The Galaxy S9 Plus is perhaps the most obvious change compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S8. The addition of a telephoto camera on the Galaxy S9 Plus nicely matches what you're able to get on the iPhone X. This isn't going to be on the standard Galaxy S9 but it's a solid addition. Not only is it going to be nice to get that extra focal length, but in my opinion I think it actually looks a little bit sharper than what you're getting on that iPhone X. The real star of the show, though, is that new main camera, which is going to be shared with both the S9 and the S9 Plus.
It's an all-new 12 megapixel sensor that has stacked DRAM on the chip. Not only does this speed things up, but it also enables some pretty cool new features. This enables a new 960 frames per second slow-motion mode, albeit in 720p. Yes, it's going to be a little bit soft, and you need a lot of light to actually make this look good, but if you can time it right, it can look really really nice. Low light performance has also been improved thanks to the addition of a new mechanical aperture. Not only is this going to be pretty much a first on a major smartphone, but it gives you two options for standard photos: an f2.4 aperture, and when you get into a low-light situation, it can open up all the way to f1.5.
The results are really impressive with that wide aperture, as well as Samsung's new multi-shot processing, which will allow up to eight photos to be taken and combined into one to reduce noise. It looks really really good. Yes, you're going to be giving up a little bit of sharpness here, but for the most part, there's really not much to complain about, you get this guy in low light, it's gonna look awesome. For outdoor shots, Samsung does get a little overaggressive, especially when you look at the saturation as well as the sharpness, but compares really well to the iPhone X, especially if you don't want to edit your photos.
The front-facing camera on the Galaxy S9 is pretty wide and it still looks nice, right Ken? (laughs) In comparison, the iPhone X front-facing camera is fine, but it's not quite as wide-angle, which especially for selfies is really helpful. Where things get a little bit more one-sided is with AR Emoji vs Animoji. So this is what AR Emojilooks like on the Galaxy S9, kind of creepy right? Essentially, this is very similar to what you're getting on Animoji on the iPhone, except it's just not as well done, mostly thanks to the lack of face tracking as well as it's just going to be a little unsettling, especially when you make your own like I did.
And this is what an Animojion the iPhone X looks like. Now no, I can't make my own custom emoji, but as you can see, especially with the front-facing camera and the Face ID tech to actually track my face, the level of detail here is really impressive. Much much more so than the AR Emoji.
The Galaxy S9 is the best smartphone that Samsung has ever built. It takes a lot of what was great about the S8 and subtly improves it in some ways and majorly improves it when it comes to the camera. It also does this at an significantly cheaper price. Where the S9 comes in at $720 unlocked, that iPhone X at $1000 is definitely going to hurt the wallet. That said, the days of the Galaxy being the obvious answer if you wanna get a high-end Android flagship are definitely over. The Pixel 2 still has a lot of advantages over the S9, even though it's going to be a little bit older, and when you compare it to the iPhone X, what you're getting on that phone, if you can of course overlook the eye-wateringly expensive price, is excellent performance, good battery life, polished software. It really is a solid package.
The Galaxy S9 is a great phone, but for me it just can't quite match the iPhone X. So I'm curious, what do you guys think about the S9 versus the iPhone X? I'm sure there are going to be lots of wonderful comments all about the merits of each phone and not fanboys or arguing at all. Let me know in the comments below and I will catch you in the next one.
WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- This is the SamsungGalaxy S9 and S9 Plus,you're getting an improved camera,better internals, butat the cost of lookingpretty much identical to the Galaxy S8.In fact, the S9 looks somuch like the Galaxy S8,that this is a Galaxy S8,but I bet you couldn't tell.On the other hand, we have the iPhone X,now at $1000, this isone of the most expensivesmartphones ever made, and thankfully,Samsung didn't take the bait and leftthe Galaxy S9 priced at a cool $720.My real question, though, can such aminor update actuallycompete with the iPhone?One look and you can seethat Apple and Samsungare going after the bezel-less trendin two very different ways.So with the S9, the bezelsare small but noticeableon the top and bottom of the display,move over to the iPhoneand there's basicallyno bezels to be seen,except for the notch.To be honest, I don'thave a huge preference,so the iPhone X notchdoesn't bother me that much,but it does rob you of a littlebit of screen real estate,which can be important whenyou're talking about a smartphone.Now with the S9, you're really notgoing to be losinganything, but it also lacksthat sort of distinctivelook of the iPhone X.It's kind of up to you, honestly I thinkthe cleaner look of theS9 does it for me, though.While the S9 looks very similar to the S8,Samsung did make some minortweaks that you can noticeonce you actually get it in your hand.So one of the big ones is that there'sa little bit more of a well-defined edgeon the actual frame ofthe phone, so especiallywhen you consider thatthis is an all-glass phonewith sort of curved glass front and back,it's nice to have just alittle bit more grip on it,although to be fair, it's still going bea very slippery phone and you're probablygoing to want either a