The ultrapricey Note 9 is one of the year's best phones, but wait until Samsung announces its Galaxy Note 10 successor to make a decision.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a big, beautiful phone with top-tier specs including a massive battery and internal storage that starts at 128GB; The new S Pen doubles as a wireless remote for taking long-distance selfies.

It's expensive and offers few real innovations over last year's Note 8; The fingerprint reader is uncomfortably close to the camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is an incremental upgrade to the Galaxy Note 8 but small changes to a great phone can make a big difference.

The first thing that you will want to do when you get your Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is pop out the S-Pen and start scribbling on the screen. At least, that's what I did. This is a device that is a lot more fun to use than your regular phones.

The Samsung Galaxy Note series has a reputation for great design, unparalleled performance, and great cameras. The Note 9's camera is definitely up there, but it's still hard to beat beasts like the Huawei P20 Pro and a couple others. Regardless, an overall 8.5 score is nothing to scoff at.

Good exposure White balance is almost always right Great Portrait Mode performance Food Mode performs amazingly Vibrant colors

Bad dynamic range (HDR) Food Mode can make images look warm Over-processing can hurt detail

Well before 6-inch displays were mainstream, there was a series of smartphones that made the word phablet trendy. Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note series back in 2011 when smartphones were supposed to be compact and a 4.0-inch display was considered scandalously large – well, the first Galaxy Note...

Great display; The S Pen stylus remains unique; Smooth performance

Complex UI; can lag after a while; Expected better battery life; Expected better battery life

Samsung's Galaxy Note phones have always been about more. More screen, more battery, more specs, more power, more features; if you want more of something, the Note is the phone to get. It's a phone designed and built for the power user who won't settle for anything less.

Gorgeous; vibrant; bright; big display; Fast performance; True all-day battery life; Lots of storage; even in the base model

High price tag; Large; unwieldy size; Duplicate apps and extra features that don't add much value

The sum of the Galaxy Note 9's parts make it the killer phone you'll want this year.

Excellent display; Day-long battery life; Exceptional performance; Strong camera; Useful; fun S Pen features

No Android 9.0 Pie support; Expensive; Bixby still needs work

If there's one thing Samsung excels at, it's stunning smartphone screens. The same Super AMOLED panel with quad-HD resolution that you find in the Note 8 and Galaxy S9 is what you get with the Note 9, but then again, it's pretty hard to improve upon perfection.

Gorgeous 6.4-inch display; S Pen gets new powers via Bluetooth; AI camera improves photos; Lots of onboard storage; DeX mode works without dock

Expensive; Bixby still needs work; Water cooling doesn't impress

If you want pure power and performance, the Galaxy Note 9 is the best Android phone you can buy, but it's expensive and not very exciting.

Great screen; great specs; great camera; S Pen has some cool new tricks; Giant battery means it'll last through most days

It's expensive; It still runs Android Oreo and probably will for a while; Bixby isn't as good as Google Assistant and you can't turn off the button...

Value is subjective, and little illustrates that quite so well as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Long the largest physically of the company's smartphones, now the Note family pushes Samsung into a new price bracket, too: like Apple's iPhone X, you're looking at a $1,000 membership fee if you want access...

The best smartphone screen around; Huge amounts of power; memory; and storage; S Pen keeps getting more functional; Cameras are reliable workhorses

$1,000+ price tag is eye-watering; Samsung's software can be frustrating; Bixby still underwhelms