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Samsung Galaxy S9 Review: Fixed!

Charles TYK

Introduction

Last year’s Galaxy S8 was really a groundbreaking flagship by the South Korean giant, Samsung. This year, the company has once again launched the flagship for the first half of year, and it looks a lot like its predecessor. However, is it really the same? This is the Samsung Galaxy S9 review!

Unboxing

Similar to the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy S9 has the same retail box design — a black box with “S9” text debossed in blue. Even the content inside the box is pretty similar, the only change is the S8 now “swapped” with an S9. The box contains:

Note that our unit isn’t the full retail version, which doesn’t come with a TPU case and UK wall plug adapter. The box of the Galaxy S9 looks beautiful and premium as usual, but this is the third year the company uses the same box design. Perhaps, time to change, Samsung?

Same Design with Minor Improvements

In terms of design, the Galaxy S9 looks the same as its predecessor. If you put the S8 and S9 side to side, you won’t really notice which is which. At least this is the story for the front.

Flipping the phone over to the back, yes, the fingerprint sensor has been repositioned, below the camera lens! Though I find myself sometimes still touch the camera lens when I want to use the fingerprint sensor since both are flat and have a glass surface. Kudos to Samsung for hearing the consumers feedback!

Another minor improvement but not visible change is the new AKG tuned stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. If you look at the bottom of the phone, the speaker grill has been redesigned. Oh yeah, Samsung still keeps the 3.5mm audio jack, which located next to the Type-C port.

The buttons are still locating at the same spot, though. You have the power button on the right side, while the volume rocker and Bixby button on the left. Unfortunately, you still can’t remap the Bixby button to open another app.

Same Infinity Display

The Galaxy S9 still sports the same 5.8-inch WQHD+ Super AMOLED display with 18.5:9 aspect ratio. By default, the screen resolution is set at Full HD+, but you can change it in Settings. Both sides of the screen are still curved, which gives you an ecstatic viewing experience.

We already know that Samsung produced top-class displays. Hence, it’s not surprising to see the Galaxy S9’s Super AMOLED display has a deep black and the colors are pretty eye-pleasing. Everything that we praised about the Galaxy S8’s display is applicable to the Galaxy S9.

Exynos 9810 Processor

Powering the phone is the new 10nm Exynos 9810 octa-core with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Performance is pretty good on this phone as everything runs smoothly without any hiccups and stutters, including playing games and multitasking. The new AKG tuned stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support are amazing! Not only are louder but also sound richer.

The fingerprint sensor works pretty well, better than its predecessor because at a better position. Additionally, the iris scanner also works pretty well all the time, even under low-light conditions as it uses infrared to scan. Samsung has also added the face unlock feature, which I don’t use since I already had iris scanner.

Same Samsung UX

There isn’t really a big change in terms of software experience, besides running on Android 8.0 Oreo with some added Oreo features. You can perform swipe gesture (up or down) to open and close the app drawer or opt for the iOS-style without the app drawer. The on-screen Android buttons are still customizable and it still has one of the best haptic feedbacks in a phone.

Another thing I’m sure many of you will do — disable the Bixby button and turn off Bixby Home. In the end, I still Google Assistant is still better than Bixby.

Camera with Variable Aperture

F2.4 Aperture
F1.5 Aperture

This year, Samsung took a leap on the Galaxy S9’s camera. The Galaxy S8 had already a pretty good camera and Samsung is taking it to the next level with the variable aperture. In case you didn’t know, most smartphones in the market are having a fixed aperture, which means you can’t change the aperture. Like DSLR, the Galaxy S9’s camera is able to change aperture, though you can change it to either f/1.5 or f/2.4. Still, it is not something you get to see on any other smartphones nowadays.

5 / 10

As usual, image quality is pretty good with eye-pleasing colors and low noise level. In broad daylight shots, you can’t really see any difference between f/1.5 and f/2.4 apertures. When it comes to low-light shots, this is where the f/1.5 comes in as it is able to let in more light to the sensor. Note that when you are in auto mode, the camera will switch between f/1.5 or f/2.4 aperture automatically. You can switch in manually in Pro mode, by the way.

Furthermore, the Galaxy S9 is also capable of recording 960fps Super Slow-mo video at 720p with automatic Motion Detection. Click here to know more about it and how to use. The video quality is quite good and Samsung even lets you add music, create GIFs, and use it as wallpaper.

The device also comes with AR Emoji feature, which is something like Apple’s Animoji. Basically, this feature transports your face into a set of emojis in GIF format for you to send to your friends. You can also record it as a video.

Same Battery

The battery capacity of the Galaxy S9 remains the same as its predecessor — 3,000mAh. Based on my usage, the phone was able to last through a day with 3 hours and 45 minutes of screen-on-time. Like the Galaxy S8, the battery life of this might be a downside due to the small battery capacity, but I’m still okay with it. Moderate users will find the need of charging the device daily, while heavy users might need to charge the device twice a day sometimes. Let’s not forget the Galaxy S9 supports fast charging, which charges up the phone from 10% to full in less than an hour and 30 minutes.

Final Words

Officially retails at RM3,299, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is definitely one of the best phones you can get right now. Samsung basically fixed most of the problems from the Galaxy S8 and made it to nearly perfect. However, Samsung has a poor history of rolling out the new software update fast. And if you already owned the Galaxy S8, it’s better to skip this round since both phones are almost the same, besides having a repositioned fingerprint sensor, AKG stereo speakers, updated processor, and new camera hardware and software.

Yay

Nay

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