Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S9 started last week, and the first S9 orders are set to arrive to customers on March 14. We managed to get our hands on a new Galaxy S9 ahead of the device's launch date, so we thought we'd compare Samsung's new flagship device to Apple's latest flagship device, the iPhone X.
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Design wise, the Galaxy S9 looks a lot like the Galaxy S8, with slim bezels at the top, sides, and bottom and a display that curves downward at the sides. It's taller and slimmer than the iPhone X, and with Samsung continuing to use a thicker top bezel, there's no notch. The Galaxy S9 has a 2960 x 1440 display, which DisplayMate says is better than the iPhone X's display.
With the Galaxy S9, Samsung uses multiple biometric methods, so there's a fingerprint sensor that's been relocated to the middle of the device's back underneath the rear camera, making it easier to reach. The iPhone X, of course, has fully embraced facial recognition, something Samsung hasn't been able to do because it's using an inferior 2D facial and iris recognition system that's not secure enough on its own.
A fingerprint sensor is, of course, an attractive offering for those who prefer fingerprint sensors to facial recognition, and offering multiple biometric methods provides consumers with choice. The Galaxy S9 also continues to offer a headphone jack, which Apple abandoned with the iPhone 7.
Samsung's Galaxy S9 is using variable aperture camera technology (with two cameras if you have an S9+), and it's putting out photos on par with the iPhone X (if not better), and to combat Animoji, Samsung has its own new AR Emoji, which are more realistic humanoid animated emojis that some have called creepy. We'll be looking into both AR Emoji and the Galaxy S9 and S9+ cameras in later videos, so make sure to visit MacRumors next week to check those features out in detail.
The Galaxy S9 runs Android 8.0 Oreo, with useful features like native multitasking and edge panel customization. Android is appealing to many because it's more customizable than iOS, but it can't match features like iMessage and Continuity, and these key differences are what draw people to the different operating systems and drive customer loyalty.
When it comes to performance, Samsung's Galaxy S9 doesn't quite measure up to the iPhone X in terms of benchmarks, but in day to day usage, the difference isn't noticeable. Both devices are responsive, fast, and offer the kind of performance you expect in an expensive flagship smartphone. It's worth noting, though, that Galaxy S9 pricing starts at $720 in the US, while pricing on the Galaxy S9+ starts at $840. That's a solid $280 to $160 price difference compared to the $999 price tag of the iPhone X, and lower price is often an edge that Android devices have over iOS devices.
With Samsung and Apple devices, deciding which one is "better" is often a matter of choosing your preferred features and your preferred operating system. Both of these smartphones are fast, modern, and highly capable devices and each one has its upsides and downsides.
We'll be further exploring similarities and differences between Samsung's new flagship smartphones and the iPhone X next week, but let us know what you think of the new Galaxy S9 in the comments below.
Article Link: Video Comparison: Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X
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Video Comparison: Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. iPhone X
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When it comes to performance, Samsung's Galaxy S9 doesn't quite measure up to the iPhone X in terms of benchmarks, but in day to day usage, the difference isn't noticeable.
I'm no fan of Samsung, and there are plenty of other reasons to find this (and all) of their products to be just plain junk. But this isn't something I think they should be constantly lambasted for. It simply isn't profitable for Samsung to make the fastest devices. It doesn't translate into profitability for Samsung to put the time into engineering a revolutionary chip (let alone a new one every year). There are no developers clamoring to write breakthrough apps on anything Android, and there are no Android users that would appreciate the end result.
Same here.
I'm not sure I really like a fingerprint sensor on the back of a phone and I don't really care for mid-back cameras, but otherwise the design is solid.
In addition, anybody who claims you should buy a Samsung phone instead of an iPhone based on the notch is trolling you. Why? Because you can buy an iPhone 8 or 8+ which has the same processor as the X and doesn't have a notch.
I'd love to see Apple bring back the colors they had back in the day. Imagine some gem colored MacBooks and iPhones?
Samsung's phone is designed more practically?
Surely you mean the dedicated Bixby button. Truly a wonderfully practical feature. I'm sure all Samsung users are super happy to have that instead of that useless ring/vibrate switch on the iPhone.
Perhaps you are praising the practical choice of putting the fingerprint reader right next to the camera lens? We all love fingerprints smeared all over camera lenses. Combining the home button and fingerprint reader into one button is so impractical on the iPhone, and Face ID? Who wants to be able to unlock their phone just by looking at it? Such an impractical method.
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The A11 chip is verifiably the fastest mobile chip available. iPhone X is first in benchmarks and day-to-day usage. Anybody claiming otherwise is being dishonest.
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Is it just the notch you dislike? Then buy iPhone 8 or 8+.
See that's the nice thing about choice I don't want a bunch of icons on my home screen since I'm going to swipe right on my iPad and search or swipe up on my Android phone and search not scroll through pages or my drawer. There isn't one "best" way there's only a "best for me" way.
Yes I can do all of those things from my Android phone to my Mac.
I kind of dig the iCloud...not impressed by the hardware anymore (except for iPad).
Yea it doesn't have an impact on the use of the phone so it certainly isn't an area I care about.
It's not really the same Samsung. As The Macalope is fond of saying, Samsung has a military weapons division. To say that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing is a gross oversimplification.
I find it both hypocritical and funny how many are trolling Samsung for using the same physical design they used for S8
Meanwhile, Apple has been releasing the same design over the last 4 generations (at higher price point mind you), and same people would defend their iPhone 7 and 8 saying how genius and innovative it is (if it ain't broke don't fix it... beautiful... feels different in hand)
Sad!
