Buying used (or "renewed") phones is always a gamble, but it definitely paid off for me. The phone I received was indeed factory unlocked, and in even better condition than I was expecting. It had a very, very tiny chip on the bottom corner, a few barely visible scratches on the back, and some slight dirt/scratching around the outside of the USB-C port. The S-pen was also in good condition, and the correct color, but the tip (nib) was worn down a bit. A fast charger and cable also came in the box, both in excellent condition. While the phone didn't have anyone's account or info on it, it had already been through the initial setup. The first thing I did was a factory reset, which should ALWAYS be the first thing you do on a new phone.As for the phone itself... I couldn't be happier! After hearing that the new Moto G Stylus wouldn't have NFC, and a decidedly worse pen, I went for the Note 9. It's probably the best phone purchase I've ever made. Even though it's several years old now, it still beats the 2020 Motorola budget phones in performance for just $60 more (used).It has a headphone jack, unlike the Note 10, and I actually prefer having some empty space on the top and bottom of the screen to host the camera and speaker, as opposed to a hole-punch or notch. The battery easily lasts me 2 days at half brightness, at the highest resolution. Speaking of resolution, there are three options: 720p, 1080p, and 1440p. I haven't seen any noticeable difference in battery life between 1080 and 1440, but I also can't see any real difference in quality between the two. Both options look fantastic. The screen can get incredibly dim, and also incredibly bright. There are two speakers, one on each side of the phone. They sound good, however, only the top speaker is on the front of the phone (facing you), while the other is on the bottom (next to charging port) and can be muffled by your hand while holding the phone sideways. Tons of storage space, plus expandable storage if you have an SD card to spare. NFC (Google pay/Samsung pay) is supported, unlike most similarly priced budget phones. Wireless charging is nice and allows charging even if the USB-C port fails or breaks later on. The fingerprint scanner is quick and works great.The 12-megapixel camera is the biggest negative for this phone in 2020. Good enough for day to day use and even vacation photos, but the real draw (ha) is the pen, not the camera. Secondly, the battery can't be replaced without removing the entire front panel of the phone, which is made intentionally difficult. Not uncommon these days, but a negative nonetheless.The pre-installed Samsung apps aren't too intrusive, and I replace most of them with Google alternatives. The same can't be said for Bixby or the Bixby home. Luckily, you can disable the Bixby home screen, and you can now re-bind the Bixby button to open a different app, or open nothing at all! Facebook can't be uninstalled, but you can "disable" it, which is good enough.The S-pen is incredible. I didn't realize just how versatile the pen was before I purchased it, but I'm so glad I did. It has pressure sensitivity, a tiny button on one side of the pen, and even tilt detection! It's an active pen, so it communicates it's position and angle to the phone when held close to the screen, showing a dot or text cursor depending on the context. It can be set to disable finger presses when detected, so you can safely place your hand on the screen while drawing without causing issues! It essentially IS a drawing tablet, albeit quite small. It is far superior to a capacitive pen, like what the Moto G Stylus has, which doesn't have any of these features. The main downside is that the pen has a capacitor that needs to be charged. It's not a huge issue as it can be fully charged in 40 seconds (by simply inserting it into the phone), and lasts 15-30 minutes per charge. - Worth noting, mine did NOT come with extra pen tips (nibs), and the only way to get official replacements is to buy a new pen from Samsung (on Amazon) for $30. (Pen purchase comes with 1 additional soft tip and 1 additional hard tip). Or, you can go for a possibly less-than-quality Chinese replacement set for ~$5. If you are using a screen protector, the cheap ones should be fine.- Some sellers may be better than others. My phone came from CellGuru and they get a +1 from me.- I highly recommend a case and screen protector, as both sides of this phone are covered in glass. I also specifically recommend a glass screen protector instead of film/plastic. My film protector added lots of resistance when using the S-pen, to the point of being unusable for drawing.The Note 9 is one of Samsung's best phones, with so much to offer even in 2022.Pros:+ rear reader with gestures+ pen with remote+ iris unlock+ MST+ headphone jack+ uSD card+ notification LED+ ANT+ support+ oxygen/heartrate sensorCons:- curved display- not a large battery- no removeable back- no wide-angle camera- no plastic body (glass back, metal sides)- locked bootloaderSince the Note3/GS5 era, Samsung really hasn't had any flagship phone with user-removeable batteries, plastic bodies, and Note9/GS9 era is the last generation with headphone jacks and iris recognition. It is becoming more and more difficult to find a superphone: full of features, not just faster CPU and more RAM.I have been using computers since the 70s when I was in college and purchased my first IBM clone in 1992, and was using PDAs very early on. I had one of the first Windows smart phones but got rid of it in favor of a flip phone.....why? As a physician, I had been tied to a pager for years, and I really hated trying to do anything with such a small screen. I never jumped on the iPhone bandwagon either.Finally, as the screen sizes have increased, I decided, ok, there are apps that I may find useful as well as the integration of my Google Calander and Contacts with my phone.But, while sure, I could spend over a grand on a new phone, it just did not seem to me to be a wise use of my money. I