Here we are again back with another Samsung flagship smartphone, this is of course the S9+, it technically was released today though you probably wouldn’t have noticed since this time around it’s definitely been a quieter than usual launch for Samsung I think, given that, and I don’t think is any secret, the S9 is a fairly incremental upgrade from last year’s phones. That’s certainly not a bad thing though, the S8 and S8+ were fantastic devices and there wasn’t a lot that needed to be done with them in my opinion, but Samsung did make some small changes and upgrades to this new smartphone which I’ll of course go over in this video, so without further ado let’s go ahead and unbox this thing and see what is has to offer.
Samsung Galaxy S9+ Coral Blue (Amazon Link)
Samsung Galaxy S9+ Lilac Purple (Amazon Link)
Samsung Galaxy S9+ Midnight Black (Amazon Link)
For the last couple of smartphone cycles now, Samsung has remained pretty consistent with the packaging and unboxing experience. When you flip open the lid you get a packet of material which first houses a fancy little SIM ejector tool and there’s also the usual bunch of paperwork and guides and things. And underneath all of that junk we of course get the phone itself, this one is in that coral blue color which is very shiny and hard to film but I think looks fantastic, I’m also getting the new lilac purple color for the regular S9 too so if you’re holding out to see that color in action, I’ve got you covered.
As far as what else comes inside the box, you’ll find the usual parts and pieces including the Samsung adaptive fast charging powerbrick, the same one we’ve had for a while now, you also get a USB otg connector which side note, one of the most handy little adapters you could ask for. Yes it’s primarily used to transfer data from one phone to another, but it has a million other practical uses and I’ll link a video on screen where you can learn more about that. There’s also a pair of AKG tunes earbuds, the same ones from last year also I believe, along with some extra rubber ear tips, and finally the USB cable you use for charging up the phone.
With all that out of the way, here is the new S9+ in all of its coral blue glory. As far as the size and shape and form factor, it’s essentially identical to the S8+ from last year, and for me that’s totally ok. I think Samsung designs some really impressive smartphones with the curves and the glass and of course, no awful notch, so sticking to something like this is completely acceptable in my book because it’s still one of the best looking smartphones out there.
You will notice one slight change to the rear of the phone though, the fingerprint sensor is still there but was moved, instead of being placed awkwardly next to the cameras, it’s now below them. And I think this was definitely a good change, not that the S8’s fingerprint sensor was terrible, but it just makes more sense in this spot, especially on the bigger S9+, it’s more comfortable and yes I know most people will be using other ways to unlock the device like Intelligent scan with the iris scanner and facial recognizrjon, but still, props to Samsung for listening to our complaints.
Beyond that one physical change though, everything else on the device pretty much remains the same. You’ve still got the same infinity edge screen, the same button placements which unfortunately includes a dedicated bixby button. Still. I don’t know why that’s necessary but there it is. We thankfully still have a headphone jack because Samsung doesn’t want to punish us with dongles just yet, and we’re still graced with expandable storage, so Samsung has kept everything we’ve asked for with this device once again.
One welcome change to the S9 is a big improvement to the speakers. We now get dual stereo speakers with the earpiece coming into play similar to how the iPhone does it, these are supposedly tuned by AKG with Dolby Atmos, and all that marketing jargon aside they sound pretty good, definitely a welcome change and definitely something you’d notice right away, the speakers are very solid.
The S9+ once again rocks a beautiful 6.2” super amoled display at a resolution of 2960 by 1440. It’s the infinity display so it goes edge to edge with that subtle curve, and Samsung didn’t really make any major changes to the display here, it’s supposedly 15% brighter according to Samsung but they didn’t really need to do anything drastic once again, Samsung has some of the best displays on the market, DisplayMate touted the S9 displays as the most accurate in regards to color representation giving Samsung an A+, and I can believe that, you’re not doing to be disappointed with the viewing experience here.
Now probably the biggest upgrade specifically with the S9+ over last year’s phone is the camera. The coolest new feature is definitely the variable aperture which you can actually see changing on the lens which is kind of trippy. You can alter between f1.5 and f2.4 in manual mode, and this should allow for better shooting in low light along with a hardware based shallow depth of field effect, and Im really looking forward to putting the camera to the test.
There’s also now super slow mo capabilities, 960fps, and with that you’re only getting a couple seconds at a time and yes, technically the Sony Xperia XZ2 can do 960fps at 1080p while the S9+ is 720p, but it’s still a cool little add on.
What isn’t all that nice though are Samsung’s AR emojis. They’re somewhere between a Snapchat filter and Apple’s Animoji’s, but it’s just bad, the create an avatar feature didn’t even give me a beard, the mouth movements don’t line up when you’re talking like they do with the iPhone, nothing about it is
Besides all that though, as far as specs and software and everything, it’s a very familiar Samsung experience with the Samsung UI over Android 8.0, there’s some Samsung apps and bixby but no carrier bloateare or anything like that since this phone I got direct from Samsung unlocked. Here in the states we get the Qualcomm snapdragon 845 processor, adreno 630 GPU and specially on the S9+ we get 6GB of RAM and a 3500mah battery. Top of the line specs as you’d expect.