Meanwhile, Apple has been releasing the same design over the last 4 generations (at higher price point mind you), and same people would defend their iPhone 7 and 8 saying how genius and innovative it is (if it ain't broke don't fix it... beautiful... feels different in hand)
Sad!
Have you even used the recent Samsung phones starting S7 series? The bloat is no more than what Apple provides in its IOS ecosystem. Also, you are free to choose whether you want to use the default apps or use your own preferred ones.
The bloatware Samsung is long gone. Use a phone first before making blanket incorrect statements.
Proud owner of IPhone6S+ & Samsung Note8.
All of a sudden benchmark numbers mean something? Lol. Unfortunately benchmarks don't translate to real world usage. Sad times for the Apple apologist. Especially when real world comparisons show otherwise. Here you go, straight from an Apple enthusiast, enjoy. Damn embarrassing for the iPhone, especially at this price point.
This is an Old line. Get a life and move forward. Samsung accepted it, recalled all phones back and delivered an awesome S/Note 8 series
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Some people use phones from both ecosystems; IOS and Android. So, they end up sharing their opinion.
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or the notch users accept the fact that they need to live with the notch till a better/ newer iphone comes out? Daily driver, you may not even notice it, But, one off time you tilt your phone in Landscape and see photos from your gallery, 2 options.
- see the photos with the huge black bands
- zoom in to see a decent portion of the photo cropped because of that notch.
I'd suggest use the phone actually once. Looks dont always deliver the truth.
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What's boring you in the IOS ecosystem?
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If one day Apple decides to port iMessage to Android, what would you say?
I am so shocked that a computer with a faster processor and less RAM would be better at benchmarks that test the processor speed and worse at benchmarks that are RAM-dependent. You also forget that Apple quits background processes more aggressively than Android.
Oh yeah, you called this test "real world usage" - um I've never seen anybody just open and close apps as fast as possible on their phone and do literally nothing with them. When actually testing tasks being done on the phone like encoding video, the iPhone was substantially faster.
What else apart from video encoding?
Everyone loves pointing out video encoding but the A11 should "destroy" everything else in every other metric, but it doesn't, apart from video encoding and even that advantage is diminishing.
At the end of the day, these flagships are all beasts, none of them are slow, they are more than enough for most people.
1. No.
2. No.
Now. No.
Your logic is flawed. You are looking at total screen resolution. The resolution is so similar it doesn't matter. I don't care who has more pixels. As soon as you have multiple displays you can do more. That's why the X has more screen than the S9. The X doesn't have to hide the status information while apps are full screen. It can do both, so yeah, the X has more usable screen area because it has 3 times as many screens.
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The "notch" goes away. OR it gives me two more displays that show content alongside the video. So the iPhone gives choice while Android forces you to have a weird aspect ratio... Awesome.
Hahaa, you're sounding really desperate. That's all you got from the video? Look how much quicker the fp unlock was than face ID, look how many apps/games opened quicker on the S9. Look at the multitasking. Apps kept refreshing on the X. How often do we unlock our phones a day? When you pull the S9 out of your pocket, it's already unlocked before you get it out. That's the advantage of still having a fp scanner. There's you're real world usage right there. And no, the iPhone wasn't substantially faster at doing something that an overwhelming percentage of the market doesn't do, 4K video encoding. EverythingApplePro himself says, "the iPhone X seems to be just a little bit faster here." Lol, desperate times indeed. So much for the A11.
X screen size/area included the notch
So the notch is part of the screen as is the status bar in s9. Since both screen are 5.8in, but the s9 status bar is just half the height of the X "notch status bar", therefore effectively s9 has more screen area in portrait mode. In landscape the notch blocked out more screen area as well.
Not to me. I see normal usable area and two extra spots for content. So what if the screen is slightly less than 5.8 in? I want a 4 inch iPhone, so this argument you are trying to make is going the wrong way. Between the two phones I get a smaller device with more screen space. Seems like the iPhone X is far better than the S9.
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I loved my iPhone 6, it was the perfect size but I also love my Moto G5 Plus (yes I know it's not a Galaxy) for the following reasons -
No wall of icons - I can place two folders either side of the screen split between my favourite personal and business apps with a row of four commonly used apps (phone, iMessage, Hubspot CRM and Gmail) across the bottom. The screen is dominated by a handy all in one widget that displays the time, weather and date. Touching one of them launches the respective app.
Also, notifications on Android is just heaven and is the number one reason I'm still here. Listening to a podcast or Spotify is easy and I don't need to jump into the app. Everything is groups and easy to action or dismiss.
Lastly gestures are pretty handy such as activating the camera of the light by twisting or 'chopping' the phone.
But I'm still looking at the new iPhones on the horizon...
No wall of icons - I can place two folders either side of the screen split between my favourite personal and business apps with a row of four commonly used apps (phone, iMessage, Hubspot CRM and Gmail) across the bottom. The screen is dominated by a handy all in one widget that displays the time, weather and date. Touching one of them launches the respective app.
Also, notifications on Android is just heaven and is the number one reason I'm still here. Listening to a podcast or Spotify is easy and I don't need to jump into the app. Everything is groups and easy to action or dismiss.
Lastly gestures are pretty handy such as activating the camera of the light by twisting or 'chopping' the phone.
But I'm still looking at the new iPhones on the horizon...
One very unexpected iOS function function I’m utilizing more and more lately is answering phone calls from my iPad. Growing this kind of integration is essential to Apple’s success.