Samsung Galaxy S9 unveiled. 960FPS/720p, f/1.5 <-> f/2.4, SD845/E9810 and more

[DocSwag]

On the outside it doesn't seem like much, but the internals are getting a pretty healthy boost. It's more like an "S8s" but that doesn't mean it's bad: the 6s for example was possibly one of the best iPhones in a long time.

 

It sounds like Samsung might've caught up to Google and apple with the camera, and the changeable aperture looks to be insanely good for low light and bokeh. More ram on the plus model is great to see and on the Soc side of things it's just insanity. The 845 has a healthy cpu performance boost and the gpu performance is quite a bit above the 835, and for the exynos the cpu performance is looking to be really freaking good: possibly a whole generation ahead of any other flagship smartphone soc with the exception of apple's. Other things improved are the addition of more storage options, a better placed fingerprint sensor, and stereo speakers.

 

Like really, what outside the design on the front and I guess the speed of the storage used, what hasn't improved? Everyone is complaining because the front looks the same but have you considered the insides?

[Doobeedoo]

Great for stereo loudspeakers finally, the variable aperture camera along stacked DRAM for 960fps slow-mo is amazing. 

The new Exynos 9810 is also a huge improvement compared to any other Android chip so that's awesome. 

 

I'm on my S6 and serves me great, sadly I don't like designs after it, or more like 'edge' only variants from now on. Also not fan of these aspect ratios and rounded display corners. 

S9 is really great, would consider it if I was upgrading, just don't like many design choices. 

[Skyyblaze]

I think it looks nice with one exception I find ugly on many Android phones. I know centered cameras make alot of sense from a technical and usability point of view but am I the only one who finds centered cameras on phones plain hideous?

[dizmo]

11 hours ago, themctipers said:

on iOS you have to hold for about half a second

3D Touch is like, 0.1s

huge difference in what it feels like, not really when you think about it. 

I also like how you can swipe from the left to the right to get multitasking, i hold my phone left handed and having multitasking button be on the bottom left or right hand.. straining my finger just trying to reach it on my phone

you can also always safari -> new tab because i have no idea what i did last night and I don't need other people knowing either

You can do the same thing with Android and a different launcher

7 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

As an s7 user. I am buying a s9+ asap. In the US 819 from Samsung actually doesn't sound like a bad price to me considering I bought my S7 for 400 dollars, and Samsung is offering 300 back for it. 100 dollar loss to use my favorite phone yet for 2 years.

 

Looking forward to the camera, looking forward to the battery. Absolutely would NEVER go back to an non-zone backlit LCD model again. Black levels for watching movies and videos on the device really does mean that much to me.

Weren't they only offering that trade in valuation for S8's and iPhone 8/10's?

7 hours ago, XenosTech said:

Manager got a note 8 on january 2nd and his is showing burn in already but luckily for him it's a company phone so he'll get it changed eventually. Then my friend's note 5 and s5  both have it awful, you can see all his whatsapp chats on his creen

Weird, like I said, never had an issue with them. Neither have any of my friends that have had Samsung devices *shrug*

6 hours ago, Trixanity said:

Then you basically agree. I said more of the same but better - that amounts to what you said about spec bumps.

 

Doesn't DXOMark only go to 100? Or have I misread something? We already have phones at 99.

Nope, that's a very common misconception. There just haven't been many devices that have broken that barrier. The Pentax 645Z and a Hasselblad DSLR have both surpassed 100. You can also see single categories of some smartphones surpassing the 100 mark. It's not a percentage system, simply a way that you can look at a series of numbers, and the higher number is the winner.

[XenosTech]

27 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You can do the same thing with Android and a different launcher

or use a lg phone lol

27 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Weird, like I said, never had an issue with them. Neither have any of my friends that have had Samsung devices *shrug*

That's the only thing putting me off samsung and anybody using oled displays. Seeing burn in triggers ocd mode in me for some reason, probably why I dont look at my phone much now

[Castdeath97]

7 hours ago, Trixanity said:

Then you basically agree. I said more of the same but better - that amounts to what you said about spec bumps.

 

Doesn't DXOMark only go to 100? Or have I misread something? We already have phones at 99.

Adreno 630 gets 14 fps per watt. Mali G72 gets 6 fps per watt. That's in Manhattan. 630 is an absolutely insane amount faster but use less power at the same time. So you get a lot more frames while consuming less power. There is no trade off.

 

Anandtech has you covered. It's depressing.

 

I'm 99% sure UK gets Exynos like the rest of Europe. I'm guessing Snapdragon 845 will win in power efficiency. You'll trade CPU performance for CPU efficiency, modem efficiency, GPU performance and efficiency. 

 

Should be noted preliminary testing shows odd CPU results so unless they get fixed on retail devices, it's performing less than advertised outside of geekbench (aka benchmarks). Also, they'll gimp CPU performance to keep it more in line with Snapdragon 845 according to a rep so you may need a custom kernel to unlock performance. Probably also to keep power consumption in check. 

Is there any other new 845 phones?

[Commodus]

19 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

Is there any other new 845 phones?

Sony's Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2S, likely one or two others as well.

[Castdeath97]

3 hours ago, Commodus said:

Sony's Xperia XZ2, Xiaomi's Mi Mix 2S, likely one or two others as well.

The Sony phone is getting a 4K screen though, I feel like that’s kinda of a waste really.

[handymanshandle]

On 2/25/2018 at 12:05 PM, PCGuy_5960 said:

Am I the only one who thinks that phones are getting more boring every year?

Meh there's not as much innovation, that is true.

 

Basically it's an S8 and S8+ respectively but the S9+ has 2GB more than most S8+'s and an extra camera over the S8+.

