Samsung Galaxy S9 review

09 March 2018
It's true what they say - you don't fix what's not broken. And that's what Samsung did for the Galaxy S9 - it didn't change what was already great, it just tweaked specs wherever possible. And it has worked out just fine for them.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • I8m
  • 14 Mar 2018

The Scientist Pigeon, 14 Mar 2018I talked about capability. You talk about quality. 1- ... moreNot to mention the more mature and more natural looking approach they are taking in colors, processing, and sharpening

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • I8m
    • 14 Mar 2018

    Anonymous, 14 Mar 2018Haha, wrong on so many accounts: 1) In their almighty wi... moreS9 3000mah vs s7 3100mah
    S9 plus 3500mah vs s7 edge 3600mah

    I gave you facts and logic. Whatever the rest you wrote is clearly you being a lunatic in denial. I've schooled you and everyone here can see it. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about and only care about your exaggerated beliefs

      Anonymous, 14 Mar 2018That's wrong. Most reviews say that the camera improvements... moreI talked about capability.
      You talk about quality.

      1-
      S8: single Aperture of Bright 1.7
      S9: Dual Aperture of Very Bright 1.5 and Medium Light absorber 2.4

      2-
      S8: 2160p@30fps
      S9: 2160p@60fps

      3-
      S8: 1080p@60fps
      S9: (Slow Motion) 1080p@240fps

      4-
      S8: (Slow Motion) 720p@240fps
      S9: (Although limited) 720p@960fps

      These are visible features that end users directly can take advantages from them.

      Others which are both quality and ability matters, including improved ISP inside the chipset and GPU (2nd Gen. Bifrost Architecture).

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • pVN
        • 14 Mar 2018

        AdamBoy64, 14 Mar 2018Bezels are great. Not looking forward to our notch-filled future.Notch is a non dumb bezel. It is the kind of bezel that doesn't have to take the whole space just for a few sensors on the middle. It is the smart person's solution.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • pVN
          • 14 Mar 2018

          Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018-Enough with the battery already!!! Please for the love of ... moreHaha, wrong on so many accounts:

          1) In their almighty wisdom Samsung ditched the small model. So we get a big and an ultra big these days.

          So no S9 (big) is very comparable w S7E (also big), the plus series is more comparable to the Note series size wise (they are basically duplicates sans the pen, another samsung fraud "tm")

          2) Screens are practically identical, unless you have professional setup and even then you would be hard pressed. Last great upgrade happened between S6 and S7 ... ever since it's minor upgrades that nobody cares about.

          3) 8890 and SD 845 has extremely close scores in both single core and multi core teats. I have absolutely no idea what are you talking about. You are in denial. Only GPU is clearly better. Ram management is actually better on S7 (still) so S7 feels faster as it doesnt reload nearly as much.

          4) Camera, agreed. It is the only reason for one to buy the S9


          BTW you didn't mention the fingerprint placement. I wonder why. Is it maybe because it is absolute a$$?




          There are no plus and minus. There are far more minuses in the latest Samsungs. Samsung took a dark turn ever since 2015 and it intensified last year. They are very close in entering the rank of deplorables. I.e. anything they touch turns to sh**...

          I mean look at how GSMA review starts. "You don't change sth that is good". That is a reversion of the truth. S8 sold worse than any S phone since S1. Samsung *had to* change everything, else they will drown... and they didn't.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • pVN
            • 14 Mar 2018

            AnonD-429807, 14 Mar 2018Sure, front-firing stereo speakers are also cancer then ;PNobody serious listening to music on phone speakers. They are tiny by definition and generally useless. Connect it with a real speaker if you want music. Don't make the phone bigger unecessarily so...

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              • Anonymous
              • nJA
              • 14 Mar 2018

              The Scientist Pigeon, 13 Mar 2018As I mentioned before, True change for S6 edge. Huge imp... moreThat's wrong. Most reviews say that the camera improvements are small over the S8.
              I could realize it after 2min watching a iphone X vs S9 camera comparison on youtube.

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                • Anonymous
                • 7Xe
                • 14 Mar 2018

                All new features are copied from other brands. Scamsung is a copycat :)

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • tAT
                  • 14 Mar 2018

                  Hayaan Mo Sila, 13 Mar 2018Hahahaha deluded. You surely are uninformed or lack any for... moreWrong. First Samsung mobile phone sold to the public was in 1988. The Samsung SH-100.

                  First Sony phone was in 2002. The Sony Ericsson T68i….After Sony joined Ericsson in 2001, and updated the Ericsson T68 model. Sony just bought Ericsson's technology and put the Sony Ericsson name on the phone.

                  First camera phone was from Sharp.

                  Sony has a gimmick 960fps video only with manual button use, NOT Automatic. Only works for 0.2 of one second and then shuts down. Meaning that most times you will MISS the shot.

                  Samsung has AUTOMATIC and Manual modes for 960fps videos. Meaning that you WILL get the shot most times. Is that clarification enough for you ? Samsung has lowered the time between those captures down to 2 seconds. Between those timeouts the camera continues to shoot at 30fps. That's the first improvement.
                  You can also export the slow-motion parts as gifs, right there from the preview.
                  An easy edit over the captured clip. After you are done shooting, you get a very intuitive preview with all the slow-motion moments clearly visible and easily editable.

                  Samsung Galaxy S9 has a 12MP sensor with telephoto lens, and with variable aperture - f/1.5-2.4. The sensor is optically stabilized, as usual, and supports dual-pixel phase-detection autofocus and OIS. Supports image stacking with new noise-reduction procedure with 4-frame stacking. Also supports the new HEVC format.

