Samsung Galaxy Note 9: live news and updates from the Unpacked event

If you want a big, powerful Android phone that can run Fortnite exclusively for a while, you can reserve your Samsung Galaxy Note 9 right now from a variety of retailers.

The phone will officially release on August 24th. No matter your carrier, you can redeem preorder bonuses through the Samsung Shop app, so long as you preorder before 8/23. This will include either a set of AKG noise-canceling headphones ($299 value) or 15,000 V-bucks ($150 value), which is Fortnite’s in-game currency. You can also buy both of them for $99. You have until September 13th to upload your proof of preorder purchase through the Samsung Shop app to claim the goodies.

Samsung has a new dual wireless charger that seems designed for its new Note 9 and Galaxy Watch. The Wireless Charger Duo has two charging pads, with a flat area meant for the new Galaxy smartwatch and a propped up charging spot for keeping a phone display visible during a charge.

Each charging pad has 12W of charging power, so both pads will support fast charging from Samsung or any other phone vendor. Together, the two pads resemble one of Samsung’s propped up charging pads glued together with one of its flat charging pads. While Samsung already sells another dual wireless charger, that one has two flat charging pads. This is the first dual wireless charger that lets you watch shows or check texts while charging your phone, which is more convenient.

Fortnite is making its way to Android, but not until Samsung device owners get a stab at it first... for a measly couple of days. At the Samsung Unpacked event on Thursday, the Fortnite team announced that Samsung users will be on the receiving end of an unusually short exclusive, ending well before the Galaxy Note 9 is released near the end of the month.

In the next few days, the game will be made available for all other supported Android devices, so Pixel users and others won’t have to wait too long to start building forts and cracking open pink llama piñatas. According to a spokesperson for Epic Games, the company has yet to disclose exactly when the Android beta will be fully released. At the event, it was announced that it would be out in the next few days, meaning it would be widely available before the Note 9 even hits the market.

The Galaxy Note 9 is official, along with the unveiling of the long-rumored Samsung smart speaker, the Galaxy Home. At its annual Unpacked event in New York City today, the company finally confirmed details of the various hardware that had been leaked leading up to the announcement. Here’s a recap of everything you should know.

The Note 9 looks... pretty much like any other Galaxy we’ve become familiar with. It’s a 6.4-inch device that will ship with Android 8.1, and it packs a 4,000mAh battery inside. That’s the largest battery inside a Note device yet, proving that Samsung is extremely ready to move past the Note 7 incident. The new S Pen stylus will also include Bluetooth, which allows it to perform various functions like doubling as a remote shutter for selfies and presentations. Despite now requiring a battery power to run, the S Pen has supercapacitive charging that allows it to regain power when you stick it back into the Note 9.

Samsung announced today at its Unpacked 2018 event that its new Galaxy Note 9 will arrive with Bixby 2.0. It will be Samsung’s first smartphone device that will have an upgraded version of Bixby out of the box, which the company says will be better at processing natural language, predicting user needs, and offering quicker response times.

Samsung demoed some of Bixby’s new skills onstage, showing that it’s now possible to have more natural conversations with it. If, for example, you asked Bixby about what concerts are happening in Brooklyn over Labor Day weekend, you could then follow up with another question like “What about the first weekend in October?” without requalifying the context. This is the same sort of functionality that was announced for Amazon’s Alexa earlier this year.

Samsung has announced that it’s entering a long-term partnership with Spotify, including support for the just-announced Galaxy Home smart speaker.

The partnership is described as one that will span all of Samsung’s devices from phones to TVs to speakers. It seems like a deeper, more integrated version of the existing Spotify Connect feature that the company already offers for Samsung’s hardware.

Samsung has announced its entry into the smart speaker market with the Galaxy Home. It’s a high-end speaker that’s meant to go head-to-head with Apple’s HomePod, while standing apart from competitors like Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home with a promise of higher-quality audio. Samsung said the speaker is meant to combine “amazing sound and elegant design.”

The Galaxy Home looks like a strange vase or statue that might go on a table in the corner of your home. It’s wrapped in fabric and elevated by three stout metal legs. It has a flat top with control buttons on it for skipping tracks and changing the volume.

Samsung is back with a new smartwatch and fresh branding. The company announced its Galaxy Watch at its annual Galaxy Note phone event today. It features 3G / LTE connectivity and charges wirelessly. There will be two models: a 46mm silver version and smaller 42mm black and rose gold versions. The company’s forgoing its previous Gear branding and is instead tying the watch more directly to its Galaxy smartphone and tablet line.

