Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back; IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm, 201g. Midnight Black, Ocean Blue, Metallic Copper, Lavender Purple color schemes.
Display: 6.4" Super AMOLED 'Infinity Display', 2,960x1440px resolution, 18.5:9 (2.06:1) aspect ratio, 516ppi; HDR10 compliant (no Dolby Vision).
Rear camera: Primary 12MP, Type 1/2.55" sensor, f/1.5-2.4 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Secondary 12MP, Type 1/3.4" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length, autofocus, OIS; 2x zoom. 2160p/60fps, 1080p/240fps slow motion, 720p/960fps super slow-motion video recording.
Front camera: 8MP, f/1.7 aperture, autofocus; 1440p/30fps video recording.
OS/Software: Android 8.1 Oreo; Samsung Experience 9.0; Bixby virtual assistant; Smart Connect, Smart Connect Home.
Chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: octa-core CPU (4x2.7GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.7GHz Kryo 385 Silver), Adreno 630 GPU. Exynos 9810: octa-core CPU (4x3rd-gen Mongoose 2.7GHz + 4xCortex-A55 1.8GHz), Mali-G72 MP18 GPU.
Memory: 6/8GB of RAM; 128/512GB of storage; microSD slot for cards up to 512GB.
Battery: 4,000mAh Li-Po (sealed); Adaptive Fast Charging (same as S7/S8/S9); QuickCharge 2.0 support; WPC(Qi)&PMA wireless charging.
Connectivity: Single-SIM, Dual-SIM available in certain markets (hybrid slot); LTE-A, 4-Band/5-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.18 (1.2Gbps/150Mbps); USB Type-C (v3.1); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac MU-MIMO; GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0.
Misc: Bluetooth-enabled S Pen stylus with 4096 pressure levels and multimedia controls; fingerprint/iris/face recognition; stereo speakers tuned by AKG; 3.5mm jack; bundled AKG headphones; DeX dock compatibility.
If you're going to be upgrading from a Pixel 2 XL to a Note9, you'd be downgrading the Android version - the Note9 comes with 8.1 Oreo, though a Pie is surely in the making. As Qualcomm QuickCharges go, the Note9's 2.0 is pretty dated too - another non-dealbreaker, but a point worth mentioning. And... that seems to be all we can think of to complain about before ripping that box open.
Samsung Galaxy Note9 unboxing
Surprise, surprise - no surprises in here. You'd be getting the same Adaptive Fast Charging AC adapter, that's been around since S5 days (9V/1.67A and 5V/2A) and a USB cable to go with it. There's a couple of USB-C adapters (Type A and micro-B on the far ends), too