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Top Korean carrier: Over half of Note 9 orders were for most-expensive version
July 22, 2025
Even though theSamsung Galaxy Note 9isn’t due to ship to customersuntil August 24, that hasn’t stopped Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom. The carrier reports — viaThe Investor— it is already shipping the devices today, a full three days early.
The carrier also dished some statistics on the pre-orders it received. According to the telecom, over half of Galaxy Note 9 orders were for the incredibly expensive 512GB version, which here in the Statescosts $1,250. In South Korea, the handset goes for 1.35 million won (~$1,208).
SK Telecom also says that the Ocean Blue variant – with the yellow S Pen stylus, pictured above – is the most popular color choice in Korea.
The carrier did not divulge any numerical statistics for the device pre-orders, so we don’t know how much “more than half” of the pre-orders really is.
However, a previously-reported statement from another local Korean carrier, viaSamMobile, said that Note 9 pre-orders exceeded pre-orders for theSamsung Galaxy S9by “roughly 30 to 50 percent.” This would seem like good news forSamsung– except the carrier also reported that those numbers are still less than the pre-orders it received for theSamsung Galaxy Note 8last year.
It should also be noted that pre-orders and sales are two different things: many people could potentially pre-order a device and then not follow through with the purchase.
Until we get some more hard data on sales and shipment numbers, we won’t know for certain how well the Galaxy Note 9 is doing with its hefty price tag. But consideringSamsung’s sales performance over the past year, let’s hope it’s doing as well as these Korean telecoms say it’s doing.
NEXT:Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review: In praise of incrementalism
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