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Samsung Galaxy S9

The Samsung Galaxy S8 was widely acknowledged as the best phone of 2017, and the Galaxy S9 looks set to be similarly excellent. Whilst a lot of its hardware is almost identical to the S8's, its headline feature is a much-improved and seriously impressive camera.

Reviewers liked

• Improved camera
• Better-placed fingerprint scanner
• Stereo speakers

Reviewers disliked

• Specs are similar to the Galaxy S8

The Samsung Galaxy S9: In more detail

Samsung is pushing the Galaxy S9's camera as its standout feature. In fact, the phone's tagline is 'The camera. Reimagined'. TechRadar suspects this may be because on paper, there isn't much to differentiate the S9 from its predecessor, the S8. It looks similar, with the same Infinity Display, screen size, resolution and aspect ratio. It also has the same battery size and the same amount of RAM and internal storage. It has seen improvements, however, in the form of updated software, a more powerful processor and that superb camera. Considering the fact that any updates are only refining an already exceptional device, the S9 has the makings of a winning phone, with Trusted Reviews saying it has the on-paper chops to be 2018's phone of the year'.

Design

Little has changed in terms of design since the Galaxy S8 - you'd be forgiven for mistaking one for the other at a glance. The S9 features the same premium glass and metal design and will be available in three colours: midnight black, coral blue and the new lilac purple.

The bezels above and below the display are slightly smaller than the S8's, meaning the S9 isn't quite as tall, and it's marginally wider. It's a little heavier at 168g (compared to 155g) but still feels easily manageable.

Samsung fans who were disappointed by the placement of the fingerprint scanner on the S8 will be pleased to learn that the S9's fingerprint scanner is in a more sensible place. It's now below the camera sensor rather than beside it, making it feel much more natural to use.

It has retained its headphone jack and now features stereo speakers, meaning sound quality is much better than that of its predecessor.

Display

The S9's display is exactly the same as the S8's. It's 5.8 inches with a taller-than-usual 18:5:9 aspect ratio, which is becoming increasingly normal for flagship devices.

It features Samsungs Super AMOLED panel, giving eye-poppingly vibrant colours and rich contrast, and the same edge-to-edge design. Although it hasn't changed, its still stunning, and probably the best display on any smartphone.

Samsung has updated its landscape mode, meaning the whole user interface now rotates to fit the widescreen format, so you don’t have to switch between portrait and landscape so often.

Performance and battery

The S9 has the same 3,000mAh battery as the S8 so its battery life is likely to be similar, a full charge allowing around a day's moderate use. Again, it can be charged wirelessly or via USB-C.

However, the S9 has had an upgrade under the hood, with Samsung's new Exynos 9810 chipset giving it a boost in power. It's paired with 4GB of RAM (2GB less than its larger sibling, the Galaxy S9 Plus) which is plenty to keep everything running smoothly and seamlessly.

Camera

The S9's camera is its biggest talking point. The 12MP rear sensor features dual-aperture technology, meaning the aperture automatically expands and contracts in response to light levels. In bright conditions, it will shoot at f/2.4, but in lower light it will widen to f/1.5 to let in more light - 28% more than the S8, to be precise - resulting in brighter, clearer photos.

The rear camera has seen an improvement in its super slow motion video capture. It's now capable of shooting at 960fps, which will stretch a 0.2-second event into six seconds of film. It also comes with Motion Detection technology, which automatically starts the camera recording when it sees motion in the capture field.

Bixby Vision and AR Emoji

Samsung's smart assistant Bixby Vision lets you access some neat features just by pointing the camera at things. For example, it can translate foreign text, tell you how many calories are in your food or provide information on locations and landmarks.

AR Emoji is Samsung's answer to the iPhone X's Animoji. Take a selfie with the 8MP front camera and AR Emoji will turn it into a 3D animated version of you. You can then hold the selfie camera up to your face and your emoji counterpart will mirror your facial expressions.

Whilst it's a fun feature, it has had a lukewarm reception from reviewers, with The Verge calling it 'creepy' and 'not quite as lovable' as Apple's version, and Trusted Reviews saying it 'feels like a gimmicky software addition from Samsung's bloated past'.

Release date

The Galaxy S9 will be available in the UK on 16 March 2018.

