Samsung Galaxy S9 Review

The 3-Minute Samsung Galaxy S9 Review

Samsung’s 2018 Flagship Release

By Graeme Messina | March 12, 2018

The Specifics:

Features & Design: 4/5 ● Performance: 4.5/5 ● Value: 4/5 ● Battery: 4/5 

The Best:

Samsung has released the much anticipated Galaxy S9, with some minimal improvements over last year’s flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S8. An improved fingerprint sensor and low light capable camera have been thrown into the mix, but what else is new?

The Bugs:

The pricing of this phone is somewhat on the upper end, and if you look at some of the lesser known brands you can find very similar hardware specs for much less. Existing Galaxy S8 owners will find it difficult to justify an upgrade as the improvements over last year’s model are minimal. 

Is it for you?

If you have to get your hands on the most up to date technology, then this is one of the best looking devices currently available. It has all the features and functionality that you would expect from a high end Samsung device.

Meet the Samsung Galaxy S9

Last year’s Samsung Galaxy S8 had some issues with the fingerprint sensor, both in terms of functionality and placement. This has been largely remedied by the repositioning of the new sensor on the back of the phone, below the camera lens. The S9 has some terrific internal hardware. The CPU is a Snapdragon 845 and is accompanied by 4GB of system RAM. Storage is internally handled with 64GB of space, and the cameras are 12MP on the rear and 8MP on the front. The battery is a 3,000mAh unit which is more than capable of powering the device throughout the day, and night.

What we like

The fixes that have been applied to the Samsung Galaxy S9 although minimal, are certainly welcome. The cameras now have a lossless zoom, much like last year’s S8 and S8+, which gives an analogue zoom quality to pictures. The aperture size can also be adjusted on the fly, allowing for what Samsung deems ‘Live Focus’, a feature that gives clarity and sharpness to pictures with enhanced focus functionality.

The overall performance is also as expected, given the internal hardware specs. It is worth noting that the S9+ is a faster and bigger version of this phone, so if you have to have the latest and greatest, as well as the biggest and fastest in mobile technology, then the S9+ is definitely worth checking out as well.

What we don’t like

If one considers the pricing that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are coming in at presently, we can see that the premium price tags are well and truly in place. Owners of the S8 will find it a difficult pill to swallow when justifying an upgrade from their current devices, especially seeing as Oreo promises some software improvements for the Samsung S8.

The outward appearance of the S9 also doesn’t seem to have changed much when held against the S8, meaning that the 2 look very similar. Some users have also said that the overall picture vibrancy and colour capture is not as good as they would have liked, although this is somewhat subjective.

Should you buy it?

If you haven’t upgraded in a while and have skipped the last few iterations of Samsung’s flagship devices, then this could be an excellent choice, especially considering the almost bezel-less design. If however, you are currently in possession of an S8 or S8+, then this is not an easy recommendation to make, given that the only real improvements are on the biometric sensor, and camera low lighting capabilities.