INSIDE NUMBER 9
Samsung has unveiled its new flagship phones the S9 and S9+ at the Mobile World Conference. We take a look at its features and the new offerings from rivals
MANY of the big hitters in the business of building mobile phones congregated in Barcelona this week for the Mobile World Conference. The trade fair traditionally sees the big reveal of new models from many makers (except Apple, of course. It has its own way of doing things).
This year was no exception, and we saw new flagship phones from Sony, Nokia, and the behemoth that is Samsung – the biggest mobile maker in the world.
It announced its new Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones to the world, and stole many of the headlines.
Here’s a round up of the three biggest reveals from Barcelona.
SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 & S9+
SAMSUNG sells more mobile phones than anyone else on the planet, owning 22% of the global market in 2016 – this despite shipping a model that year which had a tendency to catch fire. So it must be doing something right.
Last year’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ got the company back on track, with their distinctive curved screens (the so-called ‘infinity display’), which gave the appearance of sliding around the edges of the devices.
With the success of those phones, it should come as no surprise that the S8’s successors look very similar indeed.
Both S9s have that same display, the only obvious differences being bezels round the edges that stand out less.
Spec-wise the two new models are similar and the only real difference is in the rear cameras. The bigger phone has two (wide and tele), while the smaller has one (wide).
What they share is that they both sport a mechanically adjustable aperture – a first in a mobile phone.
The aperture essentially is the hole through which light passes to the sensor. And the S9s have two settings - f/1.5 and f/2.4.
This, Samsung says, allows for the fast, wider setting (f/1.5) to be used in low light, and the slower setting to switch in when light is bright to avoid blown-out highlights in your photos. It’s an interesting move, and a feature that gives these phones a USP.
The only other major design changes over the S8 is that Samsung has wisely decided to move the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone from the side of the camera module to beneath it – which makes it much easier to reach. Software-wise Samsung has decided to ape Apple and introduce the ability to control an animated on-screen character with your own facial expressions – the new AR Emojis are not animals as on the iPhone X, however, but a 3D rendering of your own head, which you capture using the phone’s front camera. It’s all somewhat underwhelming, but that’s no bad thing. Samsung will sell a lot of these phones. Oh, and both still sport a headphone jack. Samsung also revealed a new version of its DeX docking station which allows you to connect your phone to a monitor and use some apps as if they were running on a desktop computer. The new docking station is extra-clever as it allows you to use the surface of your phone as a trackpad to control apps on the big screen.
The phones will ship on March 8, and start at £869 for the S9+ and £739 for the S9. You can order now.
SONY XPERIA XZ2 & XZ2 COMPACT
THE XZ1 phones only came out six months ago, but Sony chose to reveal radically updated versions of its star phones this week.
Gone are the angular corners of the old, and in come curves and a beautiful glass back (at least on the bigger of the two versions of the phone – the smaller one sticks with plastic).
These phones are solid if unremarkable, and move closer to the kind of simplicity of design now favoured by Apple and Samsung – which are now shipping all-screen phones as their standard.
The XZ2 is not quite all-screen, and still sports a top and bottom bezel. But it’s a step in the right direction.
The two stand-out features are some Sony magic in the software which upscales low-resolution video to look better in the phone’s exceptional screen, and a weird “dynamic vibration system” which monitors the video you are watching and makes the phone vibrate to coincide with movement on screen.
No official release date has been given, but we’ll have to wait less than a month according to Sony. Prices will also be forthcoming soon.
These phones, by the way, do not have a headphone jack.
NOKIA 3310 AND 8 SIROCCO
NOKIA might be more or less a new company these days, but it has no worries about trading on its name’s illustrious past.
Last year saw it resurrect the fabulously successful 3310 model (with an all-new design).
That must have gone well because this year it’s doing it again, bringing back a version of the curved 8110 phone with the sliding front panel.
Although not as popular as the 3310, the 8110 is fondly remembered as it had a starring role in The Matrix films – Keanu Reeves was seen using one in the trilogy.
Anyway, it’s not the same phone, but it has the same name and takes some design cues from the original.
Specs are underwhelming (even though it is a 4G phone and has a limited number of apps available for it, including Facebook), but you would not be buying this phone for cutting-edge tech.
It’ll cost £69 and you can register your interest at Nokia’s website.
Nokia also revealed a new high-end phone – the 8 Sirocco, which looks very much like any other smartphone out there, but has two distinguishing features.
Firstly, it’s very strong – carved out of a single piece of stainless steel.
Secondly, it runs out-of-thebox Android 8 Oreo without any of the manufacturers’ ‘skins’ that modify (and ruin) Google’s fabulously simple yet immensely powerful OS.
It’ll cost £659 when it hits the shops in April.