What the critics say (scores are out of 100)

100	The Telegraph | James Titcomb The best Android phone gets better. Read full review
100	What Hi-Fi? Samsung has gone down the Apple route of only making minor tweaks, but this has resulted in one of the best Android phones this year Read full review
100	Mashable | Raymond Wong After nine generations, Samsung's finally built the perfect Galaxy Android phone with the S9 and S9+. Read full review
100	Ubergizmo | Hubert Nguyen Best smartphone design + best performance + best camera. It's that simple. Read full review
100	T3 | Robert Jones Viewed in snapshot, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is simply a refined version of last year's S8. However, look closer and you see that the Samsung S9 not only delivers a standout, party-piece camera system, but also a selection of innovative features. Samsung has just delivered the most premium and polished phone of 2018. Read full review
100	Stuff | Tom Morgan Easily the best all-round Android phone you can buy today. Read full review
94	TechDissected | Cliff Wade Overall the Galaxy S9 is a great device. It's beautiful in every way possible and Samsung is making their TouchWiz stuff a bit more tolerable than what it used to be in the past. Read full review
94	Techdissected | Cliff Wade Overall the Galaxy S9 is a great device. It's beautiful in every way possible and Samsung is making their TouchWiz stuff a bit more tolerable than what it used to be in the past. Read full review
91	NotebookCheck | Daniel Schmidt Samsung has to rollout updates to fix the short battery runtime, because the Galaxy S9 has the potential to be a great smartphone. Read full review
90	AndroidPit | Luis Ortega Overall, the Galaxy S9 is more consistent than the Galaxy S8. Read full review
90	Eurogamer | Damien McFerran It's an evolution rather than a complete overhaul, but the S9 Plus is built on solid foundations and should be more than enough to keep the Android faithful happy - until Google lifts the lid on this year's Pixel offering, of course. Read full review
90	TechnoBuffalo | Brandon Russell Consider the Galaxy S9 Plus more of a Galaxy 8S. There are obvious improvements, but they don't meaningfully change the experience over anything Samsung has done in the past year. The company has simply raised the bar so high that even something as good as the Galaxy S9 Plus feels a little underwhelming. Read full review
90	Recombu | Chris Barraclough This blower doesn't offer any essential new features compared with the previous flagship, and it sure ain't cheap either. However, if you're tempted by a Galaxy and you have money to burn, we'd say go right ahead. The Galaxy S9 is a sexy, lovable bundle of seriously premium tech, and it should certainly stand the test of time. Read full review
90	NDTV Gadgets | Roydon Cerejo Samsung hasn't made any drastic changes to the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ compared to their predecessors, and the company didn't really need to do much. Right now, these are among the best Android smartphones you can get for your money. Read full review
90	Gizmodo UK | Sam Rutherford AR Emojis aside, this phone sounds great! It's clear, Samsung is back out in front. However for people who own an S8, the decision isn't quite as clear. Read full review
90	Android Authority | Jimmy Westenberg, Joshua Vergara The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are predictable, iterative devices. But is that so bad when their predecessors were two of the best phones of last year? We certainly don't think so. However, they're not perfect, but these are two of the best Android phones for most users. Read full review
90	SlashGear | Chris Davies The Galaxy S9 is among the best smartphones on the market today, and if it somehow lacks that certain "wow" factor that's only by virtue of it standing on the shoulders of an already excellent handset. That can only be good news for upgraders. Read full review
90	Pocket-lint | Cam Bunton While it's not perfect, the Galaxy S9 is a fantastic device. It's got a brilliant display, great camera, brilliant performance all-round, and in a body that's easily one of the most elegant ever released. Its stereo sound makes such a difference to media consumption too. Read full review
90	phoneArena | Rado Slavov Samsung has once again managed to craft desirable handsets with the S9 and S9+; one can hardly find anything remotely as elegant, as advanced, and as polished, all in a single product, on the Android market. Read full review
90	PCWorld | Michael Simon The Galaxy S9 is an evolution rather than a revolution, but Samsung has upgraded it in all the right places. Read full review
90	AVForums | David Phelan This is an attractive, if pricey, phone that delivers in terms of power and performance. Read full review
90	Android Central | Andrew Martonik The best-selling Android phone of 2017 just got better. A fantastic phone for the masses, but not an exciting one. Discerning phone buyers may consider a Pixel 2 or 2 XL instead, and for good reason, but nobody will be unhappy with a Galaxy S9 or S9+. Read full review
90	Engadget | Cherlynn Low Despite not feeling like a major improvement over last year's flagship, the Galaxy S9 is still one of the best phones around. Read full review
