Guide: Samsung Galaxy S9 series has been released at MWC 2018 (Mobile World Congress 2018) and attracts much attention among the smartphone world. Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ continues the design style of the previous generation and has made many more detailed improvements. So compared with the Galaxy S8 series, what improvements have been made in the Galaxy S9 series? Is it worth to upgrade?
For Samsung fans with choice phobia disorder (also called allodoxaphobia), it seems like a very difficult choice to decide whether to upgrade Galaxy S8 to S9 or not. And Samsung also provides some enticing offers for users to exchange the mobile phone. So should you upgrade your Samsung phone to the latest one? Perhaps this article can provides you enough information to learn the differences between Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S8 and make your choice.
Part 1. Samsung Galaxy S9 vs Galaxy S8: What's the Difference?
Part 2. Possible Reasons to Upgrade Galaxy S8 to Galaxy S9
The long-awaited Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 plus have finally arrived. Before determining whether it is worth upgrading or not, let's learn the differences between Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S8 at first.
1. Design & Display: The S9's design is much similar to S8's.
Comparing with Samsung Galaxy S8, the appearance of Galaxy S9 has no big change and Samsung also declares that the display of Galaxy S8 is the most popular design so far, so there is no additional redesign of the smartphone's display.
From the year of 2017 to 2018, Samsung has maintained the same screen size, screen resolution and super AMOLED curved screen but it redesigns the edges of the device. Although the changes are small, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are shorter, wider, thicker and heavier than their predecessors.
Size & weight:
· Galaxy S8: 148.9mm*68.1mm*8.0mm and 155 grams;
· Galaxy S9: 147.7mm*68.7mm*8.5mm and 163 grams;
· Galaxy S9 Plus: 158mm*73.8mm*8.5mm and 189 grams;
· Galaxy S8 Plus: 159.5mm*73.4mm*8.1mm and 173 grams.
2. Features: The Galaxy S9 shares most of the same hardware features as Galaxy S8.
Galaxy S9 has the similar display as Galaxy S8 on the whole and if Samsung hadn't changes the position of fingerprint recognition, it might have been impossible to tell the difference. Actually, Samsung has really redesigned it in some way and improved its performance with some new features.
New features of Samsung Galaxy S9:
· 960 fps - super slow motion camera mode;
· Double speakers (main speaker at the bottom and the secondary speaker on the telephone receiver);
· AR Emoji and stickers;
· Varieties of new camera modes.
The same features of Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S8:
· Facial Recognition
· Fingerprint Recognition (Fingerprint Scanner)
· Iris Recognition
· Wireless Charging
· Fast Charging (no separate accessories required — it comes with the phone)
· Heart-rate Monitor
· Headphone Jack
· Water Resistance (up to 30 minutes in a depth of 1.5 meter), IP68
· Dust Proof
· Super AMOLED
3. Camera: The Galaxy S9's camera has some improvement compared with S8's but it is not significant enough.
The Galaxy S9 has an aperture mode for low-light environments and another for brightly lit environments. Samsung Galaxy S9 has the same single-lens camera design as Galaxy S8 with 8 MP front camera + 12 MP rear camera. What's difference is that Galaxy S9 comes with iris diaphragm, which allows camera to receive more light at low brightness. Galaxy S8 is the first mobile phone with a wide focal length f/1.7 lens while Galaxy S9 has further pushed the figure to f/1.5 (the lower the f/ number, the wider the aperture), and could switch the aperture between f/1.5 and f/2.4. When you are in a very dark environment (less than 100 lux), the f/1.5 aperture will start shooting, so most of the time you're shooting on f/2.4.
While Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus comes with a dual-lens camera with 8 MP front camera + 12 MP rear camera (f/2.4 wide aperture) + 12 MP rear camera (telephoto lens), which allows Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus's rear camera automatically switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4 according to different shooting conditions.
