Samsung Galaxy Note 9 to have extended battery life, more storage

By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Electronics announced through teaser videos released Friday that its upcoming high-end smartphone Galaxy Note 9 will have a long battery life with more storage space and a faster processor.

For the Galaxy Note 9, slated to be unveiled on Aug. 9 in New York, Samsung released three video teasers on its YouTube channel. The videos portray situations where smartphone users become frustrated with not having enough battery, insufficient storage space and slow download speeds.

Each video ends with the phrase, “A lot can change in a day,” hinting that Samsung's new flagship smartphone can solve all sorts of these problems.

Unveiling the teaser videos, Samsung said “the newest addition to the Galaxy family's premium line has been optimized from the inside out to keep up with users' busy lives with technologies that raise the bar for smartphone power, performance and speed.”

The Galaxy Note 9 reportedly will feature a huge 4,000 mAh battery, which will be the largest among Samsung's smartphones. The upcoming premium phone is also reportedly to come with an industry leading 512 GB of storage and 8GB of RAM.

It remains to be seen whether the Galaxy Note 9 can kickstart Samsung's sluggish mobile phone business.

Analysts presume Samsung's IT & Mobile Communications division, which covers smartphones, is expected to post an operating profit of about 2.4 trillion won in the April-June period of this year. The division posted an operating profit of 3.77 trillion won in the January-March period.

The biggest reason Samsung is expected to suffer from declining operating profits in the second quarter came from weak sales of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus smartphones.

Industry watchers estimate the sales of the S9 series is estimated to reach about 28 million units, far below its predecessor S8 series which sold 37.5 million units in 2017 and the S7 series' 48.5 million units in 2016.

Though the product hasn't hit the market yet, analysts' consensus outlook seems pessimistic.

“Samsung is estimated to ship 9.5 million units of the Galaxy S9 smartphones in the second quarter, which is better than expected,” said Yoo Jong-woo, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities. “The company's smartphone shipment in the second quarter is also estimated to decrease by 10 percent, compared with the previous quarter.”

Though the Note 9 is expected to hit the market in the third quarter, the operating profit of Samsung's IM division will be around at 2.4 trillion won, the analyst added.

Another industry watcher said Samsung's move to feature a larger battery is a welcome one.

“Consumers, who recently purchased a Samsung smartphone, have complained about shorter-than-expected battery life. It seems that the company is trying to solve this issue by featuring a larger battery,” IT columnist Ham Young-min said.

Given Samsung is losing ground to its Chinese competitors in the global smartphone market, Ham said Samsung needs to create more wow factors for the Note 9 to attract more consumers.

Ham also pointed out the latest Galaxy Note should come with more advanced S Pen stylus, the Note smartphone's signature pen-writing device. The S Pen for the Note 9 is reportedly to have Bluetooth connectivity.

“Though the Galaxy Note smartphone series features the S Pen, many of the Note users don't actually use the stylus,” Ham said. “To provide a differentiated service to garner more purchases, the Note 9 should come with a more advanced S Pen.”