Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and the difficult task of innovating in mobiles with two launches a year (Clear the X, 1×12)

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and the difficult task of innovating in mobiles with two launches a year (Clear the X, 1×12).

We are back with Clear the X, our weekly podcast on technology. And, in addition, we return in style analyzing one of the most important launches of the summer: that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

In this new episode we present the new phone and its main ones and, although we leave the more technical questions for analysis, we delve into the Samsung’s strategy with this particular model and on the decision faced by all brands that make mobile phones: launch one or two high-end phones a year. Is there room for innovation in smartphones within six months?

For this chapter they accompany us Javier Pastor (@JaviPas), senior editor at SamaGame, and Amparo Babiloni (@ababiloni), director of Engadget Android and Engadget Mobile who, in addition, has attended the presentation of Note 9 and has already been able to test the phone. At the controls, as always, the great Santi Araujo (@SantiAraujo), responsible for our podcast.

A year in two acts, and not just with the Note 9

Last Thursday we knew the new Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which arrived with few surprises at the spec level And not only because of the numerous leaks prior to the event, but because in many things it reminded us of the Samsung Galaxy S9 + with some internal improvement, a larger screen and, yes, a vitaminized S Pen. How does the new Note 9 differ from its immediately previous model? What does it contribute to the competition?

“Evolution and not revolution”, we say in our review, for a phone that they have tried to position as a gaming phone. For this they have resorted to an exclusivity with ‘Fortnite’ that, far from the several weeks of which the leaks spoke, ended up being just a few days. Is it a gaming-oriented phone or is this one more excuse seeking to differentiate itself from its predecessors?

The big question that arises with the Note 9 is whether it still makes sense for Samsung to differentiate into two ranges, with two annual releases, its great high-end phone. In their day they positioned the Note as the “big” phone for a very specific audience that wanted screens larger than those that were being sold. Today, all phones have gone bigger. Is there enough differentiation between the Galaxy S and the Galaxy Note?

And, although until now we talk about Samsung, it is not the only manufacturer that bets on two annual high-end launches. We have LG, Sony and several other brands. Are these deadlines enough and is there enough innovation in mobile phones to sustain them? Or, on the contrary, will we see how the unique annual high-end launch that Apple defends is imposed? We talked about all this and much more in our podcast this week.

Previously, in Clear the X

Every week a new chapter

And remember: every Thursday you will have a new chapter of our podcast Clear the X, in which we will thoroughly analyze the great technological topic of each week. You can listen to it from here or subscribe through iVoox, Spotify or iTunes.

And if you still want more, we remind you that you also have available the rest of SamaGame podcast:

• insert Coin (iVoox, Spotify or iTunes): each program, a super specialist and technical guest in some of the topics that fascinate us.
• Engadget Now (iVoox or Spotify): the daily technological news, summarized in the form of an informative of a few minutes.

Thanks for joining us!