Samsung launches the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+

[HEXUS]

Incremental updates major on new camera features but there are other niceties delivered.

Read more.

[GoNz0]

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

[3dcandy]

S9+ has 6 gig of ram according to everyone else compared to 4 gig on S9

[3dcandy]

In fact the picture you provide even says that the S9+ has 6 gig. You may want to amend that

[Hoonigan]

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

[peterb]

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

Indeed - just further demonstration of an assertion I have made elsewhere, smartphones are now a mature product and there is little scope for innovation. Its as much about the supporting infrastructure as the device itself.

[spacein_vader]

Indeed - just further demonstration of an assertion I have made elsewhere, smartphones are now a mature product and there is little scope for innovation. Its as much about the supporting infrastructure as the device itself.

And that's why in the long term anyone in this market that isn't Apple or Google is in serious trouble unless they can develop their own platform and convince people to use it. Unless Samsung can get people behind Tizen (doubtful,) then I'm not sure if anyone can do that. Even huge companies like Microsoft and Amazon have failed.

[peterb]

And that's why in the long term anyone in this market that isn't Apple or Google is in serious trouble unless they can develop their own platform and convince people to use it. Unless Samsung can get people behind Tizen (doubtful,) then I'm not sure if anyone can do that. Even huge companies like Microsoft and Amazon have failed.

Except that any Android phone has access to the Google infrastructure and Playstore. (Iphone users don't have access to the playstore - which would be pointless!) but can use other parts of the Google ecosystem. But I agree, device support is important for device specific upgrades, rather than generic Android upgrades, bur that depends on the degree of customisation each vendor has implemented.

[3dcandy]

It's been said for years, but due to how the UK handles phone contracts this is well worth it for me who got an S7 near launch as I'd probably upgrade to an S9 rather than an S8 due to deffo getting an Android P upgrade. The S8 *may* get Android P but it's not got Oreo yet

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I am surprised that having two aperture settings is a big deal reading through a few reports of this launch,as I thought phone cameras were already using them. Its been a feature of even small film and digital compacts for at least 30 years,even ones under £100. It serious isn't revolutionary.

Whats more innovative is the use of an additional layer under the sensor to enable much faster readout,ie,it should make multi-shot noise reduction more viable. The rest of its a load of usual marketing bumpf.

Also,as usual lots of news sites bigs up the camera update and ignores the much bigger one.







AT had only access to a pre-production phone,so apparently there were some firmware/driver issues,but if that performance jump can be replicated in production units across a range of software,that is a massive performance jump.

It's been said for years, but due to how the UK handles phone contracts this is well worth it for me who got an S7 near launch as I'd probably upgrade to an S9 rather than an S8 due to deffo getting an Android P upgrade. The S8 *may* get Android P but it's not got Oreo yet

Or just put the Android based LineageOS which is totally open source,and gets updates faster than most OEMs push them out?

[peterb]

I am surprised that having two aperture settings is a big deal reading through a few reports of this launch,as I thought phone cameras were already using them. Its been a feature of even small film and digital compacts for at least 30 years,even ones under £100. It serious isn't revolutionary.

But a compact camera wont make phone calls or run applications so that comparison is not really relevant.

However I agree it isn't revolutionary in the grand scheme of things, but it is a relatively new feature in phones and is presumably a new feature for Samsung. (I say presumably because Samsung phones hold little interest for me as devices, so I am not up on the bells and whistles)

[peterb]

Just noticed with the edit with prices - about the same as an iphone 8 and more than an iphone7 (and less than the overpriced iphone X ). However it does have slightly more memory.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

But a compact camera wont make phone calls or run applications so that comparison is not really relevant.

However I agree it isn't revolutionary in the grand scheme of things, but it is a relatively new feature in phones and is presumably a new feature for Samsung. (I say presumably because Samsung phones hold little interest for me as devices, so I am not up on the bells and whistles)

It is relevant though - its not revolutionary and a phone still sucks in terms of image quality to a camera,and cannot even have a proper zoom. These are not cheap - well over £500 devices.

Considering I had a Canon S100 in my pocket or coat for like 4+ years,not sure why its such a big deal,and if you really don't care about image quality most sub £300 phones will essentially do the same job anyway. If anything the one thing the more expensive ones had was phase detection AF which was more useful but even that is on cheapo phones now.

Also,it is relevant when a sub £300 phone and a £300 camera will still do a better overall job than than £700+ phone and when most of these "revolutionary modules",cost peanuts. I remember the camera module on the S8 costs peanuts:

https://www.replacebase.co.uk/for-sa...ra-module-oem/

£19 before VAT and that does not include the bulk discounts Samsung gets. I

The only innovative part of the camera is the layer under the sensor which increases readout speed a decent amount,meaning multi-shot noise reduction might be more viable now. Yet all I see is most tech sites bigger up the most useless aspect of the camera.

What about the CPU improvements??

That is the biggest change in design.

Its gone to a much wider design,which is closer to what Apple has done.

[3dcandy]

The sensor package was released last year in a Korean only flip-phone. Can't remember the model number.
Why would I want to go to the problem of changing the OS? It's on a contract remember - that's against the contract rules. Plus I can't be arsed these days with flashing then ota's and all the hassle. I just want the phone to work. Point taken though. The sensor has on board dram basically to facilitate all the nice things - I've read somewhere that it takes ALL photos in a burst of 3 and then interpolates the data to get better shots or something. Might only be in Pro mode though which gives you access to raw files and a few other things

[peterb]

It is relevant though - its not revolutionary and a phone still sucks in terms of image quality to a camera,and cannot even have a proper zoom.

Of course it doesn't - no-one says it does! (but as the old saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you when that perfect shot presents itself!) but the cameras on phones are good enough for selfies or the of=dd snap shot. If you are serious about photography and going out specifically to take photographs, you take a fully featured camera appropriate to the task in hand. (I've just started using an old Olympus C50 (14 years old) when I'm out walking simply because it is considerably lighter than my DSLR and produces images that are good enough for that task)

[3dcandy]

The camera on the plus also has a 2x lens for the secondary sensor. Of course it's not the most expensive sensor, we've had this debate before. I think you'd be surprised if you found out how cheap dslr sensors are for companies like Nikon to buy. It's the other things that make them expensive. BOM for the iphone X is rumoured to be sub $200 yet it's a $1k phone