bumper,case, or a skin on this guy.In contrast, the iPhone, well itjust doesn't look quite as impressive.Sure, you're getting thenotch, but the completelyflat panel just doesn'tlook as cool as the S9.However, instead of opting for aluminumlike Apple always does,instead they upgraded this yearto stainless steel, andI've gotta say, it works.It adds some welcome heft to the design,which when you combine itwith the all-glass metal buildreally does make this feellike a very premium product,which is good when you'respending $1000 on a phone.Now one minor downside isthat because it is going to bevery polished stainlesssteel, it's really easyto get minor scuffs on it, but thankfullyit's not going to be thatdifficult to buff these out.To the surprise of exactly no one,these phones have a lot in common.First of which is water-resistance.While the iPhone X is IP67 rated,the Galaxy S9 is slightly better at IP68,now what this reallymeans is that if you say,go get tossed in a pool orsomething with your phoneit's going to be fine,but for the most partthis is a really nice thing to havewhen you're spending thismuch money on a smartphone.It should pretty much be a standardthing on flagships these days.You're also getting an almost identicalstereo speaker setup, so both phoneshave a single bottom-firing speakeras well as a second front-firing speakerthat doubles as the earpiece.Now it might not look allthat impressive, but theseboth sound a lot better thanjust the single speaker.It's hard to pick a clear winner here,the S9 does get a bitlouder, especially onceyou enable the ATMOS setting, however,it's at the expense ofa little bit of clarity.Personally I think the iPhone X soundsa little bit richer, butit is going to be quieter.At the end of the day, though,it is really splitting hairs,both of these phones sound pretty solid.One area where the S9definitely wins, though,is with the headphonejack, it actually has one.Considering that this isbasically a dead featurein flagship phones today,big props to Samsungfor actually keeping it around.Now no, it's not goingto be some crazy high-endhi-fi DAC like you're goingto be getting in the LGV30,but it sounds totally fineand I think a lot of peopleare going to appreciatehaving this around in 2018.Another advantage of the S9is the fingerprint sensor.Now not only is it back this year,but unlike on the S8 whereit was in this awkward spotbeside the camera where youcouldn't really reach itand it was easy to miss,this year it's goingto be below the camera and slightly raisedfrom the body of the phone,making it a lot easierto feel without actually havingto go look at the backof your phone every time.It's just as fast as you would expect,and while I like how fastFace ID is on the iPhone X,there are definitely times where I preferhaving an actual fingerprintsensor like on the S9.That being said, the S9does have its own versionof Face ID, so it's kindasimilar to the setupin last year's Galaxy Note8 in which it uses not onlyfacial recognition but also iris scanningand it kind of works, it'sreasonably quick but stillnowhere near as fast as FaceID on the iPhone X and it'salso not going to be the mostsecure thing in the world.This setup on the Note8 has been easily fooleda million times, whereasat least on the iPhoneyou're getting something that'sgoing to be reasonably secure.That shows in Samsung'sconfidence in their own system.Where Apple is perfectlyhappy to allow youto use Face ID to unlockapps or even pay for thingswith Apple Pay, Samsung conveniently asksfor your fingerprint insteadof facial recognitionwhen you're actually using Samsung Pay.Move around to the displays,and there's no question,These are the two best panelson a smartphone you can buy today.I have the larger Galaxy S9 Plus here,which is rocking the 6.2 inch display,but if you opt for the standard S9,you're getting a 5.8 inch panelwhich is the same size aswhat you're getting on the iPhone X.Both are very similar, which makes sense,as Samsung is the onewho makes AmoLED panelsfor both Apple as wellas Samsung themselves.Now what you're getting here is supposedlya slightly brighter screen on the S9,they're claiming about 15%brighter than on the S8.The real use, especially one you actuallytweak some of the colorprofiles on the S9,they are almost identical-looking.Inside, things get a littlebit more interesting.Where the iPhone X is rockingthe Apple A11 Bionic chip,here in the United Statesyou're going to be gettinga Galaxy S9 with that new Snapdragon 845,or for the rest of the world,it's going to be powered by aSamsung Exynos 9810 processor.Jumping to Geekbench,and you're going to seea nice performance upliftover the Galaxy S8,however especially when youcompare to what you're gettingin the iPhone X, it's justnot even going to be close.Single thread performance especially isgoing to be much muchfaster on the iPhone.Now sure, benchmarks aren'talways representativeof what you're going to beseeing in the real world,but when you look at Geekbenchand you see somethinglike nearly twice thesingle thread performance,that is something that you aredefinitely going to notice.In my experience, the onlyphone that comes closeis the Pixel 2, and that's entirely basedon Google's awesome optimization job,which makes sense consideringthat they make Android.Now a big part of me feels like if Samsungwas a little bit lighter with their skin,things would be a littlebit of a different story.I will say, though, thatunlike in previous years,it feels like Samsung actually paid somereal attention intopolishing up the software.So a lot of those littledesign inconsistenciesthat you used to find inGalaxy software is nowhereto be found, and the Galaxylauncher itself is pretty solid,but when you dedicate anentire hardware buttonas well as the leftside of your home screento Bixby, a feature that I would arguemost people