A new Galaxy, but not out of this world

GADGET OF THE WEEK Samsung Galaxy S9+

IT’S PROBABLY advancing middle age, but I no longer look at phones with shimmering allglass fronts and think: ‘What a bold, glamorous design.’

Instead, I find myself thinking: ‘That looks really breakable.’

I used to get genuinely excited about smartphone launches (don’t judge me, please, it’s an occupational hazard). But it’s becoming increasingly hard to get steamed up, as phone companies have locked step in a Soviet-style insistence that all devices must look like a featureless slab of volcanic glass. Samsung wrote the book on all-glass displays, but the look has now been slavishly copied by everyone from Apple to Google, so the ‘sell’ with its new 6.2in Android S9+ is that it’s ‘reinventing the camera’.

The phone is fizzing with software to boost the image, and has a dual aperture lens, which is great for low-light photography (something most phones are still terrible at). But it’s up against stiff competition these days in the form of Google’s excellent Pixel phones and Apple’s dazzling iPhone X. The S9+ is great, but it’s not in a different league: it occasionally turns out breathtaking shots, but it’s a touch fiddly and unpredictable. I think the Pixel 2 is still the best out there.

It’s also lumbered with a voice assistant – Bixby – that lacks the robotic charm of OK Google and Siri. Yes, I am a sad man who likes talking to my phone.

The screen is, of course, superb – it’s what Samsung does best – but these days, slim, shimmering and glamorous just isn’t enough. vodafone.co.uk