Samsung Galaxy S9 & S9 Plus In-Depth Review

This above image may look very familiar to you. This is Samsung Galaxy S9. This is new, you are probably wondering if it’s worth your money for an upgrade, you may also be wondering if it’s a good phone or not.

I think the best way to describe this phone is, it’s a nearly perfect Samsung phone.

So what I mean by that is if you have used Samsung phones in the past or you have an old Samsung phone and you like what they do with the software, with the great cameras, with the awesome design, with their build, then this is the best and most complete version of what they have ever made.

But conversely, if you already don’t like Samsung phones like if slow Android updates aren’t your thing or you just don’t like what they do with the custom Android skin then this isn’t going to change your mind.

"So it’s a nearly perfect Samsung phone".

Display:

Last year the Galaxy S8 had the infinity display this year again Galaxy S9 has one of the absolute best displays in any Smartphone sandwiched between an even slightly thinner top and bottom bezels.

And they’ve even done a slightly better job hiding the sensors in that top bezel so the black looks more seamless. 

Dual Stereo Speakers:

The earpiece also now doubles as a second speaker so you have a bit of a stereo speaker thing going on here.

It’s not the same two big dedicated front facing speakers but at least now it’s a bit louder and clearer.

If you accidentally block the bottom speaker which can happen you don’t completely miss what’s going on. 

So it’s better.

Finger Print Scanner & IRIS Scanner:

And the biggest change on the outside has to be obviously the fingerprint reader placement. 

It’s now in the middle instead of up at the top next to the camera and that makes a huge difference even more than people are giving it credit for.

It’s perfect now. It’s raised slightly so it’s easier to know whenever your fingers on it when you’re not looking on it.

And registering your fingerprint is now just a slow swipe like you roll your finger down the scanner once which is actually really cool. I thought it was a glitch. 

Usually, you have to press it on the fingerprint reader a whole bunch of times to enroll your finger but during this phone setup you just roll your finger down at once and it’s a 100% done.

That is awesome.

It added IRIS Scanning from Galaxy Note which is a little slower but more secure than regular facial recognition using a front-facing camera.

And there’s also a new intelligent scan which combines face scanning and IRIS scanning, basically using which one works better depending on light conditions.

I’m really into the new fingerprint reader so I haven’t necessarily used these as much but it’s cool to have all the options.

Blood Pressure Sensor & Heart-rate monitor:

Then there’s also now on the back of the phone a blood pressure sensor in addition to the heart rate monitor. 

So the heart rate monitor is not new, we’ve had that for a while. You can measure your heart rate that’s quick but with the blood pressure sensor, I wasn’t able to get the reading with S health or any other health apps on my phone. 

But there is a certain way to get it to help you if you do want to use this phone to measure blood pressure but as of right now it’s pretty cool new addition.

Performance:

Last year’s Galaxy S8 also had top-notch specs when it came out. S9 here keeps that up and bumps it up to again for 2018 Exynos 9810 (for India) / Snapdragon 845 (other countries) and 4gb of RAM and this does definitely feel like the smoothest Samsung phone yet.

It still doesn’t match stock Android, you know there’s still little performance hiccups like when opening up Bixby for example and occasionally in some Samsung apps but in my couple of weeks with this phone that’s about it.

Everything else nearly matches Google Pixel 2 in smoothness and I’m really happy about that and then there is all the Samsung software. 

Again they are still really not shy about their colorful look on top of the Android so it’s not going to change your mind if you already dislike the Samsung stuff but it’s all better.

BIXBY:

It still has Bixby and the Bixby button. 

I could have just disabled the Bixby button from the day one but I decided to give it a chance. I have left it enabled since day one, every day using Bixby and it’s still not that great. 

Not only I triggered it a couple of times on purpose but many time by accident when taking it out of my pocket and every time I open it I just kind of scroll down hoping to find something useful in these cards but usually I don’t,  so then I closed it.

Bixby voice can still do a lot of those like really intricate digging into the settings and longer strings of commands in the phone that other assistants can’t do as well. So that’s pretty cool.

Say "turn on the flashlight" – it turns on. So if you’re into that, if that’s something you do on your phone often you’ll like Bixby when it understands you. 

But I’m not that person so I have disabled it after few days of usage.

Samsung’s custom software:

So this is clearly still unapologetically a Samsung phone in a software department.

It still has a bunch of Samsung’s big screen tricks and app shortcuts and you still get the edge shortcuts and some more customization options with those. 

Sometimes with all these stuff that I feel like Samsung is just kind of dumping as many features as possible on you. And maybe they are but that’s the part of what they do.

For better or for worse there are still 2 browsers at the box, 2 smart assistants, 2 calendars, 2 messaging apps, all the classic half-hearted Samsung ecosystem push is still there but it is also an Android device so you can get rid of the stuff that’s annoying if you don’t want it.

Battery & Charging:

Battery life I think is the biggest weakness of these new phones, the Galaxy S9 & the S9 Plus. 

It’s not terrible but among all the other great things about these phones, the battery life is definitely not great.

I spent most of my time with Galaxy S9 Plus which has a bigger screen but also bigger battery 3500mah and it would be dead by the end of the day.

Most of my heavy use days with a lot of navigation, a lot of music playing, a lot of screen on-time watching videos and the social media. 

That would be enough to kill this phone in a single day. I don’t even do that much of mobile gaming but if I were that would kill it too. 

