Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+: All you need to know about the new phones

Samsung is ready to do battle with the iPhone X with the new Galaxy S9 and S9+ 
Amelia Heathman26 February 2018

The new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are finally here and they're a pretty good looking smartphones.

Coming in four colours: Midnight Black, Titanium Grey, Coral Blue and the brand new Lilac Purple, this is the smartphone to take on the iPhone X.

Samsung’s head of IT and mobile communications division, DJ Koh, took to the stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to unveil the phone.

Here’s what you need to know.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and 9+: the specs

The next in line in the Samsung Galaxy range are not so different from their predecessors. The new Galaxy S9 will have a 5.8inch Quad HD+ Curved Super Amoled infinity screen, just like the Galaxy S8.

The bigger phone of the two, the Galaxy S9+ smartphone, will have a 6.2-inch Quad HD + Curved Super Amoled infinity screen, like the Galaxy S8+.

Memory wise, the S9 has 4GB RAM with 64GB of memory available, as well as space for an SD card. The Galaxy S9+ improves on this with 6GB RAM and 128GB memory, as well as the SD card holder.

In the UK, the phones are being shipped with Samsung’s 10nm, 64-bit Octa-core processor. The smaller phone will have a 2.7 GHz Quad and 1.7 Quad, whilst the bigger phone will have 2.8 GHz Quad + 1.7 Quad.

The smartphones also have AKG stereo speakers, which support Dolby Atmos, to give the effect of 360-degree sound, whether you’re listening with headphones (via the headphone jack) or through the phones’ speakers.

But what we really care about with the new phone is the camera. The cameras have a super speed dual pixel sensor, with dedicated processing power and memory, to make your photographs DLSR-quality.

As well, the new phones include features such as super slow-mo, so you can create slow-motion video that captures 960 frames per second.

In addition, the cameras both feature dual aperture, which aims to take pictures the way a human eye sees them. The hype around the new smartphone cameras has been built up a lot so it will be interesting to see if they live up to their promises.

And finally, the new smartphones are IP68 water resistant, so you can drop one in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. However, it is recommended that you don’t try this out.

Samsung president of mobile communications business DJ Koh presents the new Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone
LLUIS GENE / Contributor / Getty images

What else do I need to know?

The new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are here to take on Apple’s Animojis with AR Emoji. This uses a data-based machine learning algorithm which analyses a 3D image of the smartphone owner and maps out more than 100 facial features to create a 3D model of themselves.

You can completely customise your emoji, from hair, to accessories and clothings. Then you can send them to all of your friends, regardless of what smartphone they use, to share your feelings as video or stickers.

In addition, Samsung has been improving on its artificial intelligence assistant, Bixby. Bixby has been completely integrated into the camera to offer real-time object detection and recognition.

A new feature, named Bixby Food, will launch in the UK in the coming months which allows smartphone owners to take a picture of their food and see all the calories and information about it.

As well, there’s Bixby Live Translation so you can translate foreign languages and currency in real time.

What will the Samsung Galaxy S9 cost and when is it released in the UK?

Don’t worry, you don’t have long to wait. Pre-orders are open now in the UK from Samsung’s website and select retailers like O2 and EE.

Customers who pre-order the new smartphones before 7 March will receive their devices on 9 March. This is a whole week before the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ UK release date, on March 16.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 will cost £739. If you’re looking at the Samsung Galaxy S9+, it will set you back £869.

Samsung says it will be offering various trade-in deals for customers as well.

If you buy through O2, prices start from £44 per month for the S9 and £49 per month for the S9+.

Alternatively, prices start from £53 for the S9 on EE and £63 per month for the S9+.

What are people saying about the new smartphones?

Nick Clarke, Mobile Buyer, at Argos said: “As Samsung is one of our best-selling phone brands, we’re confident that the new Samsung S9 will be hugely popular with our customers. Samsung fans will love the infinity display but the real game-changer is the dual aperture camera which offers improved low-light performance, putting it on a par with a traditional DSLR camera.

“We’re also excited to see how the personalised 3D AR emojis will be received and think that the face and iris-scanning technology will be attractive to more security-conscious customers.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in