Samsung Galaxy S8 vs Galaxy S9 – is it worth the upgrade?
So now the dust has settled slightly on the Galaxy S9 launch I thought I’d put together a little comparison of the most important differences between the phones.
I’ve set aside network bands and speeds because they don’t really affect enough people to matter.
Below is a comparison of the specs between the S8 and S9.
Galaxy S8 |
Galaxy S9 |
Winner |
Dimensions | 148.9 x 68.1 x 8 mm (5.86 x 2.68 x 0.31 in) | 147.7 x 68.7 x 8.5 mm (5.81 x 2.70 x 0.33 in) | S8. The S8 is slightly smaller than the S9 |
Weight | 155 g (5.47 oz) | 163 g (5.75 oz) | S8. The S8 is slightly lighter than the S9 |
OS | Android 7.0 (Nougat), upgradable to Android 8.0 (Oreo) | Android 8.0 (Oreo) | S9. S9 ships with Oreo out the box and S8 is still waiting its release |
Chipset | Exynos 8895 Octa – EMEA Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835 – USA & China |
Exynos 9810 Octa – EMEA Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 845 – USA & China |
S9. Obviously a phone which comes out a year after its predecessor will have a more modern CPU |
CPU | Octa-core (4×2.3 GHz Mongoose M2 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53) – EMEA Octa-core (4×2.35 GHz Kryo & 4×1.9 GHz Kryo) – USA & China |
Octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Mongoose M3 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A55) – EMEA Octa-core (4×2.7 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver) – USA & China |
S9 again. The CPU runs at a slightly higher (500mHz) clock speed. |
GPU | Mali-G71 MP20 – EMEA Adreno 540 – USA & China |
Mali-G72 MP18 – EMEA Adreno 630 – USA & China |
S9 has the latest and greatest graphics chip |
Loudspeaker | Yes | Yes, with stereo speakers | S9 has the new ‘stereo’ speaker (headpiece used as secondary) |
Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, 720p@240fps, HDR, dual-video rec. | 2160p@60fps, 1080p@240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR, dual-video rec. | S9 camera wins – the biggest improvement on the S9 is it’s new and re-designed camera. |
[specs from http://www.gsmarena.com]
So the S9 wins in almost all areas spec-wise but is it worthy of upgrading from your Galaxy S8?
Well, my honest answer is no. There is nothing on the S9 that would convince me to trade in my S8 for.
The things that are improved upon on the S9 are more refinements than must-have improvements.
Faster CPU, GPU is always going to be a given with later models but I never had any issues (on Nougat) with the speed of the S8. So the only other notable ‘game changer’ is the new camera. The slow motion mode is a cool feature and the dual-aperture is definitely of interest – this should allow for much crisper photos in well-lit situations.
Therefore Samsung’s biggest selling point of the S9 is the new camera (which you can see in action with the iris-resizing below)
Final note: unless you’re on a 12 month contract, the Samsung Galaxy Upgrade scheme or you simply have a huge amount of money spare, give the S9 a miss. There is simply not enough to tempt the upgrade as far as I can see.
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