I didn’t notice any huge speed differences between the S9 and S8 for things like Instagram, web browsing and tweeting. However, Android Oreo does feel zippier as a whole. Apps like the camera open up faster and processing and saving HDR photos is quicker as well. 3D games like the new Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition will see the biggest benefits with faster loading times and smoother rendering.
Performance monsters as the S9 and S9+ are, Apple’s iPhones still run circles around them. I ran the popular Geekbench 4 benchmarking app to see how well the S9 stacks up to the competition and here’s what I got:
Single-core score:
- Galaxy S9+: 2,370
- iPhone X: 4,247
- iPhone 8 Plus: 4,274
- Pixel 2 XL: 1,908
- Galaxy S8: 1,853
Multi-core score:
- Galaxy S9+: 8,414
- iPhone X: 10,507
- iPhone 8 Plus: 10,398
- Pixel 2: 6,392
- Galaxy S8: 5,861
These figures (higher is better) give you a good sense of where the S9’s performance ranks relative to its chief rivals, but they don’t mean everything. Frankly, I stopped caring a long time ago how many cores are in a phone’s CPU and how high its benchmark score are, and you probably should too.
At the end of the day, all that matters is if your phone feels fast and smooth. And from my week using the S9’s, they’re snappy as hell.
In my tests, the S9 and S9+ lasted a full day with intensive use (lots of email, tweeting, Instagram, shooting photos, streaming music, sending Slack messages, watching YouTube videos in full HD, and looking up directions in Google Maps).
I would have loved to see Samsung push battery life above and beyond — both phones have the same 3,000 mAh (S9) and 3,500 mAh (S9+) batteries as the S8 and S8+ — but I’m guessing they didn’t want to tempt fate with another potential Note 7 repeat. Better safe than dead, I suppose. Besides, there’s always fast charging if you ever need a quick top-off midday.
Be the first to comment