Review and Keep Samsung S9 Tester Samsung Usa

The Samsung Galaxy S9 ($719.99 as tested) isn't radical. Information technology's better than the Galaxy S8 in a lot of small ways. None of them are big enough to make you toss out your S8 for an S9, though they all add up to the most powerful one-handed phone currently available. But the larger Samsung Galaxy S9+ has some central advantages that make it our Editor'due south Choice for smartphones right now.

Sizing Up the Competition

Make no mistake: I beloved the Samsung Galaxy S8. It's been my daily driver for a while. For years now, I've championed the cause of smaller phones, pointing out that keeping phones narrow is cardinal to ane-handed use. The Milky way S9, at almost the same size as the Galaxy S8, remains comfy in one paw while updating Samsung's specs to this year's processor, camera, and modem.

For details on most of the Galaxy S9 feel, see our in-depth review of the Galaxy S9+. We're going to focus here on what makes the Galaxy S9 and S9+ different, and that isn't usually in the Milky way S9's favor.

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The Galaxy S9 measures 5.8 by 2.7 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.8 ounces. The Galaxy S9+ measures 6.2 by 2.ix past 0.iii inches and weighs half-dozen.7 ounces. Both are slightly shorter, wider, and heavier than their predecessors (respectively 5.9 past 2.7 by 0.iii and 5.5 ounces, and 6.3 by 2.9 by 0.3 inches and weighs 6.1 ounces), but non so much that you observe.

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The almost important number to consider when choosing your Galaxy is 0.21-inch. That's how much wider the Galaxy S9+ is compared with the S9 (information technology's also 0.92-ounce heavier), and that can brand a real deviation when it comes to reaching your thumb all the way across the screen. I've stuck for a while with the idea (from an old LG study) that the average thumb tin reach across a 2.8-inch broad phone. The Galaxy S9 and S9+ fall only on either side of that line, which can thing for comfort.

If size was the merely factor, I'd say go with the more comfy S9, merely as I said to go with the S8 over the S8+. Only Samsung has fabricated its larger phone more powerful this yr, which tips the scales.

What'due south Different, What Isn't?

It might surprise you to know that the S9's screen and speakers function the aforementioned equally the larger phone. The S9's 5.viii-inch screen has the aforementioned ii,960-by-1,440 resolution equally the S9+, and the dual speakers (one in the earpiece, one on the lesser) put out the same 90db of pink noise at six inches, 6db better than the Galaxy S8.

The Galaxy S9, similar the S9+, sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset that benchmarks the fastest we've seen so far of any Android phone. It as well supports every ring and carrier aggregation combination used past US carriers today, simply like the S9+. That's going to make a huge functioning difference for people on older phones that don't have, for instance, the rural Band 71 on T-Mobile or speedy 4x4 MIMO on Sprint. Actual benchmarks between the S9 and S9+ come out pretty much the same, merely they don't tell quite the whole performance story.

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That'due south because the S9+ has 6GB of RAM while the S9 has 4GB. Now, they both accept a lot of RAM. Just the S9+ will let you wheel through more than apps without losing your country. We constitute the dividing line to be at about vii apps. Loading five apps in a row and cycling, the phones performed the same. But loading seven apps in a row, and and then cycling back to the outset one, the second app demanded that I log in once again and then the remainder of them appeared a niggling flake slower on the S9 because they had to restore themselves from flash storage rather than RAM.

Left to correct: Samsung Galaxy S9+, Samsung Galaxy S9

The Galaxy S9 has a smaller battery than the S9+ (iii,000mAh to 3,500mAh), merely and then far it hasn't shown all that much of a departure as we've tested the ii devices. Both devices streamed our sample YouTube video for about 10 hours before giving out, which is a very expert result. Both devices leaked approximately i pct of battery per hour over the course of ii days in standby mode.

We were surprised to see meliorate Wi-Fi performance in weak signal conditions on the S9+ than on the S9. Peradventure the S9+ has slightly better-separated antennas, but at the border of our 5GHz Wi-Fi bubble, we got 12Mbps down with the larger phone when nosotros got 2 to 4Mbps downwardly with the smaller one.

The Milky way S9 and S9+ have the same viii-megapixel front-facing camera and 12-megapixel principal camera, which has a physical aperture that tin can change from f/ii.4 to f/i.5. In our extensive photograph tests, nosotros found that the S9 has the best photographic camera phone hardware and Raw images available, simply that the overaggressive sharpening in its JPG encoding software makes images a lilliputian less appealing than those from the Galaxy Note 8 or the Google Pixel 2 XL. Below, you can see how standard images taken with the S9 and S9+ are pretty much the aforementioned.

The Galaxy S9 subtracts the S9+'s second rear camera, though, which is a 50mm-equivalent, f/two.iv camera that people are calling "2x zoom" because that's easy to empathise. The value of a 2x zoom lens should be pretty clear to anyone who zooms in on photos, just just in case, accept a wait at these pixel-by-pixel crops of a shot taken with the digital zoom on the S9 and the 2x zoom lens on the S9+.

Price and Comparisons

The Galaxy S9 costs $719.99 to $799.99, depending on where you buy it. The Milky way S9+ costs $839.99 to $929.99. So that's a difference of most $120 for the 2x camera, bigger battery, potentially better Wi-Fi operation, and more than RAM. If y'all want to apply the zoom at all, the camera is worth the extrea money.

Choose the Galaxy S9 if y'all desire the telephone'southward premiere radio performance in a more compact size. I'd besides go along an center out for the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact if y'all're on AT&T or T-Mobile. It'due south fifty-fifty smaller than the S9, but information technology will take slower LTE connections, a lower-resolution screen, and no headphone jack, and we don't know how much information technology volition cost.

The Galaxy S8 was the best phone of 2017. The Galaxy S9 is a piffling improve. The Galaxy S9+ is even meliorate. It's up to you whether the size and cost are worth the power: For usa, they are.

Samsung Galaxy S9

The Lesser Line

The Samsung Galaxy S9 puts the latest LTE bands and a corking low-light camera into a smaller class factor than the S9+ for the best i-handed telephone correct now.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-s9