Friends+Design
- Absolutely luscious design, continuing the design language that was introduced with the Galaxy S8 series (which is not a bad thing at all) - and it has some really sizzling color options in purple and blue, which really helps those supple curves stand out - the body colors look deep, rich and ever-changing thanks to the way the glossy glass catches the light - you will be hard pressed to find anything remotely as elegant, and beautiful in the Android market
- The biggest design change is on the back, where the fingerprint reader moves below the camera module - this corrects the worst design mistake of both Galaxy S8 phones and the Note 8
- Water resistant body
- Fragile glass front and back means you should buy a case day 1
- The new face-unlock tool is not particularly secure (it might have been better for Samsung to build out a more refined version before rushing in to compete with the similar feature on the iPhone X)
Display
- The tall, 18:9, minimal bezel, 6.2-inch AMOLED screen is absolutely gorgeous and even brighter than last year's (15 percent brighter, in fact) - and the sexy dual-curved design adds to the charm
Software
- Samsung software on top of Android adds some useful extras, extending the core functionality of Android - it is one of the better, more refined UIs in the Android world
- The 3D avatar software is again not that well executed - the AR Emojis track your expressions poorly and need far more customization options
- There’s also still no compelling use case for Bixby, Samsung's AI agent (though of course you have no compulsion to use it, and can instead keep using the Google Assistant)
Performance
- Whiplash-fast performance backed by the super powerful Samsung's Exynos 9810 (similar to the Snapdragon 845 in terms of performance) - performance is top-notch as expected under all use cases
Camera
- Terrific camera - the first to bring a mechanical dual-aperture lens from DSLRs to the much tinier mobile phone, a feature that's designed to let in more light, reduce image noise and generally make your photos a lot better
- The image quality in well lit situations is top-notch
- Low light performance often borders on astounding - with the amount of brightness & lack of noise you will find in the shots (thanks to the dual aperture lens) - although its not very consistent (some low light photos are oddly washed out)
- The Galaxy S9 Plus also one-ups the excellent Galaxy S9 with a second rear camera for taking portrait photos - they come out well with a good bokeh effect
- The super-slow motion video mode is pretty cool too, and when you frame the shot well, can give some incredible result
- The selfie camera is good too, and has a new Selfie Focus mode, which uses software (and not a second lens) to create a depth effect with the front-facing camera, similar to the Pixel 2, or the iPhone X
- On the whole the cameras on the Galaxy S9+/S9 compare well with the those on the other top camera phones - the Google Pixel 2, and the iPhone X - it's a toss up between these 3 - the Galaxy S9+ can produce some truly exceptional shots especially in the dark, but perhaps the iPhone X and the Pixel 2 are just a bit more consistent all round, everything considered
- While the camera is great generally, it can sometime make low-light photos look blurry and lack detail - even though brightness levels is excellent and noise is minimal - so its sometimes a double edged sword
Audio
- Dual-speaker system is excellent, and makes for loud, rich audio - and results in one of the best speaker experience of any smartphone, ever
- Call quality is fantastic too, with the AKG tuning really paying off
- Also has the good old-fashioned headphone jack! (that's missing in a lot of other flagships now)
Battery
- Good (though not exceptional) battery life - will definitely last the work day on a single charge
- Supports fast charging (although it's not the fastest around)
- Supports wireless charging
- Battery life is good, but not exceptional - some of the competition is ahead here
More
- DeX Pad support is another cool feature that enhances the Desktop Experience Samsung introduced on last year’s flagship Galaxy phones
- On the whole, while outside of the display, the S9+ isn’t a class leader in any category, but it’s good enough in all of them that the whole package makes for a great flagship phone - it will compete with the Pixel 2/XL and the iPhone X for the title of the best smartphone - which one of these 3 you might choose will depend on what specific things you value
- Among the two S9 variants themselves (standard, and plus), a lot of people might prefer the Galaxy S9, as it's a little easier to handle - the incremental improvements in the S9+ on the other hand (even bigger screen, more RAM, and a secondary rear camera) are arguably not that significant
- Everything considered, S8 owners can skip the upgrade - the S9+ is excellent all-round, and incrementally better - but it's not a monumental change from the S8
- Apart from the iPhone X and the Pixel 2/XL, the S9+ will also face tough competition now from lower priced flagships like the OnePlus 5T, which are almost as good on most of the important counts
- The S9+ will also face direct competition from Samsung's Galaxy Note 8, which is pretty similar in many of the meaningful ways, but might come at a lower price
