'Fortnite' On Samsung's $1000 Galaxy Note 9: Is It Any Good?
Samsung's Note 9 might be the best choice for playing Fortnite on the go.Credit: Samsung/Epic Games
Yes, at this point in gaming history, Epic Games’ Fortnite has spread to—and is continuing to take over—just about every electronic device under the sun. By this time next year, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you could boot up Battle Royale on the Atari Jaguar or elusive Nuon console (I wonder if Samsung even remembers making those quirky DVD players).
And speaking of Samsung, perhaps the newest and freshest market hardware capable of indulging in 2018’s multiplayer phenomenon is the luxury-priced Note 9, due to hit store shelves August 24. I was able to get my hands on a 128 GB storage/6 GB RAM/ $1,000 MSRP review unit yesterday, and let me tell you, it provides a surprisingly capable way of engaging with Fortnite’s ever-evolving, endlessly huge cartoon world.
As you probably know by now, you can’t download Fortnite from the Google Play Store, which is kind of a pain in terms of convenience, but nothing insurmountable. I simply visited the official Fortnite website, downloaded the game installer, and after a few minutes of waiting through fast-moving progress bars, I was signing into my Epic account. Like magic, all of my gained experience, Battle Pass and unlockables were waiting for me, only in smaller mobile form.
At first glance, Fortnite on the Note 9 looks a whole lot like its console counterparts, and quite impressively so. Sure, the textures are lower-res and many of the menus in the main lobby have been reworked/rearranged to accommodate touchscreen input. But if the software were being cast to say, a larger TV screen or monitor, it might be easy to momentarily mistake it for the Xbox One or PS4 versions. Setting up match preferences and changing skins, emotes and accessories is quick and responsive, though your character’s idle animation hints at a foreboding framerate restraint.
This brings us to the actual gameplay performance, which is incredibly solid given the current limitations of mobile technology but also somewhat lacking given how new (and expensive) the Note 9 hardware is. The phone itself handles things pretty swimmingly while running the game’s highest Epic graphics setting, though there is a decent amount of texture/architecture pop-in at times, and the going framerate is stubbornly capped at 30 fps. I did notice some slight drops in framerate when jumping into especially intense battles, but for the most part, it was solid.
So yeah, it’s not the blazing 60 fps that other platforms boast (something I really wish Epic could have pulled off on the Note 9), but Samsung’s phone still does a really solid job of conveying the intensity of 100-person firefights as well as the robust expanse of Fortnite’s massive map. The device does tend to get a bit warm after an hour or so of play, so take note of that. Other issues I’ve noticed are occasionally inconsistent camera movement when rotating, as well as jittery animation and warping/lag in other players. But truthfully, I feel like that might have less to do with Samsung’s hardware and more to do with Epic’s relatively new beta software. I’m sure a lot of that will get ironed out with subsequent updates. By the way, it’s crazy cumbersome to play this game on a touchscreen, even with auto-aim turned on. Though after around 10 matches or so, I actually started to adapt to (and even kind of enjoy) all the reaching, swiping and tapping. Stockholm syndrome, I suppose.
Don’t get me wrong—this might be the single best way to currently play Fortnite on the go (excluding Nintendo’s portable Switch version with its physical controls), but the game isn’t quite perfect on Samsung’s ridiculously capable phone. And how could it be, really? Epic is scrambling to keep up with the frothing demand for this title and released this iteration not even a week ago. Would the performance be slightly better on the 512 GB storage/ 8 GB RAM/ $1,250 MSRP version of the Note 9? Potentially, but I don’t possess that particular model, so this review can’t exactly comment. I kind of doubt it would make that much of a difference this early in the game, but I could be wrong. Regardless, both models come with Epic's limited sweet Galaxy skin, so there's also that to consider, even though it may not remain a Samsung exclusive forever.
Even with the occasional graphical glitches, framerate cap, and lack of Bluetooth controller support (something I totally understand but loathe just the same), Battle Royale is still endlessly playable via Android mobile. Having said that, and considering all the bells and whistles (like the huge screen and stereo sound) found in Samsung’s powerful handheld device, I’d wager the Note 9 is easily one of the best current choices for Fortnite on the go. And since the software is still in beta territory, I’m sure performance will only get better from here on out. I’m looking forward to seeing the game evolve on Android, and hopefully over the course of the next several months, Epic can iron out some of those annoying performance kinks.
Disclaimer: Samsung provided review product for coverage purposes.
Post a Comment