An AMA (Ask Me Anything) Galaxy S9 Reddit leak has given us a closer look at what we can expect from the impending release of Samsung’s new flagship.
The Galaxy S9 Reddit leak came from a user who has purportedly had the ability to use the phone for around 20 minutes. The initial information from this leak essentially gives us a look at the design of the phone that is set to debut ahead of the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona later this month.
The Galaxy S9 Reddit leak suggests that the phone the user tested is “very close to production” and is a model specifically designed to be released in the United States. This means that the model is likely powered by the Snapdragon 845 – Qualcomm’s latest processor – rather than the proprietary in-house Exynos 9810 that will be featured on the international release. The two chips should perform similarly, however, so a look at the power of the phone from this Galaxy S9 Reddit leak should give us a sense of what we’ll see from the phone overall.
One of the first things the user emphasized in the Galaxy S9 Reddit leak was that the sound from the speaker was a “major improvement” to the Galaxy S8, although there supposedly isn’t a very good surround sound option.
Also confirmed in the Galaxy S9 Reddit leak was the fact that the phone will look pretty much exactly like its predecessor, albeit with a slightly-better placed fingerprint sensor. Overall, we should see a phone that’s quite similar to the S8 in almost every way from a design standpoint. Fortunately, it also looks as if the Galaxy S9 will keep the headphone jack – a standout from the recent trend of ditching the jack in favor of a Bluetooth-only connection. This is a welcome feature for many users that are upset about the inability to use an auxiliary cable or pair of traditional headphones in order to listen to their favorite tunes.
While the phone will feature Google Assistant – as do the majority of Android phones – The Galaxy S9 Reddit leak also seems to confirm the addition of a Bixby button to allow you to speak to Samsung’s own virtual assistant. This is something we also saw on the Galaxy S8 and S8+, so it’s not a surprise that we’re also seeing it included in the Galaxy S9.
The Galaxy S9 Reddit leak confirms that the cameras are an upgrade over the S8 and S8+, but that it isn’t actually quite as good as what we saw on the Pixel 2 XL. This is rather surprising, especially considering that Samsung’s selling point with the Galaxy S9 was the upgraded camera specifications. However, the smartphone does feature 4K video at 60fps, 720p at 480 fps, and 1080p at 240 fps. The phone will also feature a dual aperture capability that allows you to change the size of the aperture in order to adjust the amount of light for a particular shot, and this feature will be present on both the base S9 as well as the S9 Plus – despite rumors that the aperture feature would only be available on the higher-end model.
Perhaps in a bid to compete with the iPhone X and its Animoji, the Galaxy S9 Reddit leak confirms that the new phone will feature 3D emoji, although they are “not a direct ripoff [of Aninomoji. They’re] more like a mix between Animoji and Bitmoji [and] look less polished than Apple’s version.” Considering the fact that we won’t see Face ID capabilities from the Galaxy S9, it’s no wonder that their own Animoji feature isn’t as robust as that offered by Apple’s latest flagship.
Overall, the features we’re seeing from the Galaxy S9 Reddit leak seem to confirm what we had expected so far, with little new information regarding the impending release. At the end of the day, it seems like the Galaxy S9 isn’t going to be a significant step forward for the brand when compared to the Galaxy S8. In a sea of phone’s that is largely iterative, Samsung isn’t bucking the trend and is sticking to a tried and true formula that has overall been quite successful for them.
With that said, Apple demonstrated that innovation is appealing with the massive success of their fastest-selling iPhone – the iPhone X. With brand new FaceID technology, it offered the market something they hadn’t seen before and it definitely paid off for the California tech giant. While we won’t see anything brand new or even particularly exciting with the release of the Galaxy S9, we hope that Samsung continues to move forward with the brand in the future rather than sticking to the same old formula.
