We've often asked what makes a Galaxy Note phone special. Sure, the Note is able to boast its place in smartphone history as the first mainstream "phablet" device, having first launched way back in 2011. But why buy a Note today when there are so many other great, big phones on the market -- many of which sell for a fraction of the Galaxy Note 9's eye-watering $1000 starting price?

Since Samsung first introduced a larger Galaxy S model with the S7 edge, the question has been even more pressing. The Note, launching later in the year, has also had to compete with a similarly-specced Galaxy S phone. Samsung was competing with itself, perhaps needlessly. (Some opinion pieces around the time of the Note 7 debacle even blamed Samsung's woes with that phone on the pressure to compete with the larger S7.)

In 2017, the case for the Note's existence was even more precarious. A second rear camera was added in the Note 8, but at the cost of a smaller battery. The display was only slightly larger than the S8 Plus, but in a much bulkier body.

So why buy a Note? Or, for Samsung, why even build a Note? The company solves the Galaxy Note problem this year by returning the series to its power-user roots. It could be argued that Samsung needed to start competing on raw specs again anyway, in light of even more phones with 8GB of RAM, 256GB or more internal storage, and gigantic batteries, from Chinese competitors. Nevertheless, the significant spec bump brought to bear in the Note 9 also puts the device on firmer footing within Samsung's own lineup.