Samsung galaxy s9+ review, Should you really upgrade from the Samsung galaxy s8+?

Without a doubt, The Samsung galaxy s9+ is one of the best phones on earth and I’m actually surprised because this is my first time seeing 2 cameras on a Samsung galaxy phone! Although they’re a few drawbacks on the smartphone we anticipated, it really makes up for it with its glorious infinite display as well as its advanced features phones haven’t even dreamt of having. To really get the feel for this device I’ve included views from other tech savvy users that share their opinions upon review.

                           

Samsung Galaxy S9+ specs

·Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back; IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. Midnight Black, Coral Blue, Titanium Gray, Lilac Purple color schemes.

·Display: 6.2" Super AMOLED 'Infinity Display', 2,960x1440px resolution, 18.5:9 (2.06:1) aspect ratio, 529ppi; HDR10 compliant (no Dolby Vision).

·Rear camera: Primary 12MP, Type 1/2.55" sensor, f/1.5-2.4 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Secondary 12MP, Type 1/3.4" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length, autofocus, OIS; 2x zoom. 2160p/60fps, 1080p/240fps slow motion, 720p/960fps super slow motion video recording.

·Front camera: 8MP, f/1.7 aperture, autofocus; 1440p/30fps video recording.

·OS/Software: Android 8.0 Oreo; Samsung Experience 9.0; Bixby virtual assistant; Smart Connect, Smart Connect Home

·Chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: octa-core CPU (4x2.7GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.7GHz Kryo 385 Silver), Adreno 630 GPU. Exynos 9810: octa-core CPU (4x3rd-gen Mongoose 2.7GHz + 4xCortex-A55 1.8GHz), Mali-G72 MP18 GPU.

·Memory: 6GB of RAM; 64/128/256GB of storage; microSD slot for cards up to 400GB.

·Battery: 3,500mAh Li-Po (sealed); Adaptive Fast Charging (same as S7/S8); QuickCharge 2.0 support; WPC (Qi)&PMA wireless charging.

·Connectivity: Single-SIM, Dual-SIM available in certain markets (hybrid slot); LTE-A, 4-Band/5-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.18 (1.2Gbps/150Mbps); USB Type-C (v3.1); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac MU-MIMO; GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0.

·Misc: Fingerprint/iris/face recognition; stereo speakers (bottom-firing + earpiece); 3.5mm jack; bundled AKG headphones; DeX dock compatibility.

In the box

Galaxy S9 | S9+

• Device
• USB Cable
• Earphone
• Ejection pin
• USB power adapter
• Quick start guide
• USB connector (USB type-C)
• Micro USB connector
• Clear view cover

Samsung has always been one of my favorite brands in the world and I wasn’t really surprised that they kept the infinite display as we’ve seen before on the Samsung galaxy s8 and s8+ which did very well but the difference comes in where there is now 2 cameras to the device which adjust with light to preserve the Brightness and contrast while still delivering stunning images. The new adjustment is how fingerprint sensor is actually placed below the camera on the s9 because users kept on complaining that on reach for the fingerprint sensor, they accidentally ended up tapping the camera button.

One of the many things Samsung mocks about apple is how they don’t have any headphone jack which on that note: Brian Heater over at Tech Crunch said “Bluetooth headphones have come a long way in the past couple of years, but dealing with battery issues and the uncertainty of pairing is still a headache. Sometimes you just want to plug in a pair of wired headphones and be done with it.” Which I definitely agree with! There’s nothing more boring than to charge your Bluetooth headphones, jump into Bluetooth and pair them just to watch a video or listen to music! Dan Seifert from the verge said “If you’re looking for a high-end phone with a headphone jack in 2018, you have fewer choices than ever, so I’m quite happy to see that Samsung didn’t change this aspect of the phone”. In the future I hope that Samsung doesn’t abandon the headphone jack like they did with the home button (not that I’m complaining but it was totally unexpected!).

