Copy And Paste?: Samsung S8 Vs S9

Very rarely will you ever have a scenario in the tech industry where a company will release flagship smartphones that compete with each other. It’s a strange time, because that’s exactly what Samsung did when they released the S9 just 10 months after the S8. Many consumers were overjoyed because this meant that the S8 was going to be knocked down in price by quite a lot. Why on earth would Samsung make such a huge business error like this, or was it in fact a good idea? The S8 was a huge step up from the S7 so making as much profit from the model would be top priority wouldn’t it? Instead we got the S9 not even a year later. It looked the same, was made out of the same materials, weighed a few grams more but overall, was pretty much the same as the S8. well, this is what it looked like on the surface at least. There were some big changes done in key area that might set the bar for all future smartphones. But even still, is it really worth it compared to the slightly older model?

The smaller things

First things first, get ready to see a lot of the same things in the S9 as you do in the S8. get over the fact that the design is pretty much the same. The smaller things do matter when you’re wondering if you should spend £800-900 or £500-600 instead. Samsung say the bezels, both top and bottom, are slightly smaller. This means the screen is slightly larger on the S9, but we’re talking millimetres and only a couple. The fingerprint sensor has been moved from the side of the rear camera to just underneath it. This is because a lot of consumers were complaining that their hands aren’t big enough to reach up and unlock the phone using the fingerprint scanner unless they shift hand positions or use two hands. There are also 2 speakers for the S9 instead of the single speaker at the bottom for the S8. But with everyone using headphones and earphones, does that matter? In fact, do any of these changes warrant the £300+ the S9 demands?

The big plus and flaw

The S8 has a screen size of 5.8-inches and the S9 has 6.2-inches. But, crucially the battery size is the same so for a bigger screen of the same quality you get less battery time. The chip however is one-up in the S9 as it uses SnapDragon 845 instead of 835. Check out the mobile phone comparison for each phone and see whether or not this is something you would like for a contract phone. The S9 black is £36 per month but the S8 is £28. The biggest change is the S9’s camera. It has a mechanical aperture shift from 1.5 to 2.4. This simply means more control over lighting and possibly better video recording. The S9 also has slow-motion video capability which stretches 0.2 seconds of footage out into 5 seconds.

Is the S9 a copy and paste job of the S8? Kind of, soft of, not really. Samsung has improved the chip and the camera, but not much else. Does this mean it’s worth £300 more than the S8? Depends on if you like to take pictures or not.

Tags: copy and paste, S9, Samsung

Category: Sci Tech