The announcement of the Galaxy Note 9 is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s upcoming trio of new iPhone models, which are slated to be announced next month. That’s an anticipated head-to-head comparison, but since we don’t know what Apple is going to announce, let’s compare the Note 9 with the iPhone X.

Let’s toss specs aside because both sport very different specs. Design-wise the Note 9 and iPhone X are brothers by all intents and purposes. Each wears a sheets of glass on the front and back held together by a steel metal band that provides an uber premium finish that looks fantastic.

Where the two separate is with feature set. The Note 9 has the iconic S-Pen and fingerprint scanner on the back while the iPhone X simplifies things with Face ID and the polarizing notch.

Which one is better? Take a look at the side by side comparison and decide for yourself.

Samsung - Galaxy Note 9 Apple - iPhone X
Display Size 6.4-inch, 1440 x 2960 pixel display (514 ppi) 5.8-inch, 1125 x 2436 pixel display (463 ppi)
Resolution X 1440 1125
Resolution Y 2960 2436
Display Type Quad HD+ Super AMOLED Super Retina HD
Operating System Android 8.1 (at launch) iOS 11 (at launch)
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture
RAM 6GB/8GB 3GB (unofficial)
Storage
  • 128GB
  • 512GB
  • 64GB
  • 256GB
External Storage Yes No
External Storage Specs
  • microSD up to 512GB
Main Camera (Back) 12MP 12MP
Secondary Camera (Front) 8MP 7MP
Networks
  • Enhanced 4x4 MIMO/CA, LAA, LTE Cat.18
  • CDMA EV-DO Rev. A: 800, 1900, 2100
  • FDD-LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 66)
  • GSM/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
  • TD-LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41)
  • TD-SCDMA 1900 (F), 2000 (A)
  • UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA: 850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100
Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.0 Bluetooth 5.0
Battery 4000mAh N/A
NFC Yes Yes
Connectivity
  • USB Type-C
  • Lightning port
Sensors
  • Accelerometer
  • Barometer
  • Fingerprint
  • Gyro
  • Geomagnetic
  • Hall
  • Heart rate
  • Iris
  • Pressure
  • Proximity
  • RGB
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light
  • Barometer
  • Face ID
  • Proximity
  • Three-axis gyro
GPS
  • BeiDou
  • Galileo
  • Glonass
  • GPS
  • Assisted GPS
  • Digital compass
  • GLONASS
  • Galileo
  • QZSS
Height 161.9 mm (6.37 inches) 5.65 inches (14.35 cm)
Width 76.4 mm (3.01 inches) 2.79 inches (70.9 mm)
Depth 8.8 mm (0.35 inches) .30 inches (7.6 mm)
Weight 201 g (7.09 oz) 6.14 oz (174 g)
Colors N/A Space Gray Silver
Supported Audio Formats MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA, DSF, DFF, APE AAC-LC, HE-AAC, HE-AAC v2, Protected AAC, MP3, Linear PCM, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3), and Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+)
Supported Video Formats MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM HEVC, H.264, MPEG-4 Part 2, and Motion JPEG