had read that a lot of smartphone addict aficionados look for the latest and greatest.....or maybe they did not like the color of their new phone....so they sent it back.Rather than winding up in landfills as a lot of returned Amazon merchandise does, unfortunately, Amazon was wise enough to create their refurbished division in which various refurbishers compete for customer's business. I thought, why not give it a try.I purchased the phone from a company named Kiss in Manhattan where I grew up. They had a high positive rating so I picked them My phone arrived the next day despite the fact that I did not pay for overnight shipping. Unfortunately, as I understand it, the ripples of the COVID situation put them out of business.As for the phone, when I opened up the box, I was shocked. In terms of appearance, there was absolutely no way I would have known it was a refurb....not a mark on it. As far as function is concerned, I used various apps to test it, and it passed. I have been using it since the first week of August. My estimate of battery life remaining is upwards of 90 percent. Of note, at Batteries and Bulbs, I can replace the battery for something like 70 dollars still putting me way ahead of the game since the phone was under 400 dollars. Add a Microcenter 512 MicroSD card for about 50 dollars and I have a phone with 3/4 of a terabyte, far more storage than I anticipate ever using.So, why the 4 stars?The phone is very elegant looking, especially with its curved display. As such, it would look very nice put upon a pedestal in our living room. However, I did not find the phone in an art store. I purchased it to use every day as my mobile phone.What is the Note 9 made of? Simply put, it is basically glass placed over a metal frame which again is fine if you want to display it on your bookshelf, but not particularly practical. Unless a person is downright foolish, just about everyone puts a case on it.You can forget about using one of those clear cases that let the beauty of the phone shine through. Drop it and you are facing an expensive repair. I was using the Unicorn Beetle Pro case with a belt clip which I never used. The phone dropped on the stairs and the inner part of the case broke. I was not really upset about that for the simple reason it saved the phone.Now I am trying an Outbox Defender which looks pretty robust.How about the curved display? Yes, it looks rather elegant, but does one really need it for functionality? The answer is absolutely not. It only serves to make designing a screen protector problematic.As for screen protectors go, I think they are necessary and I have just resigned myself to the fact that the edge adhesives are going to wear out and to simply replace them every once and awhile. They are not particularly expensive.We as consumers really should not put up with this nonsense. Most of the smartphones made these days have similar designs. They reinforce the notion of built-in obsolescence, or in actuality, built-in fragility. Yes, technology changes very rapidly. But, the basic technology of how these phones communicate does not. There is absolutely no reason that we should have to get a new phone every year. They should last far longer than that in my humble opinion.The question is how can we communicate this to the manufacturers? We can't boycott them because they all pretty much do the same thing. It is something it think about.....just saying.I loved my phone, the charger was not the correct one it it. Almost sending it the phone back due to that. But my old charger worked fine on it.If you need a new phone this is the one it said renewed but it definitely seems new and is working well so far I have t mobile I just put my sim card in from my galaxy note 5 and it works!!!! Plus this phone has great features with the stylis!!! Love love i would recomendThis phone is a great alternative to my previous one, the camera is awesome and the features are easy to understand.What a great replacement for my old Note 9! It looks like new. Bright screen, loud speaker. Transfers from old phone were ez pz. After 24 hours battery still showed 50%. The only bad news is that my carrier doesn't get my money for a new phone. Note 9..the best of the Samsung phones.I am very disappointed with this product. The phone itself is amazing, and came in great condition, but stating that it is fully unlocked is an outright lie. The phone I received is a Verizon model,with the CSC locked to verizon. This means I cannot get software updates unless I have a Verizon sim card. Also, since this is the US snapdragon version, I cannot unlock the OEM to do any firmware updates myself.Nov-19 security is not ok with me, nor should it be ok with anyone else. This phone should not be sold in the Canadian marketplace if it cant be used properly in Canada. I feel as though this company is preying on customers who are not tech savvy enough to know that they got sold a brick.Me arriesgué a adquirir el equipo con los comentarios negativos y positivos.En mi caso se escucha muy bien las llamadas.Pero....Tiene ligera pantalla fantasma en la parte inferior.Y lo peor es que a pesar de no estar conectado a nada, indica que esta cargando un dispositivo externo.Estéticamente esta en condiciones excelentes.Actualización 27/08/2021.La batería se infló, se esta despegando la tapa trasera.Excelente. Estoy muy contento con el dispositivo. Estética de 9.8 y funcionalidad de 10. Muy a gusto con la compra, llevo con el 20 días y todo muy bien. En lo personal lo recomiendo.Muchas gracias.The phone is really nice and seems to work really good, but it arrived later than expected and blue instead of lavender.Update:The seller contacted me back and offered me a 40 pounds refund. :)Overall the phone looked new but I was very disappointed to find that the external speaker wasn't working. The person on the other end of the call couldn't hear me. I wasn't expecting such things to happen after reading that the phone was thoroughly maintained to eliminate any defective part.