Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launch live blog: the Unpacked event as it happened

Samsung's Unpacked event revealed the next generation of Note phablet to the world, and it wasn't not just the Galaxy Note 9 that's made an appearance today.

We reported live from Samsung's Unpacked event in Brooklyn, New York to bring you all the latest from the press conference, including the surprise launches of the new Galaxy Watch - and we've also seen the new Galaxy Home smart speaker too.

You can keep up with everything that happens on stage with our live blog as we follow along with the event, and we'll also offer you expert analysis on the news as it breaks, helping you understand what it all means and why you should be excited, shocked, surprised or disgusted.

The event has now finished, but you can see how it unfolded below.

Watch our hands on video below to see the Galaxy Note 9 in action

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launch live blog

All times in Eastern Daily Time (EDT)

12.05 - DJ Koh is back on stage to wrap things up (with an awkward exchange with Daniel Ek when he was saying goodbye).

Who knows what will happen next? Well, the Note 9 release date has been set for 24 August. That's a start. It's also the 'future of connected living too'. 

Everything we've seen is a 'step forward into an open and connected world, powerful enough to keep up with you'.

It's a lot more marketing speak... basically Samsung has made the battery life longer on its biggest smartphone and watch, and added a smart speaker that seems very similar to the Apple HomePod. There's certainly no paradigm shift here, but we need to get to work previewing the Galaxy Watch and Home for you to find out if there's anything special.

12.02 - You'll need to use Samsung's SmartThings framework to get this to work, so basically Samsung things. You'll soon be able to control the music  through Bixby as well... and somehow that will bring 'new music experiences'. Who knew?

12.01 - Drew is back to help out. We're seeing an empty desk where Mr Doodle was so confusing.

Ah, when you come close to a device that is Spotify-enabled, you'll get a notification asking you to change it over.

Press play on a Galaxy Home with the music playing on you and it'll transfer there. Samsung is making Spotify its own Apple Music. That's smart.

12.00 - Ek is talking about how Spotify has disrupted the industry with streaming. Now we're going to hear some analysis about how users listen differently on different devices.

All about how seamless it is to switch from one device to another - that's already quite easy on Spotify, so it'll be interesting to see how that changes.

11.59 - They needed the perfect partner, committed to the long-term of the service and music. Guess who it is? Yeah, it's Spotify.

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify on stage. This is pretty big. 

11.57 - It's Drew Blackard on the stage again now (totally always knew his name)... it sounds like we're wrapping up now.

Everything looks like it's going to be Bixby-enabled... but now we're hearing more about music. The importance of it. How we listen on up to three different devices that don't work so well together.

How will Samsung solve that? Apparently the brand is dedicated to it. Oh, it's partnered with Spotify.

11.55 - There's eight microphones in the mix, so it can hear from anywhere in the room. Sounds like this is only a first look for now, as Samsung will 'share more details soon'.

There are more expansions coming soon, with Bixby in the mix. It's hard to see what Samsung is doing here really... we'll hear more at the Samsung Developer Conference with what 

11.54 - It's tuned with AKG in the mix as well. It's a circular device that sends sound in every direction, and sub-woofer to provide deep bass - and there's Harmon natural sound processing, and it'll detect its position and change the output.

Say 'SoundSteer' and it'll point the music right at you. But how much is this?

11.52 - Say 'Hi Bixby' and it'll listen up. Say 'play music' and it'll do just that. We've not seen it do anything else yet - but this is a strong play from Samsung. The brand keeps saying that the AI race is a marathon and it's not that far behind... but in our eyes, it needs to speed up dramatically to catch up.

This had better be a cheap and powerful device... and it's called the Galaxy Home.

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Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.