When OnePlus was pushing August security patch for OnePlus 7 Pro, US Galaxy Note 9 users were rocking their phones with June patch level! Fortunately things took a turn when the carrier unlocked variant of Note 9 began to receive July security update, albeit the camera night mode did not make its way.

galaxy_note_9_us_unlocked_july_update_reddit
Notice about the update (Click/Tap to zoom)

Curiously though, carriers like Verizon and AT&T quickly joined the race. Both of them rolled out exact same build (CSGA) as July update and the night mode in camera was finally made accessible for the end users.

I like to point a fascinating pattern in the OTA distribution: T-Mobile failed to deliver camera night mode for the Galaxy S10 lineup till date. In case of S9/S9+, the carrier unlocked variant did not get night mode but T-Mobile enabled with along with Verizon & AT&T via July update.

Galaxy-Note9-night-mode-june-update'
Night mode in Samsung stock camera

The probability of getting night mode on T-Mobile Galaxy Note 9 is technically very high due to the similarities between the Note and S family. Well, this is not a theory anymore, as T-Mobile is actually rolling out a new update for the Note 9.

galaxy_note_9_tmobile_csga_info

Let’s talk about the similarities first? The build number is CSGA, which is exactly same as the update distributed by Verizon and AT&T for Snapdragon Galaxy Note 9. The security patch level is July and the bootloader version is v2 – even these bits are matching properly.

Now this is obvious – the camera night mode is activated as well! T-Mobile Note 9 users can finally use the enhanced low light photography tech which was available to the global Note 9 users since June! Oh, QR code scanner is there too.

galaxy_note_9_tmobile_csga_ota_prompt

So far I have noticed:

Night Mode in the Camera App

QR Reader in Quick Toggles

You can finally schedule the System Night Mode without using Developer Settings

(Source)

This bulky (~900 MB) OTA should hit anytime on your phone, so be prepared. FYI, the v2 bootloader won’t let you downgrade to older builds.

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.

Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

Next article View Article

[Updated] Instagram crashing on all Android phones, but there are workarounds

Here's the crux of the article in video form: New updates are being added at the bottom of this story……. Original story from (June 5, 2018) follows: We're...
Jul 10, 2023 6 Min Read