Newsletter
Android 9 Pie is now rolling out for unlocked Galaxy Note9 units in the US, and for the Verizon Wireless model of the device. AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile already released this update for the Galaxy Note9, and it’s finally Verizon’s turn as well.
For those of you who have unlocked variants of the Galaxy Note9, you will get Android 9 Pie under firmware version “N960U1UEUCSB3”. This update is rolling out OTA (Over-the-Air), and it weighs a bit less than 1.7GB, while the security patch for February 2019 is included in the update.
In Verizon Wireless’ case, the update is rolling out under firmware version “N960USQU1CSB3”, and it also packs a February 2019 security patch. We still do not know how large is this update, but it’s probably somewhere in-between 1.6GB and 2GB, though you can expect it to be a bit heftier than the update for the unlocked Galaxy Note9 variant, due to Verizon’s additions.
Both of these updates are rolling out as we speak, though they’re rolling out gradually, which means that not all of you will get the update straight away. It will take days, maybe even over a week for the update to reach all unlocked and Verizon Galaxy Note9 units in the US. Your phone will notify you once the update is available, though you can also manually check by navigating to the Settings app.
Android 9 Pie for the Galaxy Note9 comes with Samsung’s brand new Android user interface called One UI. We’ve already seen One UI in action on the Galaxy Note9, and a number of other Samsung handsets, including the brand new Galaxy S10 smartphones.
One UI is considerably different than its predecessor, Samsung Experience UI. One UI puts a huge focus on one-handed use, Samsung did its best to adapt its UI and applications to always be accessible with one hand, though the company was unable to do the same for third-party apps, of course.
One UI also looks different than its predecessor, as it looks even more refined now. There’s still plenty of color included in the experience, but mainly thanks to icons and similar UI elements. You will also get Samsung’s brand new gesture navigation feature with this update. It will grant you the ability to use gestures in order to navigate the UI, as you will be able to set three hotspots on the bottom of the display, similar to what we’ve seen on iPhone’s, newer Xiaomi devices, and so on.
Aside from Samsung’s additions, you will get a number of stock Android features along with Android 9 Pie, of course. Adaptive Brightness and Adaptive Battery features / optimizations are included in the update, and the same can be said for a number of other additions Google made to Android 9 Pie. Overview / multitasking menu looks different here as well, as Samsung switched to a horizontal layout, as Google did the same with Android 9 Pie. There are many more additions in Android 9 Pie, and overall, you should get a better experience with Android 9 Pie and One UI than you were able to get with Android Oreo and Samsung Experience UI.