While there is no doubt that the Galaxy S8 is the best Android smartphone ever, it’s certainly not perfect. In fact, while the infinity display, is gorgeous, and the almost bezelless design initially wows. We can’t help but think; there were ways Samsung could have made it so much better. As such, here’s how we think the Galaxy S9 will improve upon it.
Galaxy S9 What We Want To See
Before you continue to read, the imperfections we’re going to talk about and suggest need improving, are not fault related. No, these are ways in which we think Samsung could have provided more. And as such taken the S8’s to a whole new level beyond the infinity display.
Faster Chipset
Did you know that in benchmark testing the Galaxy S8’s are not much faster than last year’s S7’s? Seriously, while they do benefit from having the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip, it doesn’t mean much. Well, that is when your nearest rivals are either on par or faster, and an older sibling can almost match you.
How can Samsung fix this problem with the Galaxy S9? To start with it needs to solve its battery problems from a technology perspective. Why? Because the fallout from the Note 7 debacle and its flaming battery, has led to Samsung focussing on battery performance. You can see this in the S8’s and the size of their batteries. Overall, they’re smaller than they would have been if the Note 7 thing hadn’t happened. Additionally, there’s now new software installed which uses CPU power to manage these smaller batteries.
In essence the S8’s use a stop gap technology, which affects the performance of the Snapdragon 835. So, what the Galaxy S9 will need is a more power efficient Snapdragon 845, that can make it faster than its rivals.
Remove The Bixby Button
Has Bixby been a disaster for Samsung so far? We think it has been, why? Unless you happen to live in South Korea the button that’s on the side of your Galaxy S8 doesn’t invoke it. It was promised to be available at launch for everyone, giving them the ability to control apps by voice. But, it doesn’t, instead, users everywhere but in Samsung’s homeland must wait.
As for what’s being said by Korean consumers, Bixby isn’t that great after all, In fact, some are saying it’s pretty superfluous and is not worth using at all. If accurate, this means there’s a button on the Galaxy S8, that either shouldn’t be or should be remapped. The problem is, however, Samsung in its infinite wisdom has chosen not to allow handset owners to do this. Which is obviously wrong, why give users no option to personalize a button which is currently useless?
As for the Galaxy S9, if Bixby doesn’t become the all-singing-all-dancing AI assistant users have waited for, the button should be removed.
A Better Fingerprint Sensor
Inaccurate readings, and slow performance, that’s the initial feedback we’ve seen consumers give about the Galaxy S8’s fingerprint sensor. Which, means, this is yet another headline feature that could have been better. If you didn’t know, Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to include this tech in a handset. The problem is, that while that may be so, it has failed to improve upon it sufficiently enough to make consumers happy.
As an example, the Motorola Moto G5, a much cheaper handset than the Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus, ahs a fingerprint sensor. Frustratingly for S8 owners, its sensor is much faster than Samsung’s; additionally, it’s in a much better place on the device. Due to Samsung’s issues with embedding it underneath the display, it was decided to move it next to the camera lens. This has led to reports of accidental lens smudging, meaning when a user tries to unlock the S8, they touch the camera lens, not the fingerprint sensor.
The solution for the Galaxy S9 is for Samsung to solve its display embedding issue. That way, users can have a faster, more accurate, and less fiddly unlocking experience.
Faster Fast Charging
Back in 2014, Samsung introduced fast charging to its smartphones using the Adaptive Fast Charge technology. The problem with this is it uses Qualcomm’s now outdated Quick Charge 2.0 specifications. Since then, the technology has moved on, with the likes of the Snapdragon 835 able to support Quick Charge 4.0. This is a tech that the Galaxy S8 is compatible with but doesn’t use. A such the Galaxy S9 will have to take advantage of it, and catch up with competitors. Ones who already use faster, fast charging technologies than Samsung, companies such as LG and Google are two of many.
To make use of this tech, the only hurdle Samsung needs to jump is a licensing one. Something which can easily be done, and along with other improvements would make the Galaxy S9 a far better handset than the Galaxy S8’s.