89	Coolsmartphone | Dan Carter If you are in the market for a new smartphone, the S9 is well worth considering, but also take a look at the new Sony Xperia XZ2 Read full review
89	ZDNet | Jason Cipriani The Galaxy S9 is one of the best Android phones currently available, but is it the best? No. The title goes either to the Galaxy S9 Plus or Google's Pixel 2 XL. For me, the Galaxy S9 does a lot of things right. But poor battery life left me with frustration, and on one occasion, without a phone for an entire evening in a completely different city. Read full review
85	CNET UK | Jessica Dolcourt The Galaxy S9 is a nice incremental upgrade, but its low-light camera isn't a game changer and some new features fall far behind the iPhone X. S8 owners can skip, but it's a good upgrade from older Androids. Read full review
85	The Verge | Dan Seifert Owners of the S8 probably don't need to upgrade this go-around - the differences aren't great enough to warrant splurging on the S9 - but if you're using a Galaxy S7 or any other phone from two years ago, the S9 is a significant step up in every respect. Read full review
80	Tech.co | Tom Fogden ... it's a great phone. It's much better value than the iPhone XS, and it makes even the new Pixel 3 look a bit behind-the-times. Read full review
80	GadgetMatch | Isa Rodriguez If you're looking for a phone with a great camera, this should be on your list of choices. Read full review
80	New York Times | Brian X. Chen Cherish and maintain your gadgets, and upgrade to the Galaxy S9 only if you feel like splurging on a device with a powerful camera. Read full review
80	91mobiles | Prateek Pandey With that said, the S9 makes for a compelling proposition for those who've been using a smartphone which is over two years old and are looking to upgrade to a compact premium flagship. The only real competition it has in this department is from the Google Pixel 2, which pales in comparison to the S9's incredible looks. Read full review
80	IT PRO | Adam Shepherd Just like the S8 before it, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is the best phone in the world, with lightning-fast performance, a stupendous camera and a lovely design. Unfortunately, it hasn't done enough to surpass its predecessor, which is still almost as impressive whilst being significantly cheaper. Read full review
80	Know Your Mobile | Damien McFerran Smaller than its sibling but just as perfectly formed, the S9 is ideal for those who want a pocket rocket and don't mind missing out on dual-lens action. Read full review
80	PC Mag | Sascha Segan The Samsung Galaxy S9 improves on the S8's camera and audio, and the S9+ adds dual cameras, but the phones aren't a huge step forward for Samsung. Read full review
80	Wired | Brendan Nystedt If you're on last year's Galaxy S8 or an iPhone 8, you're not going to get a whole lot out of this phone. But if you're struggling along on something significantly older, the S9 will feel like a huge upgrade. Read full review
80	Tom's Guide | Mark Spoonauer While AR Emoji and other tricks don't impress, the Galaxy S9+'s improved camera, brighter display and faster performance add up to make this a worthy iPhone X rival. Read full review
80	Trusted Reviews | Max Parker Samsung is once again likely to have one of the best Android phones of the year. But I don't think it's the clear winner the S8 was. Read full review
80	Digital Trends | Julian Chokkattu The Galaxy S9 is a perfect-sized phone with a fantastic camera and great performance. Read full review
80	TechRadar | Gareth Beavis The Samsung Galaxy S9 is a great phone, but one that hasn't really kicked on from the Galaxy S8. A top, top phone, but the S9 Plus outshines it. Read full review
80	Mobile Syrup | Patrick O'Rourke While it's difficult to find a significant fault with the S9, it clearly isn't as exciting as other Android devices on the market, or even the S7 or S8 were when they were first released. Read full review
80	Wired UK | Matt Reynolds The new camera is definitely an improvement on the S8, particularly when it comes to low light photography, but it's not quite the reimagining that Samsung is billing it as. Really, the S9 is just another top-drawer Android phone in the era of incremental gains. Read full review
80	Expert Reviews | Nathan Spendelow The Samsung Galaxy S9 is an impressive handset, but there's not enough here to justify the steep price. That makes it hard to wholeheartedly recommend the Galaxy S9. Read full review
80	Alphr | Jonathan Bray A great smartphone, but the Samsung Galaxy S9's improvements over the S8 are marginal, and it's much more expensive as well. For now, Samsung's latest flagship smartphone isn't one I'd recommend you buy. It's simply too expensive. Read full review
70	AnandTech | Andrei Frumusanu If you come from older generation devices you will see significant upgrades, but as a flagship coming at a price premium we expect a no-compromise device, and here is where the [UK version of the Galaxy S9] doesn't tick all boxes. The battery life regression that we measured is the single most concerning aspect of the device. Here buyers will need to consider the device with caution and well-thought out consideration and should maybe apply a wait & see approach over the coming months - for one to see if Samsung resolves the issues via software, and secondly, to await the release of competitor's new product lines for possible better alternatives. Read full review