[Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Questions & Answers] @rbiter:
With the note9 I started over with my 'desktop' experience. First, this phone is taller than I am used to and I knew that going in. Previously, the last few years, phones have been wider as screens got bigger. With the last couple of generations of Samsung phones and the aspect ratio I adapted my home screens to accommodate not reaching as much. I also downloaded apps individually that I use often. I have a lot of legacy apps that I have not used for awhile that were convenient because of how versatile Android is/was. The versatility has gotten even better so I saw I did not need many of my apps. I have been keeping up with the theming scene for Samsung experience, which has many benefits. Google really needs to step up it's customization options instead of trying to lure iOS user with aesthetics and familiarity. Google doesn't pull the 'we know what you want' card like apple does so there are still many opportunities for Android to get even better thematically to maximize OLED advantages. Of course many of us know how OLED screens are self emitting pixels and using darker or better yet black themes to optimize battery goes a long long way since many people are still unaware that your display is the biggest battery hog.

The last unlocked note I owned was the note 2 and auto brightness worked well. T-mobile Note 3 and 4 worked decent but were slow. I had to use Xposed to take away the notched implementation and make it user granular. Fast forward to my unlocked note9 and auto brightness is a little aggressive and fastest I have seen on a Samsung phone. I have been training it to be less aggressive and so it is working quite well. And since sunlight legibility is awesome on the note9 I even have to fight auto Max brightness. Outside in sun it will be too aggressive and even setting it manually lower does not work because the algorithm is too aggressive at a certain brightness.

Anyways, to each his own. Some people really need to think over what they really need for that 24/7 connectivity in their pocket. When I see that people are using 7 social media apps and 5 email accounts and want instant notifications and instant gratification but then come whining on here about battery life is not all that great makes me shake my head because that person is oblivious or ignorant of how things really work. I streamlined down to 2 email apps down from 3. I don't use social media or apps and when I do I just go through the browser. Every bit of instant connection that you want from your phone keeps it awake and using background services including CPU and data and not letting it 'doze', rather going into a light sleep with background stuff and lowering cell radio power usage. I have a calendar and weather app that I use more aggressively now, with GPS on even, and I am still getting exceptional battery life. Some of you really need to evaluate your expectations vs the workload you put on your phone. Comparing your battery life to mine is also fallible because I prioritize battery life over everything. You don't prioritize battery life if you have 10 social media apps, 4 messaging apps, location history on, news and weather updating every 15 minutes, don't turn wifi off and 7 email accounts running in the background. I have optimized my phone to idle like a 4 cylinder Honda engine when not in use. Many of you have a 16 valve Bugatti running on your phone and expect it to not use any gas like a Honda engine when sitting at a red light. What gives?

Some of you should be in the Android and aosp sections (or other websites) reading threads that tell you how modern phones and their diverse parts work and how they work in unison. Things like DSP, DAC and ISP and how they serve optimized functions. The note9 also sips battery watching YouTube videos over WiFi and cellular now. Part of that is as the CPU/GPU/ISP have gotten more powerful and optimized they are using lower power states to bring you that video. Android in yesteryear could make your phone warm or hot just watching a 720p video over cellular connections. Not anymore.