Samsung officially launches the Galaxy S9, confirms specs, pricing and release date

As promised last month, during the pre-MWC press day on Sunday, Samsung officially launched the Galaxy S9. As expected, the full reveal had little in the way of surprises as many of the details were leaked ahead of time. So what's new with the Galaxy S9?

Samsung's 2018 flagship is already going up for pre-orders at various carriers this week, with the first units set to ship out on the 16th of March. Under the hood, the phone is powered by a Samsung Exynos CPU built on the 10nm process and running at 2.7GHz, which is a decent clock speed bump over the S8's 2.3GHz processor. There is 4GB of RAM to help out with tasks, 64GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot for expansion. Finally, the Galaxy S9 also comes with a 3,000mAh battery.

The Galaxy S9+ improves on this in a couple of ways, the processor is clocked slightly higher, running at 2.8GHz instead. The larger device also comes with 6GB of RAM instead and 128GB of internal storage, making it the beefier option all around.

Samsung's Galaxy S9 ‘Infinite Display' is essentially the same one we saw on the Galaxy S8 last year. The base model gets a 5.8-inch Super AMOLED screen with a QHD resolution, 570ppi and an 18:5:9 ratio. The larger Galaxy S9+ has a 6.2-inch Super AMOLED display, QHD resolution, the same aspect ratio and a pixel density of 529ppi.

As expected, the Galaxy S9 will ship with Android 8.0 Oreo on board out of the box. Those of you with a Galaxy S8 will also be getting this update, as Samsung resumed its roll out last week. One of Samsung's big focuses this year is the S9 camera.

The Galaxy S9 retains the S8's single-lens 12MP camera with optical image stabilization. However, the S9+ Gets a dual 12MP camera set up on the back, with one wide angle and one telephoto lens.

While the Galaxy S9 retains its single-lens 12MP Dual Pixel camera with OIS, the Galaxy S9+ packs a dual 12MP set-up on its rear, comprising of wide angle and telephoto lenses. The cameras come with a dual aperture of f/1.5 and f/2.4. According to Samsung, this feature means that the S9 will have “the brightest lens of any smartphone camera on the market”.

Here in the UK, the Galaxy S9 will cost £739, while the S9+ will go for £869. These prices will be available from Samsung directly, different retailers and carriers may end up pricing things slightly differently.

KitGuru Says: The Galaxy S9 is officially here and while most of the specs were revealed beforehand, it still looks like a solid option for a 2018 flagship. Are any of you looking to upgrade your phone this year? What do you think of the Galaxy S9?

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