The upside with Samsung is fast charging & wireless charging. It charges really fast with the right charger, the one in the box of course or one of several other USB C chargers like the MacBook Pro charger but it can be kind of picky. 

For example, the DASH charger of OnePlus didn't support fast charging with S9. But being able to top up really quick during the day for me does offset the slightly weak battery this phone has. 

It would be greater if it had a better battery but for me, that's good enough.

Camera:

Then for the biggest most re-imagined new change in these phones that would be the camera. Let’s break that down.

So there’s a new 12-megapixel camera on the back and if you get the Galaxy S9 Plus it gets the second telephoto camera as well and it’s the first modern Smartphone with a variable aperture camera. 

It can physically switch between F1.5 and F2.5 depending on your lighting, so it defaults to F2.4 which is roughly average for a Smartphone camera and that’s for your sharp normal daylight photos most of the time. 

When you do get into low-light under 100 lux, that’s when it’s going to switch to a wide open F1.5 aperture. Technically speaking the mechanism to do this is really impressive but it only matters if you can see the difference in photos.

So does it make a difference?

Generally, photos from the Galaxy S9 camera are pretty damn good. Photos are a little bit less over-processed and a little less over-sharpened than they used to be, but it’s clearly still the Samsung look we are used to with the bright vibrant colors.

The Dynamic range I would say is the most noticeable improvement but that’s something they’ve actively worked on. Still, pretty much every photo I take from the Galaxy S9 in auto mode is just a little bit too bright. Just a little bit. 

But then it can also be sort of an advantage when you take it to low-light.

Galaxy S9 low-light photos look pretty good and really are, thanks to the F1.5 aperture letting in way more light. Low-light shots have seen a real bump up. There is less smoothing because it gets rid of less grain because there is less grain because there is more light let into the camera.

So the question of “is this variable aperture making a difference?”

Well fundamentally YES it’s working.

It’s still not the best camera in any Smartphone though, that’s still Google Pixel 2 hands down and I would say it still falls a little bit behind iPhone X but I don’t think anyone will be disappointed with the 3rd place performance of a great Galaxy S9 camera. 

Something people have also noticed recently is it shoots video in the REC 2020 color space instead of REC 709. That's what happens when you turn on or leave on HDR. If you turn that off they can be REC 709. 

So it's trying to look better again and more saturated on the Samsung's infinity display but you can turn that off.

Add-on:

Last year S8 had USB C, wireless charging & fast-charging. That is also all still here. USB C, fast charging, wireless charging, a headphone jack & IP68 water- resistance is great. Clicky buttons and just overall A+ build quality.

Now it’s still glass in the back which means you’re still going to get smudges so you want to pick up a good case which will make all the smudges and scratches disappear.

Samsung Galaxy S9 v/s Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus:

Which is better Samsung Galaxy S9 or S9 Plus?

So it may seem like Galaxy S9 Plus will have a pretty big advantage over the regular Galaxy S9 because you are getting now more RAM, more screen, more battery and more cameras. 

But it turns out most of this isn’t actually that big of a deal.

In the more RAM department yes Galaxy S9 Plus has 6gb of RAM while regular S9 has 4gb of RAM. Both are plenty, hardly ever going to notice the difference in regular everyday use. 

It could be nice for future proofing though.

The S9 plus obviously has the second telephoto camera for live focus and for optical zoom. Sometimes may or may not ever use that, if you do obviously go with Galaxy S9 Plus but you might not miss that.

And of course, the size difference means S9 5.8” display versus S9 Plus 6.2”.

Then your 3000 mAh to 3500 mAh battery, both of which are somewhat mediocre so not a huge difference between them.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus v/s Galaxy Note 8:

So it’s a toss-up if you’re choosing between them but I think the biggest thing I got out of Galaxy S9 Plus existing now at this price point is, there is way less reason to buy a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 right now.

Galaxy Note 8 is all about the stylus and comes in at about a $1000. 

I would definitely pick the S9 Plus over that because of the lower price, even though you get a smaller screen all the advantages are there if you don’t use that Stylus.

And even a lot of the other reasons people might have gone towards the Galaxy Note series in the past like media experience, the huge screen. 

The S9 plus tends to do a lot of that just as good if not better since you also get stereo speakers. But that’s just if you’re picking between Samsung phones.

Conclusion:

My point from the beginning the of the article stands, this is just about the optimal Samsung phone that you can get right now with all the pros and cons that come with that.

With all the pros and up-sides of the Samsung experience taken to the max the awesome displays, the A+ build quality, stereo speakers, headphone jack, expandable storage, the checking of pretty much every box and a pretty damn good camera.

But you also get all the cons of the Samsung experience too. Double apps, slower android updates, occasional hiccups & Bixby.

So this thing really is great it’s perfect for the Samsung lover but as you probably already know am not that person. I may switch back to my Pixel 2 as a primary phone.

So with the Galaxy S9, it makes it really easy to underappreciated because it seems like just a minor upgrade compared to Samsung Galaxy S8.

Yes, it’s a jack-of-all-trades but the master of none but that’s actually what makes this phone so good. Oh no, it is the master of one – the display, there isn’t any better display than this.

It actually is good at so many different things and bad at so few things especially being so good at the hardware suite, that’s what makes this phone so easy to recommend and so I do. 

I recommend the Galaxy s9. It’s really good.

Please do post your thoughts in comments section.

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