Samsung Galaxy Note9: What can you expect tomorrow night?
S Pen matters & Next version of Bixby?
Evolving to a Connected S Pen?
The S Pen has been the signature feature of the Galaxy Note series and its features have been expanded vastly over the past few years. This year could see a major leap in its functionality thanks to Bluetooth connectivity.
Mobile industry veteran Eldar Murtazin is among the first to report on the S Pen with Bluetooth connectivity. FCC filing also revealed that there will be a Bluetooth-equipped S Pen which can be charged via the phone. ETNews added that the S Pen can be used to control home appliances and act as a remote shutter for the camera. Going by these supposed features, it's not a far stretch to probably even expect presentation capabilities out of the S Pen.
Our thoughts: The evolved S Pen will be a headline feature in the Note9.
Will Bixby progress to counter Alexa and Siri assistants?
Samsung's digital AI voice assistant, Bixby will see an upgrade alongside the Galaxy Note9. Samsung's AI research center head Gray G. Lee reportedly told the Korea Herald that Bixby 2.0 will ship with the Galaxy Note 9.
Bixby 2.0 is expected to have better natural language processing, faster responses and better results in noisy environments. Since Samsung recently expanded Bixby support to the new Family Hub refrigerators, it is likely that the company will showcase tighter integration of Bixby 2.0 with its SmartThings IoT ecosystem.
Our thoughts: Don't expect leaps, but Bixby will be easier to use and have more use-case scenarios.