Samsung has just unveiled the Galaxy S9 and it seems to be a promising offering. Apart from the ones aspiring to own a brand new S9 smartphone, there are plenty who will be looking to upgrade to the latest flagship.
I know many have been taken aback by the likeness of the S9 and the S8 but there’s a lot happening inside the phones. The S9 shares a lot of ergonomics with its predecessor but brings in a lot of freshness in terms of hardware and software.
So, for the ones looking to upgrade, here’s what you should be looking forward to with the new Galaxy S9.
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The ‘Judwa’ Avatar
It’s kind of like this! If it ain’t broke... You know.
Samsung has been smart enough to continue with a similar design on the S9 to what we saw on the S8. Same Gorilla Glass 5 protection, similar aluminium frame! It’s a classic case of ‘Control+C, Control+V’.
One thing that will strike the eye is that the fingerprint sensor has now been moved below the rear camera (thank God) which means it’s much more easier to reach.
Shout out to the ones who are looking to upgrade. Sorry to break it to you, but there’s nothing new to look forward to in terms of design and display on the Galaxy S9. Big bummer.
The S9 is Clocking Like Clockwork!
The biggest upgrade is on the inside as the new Galaxy S9 comes with the latest Snapdragon 845 processor or the Exynos 9810. Expect blazing fast performance on the new Galaxy S9 and the 4GB RAM keeps things running smoothly.
The graphics processing also gets a boost with an Adreno 630 GPU/Mali-G72 while the S8 was running on Adreno 540. A welcome upgrade nonetheless.
The new S9 also comes with expandable memory like the previous version, so there isn’t going to be a dearth of space. Though the phone will come with Android Oreo 8.0 out-of-the-box, there will be an upgrade that will be pushed out soon after the phone is out.
It is still water and dust resistant and still sports a 3.5mm headphone jack. I am not at all feeling bad of all the sameness! It’s still good!
The Big Upgrade! Camera!
Though on paper both the Galaxy S9 and the S8 sport the same 12-megapixel camera on the rear, the S9 ‘redefines’ how a camera on a smartphone should be like.
One of the highlights is that the new 12-megapixel sensor of the S9 comes with f/1.5 aperture which means jaw-dropping low light pictures. This is the highest aperture we have seen till now on a camera phone and we can’t wait to see what magic the S9 camera creates in low light.
The demo pictures at the event looked quite convincing of the phone’s low light prowess.
Another headline-making feature the phone has is recording super slo-mo videos at 960 frames per second. The same of what we see on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium.
The front camera on both the S9 and S8 remains the same but the S9 now welcomes an animoji feature on the front cam where you can create an animated avatar of yourself just by clicking a selfie.
So get ready to dive into a whole new refreshing world of smartphone photography if you decide to upgrade to the S9.
Battery Bummer!
The S9 carries the same 3,000 mAh non-removable battery as its predecessor but this time around comes with FAST wireless charging which is indeed a big upgrade. I am not saying that the 3,000 mAh battery of the S8 is any bad, just that I would have liked a bit more juice on the upgrade. Makes spending all that money worthwhile!
Since the S9 is running a much powerful processor, we can expect a slight drop in the total standby unless Samsung has worked its way around that problem.
We still haven’t put the S9 battery pack through the paces but as soon as we do, you’re sure to get an update.
Should You Upgrade?
Tricky question! Would I really want to invest in excess of 50k just on an update in processor and camera? Truth be told, the upgrade is not meant for all.
Folks who are really into photography and multimedia will love the camera on the S9, which is a serious upgrade over the Galaxy S8.
Yes, the new S9 gets a better processor but you won’t notice much difference in the phone’s processing power. Sure, you get animated emojis now but again that’s hardly in use these days. Till the time ‘animojis’ become a rage, the next Samsung flagship will be out.
Fast wireless charging! Now that’s a big addition but again not something that’ll make me pull the money out of my pocket. So upgrade ONLY AND ONLY if you want the above features in your phone. Else, hang on! Your Galaxy S8 is still packing enough bells and whistles.
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