We’re not done scrutinizing the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. The South Korean tech giant’s latest premium phablet smartphone deserves to be taken seriously because of the super high-end specs and the prince. We want to be sure if it’s really worth over a thousand dollars. On the surface, the price is okay for a device that has 512GB of onboard storage. We believe the price is acceptable because, in its native country alone, the half tera version is more popular.
In case you missed our past articles, this teardown treatment by IFIXIT is already the fourth we’re featuring. As soon as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was launching, a teardown analysis by Russian website Mail.Ru was published–revealing a whole copper plate.
Zack Nelson aka JerryRigEverything also tore open the Galaxy Note 9 and tried to discover what makes the premium phone water-resistant. Another teardown also revealed the key modules and components inside.
This time around, IFIXIT is ready to show us what things are waiting under the hood. To review, the Galaxy Note 9 boasts an edge-to-edge 6.4-inch Super AMOLED screen with 2960 × 1440 resolution, Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, 6GB RAM, 4000mAh battery, 12MP OIS dual rear camera system, 8MP selfie cam, 128GB storage, S Pen stylus with Bluetooth connectivity, and an IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating.
The phone looks similar to the previous Note but “very slightly wider and shorter than the Note 8”. There is still an analog jack and Samsung still hasn’t implemented a notch design. The fingerprint sensor remains at the back but is now below the cameras.
Opening the back panel is a bit challenging but the standard “heat, suction, and slicing” does the job. We see the fingerprint sensor’s new location keeps the phone away from accidental slicing.
The Galaxy Note 9’s battery is glued down as in the previous models but it is heavier. These components are found on the phone:
• Avago/Broadcom AFEM-9096 Front-End Module LTE
• IDT P9320S wireless charging receiver
• Maxim MAX77705 PMIC
• Murata KM8423057 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module
• NXP 80T17 NFC Controller
• Qualcomm WCD9341 Audio Codec
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 layered underneath
• Qualcomm SDR845 RF transceiver
• Qualcomm PM845 PMIC
• Samsung K3UH6H60AM-AGCJ 6 GB LPDDR4X SDRAM
• Samsung KLUDG4U1EA-B0C1 128 GB eUFS storage
• Samsung S2D0505 display PMIC
• Skyworks SKY78160-51 Front-End Module WLAN
• Wacom W9018 digitizer controller with S Pen capability
Samsung is generous to leave the headphone jack. It’s one feature other OEMs are choosing to not include. The heat pipe has more surface area as we already noted earlier.
Galaxy Note 9 S-Pen Teardown
We don’t usually check the S-Pen but IFIXIT did. The stylus is opened using an ultrasonic blaster cutter. The guys said it peels open like a banana so it’s easy. We see a K8373 Seiko Instruments supercapacitor, DA14580 Dialog Semiconductor Bluetooth Smart SoC, Bluetooth radio, and sensing coils.
Wrap-up
The Repairability Score is 4. The components are more modular than ever. There’s still the headphone jack, S Pen dock’s flex cable, USB-C hardware, and we see some standard Phillips screws. The battery can be replaced but you need to remove some glue barriers.
SOURCE: IFIXIT
