The newest entries to the Galaxy line are expected to be revealed in the next few weeks, and there’s not really much left for the company to reveal. Already we have a good idea of what to expect from the upcoming phone, but it appears as if a new benchmark shows that the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X in terms of performance.
Just a few hours ago, it surfaced that the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X as it passed through the AnTuTu benchmarking tool, which also confirmed some of the expected specifications.
The Galaxy S9 Plus will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor – the latest model on the market with unprecedented levels of speed. The phone also features 6GB of RAM which is a 50% upgrade when compared to the 4BG in the base Galaxy S9 model, no doubt contributing as the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X in speed tests. The number at the bottom of the AnTuTu benchmarking list – 265267 – puts it higher than the iPhone X has been scoring, which confirms that the new model from Samsung will be one of the fastest phones on the market.
Until we get our hands on the phone, it will be impossible to know whether the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X overall, but it appears at least from this benchmark that the hardware specifications put it decently far ahead of one of the fastest phones on the market. However, these results are rather interesting considering that the gadget leaker IceUniverse shared screenshots last week of the Geekbench benchmarks for the Snapdragon 845 chip that put it decently far behind Apple’s flagship, making it a little surprising that the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X in this most recent test.
Other rumored specifications for the Galaxy S9 Plus that were included in the AnTuTu test include a 6.2-inch display and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. It’s rumored that the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S9 Plus will be more conveniently placed than with the S8, but it’s still a little unfortunate to have the unlocking mechanism on the rear of the phone rather than the front. As the bezels with flagships continue to shrink due to the market trend of trying to increase screen size as much as possible, there’s less and less space on the front of the phone to place technology like a scanner. While there is some evidence to suggest that Samsung has an under-display fingerprint scanning technology in development, that won’t be included with the upcoming Galaxy S9 Plus. The phone will, however, feature dual rear cameras for the first time in the S line.
Finding out whether the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X will have to wait until the phone’s launch following the announcement near the Mobile World Congress on February 25 in Barcelona. Overall, however, we anticipate that the phone won’t be too much faster than the iPhone X just based on the previous testing. While the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X in this most recent benchmark, it’s possible that the test is an outlier rather than a confirmation that it’s a better phone in general.
Whether the Galaxy S9 Plus is actually better speed-wise may not be enough to convince users of its superiority, however, considering that the phone is generally not that much of an upgrade over the S8, all things considered. While there’s no doubt a power upgrade when comparing the Galaxy S9 to its predecessor, the fact remains that there aren’t really any new exciting features coming with this update to the S line that will give users enough of a reason to make the upgrade.
Samsung has decided to focus on camera upgrades with the Galaxy S9 Plus. That may ultimately be a good strategy for Samsung considering how important smartphone photography is for many users, but at the end of the day, it may not be enough to make the Galaxy S9 a clear improvement. There’s no doubt that it’s an upgrade, but is it worth shelling out hundreds of dollars to make the jump?
While Samsung has definitely shown that they have the capability to innovate, such as with the development of the world’s first foldable flagship in the Galaxy X, the fact remains that they haven’t managed to do the same with their S line. The phones have seen major sales overall and Samsung has seemed to arrive at a formula that works for them, but without providing something new to consumers there’s a possibility that there’s no way the Galaxy S9 Plus beats the iPhone X.
With the release of the iPhone X, Apple has proved that the market responds favorably to the introduction of new features – regardless of the fact that the phone was the most expensive flagship on the market. If Samsung can manage to produce something new with their upcoming flagships, they may truly solidify their position at the top of the market. With the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, however, it looks like we’re in for more of the same.