The body of the phone is exactly just like the Samsung galaxy s8+ which comes with an 18:9 screen ratio and the all so glorious groundbreaking infinite display in fact even Dan Seifert from the verge said “The displays in the S9 and S9 Plus are just as you’d expect them to be on a Samsung flagship, and they remain the best screens you can get on any Android phone”. The curved glass shouldn’t be ignored as it highlights the infinite display. The only difference I would notice between the s8+ and the s9+ is the back with the camera and fingerprint rearrangement other than that, Face these two side by side and they practically look the exact same! While holding the phone in hand as big as it is, it is still one hand compatible! But if you’re not careful the s9 plus can easily slip out of your hands. The only bad thing I’d point out about the display is the Glare as you tilt the screen outdoors. Although it has one of the brightest displays in the world, tilt the phone in sunlight and you get this bright white beam reflected back to your face. It’s not like this is unique to the phone, many phones experience this type of problem but it is easier to notice on the S9 plus.

For the sound aspect of this phone, we actually see an upgrade on the S9 and the S9+ because now you don’t just rely only from the speaker at the bottom of the phone but as well as the front speaker you’d usually use for listening to phone calls! It really makes the phone sound louder and has a bit of surround sound going on which in silent rooms you’ll notice but if you go outdoors its kinda hard to pick this up the sound up nicely. In order for this to actually take place, you’re required to flip your phone into landscape mode but if you really want to watch something for long periods of time, Use the AKG earphones that Samsung ship along with the phone which are more comfortable than those on Apple’s.

The design of the phone still stands out, although it is heavier than the S8+ standing at 200g the phone is practically bezel less and if you really look hard at the phone you can tell that the bezels are a millimeter thinner which is an improvement which adds to the display. We still have a bixby dedicated button which now you can disable and fiddle with it not worrying that it will set off the under average assistant.

The performance of this smartphone is one of the best in the world as it has EXYNOS 9810 QUALCOMM Snapdragon 845 which is the best chipset currently available, This smartphone is faster than the OnePlus 5 and 5T which is today still the fastest phone in the world. While using the phone you never feel like you don’t have enough ram because it comes with 6GB of Ram. Although it has this much power, they’re just some games that won’t run smoothly no matter what you play on the device such as Pokemon Go which shows major signs of drag and depletes your battery in an hour. The same thing that Samsung maintained with the phone is the DeX (desktop experience) which you can essentially, with an aid of the dock, Can have a desktop like environment on your monitor and HDTV. The dock comes with 2 usb ports, charging port and HDMI port.

As we’ve seen before, The S9 Plus is fully waterproof. When submerged underwater the phone still performs as we expect it to and what’s impressive is when gaming on the phone, After a long 2.5 hours of continuous playing it only dropped the battery by 30% which is average and I really hope that Samsung starts boosting their battery life because phones like the Doogee bl5000 and Lenovo P2 have 5000+mAh which can last 2 days with heavy usage. In endurance rating this phone performed 85 hours.

As much as I loved the idea of Bixby before its initial release, even today its easily beaten by other phone assistants in fact “We sat in a circle at our Airbnb in Barcelona, asking a spate of questions to Bixby, Siri, Assistant and Cortana (TechCrunch knows how to party), and Bixby had trouble competing. In general, those other assistants are better suited to answer simple questions.” Brain Heater . This point I’d consider Bixby a half done Idea which needs major tweaking to be able to catch up to its competitors. You’re better off using another highly improved voice assistant than this one which will save you a lot of time.

Having reviewed this device doesn’t make it really different from the S8+ and although they’re a number of changes on the back of the device that somehow improves the overall ability to use the phone, we haven’t seen that huge improvement when it comes to the software and Duplicate applications. I would’ve loved it if Samsung really focused on Bixby a lot more to actually make it more like Siri. Even though we have 2 cameras on the device it obviously still looks a lot like Samsung photos but with the improved low light quality which is still impressive. The AR emoji isn’t all that great as we thought and users seem a little turned off about this idea and it shouldn’t be carried on in the next generation no matter what!

So should you upgrade from the s8+ to the s9+? This really depends! If you need a lot of battery life and a bigger screen and also love taking low light photos, then go ahead! Other than that I’d keep the s8+ because other than that most of the phone is pretty much the same. Lots of us anticipated this to happen and although we see some impressive things such as a headphone jack!, fingerprint sensor, Improved battery life and bigger display you should hold on to your S8+!