?What is the Samsung Galaxy S9
Samsung has been the king of the Android phone market for some time now. But is this set to change in 2018 with the release of its latest flagship? Does the S9 have enough to beat the Google Pixel 2, iPhone X and iPhone 8?
Offering up a beautiful design, top specs and one of the most interesting camera setups around, on paper at least the S9 has the capabilities to be 2018’s phone of the year. And yes, it’s a great Android phone – but it still feels like a minor update
The Galaxy S9 retains this familiar overall look, which is hardly something to complain about when you consider that, a year on, the S8 is still one of slickest phones around
The Galaxy S9 retains this familiar overall look, which is hardly something to complain about when you consider that, a year on, the S8 is still one of slickest phones around
The S9 sees the bezel thickness above and below the display reduce further. In addition, the fingerprint scanner has been moved to a more suitable location beneath the camera, rather than being tucked tightly beside it. However, it still feels a tad on the small side, and there’s noticeable lag as it jumps you to the homescreen
The metal and glass body retains its curved display, IP68 water-resistance rating and microSD card slot. The aluminium rim has been strengthened and the Gorilla Glass 5 coating the screen has been thickened. As someone who smashed a Galaxy S8 after knocking it off a bed onto a carpeted floor, this is a welcome upgrade
You’ll find a dedicated Bixby button below the volume rocker, with the lock-switch on the other side. I dislike the fact that the extra button can only be used with a virtual assistant – I turned it off completely after a day of use – but Bixby remains a huge push for Samsung and, hopefully, it might get a bit better when version 2.0 hits later in the year
Having used both the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, I much prefer the smaller model over its larger brother. I think the 5.8-inch display is big enough, while the phone itself is perfectly sized to use in one hand. There are lots of Android phones that are bigger than this, but the S9 sets itself apart by fitting all the high-end specs into something a little smaller
Samsung Galaxy S9 – Screen
Like all of Samsung’s recent flagships, the S9’s display draws you in instantly with its rich colours and fantastic contrast. It’s still a slightly curved 5.8-inch AMOLED quad-HD+ panel, and even though little has changed aside from a slight bump in brightness, it’s one of the best displays I’ve seen.
What impresses most about the screen is the customisation options on offer. In its default ‘Adaptive’ mode colours are saturated and rich, with a dominant blue hue – personally, I find this slightly too much. Switch to DCI-P3 colour gamut covering ‘AMOLED cinema’ mode and everything feels easier on the eyes. It’s even possible to customise the colours, reducing the amount of blue, green and red
There’s full support for mobile HDR10 and the S9 can stream HDR content from sources such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. This provides movies and TV shows with better contrast and enables them to use a wider gamut of colours. Watch a programme that features numerous dark scenes, such as Altered Carbon, and you’ll notice the difference right away. This is far from the first phone to boast HDR support, but I haven’t yet seen a phone display it as well.
A blue light filter mode makes this super-bright screen much better for viewing before you sleep by turning everything orange. This can be scheduled to automatically turn on each night.
Viewing angles are good, as is outdoor visibility, but you’ll notice a slight blue shift along the curved edges of the display. This is one of the downsides of OLED; you’ll see it on most phones using the tech. Samsung’s displays do deal with the issue far better than those produced by LG – and used on the Google Pixel 2 – and you’ll really only notice the blue if you go looking for it
Samsung Galaxy S9 – Software
In the same way that little has changed in the way the Galaxy S9 works over its predecessor, the same is true when of Samsung’s software too. It’s still slickly designed, offering attractive icons and fluid movement between your app drawer and notifications panel, but it’s very different to the way Google envisions Android.
Duplicate apps are a big problem: there are two browsers, galleries, email clients and app stores. Of those I’d say it’s only the browser that’s better than the Google alternative – it’s surprisingly fantastic thanks to extension support and a night reading mode
You can disable and hide some of these apps, but very few can be completely removed from the device. The same can be said of Samsung’s virtual assistant, Bixby; it can be switched off, but the button that launches it can’t be remapped to another function.
Bixby wasn’t particularly impressive when it launched with the Galaxy S8 and very little has changed here. There’s now voice support for asking basic questions, but try anything remotely taxing and Bixby will fail. Even basic questions such as ‘What’s the weather like today?’ are often met with no response. Samsung teased the launch of Bixby 2.0 later in the year, so hopefully things will improve.
However, where Samsung’s software does impress is in the customisation options available. I like being able to tweak performance and the resolution of the display (which is 1080p by default) to stretch the battery further, and having proper control over the screen calibration is fantastic. Samsung’s general battery-saver modes are also some of the best on any phone.
There are plenty of security options, too. There’s the ability to have duplicate messaging apps if you use the phone for work, and a great Secure Folder for private files. These kind of features just don’t exist in vanilla Android.
Samsung’s Health app remains too, and there’s still a handy heart-rate sensor on the back. I tested the HRM against an Apple Watch and a Fitbit, and while the results weren’t quite as accurate as those dedicated bands, they weren’t far off. You can also log the food you eat through the Health app – I took a picture of a Reuben sandwich, which it correctly identified – and your blood oxygen levels too.
Instead of going all-in on facial recognition as Apple has done, the Galaxy S9 sticks to iris and facial-scanning alongside the fingerprint scanner. They work well, but they don’t feel as polished as Apple’s effort. I often encountered a judder as the lockscreen scanned my face; a bright red beam shines out in a distracting way. A new ‘Intelligent Scan’ feature combines facial and iris scanning together, and will defer to you face if it can’t match your iris
Key Features
- Review Price: £739
- 5.8-inch OLED quad HD+ Infinity Display
- Snapdragon 845/Exynos 9810
- 4GB RAM & 64GB/256GB storage + microSD up to 400GB
- 12 megapixel single rear camera with mechanical variable aperture of both f/2.4 and f/1.5
- 8MP front camera with f/1.7 aperture
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