That's a lot.

And the Note 9 has the option to use microSD cards to expand the storage so you can hoard more stuff.

Yeah, Samsung has Apple beaten here.

Serious RAM
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Serious RAM

The iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus ship with 3GB of LPDDR4X RAM, while the iPhone 8 only gets 2GB of RAM.

The Note 9 comes in two RAM configurations -- 6GB of LPDDR4 RAM in the model with 128GB of storage, and this is upped to 8GB of RAM in the 512GB model.

More RAM should translate into a smoother user experience thanks to faster applications and reduced lag, especially when switching between apps.

Expansion option
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Expansion option

While Samsung has incentivized users to buy the Note 9 with the 512GB storage option by giving that model more RAM, both models come with a microSD card slot that allows users to augment the internal storage to suit their needs.

This even opens up the door to having a whopping 1TB of storage in the Note 9 (but that will cost you!).

Aggressive pricing
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Aggressive pricing

The 128GB Note 9 is the same price as the 64GB iPhone X, with the monster 512GB model with 8GB of RAM being $100 more than the 256GB iPhone X.

It's clear that Samsung is eating into its profit margin to deliver this sort of value to consumers, but to be honest, if you're paying this sort of money for hardware, people deserve the best.

Dual-SIM
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Dual-SIM

A dual-SIM option is not something everyone will want, but for those who travel, or who want to have separation between work and home, this is a great option that's sorely lacking from the iPhone.

Superior camera hardware
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Superior camera hardware

While there's more to a good photo than the camera hardware, the camera system that Samsung has packed into the Note 9 has significant improvements over what Apple offers on the iPhone.

The aperture of the rear camera has been improved, which should help with low-light conditions, and the megapixel count of the front-facing camera is 12-megapixel, same as the rear cameras (compare to the 7-megapixel front-facing camera found on the current generation iPhones).

Yes, software can do a lot to process an image, but if the light isn't captured in the first place, it's lost forever.

S Pen
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S Pen

The S Pen isn't new, but the updated version for the Note 9 gives it a whole raft of new abilities, such as the ability to use it to control the camera remotely, to using it to control slideshows and even apps.

It even recharges automatically when stored in the slot in the Note 9.

Sure, Apple has the Apple Pencil, but its features are limited, and the device itself is limited to the iPad Pro.

DeX
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DeX

Samsung's DeX platform allows users to transform their Galaxy device into a desktop system by just dropping it into the dock. It makes having one device for both mobile and desktop use a reality, and is something that appeals to certain types of user -- especially business and law enforcement.

And it's something that Apple doesn't have.

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