Thinking About the Samsung Galaxy S9 (Premium)

This weekend, Samsung will announce the Galaxy S9, and while many seem excited, I’m wondering again if its time to switch.

I’ll get to that in a bit. First, let’s look at what Samsung is expected to announce.

As you may know, the stakes are a lot lower today than they were a year ago. In early 2017, Samsung was—ahem—hot on the heels of its disastrous Note 7 recall, and many were wondering if the smartphone giant would even be able to recover from that debacle. But the Galaxy S8 handsets were truly excellent, and they’ve ushered in a new modern age for smartphones with their tall, wraparound displays. Today, it is Samsung, and not Apple, that is leading the way forward.

As the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, Samsung’s goal for 2018—for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ that Samsung will announce Sunday, plus the Note 9 that will arrive later this year—is simple enough: Refine and evolve its already excellent design. And, in doing so, formally respond to Apple’s iPhone X. Which, by any measure, won the fourth quarter of 2017.

We’ll need to wait on Sunday’s announcement to see the full picture. But based on copious leaks, it appears that Samsung is on track, and that it will deliver the S9 series as it should be.

Here’s what I’m expecting, based on the leaks. (Note that any of the specifics could, of course, be wrong.)

Bezel-less curved display. The Galaxy S9 will retain the same timeless design as its predecessor, with its unique curved and bezel-less Infinity display. This is the look that all other smartphone makers aspire to, including Apple. But because none of them achieve the curved display sides, Samsung retains its design lead. As before, the S9’s display will be 5.8 inches, while the S9+ will be 6.2-inches. Each with no awkward notches to block your view.

Improved fingerprint reader location. One of the few design miscues on the Galaxy S8 will be fixed with the new devices: Samsung is moving the fingerprint reader to where it belongs: Below the cameras on the rear of the device, and where one’s finger naturally lands. This design means that Samsung will not be placing a fingerprint reader in the screen, as some have been hoping. But it doesn’t preclude Samsung from playing up improved facial recognition features, perhaps in tandem with iris scanning, which will help in its marketing efforts against the iPhone X.

Improved performance. As with most flagship Android handsets that will ship in 2018, the Galaxy S9 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, at least here in the United States. (Samsung uses its own Exynos processors in most markets.) That a new flagship would use the latest processor is, of course, not surprising. But based on the first benchmarks, the 845 offers a significant performance boost over its predecessor, the 835. And as part of a full-featured SoC, it delivers big advances in graphics horsepower, camera capabilities, and connectivity too.

Improved cameras. Also in keeping with other modern smartphone flagships, Samsung will focus on marketing the photographic prowess of the S9. This time around, the firm will address a real need by providing dual camera lenses, one with an f1.5 aperture and one with f2.4, at least in the bigger S9+. This will provide better portrait mode and bokeh effects, plus a new slow-motion mode. Sadly, Samsung will ape the Animoji feature from the iPhone X.

Improved core specs. The S9 will ship with 4 GB of RAM, as with last year, but the larger S9+ should come with 6 GB. Storage will be 64 GB, 128 GB, or 256 GB depending on the market; last year, the S8 came with just 64 GB here in the US. I’d like to see 128 GB.

Improved audio. New to 2018, the S9 sports dual stereo speakers, again matching what we see elsewhere with modern flagships. And the S9 will also retain its headphone jack, a major and courageous plus.

Improved connectivity. The S9 features gigabit LTE.

Improved expansion. The S9 supports wireless charging capabilities, and it Samsung will be selling a new version of its DeX PC-like docking station that lets the phone’s screen be used as a trackpad.

Bixby button remains. Unfortunately, the S9 will still include a dedicated button for Bixby, Samsung’s pointless digital personal assistant. This wouldn’t be onerous if they just provided a way to swap it all out for Google Assistant. But they don’t.

Pricing. This is where things get complicated. A year ago, I complained about the high price of the Galaxy S8+, which was about $850.(The S8 was $750.) Since then, we’ve seen a variety of $1000 phones, including the Google Pixel 2 XL, the iPhone X, and even Samsung’s own Note8. So my expectation is that the price of the S9 will increase over that of its predecessors.

Availability. The Samsung Galaxy S9 will come in four colors—Midnight Black, Titanium Gray, Lilac Purple, and Coral Blue—and will be publicly available sometime in March 2018.

Given all this, I am seriously considering buying a Galaxy S9+. Part of this is that my experience with the Google Pixel 2 XL has been so negative. But a big part, too, is that I I came very close to switching to Samsung last year, with the excellent Galaxy S8+. So there are two questions here.

Will the Galaxy S9+ improve enough of the problems I had with its predecessor? And will it improve enough to overcome my key reasons for sticking with the Pixel 2 XL?

To answer the first question, it is helpful to review what I wrote last year when I decided to return the Galaxy S8+. I didn’t like the location of the fingerprint reader, but Samsung is fixing that. But my big issue was the price. As noted, things have gotten even worse since then, and I expect the S9+ to be even more expensive.

As for the Pixel 2 XL, my own private calculation on that device arrived at two key advantages: Project Fi compatibility and the superior camera.

There’s no reason to think that the Galaxy S9+ will be Fi-compatible, but one of the many nice things about his service is that you can pause it at will. So I could do what I used to do, and just use it when I’m overseas.

The camera, of course, is an unknown. I think that the S9+ camera will be excellent. Will it beat or match the Pixel 2 XL? There’s no way to say right now.

But let’s imagine, briefly, a perfect world in which price is no object. And in which the S9+ camera was as good as that of the Pixel 2 XL. In such a case, even without Project Fi compatibility, yes, I would switch. I’d move to Mint SIM and the Galaxy S9+.

Do I think this will happen?

Honestly, no. And while I’d love to review the Galaxy S9+, Samsung PR has come up empty for me after telling me I’d be able to review the Note8. So I either need to buy the damn thing, or trust that reviewers—most of whom I do not trust—get it right for once. You know, the same people who all declared the Note 7 to be the perfect phone. And then it started exploding.

Anyway, I’ll be watching Samsung’s announcement with great interest.