Introduction
Generation 9 in compact size - this is the Samsung Galaxy S9 +. Unlike last year when the S8 and S8 + had just a separate size, in 2018 Samsung's Plus means more than high-capacity battery and a bigger display - the S9 + has an extra camera on the back as well. It makes you wonder if such a distinction was previously made by other manufacturers. Uhm, no, nothing comes to mind.
However, adding a Note8 phone camera to a shooting center with a double-aperture wide-angle shooter for the first camera with the Galaxy S phone - you can’t say Samsung is leading this curve, but at least it’s caught now. The designers also talked about the global placement of the S8s fingerprint reader and moved it under the cameras, next to the central axis of the phone - how difficult was that to achieve the original?
Compulsory chip upgrades see S9 + include the latest Snapdragon 845 in the US and China and Exynos 9810 elsewhere. 6GB of RAM comes standard (S8 + may have 6GB in some cases, sometimes, but the default was 4GB) and the final options now go up to 256GB, although you may be getting a 64GB version - there is a microSD slot if you need more space.
The biggest change now in this past move is the stereo speaker setup with an ear-mounted device now joining forces with a large ground-shooting driver. The lack of acceptable change is also evident in this area - the headphone jack is here for another year of modeling. Yes!
Update for Samsung Galaxy S9 +
There is, of course, AR emoji - Samsung’s take on custom emoji, which you shouldn’t call an animoji. The S9s put the Oreo out of the box with the latest Experience above, while not all S8s were treated to that official update of Android 8.0 (more for owners).
Specifications
- Body: Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass 5 front and back; IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. Midnight Black, Coral Blue, Titanium Gray, Lilac Purple color schemes.
- Display: 6.2" Super AMOLED 'Infinity Display', 2,960x1440px resolution, 18.5:9 (2.06:1) aspect ratio, 529ppi; HDR10 compliant (no Dolby Vision).
- Rear camera: Primary 12MP, Type 1/2.55" sensor, f/1.5-2.4 aperture, 26mm equiv. focal length, dual pixel PDAF, OIS; Secondary 12MP, Type 1/3.6" sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 52mm equiv. focal length, autofocus, OIS; 2x zoom. 2160p/60fps, 1080p/240fps slow motion, 720p/960fps super slow motion video recording.
- Front camera: 8MP, f/1.7 aperture, autofocus; 1440p/30fps video recording.
- OS/Software: Android 8.0 Oreo; Samsung Experience 9.0; Bixby virtual assistant; Smart Connect, Smart Connect Home
- Chipsets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845: octa-core CPU (4x2.7GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.7GHz Kryo 385 Silver), Adreno 630 GPU. Exynos 9810: octa-core CPU (4x3rd-gen Mongoose 2.7GHz + 4xCortex-A55 1.8GHz), Mali-G72 MP18 GPU.
- Memory: 6GB of RAM; 64/128/256GB of storage; microSD slot for cards up to 400GB.
- Battery: 3,500mAh Li-Po (sealed); Adaptive Fast Charging (same as S7/S8); QuickCharge 2.0 support; WPC (Qi)&PMA wireless charging.
- Connectivity: Single-SIM, Dual-SIM available in certain markets (hybrid slot); LTE-A, 4-Band/5-Band carrier aggregation, Cat.18 (1.2Gbps/150Mbps); USB Type-C (v3.1); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac MU-MIMO; GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo; NFC; Bluetooth 5.0.
- Misc: Fingerprint/iris/face recognition; stereo speakers (bottom-firing + earpiece); 3.5mm jack; bundled AKG headphones; DeX dock compatibility.
Images
We don't have to run away from an uncommon complaint (or a dozen) but with the S9 + it's hard to find something to complain about by looking at the specs. Sure, there could be a lot of battery, but with the weight of this generation pressing 200g, maybe a 3,500mAh cell is better. The high price of a contract launch is another number less than happy, even if few people will pay for it - pre-order promos and carrier support will certainly put a dent in it. Let's see what you will be paying for.