S9 and S9+ hands-on: same look and feel as S8, fingerprint reader placement is a welcome improvement, AR Emoji not as precise as Animoji, Bixby button lives on
here's what it does Roger Fingas / AppleInsider : Samsung defends Galaxy S9's ‘AR Emoji,’ says feature doesn't copy iPhone X's Animoji Ryne Hager / Android Police : [Update: T-Mobile's PR was misleading] Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ among first phones to support band 71 LTE Abhijeet / SamMobile : Download the official Galaxy S9 wallpapers here! Paul Thurrott / Thurrott.com : Samsung Gets it Right with the Galaxy S9 (Premium) Roger Cheng / CNET : How the Galaxy S9 marks a big coverage boost for T-Mobile Christian de Looper / Digital Trends : Samsung Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S9 Plus: Is bigger always better? Raymond Wong / Mashable : If you hate the iPhone X ‘notch,’ these phones have some good news for you Chris Davies / SlashGear : Samsung Bixby Speaker “premium” launch pushed to late 2018 Aaron Pressman / Fortune : Where to Get the Best Deal on the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Adam Ismail / Tom's Guide : LG's V30S ThinQ Underwhelms with Half-Hearted Upgrades Rajesh Pandey / Android Beat : Samsung's Bixby Smart Speaker To Launch in Second Half of 2018 Larry Dignan / ZDNet : At Mobile World Congress, Samsung advances with DeX Pad and may just will it to success Brandy Betz / Seeking Alpha : Samsung Bixby speaker coming in 2H, will compete with HomePod Leo Kelion / BBC : Sony phone adds rumble to games and films Russell Holly / Android Central : Samsung's AR Emoji are better than Animoji in every way but the one that matters Pocket-lint : Hot EE Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ deals: Get it 9 March from just £10 Rajesh Pandey / Android Beat : Samsung Galaxy S9 Hands-On Roundup: Same but Improved Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE : With new Galaxy S9 models, Samsung focuses on the camera to take on Apple Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech : Galaxy S9 Exynos 9810 Hands-On - Awkward First Results Cherlynn Low / Engadget : Getting to know the Galaxy S9 is like unwrapping a present you think you've already opened. Alistair Dabbs / The Register : Samsung's Galaxy 9s debut, with not much other than new cameras Chance Miller / 9to5Mac : Samsung mocks the iPhone X notch & Face ID during Galaxy S9 unveil Timothy W. Martin / Wall Street Journal : Samsung's Galaxy S9 Phone Bets on Animated Human Emojis Brian Fagioli / BetaNews : Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Android Oreo smartphones are evolutionary, and that's OK Taylor Soper / GeekWire : Samsung unveils Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus with improved cameras, repositioned fingerprint reader Brian Heater / TechCrunch : Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2018 liveblog Nitansh Rastogi / 91mobiles.com : Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ first impressions: dressed to the nines Samsung : Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2018 livestream Tim Hardwick / MacRumors : Samsung Unveils Galaxy S9 Series Smartphones With Dual Lens Variable Aperture Camera and AR Emoji MKBHD : Samsung Galaxy S9 Impressions! Ben Schoon / 9to5Google : Check out the Samsung Galaxy S9's best features in these new hands-on videos Tweets: Jonathan Cheng / @jchengwsj : Samsung mobile chief, in WSJ interview, bristles at notion Samsung was playing catch-up with Apple. “Their approach and my approach is totally different.” @timothywmartin http://www.wsj.com/... @ow : Samsung's new flagship (Galaxy S9) drops the ball on a big year. It has adjustable camera aperture, but is otherwise rather dull. http://www.theverge.com/... http://twitter.com/... Sam / @samuel_pollen : You can point the camera of Samsung's new phone at things and it will tell you how many calories are in them AI has the potential to throw lots of things you really don't want at you, and we should be talking a lot more about that. http://www.theverge.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung's S9 arrives a year after the Note8's $930-$960 carrier pricing set the premium bar, and the hands-on verdict is continuity: same look and feel as the S8, with the fingerprint reader moved below the camera as the headline ergonomic fix. The other changes are software-led — AR Emoji answering iPhone X's Animoji, which Samsung publicly denies copying, and the Bixby button surviving despite mixed reception.
One under-the-radar spec matters more than it looks: the S9 and S9+ are among the first phones supporting band 71 LTE, giving T-Mobile a coverage story CNET flags as a genuine differentiator. The iterative framing here is what makes the next year's S10 hands-on with working in-screen fingerprint readers read as the real redesign.
First-order effects
- Upgraders from the S8 get a familiar body with a relocated fingerprint reader, while T-Mobile gains a marketing edge from band 71 support that rivals' flagships lack at launch.
- Apple becomes the direct comparison point for AR Emoji, forcing Samsung into a public defense of a feature reviewers already judge less precise than Animoji.
Second-order effects
- Carrier differentiation shifts toward radio bands rather than hardware exclusives, pressuring Samsung's other US carrier partners to negotiate their own network-first angles.
- Bixby's persistence on the hardware keeps Samsung's assistant ecosystem alive ahead of its planned 2018 smart speaker, even as the button itself draws criticism.
Third-order effects
- The S9's rear-mounted reader proves transitional: within a year Samsung moves to in-screen biometrics on the S10, and by the $1,000-plus S20 generation the annual-refresh cadence has pushed flagship pricing well past the Note8 era.
- Face-driven emoji features become a standing front in the Samsung-Apple rivalry, a template that recurs years later when the S24's AI features again invite feature-by-feature comparison.
The trend: The Galaxy S line is settling into an annual incremental-refinement cycle where carrier network features and assistant ecosystems carry differentiation between major redesigns.