Author: Cameron Summerson / Source: howtogeek.com
The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are officially official, and there’s a lot to take in. They seem to be mostly incremental updates over their predecessors, so the question on a lot of people’s minds: is it worth upgrading if you already have the S8?
The Design Is More of the Same, But Better
You know the old saying—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Well that’s exactly what’s going on here. If you just look at the S9, it’s hard telling it apart from the S8. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the S8 was easily the best-looking Samsung device to date when it was released. It was a forward-thinking design for the company, especially with the transition away from that awful (and terribly outdated) home button.The S9 is about refining what the S8 started. Since the S8 was such a dramatic departure from Samsung’s normal design, there were a few quirks that needed to be worked out—like the fingerprint sensor placement. It was previously built into the home button, so to move forward with a cleaner design, Samsung moved it to the back.
The problem, however, is that the S8’s fingerprint sensor is right beside the camera. That’s honestly a terrible place for a fingerprint reader. It’s harder to find and you end up rubbing your finger all over the camera trying to hit the sensor. So with the S9, Samsung moved the sensor to below the camera, in a place where it actually makes sense.
Other than that, things are mostly the same. The display sizes on both the standard and plus devices remain the same (5.
8 inches and 6.2 inches, respectively), as does the display resolution across both devices (2960×1440). The Super AMOLED display is unsurprisingly used in the S9 as well.Specs Only Tell Part of the Story
At the risk of repeating ourselves, specs aren’t the defining factor for any smartphone at this point. They matter, yes, but they don’t often make or break a phone—especially at the flagship level.
The S9 is an incremental upgrade from the S8 in this regard. The processor is just a step up from from last year—a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 in the S8 vs a Snapdragon 845 in the S9. Is the 845 better on paper? Yes. Is it tangibly better in daily use? Who knows.
The RAM situation has changed a little bit—while the S9 sticks with the “traditional” 4GB of RAM, the S9+ gets the bump to 6GB. Your phone will have more RAM than your computer did just a few years ago. It’s insane, and pretty awesome.
Waterproofing, wireless charging, SD card slot, and the like are all also along for the ride here. It has all the bells and whistles of the S8—including a headphone jack. That’s apparently a big deal these days.
The Real Work Was Put Into the Camera
If you watch the Galaxy S9 launch video, you’ll notice one…
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