 

[Bigbootyjudy]

Samsung needs to make a big advancement in design or something in the s10 because while they've been refining the design of the s7 edge, its getting a little boring with the hardware and design just being slightly improved year after year. I still have my s4 and its doing absolutely great. Im still going to wait till next year till the s10 or hopefully the google pixel three because none of these phone actually excite me.

[Curufinwe_wins]

4 hours ago, dizmo said:

You can do the same thing with Android and a different launcher

Weren't they only offering that trade in valuation for S8's and iPhone 8/10's?

Weird, like I said, never had an issue with them. Neither have any of my friends that have had Samsung devices *shrug*

Nope, that's a very common misconception. There just haven't been many devices that have broken that barrier. The Pentax 645Z and a Hasselblad DSLR have both surpassed 100. You can also see single categories of some smartphones surpassing the 100 mark. It's not a percentage system, simply a way that you can look at a series of numbers, and the higher number is the winner.

350 for an S8. Which is a terrible deal. 300 for an S7 which is a great one.

[dizmo]

5 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

350 for an S8. Which is a terrible deal. 300 for an S7 which is a great one.

That much?! Damn. That's not bad at all. At that price you can save quite a bit by finding a great deal on an old ratty one.

There were rumors it'd be close to $1k, I'm glad the price is still around $800.

[LAwLz]

14 minutes ago, Bigbootyjudy said:

Samsung needs to make a big advancement in design or something in the s10 because while they've been refining the design of the s7 edge, its getting a little boring with the hardware and design just being slightly improved year after year. I still have my s4 and its doing absolutely great. Im still going to wait till next year till the s10 or hopefully the google pixel three because none of these phone actually excite me.

Well the thing is, what do you want them to do design wise?

About 90% of the front is already just a screen. So they only have the back and sides to "design", and those already have pretty strict ways they need to be designed in.

[Commodus]

14 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Well the thing is, what do you want them to do design wise?

About 90% of the front is already just a screen. So they only have the back and sides to "design", and those already have pretty strict ways they need to be designed in.

They don't have a whole lot of breathing room, to be sure... although it would be funny if they ended up making a phone with a notch just because they can't stand the thought of leaving the screen size as-is.

[Kobathor]

On 2/25/2018 at 12:19 PM, Exprima said:

I'm a manager for Verizon and was introduced to this 2 weeks ago lol. The camera is legit. Personally I'll prolly still wait for the Pixel 3 as I'm not a fan of Samsung's software.

Does the camera touch the Pixel 2 though?

[Curufinwe_wins]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

That much?! Damn. That's not bad at all. At that price you can save quite a bit by finding a great deal on an old ratty one.

There were rumors it'd be close to $1k, I'm glad the price is still around $800.

Word is that pricing outside the US isn't as nice, but yeah 300 for an S7 is actually a good incentive.

[Bigbootyjudy]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Well the thing is, what do you want them to do design wise?

About 90% of the front is already just a screen. So they only have the back and sides to "design", and those already have pretty strict ways they need to be designed in.

True, there is not really any way they can absolutely change the design formula. I guess I'm just looking for some change. I will be fed up if on the s10 the design is basically identical around the phone (the screen will probably get bigger) to the s8 and s9. Oh well, I guess that I just have something against samsung now since I see other phone companies, even though they are younger, making some crazy advances and features to their software and hardware.

[79wjd]

1 hour ago, Bigbootyjudy said:

True, there is not really any way they can absolutely change the design formula. I guess I'm just looking for some change. I will be fed up if on the s10 the design is basically identical around the phone (the screen will probably get bigger) to the s8 and s9. Oh well, I guess that I just have something against samsung now since I see other phone companies, even though they are younger, making some crazy advances and features to their software and hardware.

Such as? What is it that those other companies do that Samsung doesn't?

[Bigbootyjudy]

49 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Such as? What is it that those other companies do that Samsung doesn't?

gosh, I've been gotten again. Let me restate and not say crazy. I think that other companies have more interesting features adn are willing to gamble a little more on what they should include in the next phone. I feel like samsung, while they have found a formula that works, doesn't seem to be taking new ideas and developing them to their fullest. Their phones are great, no doubt, but in my opinion I don't think that they have been advancing since the invention of the infinity display and improving their cameras. 

 

edit: hopefully I dont come off as a arse. this is just what I feel

[Juanitology]

The slow-mo part isn't even impressive considering Sony's phone can do 960FPS at 1080p

[MegaTechPC]

On 2/25/2018 at 1:17 PM, suicidalfranco said:

Meh,. Double glass. Not interested.... Again

The double-glass design that Samsung has been using since the GS6 is the main reason I keep buying their phones (Note 5, Note 7, GS7E, Note 8).  I've loved double glass and metal frame designs since the iPhone 4.  But to each his own.

[MegaTechPC]

On 2/25/2018 at 1:33 PM, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

I was never interested in this phone to begin with.

 

Not because it's bad, but because my Note8 already does a heap already.

People like us with a Note 8, or even an S8, are not the target market for this phone.  The Note 9 will be the next logical replacement for the Note 8 and even then its really only when you're like me and simply want the new features and design every year.  I mean, I still have my Note 5 and it would still work perfectly well for me as a daily driver, but I still got the Note 7 and 8.  Typically I hold off on the Notes on release since Black Friday is only a couple months later and you can get really good deals.  I got my Note 8 for $585 from Best Buy.

[Clyne]

I hate a Note 5, rather poor battery life on my phone now...

I was planning on getting the Note 8, but decided to hold off and see what the S9+ offers. 

Note 5 to S9+ will be a big improvement anyway. 

[Tellos]

I recently got an S8 so I dont need this. I'll await the S10 or S11 or maybe S12.

[Exprima]

15 hours ago, Kobathor said:

Does the camera touch the Pixel 2 though?

I would say so.