There are some phones that are expected with a little more excitement than others. After several years of testing smartphones of all kinds and quality, it is always a little feverish that we approach the new iPhone and the new Galaxy S. This year will not change the situation. After a grip in preview during February and a new contact at the MWC, it is still with a touch of anxiety that these lines come to us.

The S9 succeeds the S8 whose life will have been slightly shorter than usual since it was marketed on April 21, 2017 or 11 months. It is short enough to give birth to a new flagship, even if the gestation lasted longer. We do not doubt it.

Because if visually the two products are very similar, Samsung has still operated a small revolution photo: for the first time on a smartphone (if we put aside some exotic products) we have a variable opening with a diaphragm physical. A feat that should not be overlooked and that did not have to be easy to develop.

Thus, a bit like an iPhone “S”, the Galaxy S9 appears as a model “transition”, bringing innovations much more technical than aesthetic. Must it still be well executed? This is what we will see in this test.

Callipyge smartphone

Nothing looks more like a Galaxy S8 than a Galaxy S9. From the front, it is simply impossible to distinguish the two. Samsung has said that the borders have been refined, difficult to see a difference. By putting the products side by side we note a very slight reduction, but it remains negligible.

The continuity is good: the Galaxy S9 is beautiful, like its predecessor. These curved side edges are certainly useless, but they still have their effect and give the Galaxy S (and Note) a recent element of distinction vis-à-vis the rest of the market. This is all the more true that it is difficult to imitate, unlike the “notch” of the iPhone X which will become as popular in the coming months as the screen 18: 9 was the latter.

In the rear, the design teams have not worked hard either, since the only noticeable difference is to look at the location of the impression sensor. It is deported under the camera and no longer on the side, like what we saw on the Galaxy A8. The main advantage is to make it more accessible, or simply usable in reality.

In short, the physical Galaxy S9 is not innovative, but it is far from ungrateful. This is the key, and unlike Apple, which has been lagging behind the “iPhone 6” curves since 2014, those of Samsung have only been there for 11 months, too early to get really tired of it.

AMOLED exemplary

Samsung offers AMOLED screens since the Galaxy S first name, the firm has had time to master the technology, we have a new proof. As is the case for several years, the slab of S9 is perfectly adjusted and we take advantage of the infinite contrasts of technology. On the other hand, we recommend using the “basic” mode to get the most accurate colors. The adaptive is probably a little cold by default, but it has the merit of adjusting according to the environment.

No change for the definition, we are still in front of a slab of 2960 x 1440 (18.5: 9 ratio so) in the best case, this resolution of 567 ppi brings nothing visually compared to the FHD + (2220 x 1080). It is therefore this definition that is recommended to relieve the SoC and thus save battery. You will need it, we will see it below.

It’s a fact now known, if you benefit from more display space, 18.5: 9 is not suitable for most video content and games. Until the platforms and publishers adapt to this ratio become a quasi-standard in record time, it will undergo black bars or trim part of the screen. You are only spoiled for choice of embarrassment.

It’s the power

To propel its S9, Samsung relies on one of its home SoC: the Exynos 9810. It is an 8-core chip etched in 10 nm and clocked at 2.7 GHz for the four fastest cores. It is supported in this case by 4 GB of RAM which will help for multitasking. Thanks to the reinforcement of the GPU Mali 960, the trio plays with virtuosity the most delicate scores.

Nothing resists him, the benchmarks show it very well. We expected no less from Samsung, so much so that we can sometimes wonder what we will do all this power. We will answer that it is better than not enough, it makes the smartphone a little more “future proof”.

By default, the S9 is offered with 64 GB of storage, enough for the average person. If that’s not enough, you can opt for 256 GB and even add a SD card. This year – and for the first time on a European Galaxy S – the smartphone will accommodate a second SIM card in place of the SD card. This will be useful for travelers and users of two mobile lines.

Once again, Samsung certifies its IP68 smartphone, which will allow it to spend 30 minutes under water at one meter without suffering damage. It is always more appreciable that prevents certain accidents and is practical everyday, especially as the summer approaches.

Disappointing autonomy

Series A shines in recent years by its autonomy, but unfortunately Samsung is struggling to do the same on the S and Note. It must be said that the brand has chosen a 3000 mAh battery, as much as the A8 … significantly lower performance. So we have S9 that will ensure the bare minimum.

It will be possible to hold a day of work with a current use relatively easily. But if you use your phone a little too regularly during the day and you risk playing in transport, you could end up in the red zone in the early evening. This is really a shame on a high-end phone.

Fortunately, there are simple ways to reduce the consumption of the S9: reduce the definition of the screen HDF + as we said above, and especially disable the Always-On screen that once again consumes a little too much compared to benefits of use it offers.

Here we have the first problem of this S9, it is really the bare minimum. It’s annoying. It will be necessary to see if the Galaxy S9 + with its battery of 3500 mAh does better (spoiler: a little). We will console with the presence of fast charging: just under 2 hours for a full charge. The wireless charging is also part and is useful to give smile to the accumulators during the day at the office for example.

