Samsung’s current flagship in the mobile phone market, the Galaxy Note 8, has received equal amounts praise and hatred since its launch back in August of 2017. Some praised it for its powerful chip and intuitive features, while others bashed its bizarre quirks, such as the oddly-placed fingerprint scanner or clunky UI. However, recent leaks from Twitter as well as high-profile Korean site Investor have hinted at an early launch for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9, possibly as early as July. Knowing this, it’s due to time to start compiling all known information about Samsung’s next addition to the smartphone sphere, and analyzing how it matches up against its competitors.
Price:
The basic asking price for a 64gb S9 comes in at a pleasant $720, which squares up to $30 cheaper than the notoriously pricey S8’s 64gb model at its launch. This puts the phone solidly in the mid-range of current-generation smartphones, at a bit more expensive than Google’s $650 Pixel 2, but well under the iPhone X’s famous $1000 pricetag. This is a good move for Samsung, as the aforementioned costliness of the S8 was one of the most frequent points used against it in comparisons. Not to mention how relieving it is to see that other phone companies are not using the iPhone X’s thousand-dollar asking price as the new standard for phone pricing.
Chassis:
If you’re in the market for a drastically different look from the Galaxy S8, the S9 might not be for you. But if you liked the look of the S8, keep reading! Samsung’s newest phone looks almost identical to the S8 in physical design, save for the change to the controversial placement of the S8’s fingerprint scanner, which now sits centrally under the camera and proves to be a far more natural fit. The screen has received an upgrade as well: While the resolution remains the same as the S8’s 1440 x 1080p, Samsung boasts of a 20% brighter view and an all-time low mobile screen reflectance. There’s also the addition of Lilac Purple, a brand-new color that joins the existing roster of Coral Blue, Midnight Black and Titanium Grey.
Camera
While all current generation smartphones have quite spectacular cameras, a recent article from Forbes details specific additions to the S9’s camera unit that blow away the IPhone X. The article uses a scoring system known as “Photoscore” from DXOmark, a dedicated photography review site, the article boasts of the S9’s top-of-the-line scores. In fact, the S9 received a spectacular Photoscore of 99 points overall, which is “the best photoscore recorded to date”. There’s also the addition of a 960fps “Super-Slo Mo” mode when shooting video at 720p, a neat addition to the phone’s featureset. Despite this, however, the scores were extremely close, with the iPhone X and Pixel 2 finishing with overall scores just 3 and 5 points lower, respectively. Still, those picking up an S9 will get to experience the joy of confidently bragging to their friends and co-workers about the superiority of their mobile phone camera.
Battery
This one’s a bit trickier. While official specs reveal the phone to be using a 3,000mAh battery, beating both the iPhone X’s 2,716mAh battery and the Pixel 2’s 2,700mAh battery, there’s no telling where the actual battery life will fall. For example, the iPhone X averages at 21 hours of battery life, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the S9 will last longer: iOS’s restrictive nature means that users have access to very little of the phone’s real processing power, extending the battery lives past their regular limits. With Samsung’s promises of a brighter screen plus the highly customizable nature of the Android OS, it’s possible that the S9 may have a comparable or even lower average battery life compared to the X, despite the larger battery.
Other Features
The Galaxy S9 has quite a few new tricks up its sleeve, not to mention the previously mentioned Super-Slomo camera and revamped fingerprint scanner. Most of these features were leaked by the mysterious Twitter account Ice Universe, but these leaks have gained reputability through their release of previously unseen photos of the device as well as information shared by the account later matching up with information shared by Samsung. Ice Universe has stated that the S9 will feature an upgraded integrated pen, an entirely new user interface design, an in-display fingerprint reader (Similar to the iPhone X) and a completely redesigned 2.0 of Bixby, the phone’s AI assistant.
While many of these leaks seem plausible, some go a bit beyond that, with a few lofty claims of the phone’s upgraded pen featuring a built-in microphone for voice calls. The rest of the leaks seem legitimate, however, and the S9 looks ready to match and outmatch its competitors on its much-awaited and quickly approaching release.
Featured Image Via Flickr/Tiến Nguyễn
