- This is the Samsung Galaxy S9.
Oh, wait, not it's not; that's the S8.
This is the Galaxy S9.
Sorry for the confusion, but you've gotta admit,
it looks an awful lot like last years, doesn't it?
In fact, if you already own the S8,
I'll tell you right now that you probably
don't need to upgrade.
But there is this one feature
that really does border on the magical.
I'm Michael Fisher, and this is a first look
at the Samsung Galaxy S9, brought to you by debrand.
(upbeat music)
Having established that the S9 and larger
S9 Plus look almost identical to their predecessors,
let's talk about what has changed.
Samsung seems to have taken the feedback about the S8's
wonky fingerprint sensor to heart.
The new one is kinda small,
but it's now positioned beneath the camera
instead of alongside it.
And good news, you can still use it
to drop the notification shade.
The iris scanner and face unlocker are also there,
if you prefer those to the fingerprint.
Samsung has finally upped its audio game with the S9.
The earpiece pulls double-duty
as one of two AKG-tuned speakers with Dolby surround.
The other is a side-firing port
in its usual spot on the bottom edge.
Samsung says the combined output
is 1.4 times louder than the S8,
which makes sense, double the speakers, right.
And it's also one of the few companies
to retain the headphone jack.
Speaking of, remember DeX,
the dock that turns your phone into a sort-of computer?
Well, the new DeX pad is intended
as the more portable solution.
And to justify the segue I just set up,
it now leaves the headphone jack accessible
when the phone is plugged in.
It also lets you use the phone as a track pad,
and resolution support now tops out at 2K.
Now you still can't just plug in a cable to enable DeX.
It needs external power.
The plus side of that is that the phone charges
while you're using it,
and the DeX pad has a fan to keep it cool.
Still, I do wish you had the option of just plugging in
a USB to HDMI cable like you can on the Mate 10 Pro.
The S9's other improvements walk the line
between convenience and cruft.
It's no surprise to see Bixby here,
since Samsung has shown no signs of giving up
on its virtual assistant.
But the most useful part of the new Bixby
has been cribbed from elsewhere.
This feature that converts foreign
into native language is powered by Google translate.
The other functions, like pointing your camera at food
to get a calorie count and trying on virtual makeup
that you can then go on and buy,
look, I'm not saying it's not fun,
but it's the kinda thing I expect most folks to use once
and then forget about forever.
And while I'm picking Bixby's nits,
I'm still annoyed the button doesn't have any texturing
to help you tell it apart from the volume rocker.
Yep, get ready for another year of Bixby popups
every other time you try to turn down your ringer.
So what's the magic sauce? The camera.
First off, if you're buying for the optics
you'll probably wanna spring for the Plus model
since it's got a secondary camera
for telephoto shots, like the Note 8.
But the primary one up top is where the wizard lives.
Stick with me through the numbers here.
There's a mechanical aperture capable of stops
from 2.4 all the way up to 1.5
and a dedicated block of dynamic RAM as well.
So when you fire it, the camera captures the equivalent
of 12 photos at once, and once it processes
and applies some GPU magic, the result on paper
is an up to 30% reduction of noise.
TLDR, you should get better night shots
with much less grain.
Now here's the stuff that caught my eye.
Remember that Sony XZ Premium I reviewed last summer
with the epic slow-motion video?
Well, Samsung basically lifted that feature for the S9.
Hit the super slow mo and this thing can shoot
at 960 frames per second for a very quick burst,
stretching out 0.2 seconds into over six seconds
of normal playback speed.
The resolution takes a hit.
It's only 720p in this mode.
But it is a bit smarter than Sony's implementation
in that you can set it to automatically trigger
once it sees movement.
I know, it's a niche thing, but take it from me,
you'll have more fun with this than you expect.
The question is, will the rest of this phone justify
its expected typically top-shelf pricing?
We'll find out in the full review soon.
Subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don't miss it.
And if you do decide the Galaxy S9 is the phone for you,
it'll be available in four colors March 16th
with pre-orders opening March 2nd.
Folks, you saw how beat up and knocked around
my Note 8 and SA Plus were in that side-by-side shot, right?
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Finally friends, the Galaxy S9 may be the biggest
phone I'm gonna see this week,
but it's far from the only one.
Follow the fun live from Mobile World Congress
in Barcelona on my Instagram feed at theMrMobile.
Until next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.