Last year, Samsung decided to announce the Galaxy S8 at their own event, but it appears as if they will be hosting a Galaxy S9 event at Mobile World Congress 2018 which will be broadcast on a live stream for all to see.
If you’re not lucky enough to be present at the event itself, you can watch the live stream of the Galaxy S9 event online on Sunday, February 25 at 12 pm ET. There has been a good amount of hype leading up to the reveal and launch of Samsung’s latest flagship, so many will be pleased to get their hands on a new high-end smartphone in just a few weeks. Samsung has a track record of launching their phones for pre-orders shortly after the announcement, so you could find yourself with a new Galaxy S9 by mid-March.
The live stream of the Galaxy S9 event will give us our first taste of the phone in its entirety, but we doubt there will be any surprises with the reveal. Ahead of the launch, we’ve already received pretty much all of the specifications regarding the upcoming phone – making it a badly kept secret of sorts. Unfortunately, despite the fact that many are looking forward to upgrading to Samsung’s latest phone, the Galaxy S9 event will reveal a phone that is largely iterative rather than a handset that brings something new to the table.
Unless something unprecedented happens during the live stream of the Galaxy S9 event, we’re in for more of the same when it comes to this year’s revamp of the S line. The lack of innovation will be readily apparent at the Galaxy S9 event, regardless of the fact that there’s been a decent amount of fanfare regarding the release of the latest and greatest from Samsung. The company’s focus with this release was updates to the camera. Besides that, a bump in power is essentially the only other feature we expect to see during the live stream of this latest release.
It’s difficult to blame Samsung for the way in which the phones have been designed; they’ve clearly arrived at a formula that works for them – releasing high-end flagships with premium performance that draw in crowds year after year. There’s something to be said, however, for doing something a little bit different with each release. The iPhone X proved that even a major departure from a surefire design strategy can pay off in a major way, with the company’s innovative FaceID giving users something they hadn’t seen before.
With that said, the Samsung Galaxy S9 event live stream will certainly give us a phone that is better than what we had before. All Samsung is really guilty of is stepping a foot forward rather than a mile, so the phone will most likely be worth a buy if you’re on an older generation of phone. It’s questionable, however, as to whether it makes sense to make the jump from the Galaxy S8. Older phones than the S8 are clearly inferior, but with the Galaxy S9 expected to cost close to – or even over – $1000, it’s a significant investment that will have many people debating if it’s worth a buy or if they should wait for the next generation – or perhaps the Note 9 launch later this year.
With the tagline “The Camera. Reimagined,” it’s clear that Samsung has thrown all of their efforts into improving their camera functionality. The company’s devices are generally regarded as some of the top performers when it comes to smartphone photography, so it’s no wonder that they’ve decided to make this feature the focal point. Whether putting all of their resources into improving the camera will pay off remains to be seen, but as the biggest player in the Android market by far, we anticipate that they will do just fine in terms of sales.
Moving forward, however, it would be nice to see Samsung take a chance with either their S or Note lines. With the development of a foldable phone in the form of the Galaxy X, it’s clear that the company does have the capability to provide the world with something we haven’t seen before. As far as the live stream of the Galaxy S9 event goes, however, it’s unlikely we’ll see anything outside of a refinement and general improvement of the previous generation’s device.
Regardless of the troubles many are seeing with Samsung’s impending release, the live stream of the Galaxy S9 event is not to be missed by any smartphone enthusiast. Check out the live stream of the event here at 12 pm ET on Sunday, February 25.