The Galaxy Watch will be available in the US on August 24th and in Korea on August 31st. Additional markets will receive it on September 14th. In the US, the Galaxy Watch Bluetooth 42mm version will cost $329.99 while the 46mm version will cost $349.99. It’ll be available through Amazon, Best Buy, and Samsung.com. The LTE version will be available through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Samsung.com later this year. We don’t have that pricing yet. Anyone who preorders the Bluetooth models through Samsung.com before September 8th will receive a free watch band.

The Galaxy Note 9 is here, and like every Galaxy Note device before it, one of the highlights of the Note 9 is the thing that separates it from most other smartphones: the S Pen stylus.

This time around, Samsung is upgrading the S Pen in a big way: it’s adding Bluetooth Low Energy, turning the stylus from a mere note-taking accessory into a full-fledged remote control for your phone.

One of the worst-kept secrets in gaming has turned out to be true: the Android version of Fortnite will be available exclusively on Samsung devices at launch. But it’s not just the new Note 9 and Tab S4 getting Fortnite; owners of a range of recent Samsung devices — the S9 / S9 Plus, Note 8, Galaxy S8 / S8 Plus, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, and Tab S3 — can all start playing the beta today. You’ll be able to install Fortnite from either Samsung’s Game Launcher app or Epic’s new installer, both available here.

The official announcement from Samsung comes after a handful of reports pointed to the possibility, most recently following a leak of the game’s APK. The exclusivity period will last “for the next few days,” according to Samsung. That sounds like less than the 30-day window that was rumored, which should be welcome news for fans of the game. Anyone preordering the Galaxy Note 9 will have the option of receiving 15,000 V-bucks and the Fortnite Galaxy skin (seen above) instead of noise-canceling AKG headphones. (Or you can get both by paying $99.)

Samsung is coming off of a disappointing launch for its Galaxy S9, but that doesn’t mean the company is shaking things up for its next major smartphone. The Galaxy Note 9 is officially being announced today, and Samsung is doubling down on everything that the Note series represents: productivity and performance. It has the best specs you’ll find in any flagship Android phone, the screen is bigger, its S Pen has more tricks than ever before, and the battery is huge. Oh, and Samsung’s DeX software is now built right into the phone — no dock required — so you can plug it into any external display for a desktop-like experience.

The Note 9 will be sold in two configurations: there’s a 128GB / 6GB RAM model for $999 and a top-tier 512GB / 8GB RAM version for $1,250. Preorders begin on August 10th, and the phone will be available on August 24th at all major carriers or direct (and unlocked) from Samsung.

Two summers ago, Samsung had its Icarus moment with the Galaxy Note 7. That device combined the traditional strengths of the Note line — big screen, large battery, and handy stylus — with the slender proportions of a regular phone. But it also had a design flaw that led to its spontaneous combustion, which in turn triggered rushed recalls, a global apology tour, and a substantial hit to Samsung’s bottom line. Singed by the memory of its hubristic excess of ambition, Samsung is returning to the Note series this year with a Galaxy Note 9 that appears to be the precise opposite: a phone so incremental in its upgrades as to scarcely merit the uptick in model number. And that’s a problem for Samsung.

Like the Galaxy S9 earlier this year, the Note 9 is set to reprise all the major features and design elements of its predecessor, the Note 8, with only peripheral changes. Plentiful leaks ahead of today’s event show a device that has the new dual-aperture camera of the S9, which is little more than a cool marketing gimmick. The Note 9 looks like it’ll be Samsung’s first 512GB phone, which will be nice to have, but not an overriding reason to buy this phone (unless you have truly hardcore storage needs). And, lest we forget, one of the new Note models will have a bright yellow S Pen, and the stylus is getting a Bluetooth update for mysterious new functionality. Will any of that be enough to get you to look away from Huawei’s P20 Pro, Oppo’s Find X, or Apple’s iPhone X?

Samsung is introducing its latest Note soon, and we have a pretty good idea of what to expect, thanks to numerous leaks. So far, we know that it bears a strong resemblance to the Note 8, with a headphone jack, a USB-C port, dual rear cameras, and a rear fingerprint sensor. And the Note 9 looks to have a bigger battery than its predecessors, at 4,000mAh.

In fact, the only thing that’s really remained a secret is how much it will cost and when it will become available for preorders. There are also rumors of a Samsung Galaxy Watch or a new smart speaker powered by Bixby. Perhaps they’ll be addressed at today’s event ahead of IFA in Berlin later this month.