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It's Galaxy S9 day! On Friday,
Samsung's Galaxy S9 and larger, slightly stepped-up Galaxy S9 Plus ($800 at
Amazon.com) went on sale across the globe, though some people who preordered
their phones had already received them.
In the US, Verizon, AT&T,
T-Mobile and Sprint slashed prices on the full retail cost of the phone,
scrambling to outdo each other for the most attractive deals. See the full list
of Galaxy S9 deals here, but remember that they're only good for a limited
time, and carriers often don't share what that expiration date is.
At this point, you're probably
asking yourself: Is the Galaxy S9 the correct hot, new phone to buy? I've been
testing both the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus for over two weeks now. And I'm 85
percent certain that these beautiful, powerful phones are two of the best that
money can buy. However, the remaining 15 percent of me hangs on to the nagging
disappointment that the world's largest Android brand could have done even
better. Let me explain why -- and why, for some of you, my minor objections may
not matter.
From a bird's-eye view, I see
top-of-the-line specs combined with excellent design, internal speeds and
outdoor photography. Samsung's hardware remains at the top of the market, which
makes the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus excellent all-rounders that can handle the
usual roster of activities and last a work day on a single charge.
These are all superb reasons to
buy a Galaxy S9 if you're upgrading from an older phone such as the Galaxy S7,
OnePlus 3, iPhone 6 and so on. Skip it if you have a Galaxy S8 ($540 at
Amazon.com). It's too close to make the update worthwhile.
When you dive into the details,
some nagging problems snap into focus that could break the experience for
certain people. For example, the industry-first dual aperture lens that Samsung
put in both Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus phones absolutely makes photos as bright as
promised, but it also often makes them blurry if there's any movement. And the
3D avatars and new face unlock tools meant to match similar features in the
iPhone X ($800 at Cricket Wireless) are either half-baked or fundamentally
flawed.
While it's easy to overlook or
simply avoid the Galaxy S9's weaker additions, Samsung wants these particular
tools to set the Galaxy S9 apart from the competition -- and from the Galaxy S8
before it -- and they just don't live up to the claim. These fumbled details
cost the Galaxy S9 CNET's rarely given Editors' Choice Award, but it's still a
terrific phone in the ways that matter.
Hang tight for the results of our
continuing our deep-dive testing into the S9's camera quality, battery life and
durability from all angles. We're really putting both phones through their
paces, and I'll soon update this review with our findings.
In the meantime, feel good about
buying a Galaxy S9 or S9 Plus. For a lot of people, one of them will be the
phone to get. That said, avid mobile photographers will get more richly
textured low-light photography out of the Google Pixel 2 ($649 at Google Store)
and 2 XL. If you crave cutting-edge security, the iPhone X has tamper-proof
face unlock cornered for now, although iris unlock on the Galaxy S8 and newer
is still secure. And the OnePlus 5T is a much lower-cost alternative if you're
looking for a better-than-basic Android device for less.
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