Samsung launches the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+

[outwar6010]

The stuff they've done with the camera seem awesome.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I agree with you on the general dislike of iOS but acknowledgement that it's got Android beat hands down for support and security updates.

Your MS analogy is slightly skewed though. It's not that Google don't support their OS, just that the manufacturers or carriers don't bother passing down the updates. The equivalent is MS releasing Windows update but Dell/HP/whoever or your ISP refusing to release them to you.

Thats the thing,though HP,etc do and we all know why,since MS would be utterly in trouble if they didn't. Google still has ultimate responsibility for its OS,as in the end phone companies want to sell new products and more of them,just like if HP/Dell would love if you had to buy a new computer everytime MS made a Win10 update. I mean honestly maybe Google really needs to embrace the open source community - if they can do a better job than many OEMs,perhaps they need to get them onboard.

I am going to see how this new Google security update initiative works out. In some ways its kind of a shame we only realistically have iOS and Android as the main smartphone OSes,I really wish we had some more(viable) choices.

[Hoonigan]

The stuff they've done with the camera seem awesome.

I'm surprised it has enough CPU power to run a camera sensor.

[3dcandy]

I just don't like iOS or how Apple go about things though. And yes they can do things about security or whatever but when you don't like how the phone is it doesn't really help. I use enough Apple kit for me to realise it's not for me

Again security is a whole different argument, and not just down to Android or whatever. Doesn't really need to go into this thread tbh

[tipko]

I like this design so much.

[philehidiot]

Good, this should bring down the S8 price as I am due a new contract in a couple of weeks

I got the S8 just as soon as they were allowed to start discounting it for customer retention purposes. It's still a damned fine phone 6 or so months in. My only issue is the Bixby crap which requires a little hacking to disable. I reckon if you're happy to root it and put custom firmware on it then the occasional performance issues (usually due to ad heavy websites) will disappear.

I used to be a HTC lover but the M9 really let me down and then they ditched the 3.5mm jack. These days I would recommend an S7 or S8 to anyone as long as they're willing to deal with a little bloatware. The S9 is probably going to be overpriced for what it gives. The screen and camera on an S8 are utterly excellent to the point where it's either DSLR or S8 for photos. A compact camera doesn't have a place in my life anymore.

[philehidiot]

Just so you all know (this may have been said and I've missed it), Anandtech were told that single threaded power would be "tuned" to match the SD models and they also found some very odd multithreaded performance issues. They were assured these were not representative of final firmware. The multithreaded scores were benchmarks for photo editing, productivity, etc and they were <last gen. The improvement in single threaded performance may be more theoretical in that it was based on the sacrifice of other tasking and will be constrained in the final firmware version.

This feels a little like GPU vendors sending cards to reviewers with "performance" clocks as they know they don't have to last and also have tested that particular card. Most reviewers noticed this and set the clocks to the real, shipped ones before testing.

Something is very wrong here and I'll be awaiting a full Anandtech analysis on final firmware before making any judgements about this phone.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Just so you all know (this may have been said and I've missed it), Anandtech were told that single threaded power would be "tuned" to match the SD models and they also found some very odd multithreaded performance issues. They were assured these were not representative of final firmware. The multithreaded scores were benchmarks for photo editing, productivity, etc and they were <last gen. The improvement in single threaded performance may be more theoretical in that it was based on the sacrifice of other tasking and will be constrained in the final firmware version.

This feels a little like GPU vendors sending cards to reviewers with "performance" clocks as they know they don't have to last and also have tested that particular card. Most reviewers noticed this and set the clocks to the real, shipped ones before testing.

Something is very wrong here and I'll be awaiting a full Anandtech analysis on final firmware before making any judgements about this phone.

I got the impression it was not a final production model so the software config was not final and OFC we should all wait and see what performance in shipping samples is like.

However,looking at what AT said,the core is much wider than before like with the Apple cores:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12361...3-architecture

If they cannot get a decent improvement in IPC they have screwed up massively somewhere in the design.

[qasdfdsaq]

And Samsung fans have the cheek to claim that Apple don't innovate. Why would you buy this over an S8?

Because I can actually reach the fingerprint sensor. And two speakers is nice (my Samsungs have always had vastly inferior speakers to my much smaller and cheaper Sony backup phones)

[Stu C]

And Samsung fans have the cheek to claim that Apple don't innovate. Why would you buy this over an S8?

I'm amazed, and have little sympathy, at upgrading your phone every 12 months... I don't think there is ever a real need. In reality, this is targetted at people with an S6 or S7, or similar, IMHO.

[Wylady]

Carphone pricing shows the UK buyer is being ripped off by the 38% difference between dollar and pound?

[peterb]

Carphone pricing shows the UK buyer is being ripped off by the 38% difference between dollar and pound?

20% of that will be VAT. Uk prices include sales tax (VAT) US prices don’t.

[GoNz0]

I'm not seeing any fantastic deals at the mo for the S8, sticking with vodafone still seems my best option with a 40% discount, £31 a month for 16gb of data and unlimited everything. Anyone think that holding out for the actual release date of the 16th will bring prices down again, I can't wait forever as my contract ends 1st of April