find less usefulthan Google Assistant,which is also preinstalled on the phone,then it's hard to argue that Samsunghas really stepped that faraway from their old waysof slapping bloatware on the phone.That comes across to the bizarre inclusionof a lot of weird Android appsthat are sort of duplicatedthanks to Samsung.So things like the Samsung email client,or Calendar, or even the Samsung browserall feel really out of date in 2018.Now sure, there's nothing stopping youfrom jumping into the Play storeand downloading the stockAndroid versions of these apps,but just why do they exist?Like seriously, why?Move over to the iPhoneX, and while iOS 11might not be all that newor exciting right now,thankfully over the last few months,they have polished up a lot of the bugsand it feels like a muchmore cohesive setup.Now sure, there are stillsome weird design choices,like hiding your notifications as well asyour control centerbehind two very similarswipes based on where you areat the top of the display,but it's really hard to look at the S9and the iPhone X and not be impressedwith just how much Applewas able to do with this guyand how Samsung just hasn'treally been able to keep up.It's close, but theperformance and especiallythe polish is justtop-notch on the iPhone.Get it?Top notch?Something else the iPhone has theadvantage with is battery life.The Galaxy S9 is pretty solid, it usuallylasts me through a full day,however with the iPhone,I regularly used it for the entire dayand still put it on thecharger with 30% or 40% left.It is a big step up overprevious generations.While most of the upgradeson the S9 have beenfairly minor, the biggest oneis definitely with the camera.The most obvious change is the additionof a telephoto cameraon the Galaxy S9 Plus,nicely matching what you'reable to get on the iPhone X.This isn't going to be on the standardGalaxy S9 but it's a solid addition.Not only is it going to be niceto get that extra focal length,but in my opinion I think it actuallylooks a little bit sharper thanwhat you're getting on that iPhone X.The real star of the show, though,is that new main camera,which is going to be sharedwith both the S9 and the S9 Plus.It's an all-new 12 megapixel sensorthat has stacked DRAM on the chip.Not only does this speed things up,but it also enables somepretty cool new features.This enables a new 960 frames per secondslow-motion mode, albeit in 720p.Now yes, it's going tobe a little bit soft,and you need a lot of light toactually make this look good,but if you can time it right,it can look really really nice.Low light performancehas also been improvedthanks to the addition ofa new mechanical aperture.Now not only is thisgoing to be pretty mucha first on a majorsmartphone, but it gives youtwo options, for standardphotos you're gettingan f2.4 aperture, whenyou get into a low lightsituation, it can openup all the way to f1.5.f2.4 is what the camera will default toand it looks good, it's a nice blendbetween getting a nice bit of sharpnessas well as actually lettingenough light into the camera.However, if you get into areally low light situationor you switch over to Promode and manually enable it,you can open it up to that full f1.5.The results are really impressive.With that wide aperture,as well as Samsung'snew multi-shot processing,which will allowup to eight photos to betaken and combined into oneto reduce noise, itlooks really really good.Now yes, you're going to be giving upa little bit of sharpness here,but for the most part there'sreally not much to complain about,you get this guy in low lightit's gonna look awesome.Now for outdoor shots, Samsung does geta little overagressive,especially when you lookat the saturation aswell as the sharpness,but compares really well to the iPhone X,especially if you don'twant to edit your photos.The front-facing camera on the Galaxy S9is pretty wide and it stilllooks nice, right Ken?(laughs)In comparison, the iPhoneX front-facing camerais fine, but it's not quite as wide-angle,which especially forselfies is really helpful.Where things get alittle bit more one-sidedis with AR Emoji vs Animoji.So this is what AR Emojilooks like on the Galaxy S9,kind of creepy right?So essentially, this is very similarto what you're gettingon Animoji on the iPhone,except it's just not as well done,mostly thanks to the lack of face trackingas well as it's just goingto be a little unsettling,especially when you makeyour own like I did.And this is what an Animojion the iPhone X looks like.Now no, I can't make my own custom emoji,but as you can see, especiallywith the front-facing cameraand the Face ID tech toactually track my face,the level of detail hereis really impressive.Much much more so than the AR Emoji.The Galaxy S9 is the best smartphonethat Samsung has ever built.It takes a lot of whatwas great about the S8and subtly improves it in some waysand majorly improves itwhen it comes to the camera.It also does this at asignificantly cheaper price.Where the S9 comes in at $720 unlocked,that iPhone X at $1000 is definitelygoing to hurt the wallet.That said, the days of the Galaxybeing the obvious answer if you wanna geta high-end Android flagshipare definitely over.The Pixel 2 still has a lot of advantagesover the S9, even though it'sgoing to be a little bit older,and when you compare it to the iPhone X,what you're getting on that phone,if you can of courseoverlook the eye-wateringlyexpensive price, is excellent performance,good battery life, polished software,it really is a solid package.The Galaxy S9 is a great phone,but for me it just can'tquite match the iPhone X.So I'm curious, what do you guys thinkabout the S9 versus the iPhone X?I'm sure there are going to be lotsof wonderful comments all about the meritsof each phone and notfanboys or arguing at all.Let me know in the comments belowand I will catch you in the next one.
