Eager to put the Galaxy Note 7 disaster[1] in the rearview, Samsung used 2017 to double down on impressive, feature-packed smartphones. Last year's Note 8[2] and S8 handsets both impressed in a big way, bringing edge-to-edge, AMOLED-powered displays into the mainstream long before Apple was able to get the iPhone X to market. Naturally, as the smartphone expo of Mobile World Congress gets going today in Barcelona, Spain, it's time to welcome the Samsung Galaxy S9.
The new S9 looks almost like last year's S8, and that's completely intentional. Both the S9 and S9+ refine the Galaxy's already mature design. Perhaps the biggest physical change here (besides the addition of a badass Lilac Purple color option) is around the back of the phone, where the fingerprint scanner has been moved to sit just below the camera. This addresses one of the biggest gripes users had with the S8, since it was stupidly easy to smudge up the camera's glass cover when feeling around for the tiny fingerprint pad.
S9
Samsung
Two versions of the flagship Sammy phone will be available: a 5.8-inch S9 and a whopping 6.2-inch S9+. All the standard Samsung features have been branded this generation as "Galaxy Foundation," and no, that's not a new non-profit charity. This term sums up all the things that make a Galaxy a Galaxy—stuff like IP68 water and dust protection, fast wireless charging, and microSD memory expansion. New in the S9 and S9+ is an enhanced biometric security setting that combines the slower, more secure iris scanner with facial recognition. There's even a headphone jack, which seems like such a luxury in 2018.
Sure sounds like a Samsung phone, doesn't it?
The thing Samsung hyped...