Why the S9s are the best Android phones
New Galaxy handsets deliver the goods
When Samsung unleashed the Galaxy S4 smartphone in 2013, it piled on so many new features, I joked that it was like Samsung was auditioning for a Las Vegas magic act.
Fast-forward five years to the Galaxy
S9 and S9+ that I’ve been checking out for a week and a half, and it’s comforting that Samsung no longer goes hog wild with parlor tricks, unless you want to count super-slo-mo video or animated emojis.
What Samsung delivers with the S9 and S9+ are solid, if hardly gamechanging, new handsets that keep the company’s flagships at the top of the Android heap. If you spent your money on last year’s Galaxy phones, you have every reason to stand pat this time around. If you own an older device, the investment in these pricey phones makes more sense.
Pay attention to the price, by the way, because there’s a considerable disparity if you’re buying it outright, a range between $720 and $800 for the S9 and
$840 and $930 for the S9+, depending on carrier, retailer and any sweeteners included in the deal.
You have to come pretty close to even detect the design differences in these latest phones compared with their predecessors, which despite slightly shorter upper and lower bezels, result in vivid near edge-to-edge 5.8-inch or 6.2-inch curved displays equal to last year’s sizes and screen resolution.
One welcome design change: Samsung moved the fingerprint sensor on the rear of the phone below the camera rather than to its side. Its ill-advised placement on the S8+ meant that my digit inadvertently would land on the camera rather than the fingerprint sensor when trying to unlock the phone.
There are other ways to unlock the Galaxys, and with the S9 and S9+, Samsung fused the front camera’s facial recognition capability with iris scanning — a combination that works in the dark and seems roughly as fast as Apple’s Face ID facial recognition on the iPhone X.
Key holdover Samsung features include fast wireless charging (with an optional charging pad), water and dust resistance, and a standard size headphone jack, meaning you won’t need a special adapter to plug in corded headphones. Some sanity remains in the space.
The ‘reimagined’ camera
Samsung foisted most of its attention on what its marketers refer to as a “reimagined” camera. Arguably, the most important camera feature is one you won’t immediately notice, a dual aperture (F1.5, F2.4) that automatically widens or retracts according to the lighting conditions around you, much like the human iris does. It improves the prospects that you’ll get a decent picture no matter what the lighting conditions are. I was very pleased with many (but not all) of the pictures I took in low light.
I didn’t do any scientific tests, but to my eye, pictures taken with the S9+ generally appeared more natural than on the S8+. The S9+ has two rear cameras, one for telephoto and one wide angle; the S8+ had just one rear camera. The S9 also has just one rear camera.
I was rather dazzled by some of the special effects I was able to produce via the camera’s new super-slow-mo feature — volcanic flames as a hibachi chef worked his craft, liquid pouring out of a glass, floating snowflakes during a nor’easter.
AR Emojis
Samsung’s augmented-reality response of sorts to the Animoji feature on the iPhone X has one major benefit compared with Apple’s animated emojis: You can share an AR Emoji as an animated sticker or GIF through a thirdparty messaging app such as WhatsApp. On iPhones, you can send Animojis only through the Messages app on the iPhone X. Or turn your AR Emoji into wallpaper on the Samsung phone or set as an “always on display” image.
Otherwise, the advantage goes to Apple, which in letting you create an Animoji in the form of a cartoon pig, unicorn or pile of poo, strikes me as more fun, and frankly a bit less creepy.
Samsung, on the other hand, wants you to create a 3D avatar that looks just like you, all based on a selfie. I just didn’t think my character particularly resembles my visage. You can customize the avatar by adding (or removing) hair, glasses, clothes and altering the skin tone.
Having Bixby help you see
One way Samsung hopes to make its mark with Bixby — Samsung’s artificial intelligence-infused virtual assistant — is through the camera, so far in my experience with mixed results.
On the plus side, you can point the camera at a street sign and have Bixby quickly translate that sign into a foreign language.
You can also point Bixby at food you’re eating, and in some instances — it worked with a blueberry muffin and with tiramisu — Bixby can let you know how many calories the item has.
The surprising killer app was revealed when you tap makeup, and here Bixby shines with flying colors, letting you “see” how you look in different shades and styles of makeup.
Judging by the reaction of some of my colleagues, that’s one parlor trick Samsung got just right.