Samsung Galaxy S9+ Review: Iterative Upgrade, Exynos Fail

[Julio Franco]

In the Android world, there is no bigger event than Samsung's yearly launch of their latest Galaxy S devices. It is also one of the earliest on the year cycle with the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ arriving at MWC in late February. Both devices present iterative updates for 2018, with upgrades on most fronts along with some neat feature additions as well as more gimmicky ones.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1611-samsung-galaxy-s9/

 

[Pastuch]

Be honest, every phone should have a case. You're going to drop it eventually, we all do.

 

[enemys]

I was thinking about replacing my SGS7 with SGS9, but, unless they fix the firmware, I think I'll get an SGS8 (or maybe try to import a Snapdragon version) instead.

It's really surprising they crippled their flagship phone so severly with improper software. How did that even get through internal testing? Especially since a basic fix can be cooked up by a single kernel developer (as seen on Anandtech), and with them having a bunch of devs, they could have optimized it much better.

 

[Burty117]

Under Graphics performance "The Pixel 2 XL and its Snapdragon 845"
It's a Snapdragon 835 in the Pixel 2 XL, I'm guessing the 845 will be in the Pixel 3 series.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Boring, too expensive, ece. I'm not spending that much on a phone with a sealed battery and ~2 years of updates if I'm lucky.

Why would I buy this over, say, a S7? Just for the bigger numbers?

 

[Pastuch]

Boring, too expensive, ece. I'm not spending that much on a phone with a sealed battery and ~2 years of updates if I'm lucky.

Why would I buy this over, say, a S7? Just for the bigger numbers?

As an S7 owner I completely agree. I really just want a better camera and the Pixel 2 XL should be cheap by this fall, sadly it's OLED screen isn't great. Hoping the Oneplus 6 or LG g7 thinQ fill in the pixel 2 xl gaps but I doubt their photography skills.

 

[MoeJoe]

Boring, too expensive, ece. I'm not spending that much on a phone with a sealed battery and ~2 years of updates if I'm lucky.

Why would I buy this over, say, a S7? Just for the bigger numbers?

Same here. Nearly two years on the S7 Edge and there is no reason to throw more money at this company that is an Android equivalent to Apple. ROI = zero. I also run a Oneplus 5 with the 6GB of memory for work and its performance blows away any LG, Samsung or Moto phone I've compared it to.

 

[OcelotRex]

Be honest, every phone should have a case. You're going to drop it eventually, we all do.

The best cases cost less than the deductible on fixing the phone. When you factor in the monthly cost for insurance I am amazed to see anyone not putting their $700-1,000 device in a case.

 

[mat9v]

Boring, too expensive, ece. I'm not spending that much on a phone with a sealed battery and ~2 years of updates if I'm lucky.

Why would I buy this over, say, a S7? Just for the bigger numbers?

Because if you buy S7 now you won't get almost any updates from Samsung. Regardless, if you Buy Samsung flagship you can update it to LineageOS and get updates for next 5 years probably
On the other hand you can buy S7 now and immediately upgrade to LineageOS and get updates for a long time (but perhaps not as long as for S9). Hardware-wise these phone are not so different for use comfort to be much different so buy S7

 

[hqxt1964]

Thou did an amazing job explaining/analysing why the Exynos performs so bad in practice for a SOC with such powerful cores. THANK YOU for that as it has been missing from every other test, leaving readers speculating. I hope SAMSUNG can address these problems and shame on them for releasing a devise with such a bad tuning!

 

[poohbear]

Even with a case these all glass Samsung phones can still easily break! They're designed to break so u upgrade or purchase the insurance!! My S8+ broke in its case from a small drop from my bed!! 1st smartphone I ever had break on me! Terribly sensitive and I'm simply not buying another Samsung even though I've been with them since Galaxy S2! Its a complete hustle I will no longer be part of!

 

[Taiji2078]

Actually I didn't find any reason to upgrade from my S7+ to S8+ last year .... and again no reason to upgrade from S7+ to S9.
I don't need a larger screen and the camera of my S7 fits perfectly my needs. For better pohots I'm using a dedicate Nikon camera.

My S7+ works perfectly, all the games are playable, the battery life is still good and actually I bought a case that prolongs to battery life to full 2 days of moderate usage.

My next purchase must be something way better ... not just small improvements.

 

[marveroluis]

Nothing against Samsung but, I have not seen any article on the new Hawei phones, I think they are quite good and worth a review, anything to do with them coming from China???

 

[D3z4R1]

I recently upgraded my iPhone 7 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy S9+. Unfortunately my provider only had the 64GB version; I would have gladly opted for the 256GB one had it been made available. Nevertheless, I don't regret picking it up. I'm absolutely loving this phone! If Samsung keeps this trend of no notch and retaining the microSD slot, I may end up sticking with Galaxys going forward (this from an iPhone user since the 3GS).

 

[abhijeetchandak]

Under Graphics performance "The Pixel 2 XL and its Snapdragon 845"
It's a Snapdragon 835 in the Pixel 2 XL, I'm guessing the 845 will be in the Pixel 3 series.

 

[cmc487]

I do not recommend the device , it has a know issues with the back finger print sensor that peel off and Samsung doesn't want to take actions and recognize the manufacture defect...

Source : Samsung Tech

 

[Stephen Robert]

Awesome mobile I recommend this mobile to everyone but the drawback for this mobile is if once it occurred with a repair. The service center will cost a lot of money.