Is this a new phone? Maybe try backing it up to a computer then restoring the firmware and set it up as a new device. If your photos sync then it's an issue with your backup.
I know but I mean they got the basic design etc. I mean we know its gonna look like this
You get used to it.
You may not like it, but it's a look in demand. Either way, that will not happen. It will be Samsung to either conform to the notch or figure out a way to go full bezel-less on the top, be it a sliding camera or a camera under the display. It's all about seeing the display stretch to all the edges around a phone for that maximized real estate feel. A regular bezel on the top looks old hat by now, although I must say, and many manufacturers don't realize this, but so does on the bottom. They copy the notch but then leave a bottom bezel which means they aren't putting the notch on just for good reasons, but also to simply make it look like an iPhone X and give the phone that silhouette that is becoming the trademark of how a modern smartphone looks like.
I was in the same boat, but decided on the note 9. The phone is just fantastic. So easy to use and the screen is amazing.
I'd honestly rather have them add more sensors and cameras to the notch than shrink it. And I'd be down for the back of the camera basically being 100% cameras, lol.
Notches aren't a reduction of screen space, they're an expansion of screen space to the hitherto unused bezel areas on either side of the front-facing camera. It's a perfectly logical design decision even if it's kinda unattractive in some ways.
But why? What would necessitate the need of more sensors and cameras in the front? The notch is supposedly a stop-gap step before they figure out a way to hide the sensors behind the glass completely, with that in mind adding more of them would be counter-productive I think.
If you want to do a lot of video, you may need to offload the vids to non-iCloud storage.