                  And Samsung started using fps videos in 2009 with I8910 Omnia HD, so its been upgrading over the years. Sony jumped in after Samsungs innovation and just copied this amazing technology

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                    • AdamBoy64
                    • Fv4
                    • 14 Mar 2018

                    Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018Never underetood what people find in bezels. They are clear... moreBezels are great. Not looking forward to our notch-filled future.

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                      • AnonD-429807
                      • thw
                      • 14 Mar 2018

                      Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018Never underetood what people find in bezels. They are clear... moreSure, front-firing stereo speakers are also cancer then ;P

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • I8m
                        • 13 Mar 2018

                        Hayaan Mo Sila, 13 Mar 2018XZ2 has larger sensor, so even with the f2.0 lens, the sens... moreNo it's not. The sensor is moot that much bigger. Aperture jump brings in more light then different sizes pixels in small amounts. Plus Sony has smaller pixels

                          As I mentioned before, True change for S6 edge.

                          Huge improvement in different department over S6 edge.
                          Big improvement in units inside SoC over S7.
                          Big improvement in Camera department over S8.

                            Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018Apple has OIS, XZ2 does not.. I wonder how it is possib... moreXZ2 has larger sensor, so even with the f2.0 lens, the sensor is gathering more light than the f1.8 lens of the iPhone X. The lack of hardware stabilization matters almost nothing to Sony. That is why I don't always believe that OIS is good for smartphones. The S9 did worse than last year's S8 in low light based on the comparison tool chart. Even the iPhone X is better.

                              Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018sorry, apple always seriously improve its camera. so.. bye... moreYou're a really good joker man! Made me laugh for 10 years, the same length of time Apple took to catch up to the competition.

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                                • Anonymous
                                • I8m
                                • 13 Mar 2018

                                Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018sorry, apple always seriously improve its camera. so.. bye... moreLmao. Best joke I saw here tweet

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • I8m
                                  • 13 Mar 2018

                                  Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018Wrong: According to diplaymate tests s9 is barely better in... more-Enough with the battery already!!! Please for the love of god use your brain. You're comparing the wrong device!!! This is the s9 not the s9 plus. You can't compare it's battery to the s7 edge. That's for the s9 plus. For crying out loud logic. Please try it. And again. These results are kind of low but not horrific. They could either mean that Samsung needs to fix it a bit still. Or that like iPhones the wide powerful cpu core of the exynos came with a power cost that took batter efficiency back a little. We will have to wait a little to find out.
                                  But this is still before final release, it's not comparable to s7 edge because it's in different category, and you haven't seen the snapdragon one that will for sure be better. And again this one could still improve.
                                  In the meantime you have to wait for the s9 plus review..... You know.. sometimes it's hard being a rare person to use logic...

                                  No not wrong. Learn to read. I never said the display was a lot better. It just is better. The same could be said about the s7 compared to the s6. That's how it always is. But it is better.

                                  2.Again wrong. Only you are verry wrong.
                                  And ie.. It doesn't matter whether you said s7e, s7, or iPhone for that matter as far ass it meaning what chip it is using.
                                  Even compared to the exynos 8890 the snapdragon 845 is more powerful and efficient.
                                  Even the s835 made a nice update. It's single core might not had f1 improved much, but multi core did. And they made great strides toasts efficiency, longevity, and improving the entire SoC. Even audio. And of course definitely better on gpu.
                                  And the clearly continues these strides.
                                  Clearly cpu is not as much more powerful as the exynos 9810 is, but definitely higher single core by a good enough margin. But that's not what it's all about. The entire soc is more efficient. It's better in single core and multi core, can run longer with less throttle, and has a considerably more powerful and efficient gpu. And again worked in improv giving the entire thing.
                                  Also ddr4"x" ram too.
                                  And the exynos one just flat out leaves it trailing in cpu. Audio is still superior on any exynos device except the s2 for crappy yamaha chip and s1 Wolfson and amp is a bit eh now. Even note2 had better audio then snapdragon s9 because of Wolfson audio dac.

                                  You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. I like exynos devolves more usually. Especially for better efficiency and audio. And it's flat out wrong when people say adreno gpu has always been better. Very wrong. But you are like exynos version of them.

                                  It's not just better at gaming. It's better at anything that requires cpu/gpu pretty much.

                                  Like I said. Great improvements to camera. Wish their had been slightly more with all the hype. But they lived up enough surprisingly. Maybe they will use bigger sensor for the s10.
                                  It's not just the dual aperture. It's the more accurate colors and much much much less sharpening too. Though still very high in auto exposure though that's as easy as tapping the screen.

                                  I didn't forget to mention anything. I was making a clear point. All phones have issues. Including the s7 and edge.

                                  Ok? Everything has pluses and minuses. Some people don't like the edges at all so therefore the s7 edge is just as flawed. However some people like the design and the ergonomics.

                                  Battery... well I moved that up top. You are wrong.
                                  However I do see it as a step back that Samsung was able to fit a 3600mah battery in the s7e and it's perfectly stable and safe, but couldn't fit bigger ones even in the note 8. In fact 300mah smaller despite it being much bigger. And kept the same smaller sizes from the s8's despite them gaining another 0.5 millimeter in thickness.

                                  It's not a step back in anything at all except so far possibly a little battery endurance in exynos variant and depending on your preference of aspect ratios.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 6jq
                                    • 13 Mar 2018

                                    Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018Lol. Good oneNever underetood what people find in bezels. They are clearly cancer to phones...

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 6jq
                                      • 13 Mar 2018

                                      Jman, 13 Mar 2018Worse RAM management? You really don't know what you're tal... moreIn S7 exynos I could have almost 10 heavy apps open in tandem. S8 took this number down to 3-4, in s9 it is 7. Still too little, worse than S7!

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • I8m
                                        • 13 Mar 2018

                                        Anonymous, 13 Mar 2018It has something worse than a notch. A full bezel. Meaning ... moreLol. Good one