Samsung unveiled the successor to the S8 in a glorious event yesterday. As expected, Samsung boasted how it has “completely reimagined the camera”, adding a long list of features and capabilities that are not present in other smartphones.
However, many critics have been coming out against the supposed masterpiece created by the Korean giant, arguing how the previous model had a lot of similarities to the new version. It’s safe to say that Samsung faces stiff competition from one of its own models. So, is the S9 worth splashing the $720 price tag that comes with it? Let’s see.
The Design
The S9 has no changes design-wise. Just like the S8, the S9 has a metal frame along with curved glass panels on the front and back. Both phones are equipped with a headphone jack. After announcing this, the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing of Samsung gave a grim smirk which subsequently brought a smile to everyone’s faces (cue the hate from Apple users!). Both phones support an IP68 Waterproof and dust-proof design.
Coming to the differences, Samsung has tried to differentiate between the designs of both the products by shifting the fingerprint sensor below the camera opposed to the sensor found beside the camera in the S8. The S9’s height is 1.2 mm less than that of the S8, thanks to a reduced bezel count at the top of the screen. Moreover, the S9 weighs 163g while the S8 weighed in at 155g.
Last, the S9 has limited color options for now. The S9 will come in Midnight Black, Coral Blue, and Lilac Purple while the S8 came with 7 color choices.
See also: Samsung mocks iPhone X notch and Face ID at Galaxy S9 launch event
The Display
The S8’s display was declared the best by industry experts roughly a year back. Maybe this is why Samsung didn’t bother making changes to the display in its new model.
Just like the S8, the S9 also sports a 5.8-inch curved QHD+ Super AMOLED display. Similarly, this display also works with an 18:5:9 aspect ratio.
The only difference between the two is the reduced bezel count in the S9 along with simultaneous landscape mode support.
See also: Sorry, I won’t be buying the Samsung Galaxy S9
The Powerhouse
The US variant of the S9 comes with the much loved Snapdragon 845 chipset in an octa-core setup clocking in at 2.7 GHz per core. On the other hand, the international/European variant will come with Samsung’s own Exynos 9810 chipset running an octa-core setup boasting 4 cores running at 2.7 GHz while the other four clock in at 1.7 GHz. Both chipsets are the latest in their line.
Like the S8, the S9 comes with 4 GB RAM. Coming to OS, S9 will ship with Android Oreo 8.0 pre-installed. S8 users are still on Nougat 7.1. Oh but, the S8 will be upgraded to Oreo soon too, considering Samsung rolled out a stable update at the start of this month but seized further distribution upon the discovery of a bug in the software patch.
As for storage, both phones come with 64GB built-in memory along with expandable memory support.
The S9 comes with Gigabit LTE support, which will enable the smartphone to achieve higher speeds while on mobile data.
The Battery
This has been another woe factor for critics of the new model. Like the S8, S9 also has a 3000 MAH battery along with fast charging and wireless charging support. Similarly, both phones come with a USB type-C port.
The Camera
“The Camera, Reimagined”, has been on the lips of every tech enthusiast worldwide. Rightly so, to be honest.
The S9’s camera has been given a loooooong list of additional features. To start off with, the back camera setup features a single 12 MP lens on the back capable of shifting between apertures. That’s right, it can shift between a f/2.4 for daylight shooting to a f/1.5 for shooting in dim lighting. This is the highest ever aperture found in a smartphone! Great going, Samsung!
S9’s camera comes with super slo-mo video support capable of shooting videos at a frame rate of 960 fps. Once you’re done shooting a video, you can choose between making it a gif or keeping it as a normal video along with the ability to add background music.
The S9’s camera lets you create your own emoji. The emoji relies on your facial expressions. Moreover, the emoji can also be used in videos!
Last, Samsung has greatly increased the utility of Bixby, pairing it with the S9’s camera to add support for live translation along with the ability to find out the nutritional contents of any food item, just by pointing the camera at it!
So, these are the main differentials between the two models. As we said above, it’s a really hard thing deciding between the S8 and upgrading to the S9. But then again, that’s the job of Samsung’s sales team, right? The S9 is expected to cost roughly PKR 90,000. It will be available in retail stores starting from March 16th.