For a handful of diaph’

We come to the main course of this S9: the photo. As we said in the introduction, the S9 is thus the first modern smartphone to offer a diaphragm. Modern, because Nokia had already tried on the N8 in 2007. Samsung offers two openings for its sensor 12 mpx inherited the S8: f / 1.5 or f / 2.4, allowing more or less light. This opening has not for the moment no equivalent on the market, the LG G6 reaching “only” f / 1.6 and the S8 f / 1.7. Samsung announces 28% more light compared to the previous model, or Note 8 which has the same main sensor.



This gain in light allows Samsung to lower (a little) sensitivity and therefore reduce the grain in low light. Note that in automatic mode the passage from one opening to another is 100 lux, which roughly corresponds to a moderately lit room, like a room. Samsung succeeds its bet, at least partly. By examining the EXIF ​​files of the various comparative pictures with Note 8, the S9 lowers ISOs or reduces the exposure time depending on the circumstances.

Visually, the snapshots of the S9 are overall better than those of the Note 8. We mainly appreciate the significant reduction of electronic noise and more vivid colors, we could however still have a little more details. Smoothing, although less aggressive, may also tend to create some errors. These approximations happily go unnoticed most of the time. In broad daylight, we take advantage of the reduced opening to get a little more dive on the images, but the thing did not hit us either. The smartphone is ultimately a lot of its promises, but there are points for improvement. The invention of Samsung is no less promising and we look forward to seeing how the company will evolve on future models.

Samsung also puts forward an idle mode at 960 frames per second. If we appreciate the technical prowess, we are still not convinced of the real interest of such a function. The latter always appears as a gadget quickly forgotten past the discovery effect. This was all the more true that despite the automatic triggering of idling when an object passes in the field, it is still difficult to implement. It can not last longer than 0.2 sec in a row, sometimes a little short. Slow motion requires, it also requires a lot of light to work properly. 960 frames per second means that each image is captured at 1 / 960th of a second, which does not leave much time for printing the sensor.

Samsung has also worked on smartphone sound, making it “tuner” by AKG, and labeling Dolby Atmos. It must recognize the device sound management: it is more detailed than usual and the proposed volume is quite impressive. On the other hand, spatialization is not the most obvious. Still, the sound produced by the S9 speakers is probably the most audible on the market today.

Increased Emojis

On the software side, Samsung could not help but give in fashion emojis augmented reality which Apple had the initiative. Samsung, however, preferred to offer to recreate your avatar in three dimensions rather than slip into the skin of a panda. If not useful, we will recognize that it amused us for some time. On the other hand, they are less animated than at Apple, the fault in particular to less powerful sensors.

About sensor, Samsung has decided not to offer a three-dimensional facial recognition system, unlike Apple. To compensate, the Korean proposes a solution combining recognition of iris and face. The device will select the option deemed most effective depending on the environment. It’s pretty fast and we did not have a lot of mistakes in a week of testing, a good point.

Not much change on the OS itself: the S9 is this year comes with Android 8.0 “Oreo” behind the usual overlay. The game is unchanged or almost. We only have full management of the interface in landscape mode, that is, navigation buttons always at the bottom of the screen, regardless of the orientation of the device. All other differences come from Oreo, including the laudable better management of notifications.

Bixby and his dedicated touch are always present, but the assistant still does not speak French and his other contributions are perfectly dispensable. Bixby reverts to this dedicated key that causes unintentional launches of the assistant. It is frankly exhausting in the long run. We can happily disable it this year … but you have to set up Bixby before you can do it.

Conclusion

So what about this Galaxy S9? Undoubtedly, the terminal ticks all the boxes of a high-end smartphone of the moment, from the performances to the design by way of the screen or the photo. Is it really a big leap forward compared to its predecessor? No. Evolutions are obviously welcome and the photo part improves, but it is not revolutionary and we regret that the smartphone loses the passage in autonomy. Very clearly, this is a transition product for Samsung and as for all transition products, their purchase is rarely justified from one year to the next.

An even clearer conclusion when we bring the price into account: the Galaxy S8 is now regularly offered around 520 euros, it is hard to imagine how to justify paying 339 euros more for an S9. At Samsung as at Apple, the best option is very clearly to opt for the previous generation. This observation must not, however, call into question the intrinsic qualities of S9. This is a great product … that will be recommended only to those who are not looking at the price and absolutely want the latest product in fashion.

Samsung Galaxy S9 $719.99 8.2 Design 9.0/10

















Features 8.0/10

















Performance 8.0/10

















Camera 8.0/10

















Battery 8.0/10

















Pros 5.8-inch screen

Sexy dual-curved design

Terrific camera

Wireless charging

Water-resistance Cons Low-light photos look blurry

New face-unlock tool is inherently insecure Buy It