The Galaxy S9 also allows you to take super-slow-motion videos at 960 frames per second, which is very slow and even iPhone X can only support 240 fps currently. What's more, Galaxy S9 comes with the multi-frame noise reduction technology to provide very good low light performance.
Besides, both of Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus can shoot 4K videos (3840x2160 @ 60 fps, 1920x1080 @ 60 fps, 1280x720 @ 30 fps) while Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus can only record videos in 1920x1080 @ 30 fps. Even though the image resolution are the same 4000 x 3000 Pixels for all Galaxy S9/S9+/S8/S8+.
4. Processor: Galaxy S9 runs faster than Galaxy S8.
As for processor, Galaxy S9 comes with the latest processor called Snapdragon 845, which improves the performance by 40% or so. And Galaxy S8 is using the Snapdragon 835, which also make Galaxy S8 runs smoothly. The problem is that it is hard to feel the significant difference in speed between Galaxy S9 and S8. Also if you have used your Samsung Galaxy S8 for a year, you might start to feel that Galaxy is slowing down especially when the new Galaxy phone is released.
5. Battery: Galaxy S9 doesn't have significantly better battery life than Galaxy S8.
Actually Samsung has snot reinvented the battery on Galaxy S9/S9+, and in terms of battery capacity, both of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S8 have 3,000 mAh batteries while both of Galaxy S9 Plus and Galaxy S8 Plus have 3,500 mAh batteries, though the screen brightness of Galaxy S9 is 15% higher than the Galaxy S8.
However, it is said that the batteries of Galaxy S9/S9 Plus are much more durable than Galaxy S8/S8 Plus:
· Galaxy S9 Plus supports up to 25 hours (3G) talktime;
· Galaxy S9 supports up to 22 hours (3G) talktime;
· Galaxy S8 Plus supports up to 24 hours (3G) talktime;
· Galaxy S8 supports up to 20 hours (3G) talktime.
Besides, all Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+/S8/S8+ support quick charging, wireless charging with irreplaceable Li-ion battery.
6. Speakers: Galaxy S9 adds a second speaker but it is not the reason to upgrade.
Galaxy S9 has two speakers, one main speaker is at the bottom and another speaker is in the earpiece for stereo sound. Also the loudspeakers sound pretty good but it seems that it is not enough for users to upgrade for this.
7. AR Emojis: It is not that satisfactory for now.
The new AR Emoji in Galaxy S9 is like iPhone X's Animoji, which can combine your facial movements with animal expression (or cartoon figures in Galaxy S9). Actually, the current AR Emoji in Galaxy S9 is kind of creepy and it feels weird. If you want to upgrade your Samsung Galaxy S8 to Galaxy S9 just for AR Emoji, it is not worth it at all. And also if you want the similar experience, you can totally use the existing app called Bitmoji.
8. Facial Recognition & Finger Recognition: Galaxy S9 has some improvement compared with Galaxy S8.
The fingerprint sensor next to rear camera on the Galaxy S8, which has been much-maligned, has now ergonomically redesigned to the lower position of the rear camera on Galaxy S9. So now it is easier to use Finger Recognition on Galaxy S9/S9+ right now. What's more, the Facial Recognition on Galaxy S9 has been improved comparing with Galaxy S8 and it is more useful.
After reading the above introduction, you might have found that the newest Galaxy S9 has not much surprise than Galaxy S8. So if you want to upgrade your Galaxy S8 to Galaxy S9, it is likely because of the following reasons.
· You want to use Facial Recognition, but it is so bad on Galaxy S8 while Galaxy S9 has improvement.
· You can't stand the fingerprint detection on Galaxy S8, while Galaxy S9 has moved the position of fingerprint sensor to a lower place to be more user-friendly.
· You want to zoom a lot when taking photos. Galaxy S9 comes with a dual-lens camera while Galaxy S8 has only one single-lens camera.
· You want to use iris recognition, but Galaxy S8 does not offer a great iris recognition and Galaxy S9 has some improvement.
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