Samsung Galaxy S9 review: the smallest smartphone that gives the performance of a real flagship

Samsung Galaxy S9, the latest flagship for the Korean maker, is meant to lead the charge for the first place in the world for smartphone vendors, the spot that Apple took back in the last quarter of 2017 with iPhone X and iPhone 8. But the first “hands on” the new model were not so positive, many complaining that it resembles too much to S8, the previous model.

With that on mind, we took the phone to test it for a full review form a user point of view. That is we are less interested in technical benchmark test, but more in usability, autonomy and performance in daily tasks. After all, it is not so important for a smartphone if it ranks highest in benchmarks, while lagging between tasks is.

From the very first glance, the 5.8 inch screen smartphone is well build with high quality materials. Even for the black model, color that doesn’t show the curves as well as the other colors, you can see that there are no flaws in construction. It is not a surprised, considering that it is a flagship and it is also the second generation after the S8, so the looks and feels of the phone are more refined.

This is one of the differences between S9 and S8, otherwise the looks are pretty similar. One of the things that I appreciate is the size: only 147.7 mm in length, 68.7 mm wide and 8.5 mm thick. That means it is easy to use in one hand, no matter how small your hands are and it is a good thing in a world where 155 mm in length and 75 mm wide is quite the norm. For those who wants a bigger screen, there is S9 Plus.

Lighting up the screen is the second time you realized it is a premium phone. The Super AMOLED technology delivers colors and images that are more true to life than ever. Still, I will not use Samsung auto-brightness, and don’t think there is an auto program that will ever satisfy most users, but on manual brightness you can cover any situation, even the bright sun light.

Bixby, the virtual assistant is still in the phone, together with the dedicated button on the left side, and it is improved from S8. But while Bixby Vision is more useful than Bixby Voice, there will be some time before digital help will take of in use. It can be nice to have a smart-home, where you can command the lights on and off, but no one will use digital command on the street or in a place with other people. But Vision with the translation tool is quite good, even if it’s a feature that you will use only in foreign countries.

Performance and usability

In terms of usability, the S9 is perfect. I am not a fan of Intelligent Scan, which brings together facial recognition and iris scanner and I am not using it, but fingerprint scanner is easy to hit (on the back of the phone) and easy to use. Still, if someone is a facial recognition fan, I must say that Intelligent Scan makes unlocking a very simple task.

You can arrange the way you like the screen and the icons for whatever you use most and the phone is not full of bloatware. In terms of performance there is not much to say; the last Snapdragon processor (Octa-core with 2.7 GHz Quad and 1.7 GHz Quad on 10 nm technology) offers anything you need. Even with 4GB of RAM for 64GB storage you won’t find any lag between applications. What I haven’t done is try on Dex to see how well S9 is performing as a regular PC, but it is well to assume that it would be better to have a higher version, with more RAM which we can find on S9 Plus.

One of the things that smartphones are learning today is the way people use their smartphone and S9 is very good at that. That means the battery will last longer after a few weeks; in the meantime the phone understands what applications you use on daily bases and closes those not needed in the background.

The 3,000 mAh battery will last for a day, a little improved from S8, if not used non-stop for browsing. In every day use will last for the day with no problem. It comes with fast charging, even Fast Wireless Charging (compatible with WPC and PMA).

Camera

The camera is greatly improved from the previous models. This is the feature that all phone-makers are trying to improve at the point that we will have actually camera’s that are also used for browsing and phone calls. Galaxy S9 Plus has a dual camera on the back of the phone, but we can already see smartphone with a tri-camera system, like the one on Huawei P20 Pro.

S9 does not have a dual-camera, but you don’t really feel the need of that system. The shots are excellent even in low light and you don’t really have to be a professional photographer in order to catch a good picture. This is what producers are aiming for due to the fact that its users are not photographers, but just people that would rather leave a compact camera behind if they can have the same results on the phone.

Of course, there is the super-slow-motion camera and AR Emoji, both being application fitted for fun, not for anything else. But if you are on vacation you can have a lot of fun filming in slow-motion and sending Emoji with yourself to friends.

Overall, S9 is a great phone, with IP68 protection and all the power you need in the size of 2015-2016 smartphones (which is a good thing!) But considering that it has only a few upgrades from S8, it might be difficult to justify the difference in price; S9 is now on sale at around RON 3,700, while the S8 is at RON 2,700 or cheaper. It is a good thing that S9 comes from the start as a dual sim, while for the S8 you would have to make sure it has dual-sim capability.

Our verdict: Galaxy S9 is definitely a buy you have any version of S older than S8, while a real upgrade from S8 could be S9 Plus.

And in order to keep our facts straight, we are waiting to see the new Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact to find out if there is possible to have an even smaller phone (135 mm vs. 147mm) with all the goods of a flagship. XZ2 Compact is yet to come to the market.