As it happens every year, Samsung has released its new flagship phones from the Galaxy series; we’re talking about the Galaxy S9 and all the other new additions to the family including the S9+, S9 Edge and S9 Edge Plus.
Needless to mention that just like all other flagships branded under Samsung, we’re talking about a top-tier device that can go above and beyond to deliver as promised.
With that being said, it’s still doubtable whether or not you should rush to get the new Samsung Galaxy S9. Believe or not, you may find out that you ought to think about twice, at the very least. If you’re having trouble seeing what we’re talking about, here are 4 reasons why you shouldn’t purchase the S9.
Price
Following tradition, every flagship smartphone, comes at a considerably higher price than any other smartphone. You may be thinking that you get what you pay for; and that’s true. But statistics show that flagship devices are being released at higher prices every year. The S9 may not be the most expensive of them all – yeah, we’re looking at you Apple – but as a flagship, it follows the same rule.
And while it may not be the priciest in its category, it’s still expensive like the entire category itself. With todays technology, and Chinese smartphone makers getting their products around the world at an increasing rate, one cannot help but wonder, ‘what can a phone at that price do that lower-priced smartphones cannot?’.
The answer to that for the average user, is ‘nothing’. It may strike you as a surprise but all the daily tasks that you perform on your smartphone, can probably be performed from any other mid-range smartphone.
It’s only the most demanding of smartphone users who will pay attention to the slightest details, on the grounds that their tasks are a lot more demanding in terms of processing power, for instance. The rest of us can pull it off with a more affordable option and save some few hundred bucks at the same time.
Buy the S9 Plus instead
If the price is no concern for you, that’s fine. But in that case, you may want to consider going for the optimal purchase in terms of features, capability and value for money. And if that’s you, then you have to pick the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus over the S9.
Wonder why? It’s not just bigger. It’s better in lots of ways, the most important of them being the addition of a second camera on the S9 Plus, which is used for hardware-based zoom; much better than relying on software-based zoom obviously.
It also comes with 6GB of RAM, which is 2GB more than the 4GB RAM found on the S9. And to finish things off, with the S9 Plus you’ll also be getting extra battery life, which to me at least is a tie breaker.
It may look like there’s a considerable gap in price but it’s worth. In addition, if you’re planning to getting it through a carrier plan it would only cost a few extra bucks per month. That’s what you’d call money well spent!
Bixby is not nearly as good as you think
Samsung came a bit late on the virtual assistant game but better late than never! We’re not saying that it’s not good. Bixby is just not as good as you’d expect an assistant to be, when you purchase the best handset that the company has for sale.
The main concept behind Bixby’s existence is that phones can get too complicated to use for some people, so it would be great if those people could do anything they wanted using nothing but voice commands.
As noble as it may sound, the result came with much more difficulties and bugs than expected. The biggest disadvantage that Bixby has against other digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, is that there’s nor nearly the same range of third party app developers that include Bixby’s voice controls in their apps. Apart from that though, Samsung has been struggling since day one with its digital assistant’s bugs and shortcomings. The company has stated that it’s still early days for Bixby. Numerous bug fixes and improved functionality is a must for those who find it hard to go through their daily tasks without the assistance of their digital helper.
If you’re ok with settling for another assistant or even a third-party app, that’s totally up to you. But when you’re about to make such a substantial purchase, you shouldn’t have to worry about those kinds of things.
AR Emojis will give you the creeps
It’s really great that the Korean tech Colossus tried to come up with their own answer on Apple’s Animojis. One would think that this is the right way to stay ahead of the game. Right? Weeell, maybe it is but unfortunately, the execution of Samsung’s endeavour did not go as well as expected.
The result is creepy and dubbed by many as the ‘least exciting feature on the new Galaxy S9’. Truth be told, the first people who tried the new feature out were not impressed. On the contrary they were a tad horrified by their cartoonish avatars.
There’s no real excuse to justify Samsung’s failure on this one. Snapchat is doing the exact same thing with less tools and much more success. It must be wrong execution so the guys who created this need to go back to the lab to start designing again.
Now for the more technical minded of you out there, the answer as to why this went off track like on the technology and the purpose that this feature was created for.
While it may be inevitably compared with Apple’s Animojis, Samsung is using a very different technology to provide its outcome. Specifically, the iPhone X uses a multi-camera array to track every facial movement so it can be mapped onto one of the existing emoji. However, there’s no multi-camera on the Galaxy S9. It simply uses the front camera and some advanced background software to create an emoji out of you on the spot. It sounds better but it definitely doesn’t look better.
Of course, there’s always room for improvement. On top of that, Samsung has the advantage of a more promising feature. After all, it’s a lot funnier to create a cartoon version of yourself, than making a unicorn or a poop sound like you.
The Samsung Galaxy S9 is undoubtedly one of the best smartphones out there at the moment. It’s a handset that we would all want to get. But come to think about it, and you may find yourself in need of making a better rounded-up decision. If that’s the case, think about the reasons above and if you feel that you can compromise with those, then by all means go for it.
Is there any other reason not to buy Samsung’s new flagship? Do you have in mind any other alternative smartphones that one could buy instead? If yes, share your thoughts with us in the comments below. If no, let us know and maybe we’ll make a smartphone guide for you too!
